Helly Hansen Cascade Shield cap review: A comfortable, lightweight running and hiking cap with decent water-resistance

First impressions

A good cap can be a godsend in the wilderness. Whether you're racing through the trails or navigating the wild while you hike, you never know when the sun will make an appearance, and you'll need some portable shade.

Running and hiking caps come in all shapes and sizes, but my favorite models are lightweight and easily portable, so you can chuck them in a backpack without adding unnecessary bulk to your load.

The Helly Hansen Cascade Shield cap ticks both boxes, weighing just 1.8oz (50g) and featuring a minimalist combination of polyester and elastane materials. So you can fold up your cap and stuff it in your backpack or pocket without a second thought.

The breezy exterior offers a decent amount of protection from the elements. Along with its sizable brim, it's coated in Durable Water Repellency (DWR) treatment, designed to shield you from wet weather on the trails.

Inside, there's a moisture-wicking inner headband in place to deal with sweat from your head to avoid saturation and extra weight.

The Cascade Shield cap is available in one size, which can be adjusted using a back buckle.

Helly Hansen Cascade Cap: on the trails

I got my hands on the Cascade Shield Cap in June, when I accompanied the AQA community hiking charity on a Ben Nevis trek supported by Helly Hansen.

In the time since, I've taken it on plenty of hikes and runs, putting this lightweight cap to the test in the varied weather of an English summer, which included a scorching heatwave and several rainy days on the trails.

Here's how it performed:

Fit and comfort

The Cascade Shield cap is a comfortable choice for protecting yourself from the sun.

Its polyester and elastane materials are lightweight and stretchy enough to fit snugly without feeling too heavy, and the thicker moisture-wicking inner headband added a nice bit of additional support. The handy back buckle provides a simple and effective way to tighten the headband, which wrapped nicely around my skull and never felt like it would fly off when I ran into strong winds.

My cap remained snug throughout testing, and the back buckle didn't loosen after plenty of runs and lengthy hikes.

The polyester material inside the cap is soft to the touch and never felt uncomfortable on my head, but did get a little sweaty on particularly hot days.

Due to its lightweight build and a few handy ventilation holes, overheating was never too much of an issue, but the top of the cap certainly doesn't have the same effective sweat-wicking as the inner band, which kept sweat from dripping into my eyes.

Protection from the elements

You never know when the heavens are going to open, and the cap's water-resistant DWR coating did a good job of keeping my hair dry in light rainfall, and put up a decent fight when it got a little heavier.

This cap isn't waterproof, so it won't do much downpour, but it offers some useful extra protection if you're caught in an unexpected shower without a raincoat or waterproof cap.

Like all DWR products, its water-resistant coating will fade over time and needs to be reapplied if you want to keep benefiting from its protection in the rain.

Weight and portability

At 1.8oz (50g), the Cascade Shield cap isn't as airy as some models like the Sealskinz Runham cap, but can still be considered lightweight and feels almost unnoticeable on the trails. It also has a bit more protection than the Runham cap, which is slightly thinner and doesn't have a DWR coating.

For this reason, the Cascade Shield is a great option for trail runners and hikers who want to shave every gram, but still need a little protection from the elements.

Its polyester brim is a touch thicker and heavier than the rest of the cap, but still felt light and provided ample shade as I navigated some sweltering days on the trails.

The Cascade Shield cap is great for adventurers on the go. You can fold, roll, or even scrunch it up and throw it in a backpack without adding any noticeable weight. When I didn't fancy wearing it, I'd often keep my cap in my pocket, where it took up little space and again felt unnoticeable.

I found this really useful as I sometimes trek without a backpack, and don't want to hold my cap when I'm not wearing it.

Price

One of the few things holding the Cascade Shield cap back is its price tag.

While $55 (£32) isn't extortionate, it certainly puts the Cascade Shield cap on the higher end of the price range, and might put you off given the other, cheaper options on the market.

For example, you can get your hands on the Salomon XA, another high-quality cap with many of the same features as the Cascade Shield, for as little as $25 (£22).

It's a shame that this cap isn't similarly priced. Helly Hansen gear is often expensive, but the Cascade cap wouldstand out from the crowd more if it cost just a few dollars less.

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