Lightweight, protective, well-ventilated, and fully-featured, the Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro doesn’t miss. Photo: Forrester Pickett//The Inertia
Norrøna has quietly built a reputation for top-tier ski outerwear and gear over the past century. Founded in 1929 in Norway, the brand’s deep roots in Scandanavian ski culture shows in its attention to detail and high-performance construction. A bit off the radar for most skiers here in the U.S., the brand is starting to gain recognition for engineering some of the best snowsports outerwear on the market. The Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro ($899) is the brand’s flagship offering, and it lives up to the hype: premium materials, thoughtful design, and an impressive array of features make it a standout option for anyone looking for breathable, protective, and high-functioning ski outerwear.
Bottom Line: Norrøna’s top-of-the-line Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro jacket is as good as it gets for big backcountry missions. With lightweight but highly protective Gore-Tex Pro material, and lots of ventilation, the jacket can shield you from winter’s worst, even on the uphill, or stuff down small to limit how much room it takes up in your backpack. It forgoes the traditional hand pockets, which will be a turn-off for some, but if you’re here for high-tech, borderline-luxury, ski jacket performance for the backcountry and the resort, the Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro knows no equal.
Editor’s Note: We’ve tested both the 2025 (pictured in green) and 2026 (pictured in white) versions of the jacket. They’re the same jacket, save for color choices, slightly more comfortable wrist gaiters on the 2026 version, and updated Gore-Tex Pro ePE material with a tougher outer shell/face fabric.
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Mainly intended for the backcountry, the Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro can stand up to resort riding. Photo: Tim Manning//The Inertia
Testing
I’ve spent the past two seasons testing the Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro in Tahoe and on a couple of ski trips to Utah. It’s seen time on the resort, as well as in the backcountry, earning its stripes on the sweaty uphill as well as the downhill.
Nick Bruckbauer, pictured in many of this review’s photos, contributed testing notes as well after some time skiing with it in the Lake Tahoe area. The green jacket, in pictures, is last-season’s, 2025, model. The white jacket is the 2026 version, which sees different color choices, a slightly more comfortable wrist-gaiter construction, and the big switch to Gore-Tex Pro ePE, a more sustainable version of Gore-Tex that doesn’t use PFAS chemicals. We’ve also noticed the 2026 jacket has a sturdier-feeling face fabric than the 2025 version, with a thicker fabric weave that results in a rougher, more abrasion-resistant shell.
The varying temperatures, plentiful bootpacks, and strong winds make Palisades Tahoe a great testing ground for the Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro. Photo: Tim Manning//The Inertia
Notable Features
Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro ($899)
Style: All-around
Weight: 652 g (1 lb 7 oz)
Fit: Average
Notable Features: Wrist gaiters, front vent/pass-through, attached goggle wipe, removable powder skirt
Pros: Awesome set of features, great fit, top-tier storm-proofing, lightweight and packable
Cons: Expensive, no hand pockets
Material
New this year, the Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro uses Gore-Tex ePE, a more sustainable version of the famous waterproof/breathable membrane that avoids the nasty PFAS chemicals in prior versions of the material. It also has a much more robust face fabric. The numbers are confusing – the 2025 jacket was listed with a 70 Denier face-fabric, and this season’s is listed as “40D-200D” – but having both jackets in hand at the same time, I can confirm there is a difference, and the 2026 version is noticeably harder-wearing and more abrasion-resistant. It’s a bit less pliable, but just barely, and is a worthy trade-off for the added durability.
The jacket feels airy compared to most 3l hardshells, but is still super weatherproof. It’s robustly warm/windproof too, as long as it’s combined with sufficient insulation underneath. The jacket is also supremely packable, thanks to the thin material, and doesn’t take up much room in your pack.
An innovative front vent on the Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro uses velcro to stay shut, and can be opened up to access interior pockets – like those on your bibs. Photo: Forrester Pickett//The Inertia
Pockets
Pass-through pocket/chest vent: This is an incredible feature, and maybe one of my favorites on any jacket I’ve come across. The jacket has a zippered, mesh-lined vent on the center chest, right next to the main zipper. That vent can be left open while skiing for extra powder-proof airflow. It also helps a bit if you’re wearing the jacket on the uphill, but it functions best at speed. One side of the mesh is secured by velcro, allowing you to use it as a pass-through pocket, to get underneath your shell and reach into the pockets of your insulating layer, or bibs.
Other pockets: The jacket has two massive chest pockets, one of which has a goggle wipe on a lanyard, a nice touch. Inside the jacket, there’s a dump pocket on the right and a media pocket on the left chest.
Underarm Vents
The underarm vents on the jacket are massive. Combined with the front vent, this really is a jacket you can wear on the uphill without overheating.
Wrist gaiters are great for keeping snow out of your sleeves. Photo: Ken Cox//The Inertia
Wrist Gaiters
I’m personally a huge fan of wrist gaiters. They’re a great way of keeping snow out of your sleeves without having to deal with bulky “gauntlet-style” gloves. These ones are especially well done, made of a super-lightweight stretchy material that doesn’t trap heat, and with ample sleeve length to maintain full freedom of movement. The 2026 version of the jacket has a slightly more comfortable wrist-gaiter design, with a folded edge against the thumb, but both this and last year’s wrist gaiters are very well designed and some of the most comfortable I’ve tested overall.
Big underarm vents let you dump heat quickly. Photo: Tim Manning//The Inertia
Downsides
The main downside of the Lofoten is the lack of hand pockets. Being a touring-oriented jacket, that’s a more common choice, as traditional hand pockets are often rendered useless by a backpack waist strap, and it’s hard to fault them for doing so, but it’s worth knowing if having hand pockets is a necessity for you.
I’d also love to see a two-way zipper in the near future, considering it is a backcountry design that could conceivably be often paired with a climbing harness.
Finally, durability is worth addressing. As mentioned in “Materials” above, while this was certainly a downside of the 2025 version of the jacket, I find myself much less concerned with the 2026 jacket’s durability thanks to the tougher face fabric. That said, only time will truly tell how durable this jacket is.
A dialed fit provides ease of movement, no matter the task. Photo: Forrester Pickett//The Inertia
The Competition
$900 is about as expensive as a ski jacket gets, and the Lofoten’s main competitor in this area is the Arc’teryx Sabre SV. The SV is decidedly heavier weight with a much thicker and more durable material, and has cleaner styling, but it lacks the features that the Lofoten has, like the wrist gaiters, front vent, massive underarm vents, etc. The Lofoten is decidedly more backcountry-focused, while the SV is a bit stiff and heavy for dedicated backcountry use.
As far as direct comparisons go for other lightweight full-featured backcountry jackets, there really aren’t many. The Mountain Hardwear High Exposure gets close, with lighter-weight material and interesting features (the very large underarm vents open into the interior dump pockets, basically making those the hand pockets), but I really wouldn’t recommend this one for resort use in the same way I would the Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro.
Norrøna also makes the jacket in a couple of different variations. The Lofoten Gore-Tex ($599) trims some features and uses a heavier, less-expensive Gore-Tex fabric rather than the Gore-Tex Pro. It also adds hand pockets. The Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro Plus (1,199) takes things to the next level with added vents, added pockets, and a redesigned hood. The Lofoten Gore-Tex Insulated ($559) mirrors the design of the Lofoten Gore-Tex, with insulation added throughout the jacket.
The Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro lives up to the hype. Photo: Forrester Pickett//The Inertia
Final Thoughts
The Lofoten Gore-Tex Pro is for skiers who demand the best from their equipment and frequently find themselves in harsh conditions. The jacket is strongly backcountry-focused with the lightweight shell material, ventilation, and lack of hand pockets, but resort and sidecountry riders who frequently find themselves bootpacking, traversing in powder, or otherwise exerting themselves in harsh conditions will be thrilled at this jacket’s combination of stout protection and lightweight breathability. It comes at a steep price, but it certainly lives up to it.
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