Columbia 3-in-1 Parkas

[wackyjacky1]

Does anyone have any experience with these? It consists of a waterproof parka, and a zip-in fleece liner. You can wear the shell by itself, the fleece by itself, or both for extra warmth.

I will be traveling to Europe in January, and I want something that'll keep me warm under different conditions. This sounds like just the ticket, but I'm concerned with how bulky it may be.

Any info?

[beccaB]

At my employment we are given one every 2 years. It's not actually Columbia, but it's pretty similar. If you get one, I would suggest that the fleece inner coat have a lining, that way you don't get stuck to your shirt sleeves trying to take it off, or static.

[wolfak]

I've had two. Got the second one because I got smaller!

I'm very happy with with the performance, especially the new one. It has lining only in the sleeves of the fleece like the previous. I usually never zip the two parts together, I just wear them as two separate coats.

[MillieNZ]

I love mine................ brought it a couple of years ago from Kohls in Portland, very cheap (well compared to the price of them down here !)

Only occasionally use the fleece & jacket together (never really gets that cold) but are always using them seperatley........... next time I'm over I'll be getting a new one........

Would be great for Europre winter

[Cataboo]

Columbia has several levels & qualities of these - so just make sure the parka is actually waterproof and breathable. And there's different weights of fleece that'll zip into the jacket.

I'm not a huge fan of these even though this is pretty much the way I layer up for skiing in the winter - shell over a fleece. But actually having the jackets zip into each other really just ends up being gimicky. It's nice to be able to open your shell to cool down a little bit or to get to your fleece pockets without unzipping the fleece - keeping the warmth in, whereas if you have them zipped together, I guess it's more convenient for taking it off... but there are few active situations where that's what I want.

so I'd recommend purchasing a high quality fleece and a high quality shell separately. There are several fleeces that are windproof, so a shell isn't really necessary unless it's raining or you expect to get wet in some way, and you can just get a really lightweight shell for that... (that's assuming you're not going to have to worry about abrasion or anything like that)

[badgercat]

Mine served me well through 4 Wisconsin winters, including 100+inches of snow this past winter. Like Wolfak, though, I rarely kept the two pieces zipped together... on really cold days (like the day it was -30 F with the windchill and we all still had to go to class ), I'd put on the shell, zip it all the way up, put on my hat, put on a big scarf, and then put the shell on over that and zip it up too. Like Catriona mentioned, it was also nice to keep things separate, because I could unzip one or the other to get a little ventilation those cold days when I worked up a sweat trying to get to class on time.

I was very happy with it, even on those very blustery days! I don't think it's very bulky at all, and in fact I've used the fleece as a fall coat and the shell as a windbreaker/rain coat for summer travel (which it was great for, because it has lots of pockets).

Happy shopping!

eta: I don't think mine is technically waterproof, either. Though most of the water rolls off, the outside of the shell gets damp if you're out in a downpour. I don't recall it soaking through and me getting wet underneath it, though. I think mine wasn't exactly the 'top of the line' model, either, so I'm sure there's more waterproof stuff available if that's what you need.