Recently this site’s founder, Jared Hargrave, has been on a mission to find the “perfect mountain shirt.” I decided he shouldn’t have to take on such a quest alone, so I’m here to weigh in with more findings. Helly Hansen makes everything from boating to mountain guiding gear, and I figured if anyone could actually create the perfect outdoor shirt, it might be them. They sent me the Odin Mountain Shirt, and I immediately set off to discover if it is the true king of the hill.
First impressions were great with the Odin Mountain Shirt. A textbook plaid design screamed “mountain man” and the snap-style buttons made for easy dressing. Helly Hansen designers wield a sweet color palette, and this shirt is no exception: the black on grey color scheme is right up the alley of this earth-toned author. The fit is also proper: no tightness in the chest or shoulder region, long enough to wear with a backpack, and not overly baggy. I go around 5’8″/150 lbs and the medium size seemed tailor-made for me. The material felt a bit strange to me at first, with an overly slick sensation. This is because the shirt is made with Polyamide, a nylon plastic that is resistant to abrasion and wear even in extreme temperatures. With the runway show over, it was time to find out what this slick little number could do in the hills.
I wore the Helly Hansen Odin Mountain Shirt as much as I could. Biking, backpacking, household chores and a few trips to the tavern were the testing grounds. I have to say, it excelled in each. Mountain biking in the shirt is ideal: the material breathes easy so I never overheated on uphills, and when I stopped to take off my pack, my sweat-soaked back dried in just minutes. Oh, and did I mentioned that I looked like a boss on those trails? No form-fitting jerseys for this guy! Just smooth, classic plaid style.
The lowlands proved no challenge to the Odin Mountain Shirt, so I brought it up high. As high as you can get in Utah, in fact. A backpacking trip to King’s Peak was the perfect place to beat the shirt to a pulp. I brought only a base layer shirt and my shell: the Odin was my main attire for three days of heavy miles on the trail. The 8 mile hike to Dollar Lake brought temperatures in the high 80s, but again the shirt breathed and wicked away my grossness. Day 2 was a mix of wind, rain and dark skies. The Odin Mountain Shirt certainly didn’t repel any of the rain, but it did dry fast. When I needed to layer up, I was happy to find that the shirt was not at all bulky, even with a base layer underneath it and my rain shell on top. When we finally arrived back at the car on Day 3, the Mountain Shirt still looked and felt great, minus the funk it had collected from 36+ hours of abuse.
All in all, I have zero gripes with the Odin Mountain Shirt. It looks great, performs well in nearly any weather, and did a decent job of not stinking the joint up after a day of playing in the hills. I have washed the shirt at least 8 times, and it showed no signs of thread pulls or other washer-wear. If it weren’t for the strange feel of the Polyamide fabric, I’d be handing over the crown…but I’d hate for Jared’s quest to end when things are just heating up.
The Good: Odin Mountain Shirt performs awesome in any weather, and is stylee enough to wear from trail to tavern.
The Bad: Polyamide fabric has a strange “slick” feeling to it.
The Verdict: While it might not be the “perfect” mountain shirt, the Odin comes damn close in every way. Helly Hansen makes awesome gear and this shirt is no exception.