Dark Jacket Colours in the Mountains: Foolish? Inconsequential? Who cares?

This is admittedly a bit of a ridiculous thread, but I'm going to start it anyways, as I am genuinely curious to hear folks thoughts, and think there could be some value in a disussion. I also readily accept if the whole thing is superfluous.

Essentially, I am in the market for a new shell jacket for alpine climbing and mountaineering, and my propensity for most clothing is to go for black/darker colours.  As such, I'm leaning towards such a choice for the jacket in question. 

But, I'm wondering if such a decision is unwise, and if it would be more clever to choose a colour (i.e. red! yellow! some god awful mucus green!), which would stand out more for rescue/safety/general considerations where visibility is important.

How much of a consideration is safety or visibility for you when you're choosing your kit for in the mountains? In the grand scheme of things, is there a significant difference between a climber wearing a black vs. hivis yellow shell that would lead one to choose the latter? Cheers!

I think a bright color is a good idea for just the reason you mentioned - rescue. It doesn't have to gaudy, however you define that, but a red or a bright blue is better than a black or white.  

To accompany your loudly-colored jacket, a satellite messenger is an even better tool.

Nobody is going to be able to quantify the importance of a bright jacket on any given day. Most of my gear closet is orange. But I don't care how I look. Your call. 

A louder color that contrasts your intended mountain travel and rock type definitely aids visibility. For snow, ice, and most rock, the best contrast comes from yellow, orange, and red. When I'm on a search and rescue call, if the drone and its infrared doesn't have the battery juice to get nearby, we rely on plain old eye balls for visual confirmation. This could be unaided, with binoculars, or even occasionally by helicopter, but those colors all stand out far more in the landscape when viewed from a distance than shades of blue, green, gray, brown, black, etc.

And a satellite messenger is great; it can definitely get a rescue team very close, but for the final "pinpoint" location in many cases, bright colors do actually help.

High vis color! Plus it will make you look  better in photos!

That's planning for failure, Morty.  Even dumber than regular planning.

-Rick

Does anyone keep a reflective vest or something to put over their clothes in case of emergency? Then you could pick whatever color jacket suits you.

For obvious security reason its better if you wear bright color  but having a bright jacket is not the most important IMHO.
90% of the time I m not wearing my jacket but only a fleece (R1) or a softshell.

For this reason I chose a jacket with a subtle color (grey) but an orange softshell pants and bright blue fleece and softshell jacket.
I also have a bright blue backpack, I guarrante you I will not be missed by any chopper ;)

I always thought a bright helmet with a reflective sticker on the top was good measure 

Climberdude wrote:

I always thought a bright helmet with a reflective sticker on the top was good measure 

A friend sticked big pieces of reflective tape on his helmet one day and it was annoying af to be behind him with headlamp on an alpine start.
Also it may be efficient in the dark but doesn't help much during the day. 

The German-speaking world has done the research--published in Berg und Steigen or DAV Panorama, I forget which. If I remember correctly bright clothing doubles your chances of being found promptly.

I think about color in terms of whether they will add warmth with sun exposure (darker means more warmth). Sometimes this is good, but sometimes this is bad (getting overheated). Color for visibility is also a good idea. In addition to the rescue scenario, it can help find your partner on the ski slope, or if you get separated when climbing solo (scrambling, low-risk snow).  In the end, color rarely influences my purchasing decisions, though.

dave custer wrote:

The German-speaking world has done the research--published in Berg und Steigen or DAV Panorama, I forget which. If I remember correctly bright clothing doubles your chances of being found promptly.

That's an interesting info! Thanks.
If you ever find a link to the source I m interested (I don't speak german but Google does ;)

This reminds me of when The North Face released their revamped Summit Series collection five years or so ago in a mix of dark grays, black and white so you could be one with the mountain = Such stupidity. Traffic safety orange for the win!

Thanks for the input everyone! Seems like the consensus is far and away choosing something that will keep you visible. This makes a lot of sense, and is honestly what I anticipated. I'll leave me vanity and gothic sensibilities below treeline, for if something should ever go awry, I'd want to maximize the efficiency and speed at which i might be found ~~

From personal experience while trying to have a bird find us on a big ass hill. I hung a red 7' x 4' space blanket on the slope they could not see it from the air. They found us when I got out my signal mirror and flashed them.  The take away, it might take multiple ways to be found.

I've spent a lot of time searching for people from the ground and the air.  I've found bright pink and silver reflective to be the most visible colors.  The brighter the better.  Orange, neon green, yellow, etc all good too.  Dark anything blends in and is virtually invisible.  Dirt and sun fading definitely make it harder to spot clothing too. Even against snow blues and greens just look like rocks.

I choose brightly colored outerwear myself, and I don't think you'd be foolish to do so as well.  That said, conservative planning, good judgement, leaving a detailed plan with someone responsible (or at least in an obvious spot in your car), and having reliable backcountry communications (like the InReach) are probably more important to staying safe and being found in an emergency.

Some of Mammut’s stuff is bright orange on the inside for just this reason. 

Bright colors FTW. I once wore a mid blue hardshell that wetted out and the only thing my buddy could see at times was my bright orange helmet. 

You can get a cheap plastic blaze orange vest in the hunting section of most sporting goods stores that have hunting sections. Folds down to about the size of a bandana. But that won't help you much if you get injured and can't easily get to it.

Mountain Dillo wrote:

You can get a cheap plastic blaze orange vest in the hunting section of most sporting goods stores that have hunting sections. Folds down to about the size of a bandana. But that won't help you much if you get injured and can't easily get to it.

Your last point is something I've also come to the conclusion of as well: while there are surely cheaper ways to bring brightly coloured layers/objects into the mountains to help with visibility, in a dire situation one might not also be able to so easily access and don such a layer, and so it would seem as if simply opting for a brighter shell/layering system is ultimately wiser.

I also agree with many of the other commenters who offered that bright layers are but one factor of the equation in being found if necessary. Obviously a bright coloured shell should not be one's sole safety precaution, and things like satellite messengers, proper route planning and risk assessment factor significantly into staying safe or being found quickly.