Freeriding with Helly Hansen Sogn

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The Helly Hansen Sogn Jacket and Pants are hitting the slopes in a big way by offering almost every feature imaginable in skiwear. While the alpine style of ski gear focuses on clean cut lines and minimalism, the Sogn freeride style offers a baggier fit and is feature rich, allowing for maximum flexibility while drawing huge lines in the pow.

Helly Hansen Sogn Ski Jacket – $350

Features that Won’t Quit in Sogn Jacket

As someone who typically sticks to the alpine style of skiwear, testing out the freeride style of the HH Sogn jacket and pants has been refreshing.  To start, the side pockets in the Sogn Jacket are ginormous.  Whether you’re stashing away a couple foot long meatball subs or a 6 pack of cans of your favorite brew, you’re sure to have plenty of room. If you feel like storing the whole 12 pack or a party sub, there’s also a monster mesh pocket on the inside of the jacket.  This can also double as a pocket to store your goggles…

When you start to heat up, all you need to do is unzip the pit zips, but no need to worry about about the snow getting in because there is a mesh panel to keep the snow out when you’re getting steep and deep.  After your down from your steep and deep run and need to clean your goggle lens, just reach into the chest pocket where an attached microfiber goggle wipe lives.  This pocket is also oversized, which makes it a great pocket to stash your cell phone.  All pocket zippers on the Sogn are easy to zip and unzip with the use of large teeth YKK zippers.

To make smooth transition through the RFID readers at the ski resort, there is a small ski pass pocket on the left arm of the jacket near the hand.  I ski at Steamboat Resort and they use standup readers that you have to wave your pass past to get into the gondola or onto a lift.  For this instance, all you need to do is wave your arm next to the readers and you’re golden.

Sogn Jacket is made for Pow

The Helly Hansen Sogn jacket uses a 2 layer waterproof and windproof material on the outside to keep the heat in on those cold days and the elements out on those days when it’s dumping.  The Sogn jacket does a great job of body temperature regulation in that it uses panels of 40 gram Primaloft insulation to keep you warm.  To keep you from getting too hot, the back on the inside of the jacket has an extremely breathable layer of mesh and behind that is a light insulation layer with ventilation holes designed for maximum breathability.

Helly Hansen h2 flow

To keep the snow out and your head warm on cold and heavy snow days, the HH Sogn jacket uses an attached helmet compatible and insulated hood.  The hood is oversized, but has bungees in place to cinch the hood to fit your head and helmet.

Snow Skirt

On the inside of the Sogn Jacket is a powder skirt with a silicone layered line on the inside to keep it from riding up, similar to the inside of a goggle strap.  To ensure the skirt doesn’t ride up, there are snaps attached that you can loop through your ski pant belt loops.  There’s also a cinch bungee strap at the bottom of the jacket for extra precaution.

Spandex Cuffs

The arms of the Sogn jacket include a spandex style internal cuff to keep snow from getting inside.  This also works great to help keep your hands warm.  The jacket has monster velcro adjustments on the cuffs which makes it super easy to match up with your gloves or mittens.  These cuffs are best for going over your gloves or mittens.

Huge Velcro Cuff

Jacket Fit

Helly Hansen Sogn Jacket and ski pants

The Helly Hansen Sogn jacket uses a freeride style fit, meaning it’s going to be baggier than normal if you’re used to an alpine style fit.  I am 6’0 tall and 173lbs and I found a size large to be a tad too big.  I normally wear a size medium but a size large showed up on my doorstep and I just went with it.

Helly Hansen Sogn Cargo Pants – $160

To get all matchy matchy on you, Helly Hansen also offers Sogn cargo ski pants for you to have the complete get-up.  The Sogn Cargo Pants use a heavier weight fabric for the outer shell to help prevent tears and rips from skis, sticks and rocks.  The pants use a 60 gram weight Primaloft Black insulation on the butt of the pants and from the shins down to the feet.  I find the insulation in the rear is a nice touch as sitting on the chairlift can get a little chilly at times.  The other insulation goes from the knees down to the feet in the legs of the pants.  The insulation in the knee area is great, but I find the insulation near the bottom of the legs not as necessary as you usually have a thick shelled ski or snowboard boot to keep that part of your body warm.  I don’t see this insulation keeping your feet any warmer for those that get cold feet while skiing.

The cuffs on the Sogn Cargo Pants have a heavy duty fabric to keep the material from getting frayed and worn out.  To keep snow from going up the leg cuffs, there is an internal gaiter with silicone coating to grip your ski boot. When the weather warms up, there are vents along the inside of each thigh which is a nice touch.

There are two large zippered pockets up front on the Sogn Cargo Pants and two smaller pockets with button closures in the back. When you need to cram in more gear into your pants, there is a cargo pocket with a velcro closure for good measure.  I think this pocket is a little overkill and is there more for the freeride look. For more information visit www.hellyhansen.com