Waterproof and breathable, mega chest pockets, and a clean aesthetic are the ingredients for a solid backcountry skiing hardshell
It’s easy to write about outerwear with the newest tech, cutting edge membrane, or really innovative features. That’s half the reason those features exist – to stand out in marketing copy. But is that what backcountry skiers really need? My taste in jackets is almost boring: give me chest pockets, a trim fit, good arm articulation, solid breathability, and a clean look. Cool, but not too cool. A jacket that does its core function exceptionally well.
That kind of jacket isn’t as easy to write about. What it lacks in flashy features is perhaps its greatest strength. The absence of fluff is what grabs my attention. That may not be the most gripping introduction to Rab’s Khroma Converge GTX jacket, but stick with me. This waterproof hardshell checks most of my boxes for ski touring. If you’re a hardshell jacket backcountry skier like me and you’re in the market for a durable all-rounder, it’s worth a look.
I’ve tested a dozen different hardshells over the past few years ranging in price from about $350 to $800. Rab’s Khroma Converge GTX lands near the middle at $575. I’m not going to pretend that’s a bargain for your average skier, but I will say that Rab managed to put a fair price on a jacket that they could probably charge more for.
Rab Khroma Converge GTX Review
The Khroma Converge is Rab’s top end skiing hardshell jacket and one of two dedicated hardshells in their ski line. The other one, the Khroma Kinetic ($400), features a lighter weight, less featured build and leans more into the breathability side of the spectrum.
The headline of the Khroma Converge GTX is chest pockets. If you’re really into chest pockets, Napoleon or otherwise, it’s worth dunking a hand into one of these monsters. The Khroma Converge features two Napoleon style chest pockets that are easy to open and plentifully roomy. So roomy that I had no problem stuffing a full sized skin in each one or a thick pair of gloves. So roomy that maybe I don’t even need that much room.
On top of those – literally – Rab added two more zippered hand pockets for maximum chest carry capacity. So much that I ran out of things to put in all of them. There’s also an internal zippered mesh pocket and a mesh drop pocket, all positioned out of the way of backpack hip straps and harness zones.
Fit and Build
I’ll admit that I’m a little bit enamored with the Khroma Converge’s fit. I sized down just a hair to a medium (I’m 6’1”, 195lbs for reference) and the thing just fits like a glove. The relatively slim fit is plentifully long without overdoing it. It layers well underneath backpack straps. And that slim fit keeps it from bulging at the belly. I like the way it looks and feels. It’s just a flattering piece of outerwear.
That relatively slim profile comes with a few advantages and disadvantages. In the pros column, there isn’t excess fabric sloshing around. And it fits elegantly with a harness in harness-over-the-jacket scenarios like ice climbing and mountaineering. The downsized version I’ve been wearing felt a little bit too narrow for harness-under-the-jacket scenarios. It’s worth sizing up a little bit if that’s your norm.
The narrow fit also got a little bit tight with bulky insulation layers underneath for anything bigger than a grid fleece or similar style. One more shoutout to Rab – the Evolute fleece layer is the warmest (yet somehow still breathable) fleece layer I’ve stumbled upon for tight-fitting insulation. I didn’t end up deploying my big puffy very often when I had those two pieces layered together.
The Khroma Converge also features a big helmet compatible storm hood that fits and still moves around well when deployed. It didn’t feel restrictive like some hoods can when things get really nasty out. And I like the mega zipper pull, especially when I weirdly found myself wearing mittens.
Breathability and Protection
The Khroma Converge’s main fabric is 80D Recycled 3-layer GORE-TEX ePE that is quite waterproof. It’s rated at 28,000mm like the rest of GORE-TEX’s top end membranes. Rab claims a breathability rating of “<13” RET (resistance to evaporative heat transfer), which roughly equates to 15k-20k MVTR (Moisture Vapor Transmission Rate). In plain terms, it’s very breathable as far as waterproof hardshells go.
Miraculous on the skin track? Definitely not. Even the most breathable GORE-TEX hardshell I’ve tested, Norrøna’s Lyngen Active Jacket, I’m not getting many strides uphill before I wet that thing out from the inside. Rab’s Khroma Converge doesn’t feel as breathable as that one (it falls on the other end of the durability spectrum as one proxy measure), but it performs as well as others in the class.
Breathability is aided by two average-sized underarm vents that are standard for jackets in this class. So I treated this jacket like I do all my hardshells – a layer that starts in my pack, comes out for the ski portion of human powered tours and storms, and not much else.
When the snow and wind really started hammering, The Khroma Converge did what it was designed to do while remaining breathable. The 3-layer fabric has a relatively warm backer compared to lighter weight shells. That meant it had an extra buffer between me and the nastiness outside. The flip side is that it’s a hair warmer than other shells when I started trudging back up the skin track.
The Converge isn’t the lightest hardshell out there at 693g. It leans into the durability side of that spectrum and that’s a tradeoff many backcountry skiers will be happy to make. I haven’t put three to five years of heavy duty use into this jacket. But it was my primary touring shell for most of the ‘24/25 season and I did my best to put it through the gear grinder known as Colorado’s Gore Range. I don’t have much to show for it in terms of damage or wear. The shell is burly, and at this point I feel confident that it will last many seasons.
Conclusion
When what you really want is a hardshell jacket, it’s really nice to have an actual hardshell jacket. We certainly don’t need them all the time in Colorado and lots of skiers forgo them altogether. But I still find myself carrying one 80% of the time for the gusty ridgelines, forested powder stashes, and blizzard days.
Rab’s Khroma Converge GTX jacket is a refreshingly straightforward hardshell jacket designed as an all-around ski shell that slots in naturally for ski touring. It’s durable and it has four massive chest pockets. It protects you from the wind and snow and it’s got a nice athletic cut. It’s not pretending to be something it’s not. I’m struggling to come up with legitimate critiques on this one.
It’s not the lightest, flashiest, or most tech-forward shell out there. And that’s kind of the point. Yet it’s not quite cutthroat minimalist either, but rather a piece that’s trimmed down to what matters in a ski touring hardshell jacket.
Bergen Tjossem is a ski fanatic, conservation professional, and nature nerd based in Vail, Colorado. His life and career have centered around protecting the natural environment and public lands that raised him, but as Ed Abbey put it, “It is not enough to fight for the land; It is even more important to enjoy it.” So when he’s not working his day job, you’ll find Bergen ski touring before dawn, ice climbing in the dark, running trails until his legs fall off, skiing 13er’s with his friends, or making the world’s best pizza with his wife, Rachel. You can find him on Instagram.
