I’m the (anxious) opposite of a procrastinator when it comes to big trips. As my three-week trip to Japan approached this past spring, I was fully packed ten days before leaving, with my clothes largely based on the two-week forecast. But a few days before I left, I checked the weather for Kyushu one more time and saw the sunny, 60-degree days had changed to angry little stormcloud icons complete with sideways slanting rain.
I dug through my bag until I found the ultralight running raincoat I’d picked in an effort to save precious space in my bag. After much hesitation (probably too much), I swapped it for the Arc’teryx Beta SL, a three-layer Gore-Tex model that toes the line between a raincoat and a hardshell. I still paused, weighing both rolled jackets in my hands. I travel extremely light, and I was cramming three weeks’ worth of gear and apparel into one carry-on backpack. The Arc’teryx Beta SL was more than twice the rolled size of the running jacket, but in it went—and that swap ended up being the best gear choice I made for the trip.
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