Believe it or not, I’ve lived in the Northeast US my entire life (save for some years spent traveling around the world, mostly in tropical places) and I’ve never owned more than an ultralight down jacket—quite a few of them. I’ve layered up, worn hats at times and tried to not spend so much time outside.

Now that we got a house in the suburbs, though, I’m out taking walks with our kids, shoveling the driveway and generally needing to be outside a bit more. I needed a real adult winter coat.

I got the North Face Men’s McMurdo Parka, after reading lists of reviews and making my choice based on the style, fit and features. In this review, I’ll tell you what you should know before buying this down jacket, as well as all the work I did in order to get my perfect fit.

Let’s begin.

What is the McMurdo Parka for men?

The McMurdo Parka is rated one of The North Face’s warmest jackets for men. On the North Face “warm” scale, it scores a 3/3. In terms of price, it’s among the more expensive coats that the company makes. In this review, I’m going to let you know if it’s really worth it.

The parka is a pretty standard style, but with some nice added features. You might even call it boxy, but when I wear it, it feels properly flattering.

It’s fully insulated with 600-fill recycled down and sports a waterproof and windproof outer layer. They DryVent coating on the outer shell is meant to keep you dry during precipitation, from rain to snow.

And the fit? It comes more relaxed, which is what I wanted. The point of my getting the exact fit I was looking for was so that I can wear a winter parka with appropriate layers underneath, and avoid feeling too snug or tight. I went through a lot of work to get the right size, and I’ll tell you the story in this review.

Style

The North Face website calls it the company’s “longest men’s parka,” and… I actually do not think that is true. Just by glancing at the parkas landing page on the website, the Nuptse Parka looks much longer, hitting past the knee.

It has a symmetrical look, save for the North Face logo at the upper chest on the left. There are deep pockets on the front, on either side of the zipper, and diagonally-placed chest pockets.

The thick Velcro storm flap over the main zipper makes the jacket look neat (and it’s also functional).

Then there’s the hood: it’s a good size, and not overbearing or gigantic like other hoods I’ve had. The parka actually goes up quite tall on your neck, so your neck is protected both when you’re wearing the hood, and when it’s down.

Main features I like

For a jacket at this price point, I’d expect a lot of useful stuff. Here are the parts of the McMurdo Parka that I think are the most useful in the design.

Dual-access front pockets

Have you ever had pockets that have more pockets? The dual-access pockets on the front of the parka actually don’t “connect,” but that means you can store stuff from the side, and from the top. They zip from the side, and have Velcro on the top flap.

Chest pockets

These are useful. There are two securely-zipping chest pockets on the exterior and they both have storm flaps to keep snow and rain out. I never know what I’m going to wind up putting in these. It’s usually something small or something I need to stash for later.

Bonus: there is also an internal chest pocket. I like these a lot when I find them in jackets. They come in useful for stuff I want to find later.

Storm flap

The accurate name for “the material that covers the jacket’s zipper” is a storm flap, and the one on the McMurdo Parka closes with very strong Velcro. It keeps the look minimalist overall, and definitely protects me from the elements.

Removable faux fur on the hood

I’m glad the faux fur on the hood is removable. I took the faux fur off after wearing my McMurdo Parka for the first time, and I will probably never put it back on. Becca put it deep in our coat closet in case I change my mind.

One more thing about the hood: it has these pull cords you see here, so that you can tighten it to your liking.

Cuff tabs

Because of all the variation in reviews and opinions on the fit of this jacket, I’m glad the cuff tabs help me adjust the fit on my wrists. This is helpful depending on what I’m wearing underneath my parka, whether it’s a single layer, or a thicker hoodie that’s bunching in my sleeves.

The fit

This is where my big story comes in. A bit about me: I am 5 foot 9 and 165 lbs, more or less. In all my clothing reviews, such as the ones I wrote for athletic and outdoors brands like Finisterre outerwear, Nike activewear and Path Projects athletic gear, I wear a size M across the board.

I was getting the McMurdo Parka online, so I of course wanted to get my fit right the first time.

Spoiler: I didn’t.

I have a North Face ultralight down jacket that I’ve had since late 2017. It’s held up amazingly, as you’d expect that it would. It’s a size S. It fits great; however, I usually only wear a T-shirt under it.

To try to research which size I needed in the McMurdo, before getting mine, I did two things:

  • Looked at the size chart on the North Face website for the McMurdo Parka. I used my chest, hip and arm length measurements.
  • I went to the mall with Becca, where I went to FOUR department stores, looking for the McMurdo Parka and trying on other similar North Face jackets. I landed on a size M as the size I was going to choose … to be safe.

What happened?

The McMurdo Parka arrived in a men’s size M. It was big. It ran long in the arms, had too much space in the chest and mid-region, and ran a bit too long. It also had a lot of space in the back.

And, this was when I was wearing two winter layers: a shirt, and a hoodie sweatshirt on top of that.

I was frustrated because of all the time I put into finding the size I thought I needed. And as it turns out, most buys report that the McMurdo runs true to size, but with an asterisk: based on lots of reports, the sleeves run kind of short (for me, this isn’t a bad thing).

Reordering and exchanging

I was able to get a size S as an exchange. You can see in my video review that the difference in the sizes is clear: the size S looks right, and the size M, despite being my regular size in every other type of clothing garment, runs too spacious, long and wide.

I hope this helps you when you order: I’d be wary of sticking with your regular “clothing size” if you think you’re in between, or if your measurements don’t pair with the ones in the size chart on the website. It’s also important to know that you could have a bigger size in any other North Face jacket, and for some reason, for the McMurdo, you may have to size down to one size smaller.

You can also avoid having to exchange by ordering two and returning one.

Criticisms

Because there are wide ranges of opinions about this popular parka all over the internet, I’ll add some of my own, here.

Non-removable hood

I really thought the hood was going to be removable. This is a standard feature to have in so many warm winter jackets. I even tried to take it off, when I was taking off the removable faux fur piece, and realized that the hood is permanently attached to the parka.

Just my opinion, but I think it’s a funny choice to have a non-removable hood on a parka that’s supposed to be versatile. Then again, if I’m wearing a parka, it must be cold outside, right? And therefore, I’d likely want a hood. Sometimes I just want to be hood-less.

The sizing is confusing

I wear a Medium through and through (in clothes), so you can see why I thought that if I wanted to fit layers like a hoodie or sweater inside my parka, that I’d need a size M.

This was not so. And it’s unfortunate that a lot of guys are probably going to buy this jacket in the size they wear in clothes and have to exchange for another smaller size due to how this parka runs.

The size S was the clear fit for me, somewhat surprisingly. And to know this, you’d have to spend time reading reviews, which is not really what everyone wants to do if you’re shopping for a parka, whether online or not.

Bottom line: Worth the price tag?

I’ll be honest: I was looking at all the North Face’s men’s winter jackets and I wanted to go with the most popular one that also had the best ratings. The McMurdo Parka is by far the most talked-about and maybe the “default” option for a below-the-waist winter coat, if you don’t want to spend a lifetime searching for one.

So is it worth the cost? I think what I will say is that it is a good product—it’s definitely not a BAD winter coat. I feel warm in it when I wear it, and with the proper layers, I have very strong faith that this is a jacket for life. That’s my conclusion: that I plan to wear this coat until I’m 90 years old, both because the style is timeless and because the quality is very impressive in the materials and the down filling.

There’s those two critiques above, but for everything else like fit and features, I think the McMurdo Parka is probably a strong bet for you, especially if you’re looking at other brands or a ratio of positive ratings to non-positive ones.

If you’re looking for a North Face winter parka to recommend for your partner or any other woman in your life, check out Becca’s North Face Arctic Parka review. We concluded that the Arctic Parka for women is the women’s version of the men’s McMurdo.

Where to buy the McMurdo Parka

You can get the McMurdo Parka in quite a few places, and all are easy:

Thank you to The North Face for generously gifting me this parka; this review is not sponsored and all photos, opinions and thoughts are completely my own.