Immelman turn
Change in altitude and direction.

Technical climbing in cold conditions requires light and free arm movements. Any 5 year old kid knows that you need to raise your arms to reach the branch when you climb up a tree.

As this is a very simple fact, Valandre started to develop a fully articulated and form fitted down jacket from the base of the SPLIT-S design.

Anyone with design experience in down jackets knows that quality down jackets have the technical disadvantage. To shift the down away on the side of the body and the inner sleeve due to arm movements. This is due to a fundamentally incorrect technical design in use in almost all existing down jackets.

This observation, forced Valandre to make the effort once again, and find the technical solution, so that the down filling is blocked on the body side as well as inner sleeve. The solution, radically different from all existing technical baffle designs available, was launched in 2009 in the SPLIT-S down jacket.

In the SPLIT-S, thanks to the innovative technical baffle design, there is NO possibility that the down filling can shift away from its intended place to insulate, due to normal arm movements. So here we simply have the foundation of the first articulated down jacket in the world: The Immelman. This is because it would be senselessly stupid to articulate a system having down shift problems: Lift up your arms and you are instantly cold on the body side and inner sleeve.

 As the Immelman is an articulated design, the main functionality of the jacket is with arms up, and this forced us to increase the numbers of lateral body compartments and inner and inner sleeve compartments  to a maximum of 9 compartments on each side. The form fitted and totally articulated design direction in the "I – MAN", changes its use field to include active physical use, where the body will heat up.

In an active physical use configuration, the main zipper has an important ventilation function, to be able to regulate the body heat with high precision. The zipper is constantly being operated to adjust the body temperature. And in this case, the design priority in the zip system is a non-snag system, and an efficient and precise insulation system below/under the zipper. This “Banana split zip system”, offers precise temperature regulation, and an efficient insulation system as the two “half bananas” compresses, and the sewing technique of multiple parallel stitches with a stiffening effect, on each “half bananas” reduces the risk of a zip snag. This technical zip system can be operated using the lower curser, which opens up for using the harness below the jacket, offering a better protection on belays.

The main pockets have a dual function. In very cold condition, everybody knows, that to warm up cold hands, you can use the higher area between arms, or try to get the hands on to the inside of the jacket next to the body where all the heat is concentrated.

The two main pockets, are there for primarily designed to be efficient hand warmers, before considering them to be two outside “containers” where you can get rid of all the unnecessary junk, your hands love to touch. As hand warmers, the pockets are a tunnel design, that allows the hands to traverse the down layer compartment completely. The pockets that are sewn on to the inside of the jacket, right next to the body, where the jacket is warmest.  These pockets rapidly become an important feature that increases the comfort and the efficiency of the "I – MAN".

The down filled collar, contains a technical down filled and baffled hood, and the collar shape is an anatomical cut, that increases efficiency and comfort.

This hood is fully adjustable, and seals off the head perfectly.

On the inside of the jacket, there is a waist draw cord, that is placed relatively higher than the actual waist where you are intended to have your body harness. The "I – MAN" is perfectly designed to integrate the use of a harness, and still seal off perfectly.

On the left and right side on the lower inside, you equally find two functional pockets, for objects needing cold protection, really anything with batteries.

Ok, let’s face it climbers: A frozen rope is not a comfortable pillow, and once you have your down jacket in the tent, this offers a better and more comfortable solution. However, you still need to shape it into a pillow shape. Therefore, on the bottom back of the jacket, there is a big fold sewn in pocket that transform the "I - MAN" into a comfortable pillow, and offers at the same time the possibility of a compression sac.

A bit of comfort is the least one can expect in the mountains….not?

CONCLUTION: Technical climbing is constantly stretching up to get a hold of the next grip, which can go on for days in a row, a physical exercise that is part of the enjoyment and thrill. As of today, the best clothing solution is an articulated hard shell with a multitude of base layers. This may offer some sort of insulation, but at the price of a weight that is in total opposition to the direction of the activity. But secondly, even if the hard shell and all the under layers are perfectly articulated, the liberty of movement becomes obstructed by weight and the friction between the layers.

The Immelman offers a lower total weight, and at the same time less friction resistance. The natural movement in climbing is eased and becomes “free and light”. In this perspective, especially in high altitude conditions, this jacket will open up to engage technical routes, that today is out of reach……as German Himalayan climber, Ralf Dujmovz described it: A Down jacket that is: “heavily needed”.

A good night’s sleep is key to high performance in the day time!

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