Mountain Warehouse: I Almost Trusted the Word Waterproof

I nearly paid for the wrong kind of dry

I nearly paid for the wrong kind of dry. On 27 September 2026 I had already typed a Lake District weekend into the search bar on mountainwarehouse.com and I had a packable shell sitting in the basket. Wait, not sitting. Selected. Stuff-bag photo on the tile, about thirty pounds against a strike-through that used to be about forty-five, and I was one click from treating a school-run layer as hill kit because the tile said waterproof and the sale badge was loud enough to drown the millimetre line underneath it. The page printed one thousand five hundred millimetres of hydrostatic head and described that as light to moderate rain. That is a folding shell for the walk from the car to the classroom. Not a ridge jacket. I took it out of the basket. The almost-mistake is the whole reason this guide exists.

I'm warm about this shop when it stays in its lane. I'm skeptical the second the word waterproof is doing all the work. Read the number. The millimetre number. If you came here hoping I'd rank every jacket on the homepage, close the tab. I'm naming two pieces and then talking about till rules, because a catalogue dump is how the almost-mistake happens.

Compass House is the name on the packing slip

The packing slip, when it exists, belongs to Mountain Warehouse Limited. Companies House has that company as 03417738 from 11 August 1997, at Compass House, 7a Howick Place, London SW1P 1DZ. The group company, 07218508, files at the same door. Mark Neale opened the first shop in 1997; Animal arrived later, and Eastern Mountain Sports was bought in September 2024. I am not writing a corporate history. I'm telling you who takes the card. Edinburgh Live, on the Hermiston Gait opening of 17 September 2026, put the estate at more than four hundred and thirty stores in nine countries, UK still the heavy end. This page is the GB site and pounds sterling. American and Australian clocks are someone else's guide.

I was going to call it a mountain shop. It isn't one. It is a high-street outdoor chain that will sell you a family walking jacket, a first ski layer, a day pack, and a weekend tent from one checkout, and it will let you walk into a branch if you live near one. Compass House is the responsible entity printed on live product pages. If a future line is fulfilled by someone else, the till rules can change. Read the sold-and-shipped line, not just the logo in the header.

Keep the tab open if this is your weather

Keep the tab open if you want one UK till for a wet school week, a Saturday walk, a festival tent, and a first ski holiday, and you can live with a size run that goes wide and a sixty-day window that actually wants tags on. Women's numbered sizes run UK 4 through UK 32. Men's tops and trousers go XXS to 4XL. Kids are sold by height, about two to three years up to fourteen. Maternity and plus size sit in the women's aisle. There is a baby range if you need it. A nearby branch is the part that makes Click and Collect and a face-to-face return feel like a high-street shop instead of a parcel argument.

Keep it open if you'll actually click through to the hydrostatic head before you trust the word waterproof, and if you'll try walking boots in a branch because footwear wants to go back unworn. Keep it open if about thirty pounds for a packable, or about eighty pounds for a sale ski shell, is the money you have. A specialist membrane is a different budget and a different shop.

Close it if you need a different shop

I'd rather lose you here than watch you take a school-run shell up a wet ridge. The site will still take the card. That's not the same as the site being a fit.

• You need a twenty-thousand-millimetre specialist shell, a stiff alpine boot, or a tent you will trust above the snowline.
• You were about to treat a one-thousand-five-hundred-millimetre packable as storm kit for a wet week in the Cairngorms.
• You want a boot fitter, a custom back-length rucksack, or climbing hardware this catalogue does not claim to be.
• You are ordering from a US or Australian street and hoped this GB guide covered those return windows.
• You need a complete public fee table for DHL Standard or Click and Collect before you start a basket. Those options appear. The pounds stay unpublished until checkout.
• You will walk a new pair of boots on a towpath and then expect a change-of-mind refund on an unworn-only pair.

IsoDry is a family name, not a forecast

Here is the metaphor I'm keeping, and then I will stop decorating. IsoDry is Mountain Warehouse's own waterproof and breathable membrane. It isn't one performance class. Think of the millimetre rating as a rain gauge stitched to the hem. The Pakka packable is the first piece I'll name. On 27 September 2026 the live tile still sat around thirty pounds, down from about forty-five, with taped seams, a stuff bag, one thousand five hundred millimetres of waterproofing, a polyamide shell, and a two-year warranty. The brand calls that light to moderate rain. That rain gauge only goes as high as a school-run shower. The jacket belongs in a school bag until the sky actually starts. It doesn't belong in a hill rucksack as your only shell.

The second piece is the Altitude Extreme ski jacket. Same family name on the hang tag. Different gauge. Live tiles I opened sat around eighty pounds against a strike-through that used to be about two hundred and fifty, with ten thousand millimetres, underarm vents, an attached snowskirt, a laboratory figure around minus twenty-five degrees, and a three-year warranty. That's piste kit for a first ski week. It is not a school-run cagoule and it is not a winter-ridge membrane. Laboratory temperatures come with an on-page caveat that activity and perspiration change warmth. I won't turn a lab number into a promise. A kids three-in-one for the playground and an adult ski shell are not interchangeable layers just because both say IsoDry.

I'm not stacking the rest of the grid. Own-brand walking boots, day packs, and weekend tents sit in the same cart. Mixed camping labels do too. Pick litres and hydrostatic head for the trip you're actually taking, not the sale percentage on the badge.

Measure first. The size guide already thinks you run large.

The GB size page is unusually honest: the cut runs a bit large, so if you're between two sizes it wants the smaller one. Tape the chest under the arms and across the back, the waist where it actually bends, the hips at the fullest point, and the inside leg from crotch to ankle bone. Women's trousers come extra short, short, regular, and long. Men's regular inside leg is about eighty-one centimetres if you're somewhere near five foot eight to five foot eleven. Kids go by height in centimetres. The age on a birthday cake is a guess, not a measurement. If the jacket has to sit over a fleece, start from the chest you measured, then check the sleeves actually cover a wrist.

Footwear is a different job. Stand on paper, mark both feet, and take the longer one. Try the pair in a store if you can reach one. Returns want the pair unworn and untreated, so a Saturday in a branch is cheaper than posting a pinch back. Leave the tags on. If the smaller size the guide pushed is still baggy, you've got sixty days. I won't pick UK 8 versus UK 9 off a lifestyle photo.

Evri, a branch till, and sixty days

Pay on mountainwarehouse.com and, if the tile says sold and shipped by Mountain Warehouse, that is who you bought from. That line decides whether a branch till will even look at the parcel. When I checked the help pages, Evri Standard was free in three to five days once the own-merchant basket cleared fifty pounds, and four pounds fifty under that. Evri Next Day wanted one hundred and twenty-five pounds before it went free; below that it was five pounds ninety-five, order before nine in the evening, and bank holidays are a closed door. A few tiles still offered Royal Mail Standard instead of Evri, with the same fifty-pound free line hanging off them. Banners on the homepage repeated the thresholds and pointed at terms. Believe the checkout, not the banner alone.

Pages also list DHL Standard, Click and Collect, Express Click and Collect, Light and Large, and Out of Area. The fee is, no, the fee isn't printed as a complete public table in the help I opened. The checkout quote is the figure that matters. If the basket is tents and camping furniture, watch the delivery line, because oversized kit can sit on Light and Large instead of a letterbox parcel.

• Confirm the line says sold and shipped by Mountain Warehouse before you treat a high-street return as a given.
• Evri Standard: free over fifty pounds on qualifying own-merchant orders, four pounds fifty below that, three to five days.
• Evri Next Day: free over one hundred and twenty-five pounds, five pounds ninety-five below, order before nine in the evening, not on bank holidays.
• Royal Mail Standard appears on some lines with the same fifty-pound free threshold.
• DHL Standard, Click and Collect, Express Click and Collect, Light and Large, and Out of Area: the options exist, the pounds stay unpublished until checkout.
• Keep the confirmation email and the payment card if you will walk an online order into a branch.
• Postal-return postage is unpublished until you open the live Returns policy or the form in the parcel.

What I will not invent for you

I didn't finish a paid checkout for a family tent that afternoon, so a Light and Large total for your postcode is unpublished. I won't invent a DHL figure either. Sale prices move. Trust the live tile, not a screenshot in this guide. Warranties printed on the two jackets I named are manufacturing commitments. They are not a promise that a one thousand five hundred millimetre shell will keep you dry in heavy rain, and they are not a survival rating. Faulty or misdescribed goods still sit under consumer-law remedies as well as the advertised sixty-day window.

Camping tiles share the same domain. Many pages name Mountain Warehouse Group at Compass House as the responsible entity. That doesn't make every line identical in stock or returns. (I still file confirmation emails in a folder named returns, which is not glamorous and is the only thing a store till wants to see.) If a future line is fulfilled by another seller, don't assume a high-street till can unwind it.

The hang tag can say IsoDry on a school-bag shell and on piste kit. The rain gauge on the hem is the part that tells you which bag it belongs in. Put the thirty-pound Pakka in the school bag. Put the ten-thousand-millimetre Altitude Extreme on a wet piste. If you buy the cheaper shell for the harder weather, the label didn't lie to you. You did the swapping.

— Priya Nair

Questions I had before I trusted the checkout

Is UK delivery free on every Mountain Warehouse order?

No, and the homepage banner is not a blanket. On the day I checked, Evri Standard dropped to free once an own-merchant basket cleared fifty pounds, and it still wanted three to five days. Under fifty it was four pounds fifty. Next day was a different clock: free only over one hundred and twenty-five pounds, five pounds ninety-five if you were under that, and you had to order before nine in the evening on a day that wasn't a bank holiday. A few tiles offered Royal Mail Standard instead and still hung the fifty-pound free line on them. DHL and Click and Collect showed up as choices without a tidy public tariff, so I won't write you a number I didn't see. Tents and camping furniture can flip the job onto Light and Large. Watch that line before you congratulate yourself on a free-delivery banner.

Can I take an online order back to a high-street store?

Often yes, if Mountain Warehouse sold and shipped it and you can prove the order. The GB site talks about sixty days and sends you to a Returns policy. I would ring the branch first, because the rail in the shop is not a copy of the website, then walk in with the confirmation email and the card you paid with. Find the store on their locator, don't guess the high street. Boots and shoes have to look unused. If you'd rather post the thing, the form in the box is the start, and I never found a live UK return-postage figure in the help I opened, so that cost stays unpublished until the policy page or the label says it. A line fulfilled by someone else is not a Mountain Warehouse till's problem.

Do I size up or down in Mountain Warehouse jackets?

Down, if you're hovering. Their own guide says the cut runs generous and would rather you take the smaller size than swim in the larger one. Don't pick from a model photo. Measure chest, waist, hips, and inside leg, then look at the chart. Women go up to UK 32. Men go up to 4XL. Kids go by height in centimetres. If a jacket has to clear a mid-layer, you still start with the chest you measured and then see whether the cuff meets the wrist. Boots are not a jacket problem: measure both feet and, if you can, try them in a store. Tags stay on until you're sure. Sixty days is there if the 'smaller' size is still a tent.

What do the two-year and three-year warranties cover?

On the two pieces I named, the Pakka packable carries two years and the Altitude Extreme ski jacket carries three. That is a manufacturing promise about how the thing was made, not a weather forecast and not a survival badge. A one-thousand-five-hundred-millimetre shell can still soak you in heavy rain and the warranty will not rewrite the rain gauge. Cold figures printed on winter kit are laboratory numbers, and the pages themselves warn that moving around and sweating change what you feel. If the goods are faulty, mislabelled, or described wrong, consumer law sits next to the sixty-day window. Keep the order email. I didn't find a self-serve warranty button that works without proof of purchase.

Are camping tents sold by the same merchant as own-brand jackets?

They can share a basket and a domain. Plenty of pages I opened still named Mountain Warehouse Group at Compass House, 7a Howick Place, London SW1P 1DZ as the responsible entity. Own-brand shells and mixed-label camping kit are allowed in one checkout. That is not the same as identical stock rules or identical return rules. I will not pretend I know which tent is in stock this afternoon; some camping bundles have been missing before, and today's grid is unpublished unless you open it. If another seller fulfils a future line, a high-street till may shrug. Read sold-and-shipped. For a family tent, check the packed size before you assume Click and Collect or Light and Large will even accept the box.

Can I return walking boots after a weekend on the towpath?

Not as a change of mind. The pair has to come back unworn and untreated. That's why a Saturday in a branch is the cheap test. Once the sole has met a towpath, you've bought them. A manufacturing fault is a different letter: keep the order email, photograph the problem, and use the printed warranty plus consumer-law remedies. Don't treat sixty days as a hire service for a wet weekend. I'm skeptical of any plan that starts with wearing the boots and ends with a till argument.

Why does checkout show DHL or Click and Collect without a price?

Because those options exist on the GB site and the complete public fee table does not, at least not in the help I opened on 27 September 2026. Evri bands are the ones printed in words: four pounds fifty under fifty pounds, five pounds ninety-five for next day under one hundred and twenty-five, free above those lines on qualifying own-merchant orders. DHL Standard, Click and Collect, Express Click and Collect, Light and Large, and Out of Area stay unpublished until the basket has a postcode and a delivery method. I will not invent a branch-collect fee or an oversized-tent surcharge to make this paragraph tidier. Add the kit, enter the postcode, and believe the checkout quote.