Norrøna Møre Thermo60 Aero200 Jacket Review

The early morning sun was no match for the frigid November wind. I was climbing my way along a technical ridgeline with airy drops on both sides as my fingers lost feeling and shivers set in. The wind was so strong that I first donned Norrøna’s Møre thermo60 jacket over my shell until I could find some shelter to re-layer. It thankfully fit naturally in that configuration.

Once I found a good stance, I slipped it underneath my shell for the summit push. Within minutes, my core was toasty, and I was once again having fun.

By the end of the adventure, I had configured the Møre thermo60 in three or four different spots in my layering architecture as I adapted to changing weather conditions and aerobic thresholds. I ended up walking out with the jacket fully converted to a vest — yes, the Møre thermo60’s arms zip off like it’s 2005.

The Møre thermo60 is an oddball insulator with quirky features and a distinctly aesthetic cut. But it’s a layer that I started wearing for early fall adventures, which I can’t stop sporting at the ski resort and packing into my backcountry backpack.

It looks cool, it fits great, and it has the technical chops to thrive deep in the mountains. So what’s the catch? I spent days wrapped in the Møre thermo60 to find out.

In short: Norrøna’s new Møre thermo60 is a versatile midweight insulator designed to layer naturally under or over a hardshell or be worn as a standalone piece in fair weather. It has a stretchy yet tough Aero200 nylon fabric that works with the Thermo60 insulation to provide warmth that breathes and stays dry during light aerobic activity. It even has removable arms to convert it into a hooded vest, expanding its possible layering configurations.

Norrøna Møre Thermo60 Aero200 Jacket Review

Stretchy, breathable, synthetically filled midlayers are a natural choice for under-the-shell skiing insulation. Patagonia really struck gold when it launched the Nano Air Hoody a decade ago. But in the wide world of skiing, I’ve found that layer and others like it are somewhat limited to a single layering arrangement due to its satisfying but slim fit.

Norrøna introduced its new Møre thermo60 with a similar intention — breathable, stretchy insulation. However, instead of being confined to the shell, the Møre thermo60 offers a significantly longer, more relaxed fit and a few other features that make it more versatile for skiing and other chilly outdoor pursuits.

Materials

The Møre thermo60 aero200 is made with, you guessed it, thermo60 insulation wrapped in aero200 fabric. That, of course, doesn’t mean much to the average skier. So I reached out to Norrøna’s Research Design and Development department to break it down.

Insulation: Thermo60

Thermo60 is a unique synthetic insulation that’s laminated to a membrane to enhance its wind and weather resistance. Thermo60 is constructed from 100% recycled polyester fibers. The “60” refers to the weight. One square meter of the stuff weighs 60g (60gm2).

This type of insulation makes a ton of sense for a midlayer. It’s quite thermal, but it won’t cook you like down will when layered under a shell.

And unlike down, thermo60 retains its insulating properties when it gets wet. That’s an important characteristic for insulation on the skin track. A sweaty back can render half of a down jacket useless.

Outer: aero200

The aero200 fabric is the star of the show, here, from a materials standpoint. It’s a 20D 46gm2 nylon weave that’s both light and burly. It’s also relatively soft in terms of hand feel, though a hair more abrasive than the aforementioned Nano Air’s fabric. Combined with the highly wind-resistant insulation, I found it to be a pretty solid option for fair-weather outerwear.

That brings me to breathability. The combination of thermo60 insulation and aero200 fabric is distinctly more breathable than a typical nylon-faced non-active insulator. My upper body didn’t turn into a swamp when I was working up a sweat ripping turns at the resort. The moisture and hot air were able to escape through the fabric’s pores.

According to Norrøna, the face fabric sports an air permeability rate of 200L/m2/sec. While the insulation itself doesn’t allow air to pass through, given its wind-resistant qualities, it offers a relatively high moisture vapor transmission rate (MTVR).

That said, it’s not as breathable as a super active insulator like the Nano Air or Black Diamond’s First Light midweight insulator. My hunch, later confirmed by Norrøna, is that the jacket’s lining, which is silkier and smoother than the face fabric, is less breathable than the exterior. It’s a tighter weave that ensures the insulation’s fibers don’t penetrate the fabric. It’s somewhere in the air permeability range of 2L/M2/sec.

Fit

This jacket is clearly a Norrona signature. By that, I mean it fits long and, dare I say, aesthetically. The bottom hem lands on my upper thighs. A slight drop tail, as you’d expect, drops the rear hem of the jacket below my tail. The torso is on the roomier side while still feeling somewhat slender. It’s a thoughtful balance of being accommodating and slim.

The arms are long and quite roomy, on trend with the rest of the jacket. I loved that the elastic cuffs didn’t leave a gap between my gloves when I reached upward or out for a pole plant. The whole thing felt roomy and mobile. A subtle stretch throughout only aided the jacket’s mobility. At no point, even during a complicated ridge scramble, did I feel constricted by the jacket’s dimensions.

Vest Conversion

The quirkiest thing about the Møre thermo60 jacket is that the arms zip off to make a vest. It’s a simple process, really. Color-coded zippers, hidden under the hem on each shoulder, zip off in one smooth stroke. Voilà! The Møre thermo60 is now a hooded vest.

I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d use the jacket-to-vest conversion feature, but I wasn’t mad at it, either. I came to a few subjective conclusions during the test period. 

While backcountry touring, hiking, and scrambling, I didn’t find myself zipping the arms off frequently. For one thing, I tend to be moving pretty quickly in those scenarios.

And the temperature fluctuations that I experience as a warm person moving quickly uphill are pronounced enough that donning or shedding an entire layer is more practical than trying to fine-tune my insulation with incremental changes like shedding the arms. So I really tended to leave the Møre thermo60 in the configuration in which I packed it.

Layering

That said, being able to pack this piece as either a jacket or a vest added a lot of versatility to my insulation quiver. On the really cold days, as Colorado experienced in early December, I’d pack a midweight grid fleece jacket, a hardshell jacket, my big puffy down jacket, and the Møre thermo60 in vest mode.

Thanks to the vest’s accommodating fit, I could slot it into nearly any configuration in that layering system — under the shell, over the shell, standalone over a base layer, etc.

The full jacket was the move on moderately cold backcountry days. Like the vest, it could naturally layer into a variety of insulation schemes. Most importantly for backcountry skiing, it naturally fit under my shell for when it was really cold. But it also layered over my shell for top-of-the-skin-track transitions and as an extra layer on windy ridgelines.

Knowing that I could strip the arms if I needed to dial in the temperature was a bonus, even if it never became a legitimate necessity.

Resort Skiing Insulation

It was a similar case at the ski resort, where my tried-and-true layering system hadn’t budged in nearly 10 years. In Colorado, 90% of the time, I run a wool baselayer, an active midlayer, and a freeride-style hardshell jacket. When it’s super-cold or exceptionally warm, I fumble around with another baselayer or switch to a vest.

Norrøna’s Møre thermo60 is a complement to that system, even if it doesn’t replace it outright. As a midlayer, the Møre thermo60 over a wool baselayer kept me covered through a very wide temperature range, much like what I experience during a Colorado December.

The Møre thermo60 isn’t quite as warm as the Nano Air Hoody, nor is it quite as breathable (it’s much more weather-resistant in exchange), but it fills a similar breathable midlayer niche. I stayed warm and, more importantly, my upper half didn’t turn into a swamp while I was ripping turns under the lifts.

When it was really cold, I layered the Møre thermo60 in vest mode over an active insulator, and man, that was the sweet spot. Two thick layers of breathable insulation did wonders for my core temperature. The vest’s accommodating fit layered naturally over another insulating jacket without feeling constricting or compressing either layer’s insulating fill.

The other major benefit of the Møre thermo60 at the ski resort is the hood. Unlike the SCUBA-style hood on the Nano Air and gridfleece-style insulators, the Møre thermo60 is designed to engulf a freeride-style helmet.

It absolutely swallowed my bulky, protective Sweet Trooper 2Vi helmet, providing more warmth than my shell’s hood could provide. And it cinched down around my dome without cutting into my peripheral vision. I kept forgetting I had it up.

Even more pronounced at the resort than in the backcountry was my reluctance to remove the sleeves. It just didn’t make sense because I’d need to stuff them in my pockets. So rather than an in-the-field adjustment (which is what I’m gathering Norrøna designed the system for), I found the conversion option much more useful and practical while designing my layering architecture in the comfort of my home.

Additional Features & Notes

This jacket has three pockets — one phone-sized internal pocket and two hand pockets. The hand pockets on either side are massive. Each zipper is approximately 9 inches long, revealing big openings that can easily stash skins, the jacket’s sleeves, or a handful of frosty beverages, depending on the outing.

Other features? Not really. And I like it that way. The whole package lands at a svelte 495g in men’s size large (or 364g in vest mode). That’s right in the middle of the weight spectrum for synthetic midlayers. Patagonia’s Nano Air Hoody clocks in at 434g in size large, for comparison.

The Møre thermo60 consistently impressed me with its versatility. My primary critique is that I would like to see more of the Møre. That is, I’d love a little bit more of that sweet insulation and a hair more breathability. That would certainly mean a reduction in wind and weather protection, but I’d take the trade. More warmth and breathability are almost always better. I say double down.

Norrøna Møre Thermo60 Aero200: Conclusion

Norrøna’s new Møre thermo60 jacket is a quirky insulator that I can’t stop wearing. At a basic level, it does what other stretchy, breathable insulating jackets do. But it adds a skier’s cut, helmet-centric hood, and vest mode versatility. I can’t get enough of the long fit and breathable aero200 fabric.

Those characteristics make it an awesome layer for skiers who spend their time at the resort, who will primarily layer it underneath a shell. Yet it’s roomy and protective enough for backcountry skiers who will throw it on over their shell at transitions and mountain summits. Its third act — vest mode — provides versatility in any of the above layering scenarios and well beyond the ski world.

I’ll be thrilled when an even warmer, more breathable version comes out. Until then, the Møre thermo60 has firmly established itself as a key component in my go-to ski layering architecture. And it’s a piece that I won’t be packing away when winter ends.