Norrona Falketind Warm1 Active Jacket Review

Bottom Line

The standout aspect of the Norrona Falketind Warm1 Active Jacket (men’s / women’s) is its warmth-to-weight ratio, with heat retention that’s absolutely unbelievable for a jacket weighing under 10 ounces. Norrona achieves this through fabric engineering, using brushed Polartec Micro fabric to create small, lofted pockets that trap body heat.

However, this lightweight fabric does come with a cost. You’ll need a windproof shell to keep that warm air trapped against your body, since the fabric is so breathable that a breeze will blow it all away. Additionally, the tufted material is prone to snags and not great for taking into a highly overgrown area. And while there is a high draft collar around the neck, the fleece lacks a hood to retain heat around the head.

To compare to other top-performing fleece jackets, check out our full guide to the best fleece jackets.

Warmth

The Norrona Falktind Warm1 Active Fleece’s main body features Polartec Micro Series, which is a really interesting fabric. At a microscopic level, it’s made by tightly knitting polyester yarns into a dense fabric, which is then brushed on both sides. This brushing process pulls the tiny polyester fibers outward, creating millions of microscopic, fuzzy filaments (known as loft).

Your body heat gets trapped in the millions of tiny air pockets created by these fuzzy filaments. This keeps the warm air right against your skin. Polyester fibers are naturally hydrophobic, meaning they absorb less than 1% of their weight in water. When you sweat during high-output activity, the Micro Series doesn’t hold onto that moisture like cotton would. Instead, the fibers quickly draw moisture away from your skin and toward the outer face of the fabric, where it can evaporate.

In other words, the fabric naturally helps retain heat while keeping you from feeling sticky or too hot during activity. However, no material is perfect, and the fabric’s breathability comes with some caveats. While Polartec Micro is brilliant at trapping air, it has zero wind resistance. Because the knit structure is completely open, wind will blow straight through the fabric, immediately removing all the warm air your body created.

On a hike in the Delaware Water Gap, the weather was gusty, cold, and a little rainy, so we experienced it firsthand. At the beginning of the hike, we kept our rain jacket on, as adding a simple wind-blocking layer makes the fleece super warm. Once warmed up, we could ditch the rain jacket and welcome the airflow. But a wind-blocking layer is almost necessary for this jacket to be at its best in terms of heat retention.

Comfort

The comfort of the Norrona Falketind Warm1 Active Jacket boils down to two things: the jacket’s fit and the fabric’s feel. Being based in Norway, Norrona’s products have a European fit, which runs on the smaller side compared to American outerwear. That said, this jacket is very slim cut, with both the torso and arms feeling constrictive.

The brushed fabric feels good against the skin, so it’s comfortable to wear this over a T-shirt or another short-sleeved base layer. But trying to put this on over long sleeves sort of felt like squeezing our sausage arms into a too-small casing.

In short, we recommend going up one size. The fit is restrictive across the board, so we don’t think grabbing a larger size would make any part of the jacket feel bulky.

Durability

The Falketind Warm1 has a clear trade-off between packability and toughness. The Polartec Micro fabric holds up beautifully to everyday wear and tear. It handled the repetitive friction of backpack shoulder straps and a hip belt without immediately pilling or thinning, and has also survived several rounds in the washing machine.

However, the specialized fabric does require a level of care that may not be standard across all fleeces. The fleece’s breathability comes from its open-knit construction, which inherently makes it vulnerable to snags.

When taking this fleece off trail into a thicket of some bushes, we immediately noticed sticks, leaves, and little pieces of dirt snagging and sticking to the fabric. If your route involves bushwhacking, scraping against rock faces, or navigating a lot of blowdowns, you’ll notice many of the jacket’s delicate fibers pulling out.

Once again, pairing the fleece with a tougher shell like a rain jacket or wind layer will solve this problem. But that would increase heat retention, potentially leading to overheating while navigating a tricky section of the trail.

Weight

At just 9.6 ounces on our scale, the Falketind Warm1’s weight is easily one of its biggest selling points. This jacket squishes down beautifully to about the size of a softball when packed. However, due to durability concerns, we had to make sure we weren’t pressing this jacket down against a tent stake or any jagged edge. Still, it’s hard to imagine a lighter, warmer fleece, provided you’re willing to pair a wind layer on top.

Features

To achieve such a low reading on the scale, Norrona stripped many features from this jacket. While there isn’t a hood, the jacket does feature an extended neck when fully zipped, long cuffs with integrated thumbholes, and two pockets.

We appreciated the high pocket placement, so we could access them with a pack on. Additionally, the cuffs around the wrists feature a more durable, stretchy material. So, we didn’t have to worry about ripping the fragile fabric when grabbing onto a tree branch or scrambling over a rock.

The neck gaiter was also surprisingly effective. When the jacket was fully zipped, it pulled up over our chin, boosting protection from the cold, wet wind of the Delaware Water Gap. However, you’ll need to pack an additional hat for truly cold situations. There’s nothing on the fleece to warm your ears or trap heat escaping from the top of your head.

Should You Buy The Norrona Falketind Warm1 Active?

The Norrona Falketind Warm1 is a highly specialized, expensive fleece with a narrow use case. For those backpacking in moderate conditions who want a warm layer and care deeply about weight savings and packability, this fleece is an almost-perfect answer.

However, if weight isn’t your top concern, or you’re consistently backpacking in very cold, windy environments, this is probably not the fleece for you. This fleece demands some attention; it is not a “throw it on and ignore it” type of layer. Durability concerns us with fabric this lightweight, and you’ll need a wind layer to maximize heat retention.

What Other Fleeces Should You Consider?

If the Norrona Falketind Warm1 Active Jacket is not quite what you are looking for in a fleece jacket, we have many other recommendations to consider. You can head over to our full best fleece jackets gear guide for more of our top picks. Also take a look below for some ideas.

Rab Ascendor Light Hoody Review: The Ascendor is another ultra-premium, ultra-packable alpine layer designed to save base weight and pack down small in your pack. However, the Ascendor Light strips out some unnecessary ounces while also offering substantial cost savings.

Outdoor Research Vigor Review: This fleece also has a minimalist, athletic construction built to maximize breathability during high-output sports. The Vigor, though, delivers this exceptional sweat management at nearly half the price by utilizing its high-airflow design.

Patagonia Better Sweater Review: The Better Sweater also sits on the premium end of the fleece market. And it also features a thoughtful design, technical fabrics, and high-quality construction. However, the Better Sweater works better for everyday warmth, as it trades some breathability for a denser, knit-sweater-style build for more casual days.