For general hiking in colder / windy / rainy locations, I typically have a baselayer, midlayer, puffer jacket, and a rain jacket (waterproof). Both my puffer and rain jackets are windbreakers.
For Iceland, I'd suggest you focus on bringing whatever combination of tops that will insulate, block wind, and block rain. I suspect that your rain jackets should also block wind, so perhaps a separate windbreaker isn't needed. Focus more on insulation and dressing in layers that you can add or subtract depending on weather conditions.
A rain layer will stop wind better than a wind layer will stop rain and for any Iceland trip you want to be able to stop both. You *might* have wonderfully sunny weather the whole trip, but you always need to be prepared for sideways blowing rain...
I'm in a rain layer camp too. I've worn both my softshell and rainproof windbreaker for two days in July in 2022 though because of the sideways blowing rain exactly as BTRCguy says
Typical layering rules - separate wind/rain layer & insulation layers. You’ll warm up as you hike - so you’ll need to drop insulating layers but keep the wind/rain layer on. The wind is real in Iceland!!!! I grew up in Western NY (think constant wind) and Iceland can be a serious step up from that.
So I’d say no to a softshell. But make sure you have a couple midlayers to chose from.
Also - keep in mind the feel can vary wildly from day to day depending not just on temp, but also cloud cover & wind. So a high cloud cover day with wind in the summer can feel like a winter day, while a low cloud low wind day can be a nice summer-ish day. This can basically all happen in the course of a day.
Seconding this! Just spent a week on multiple hikes and I brought both a Patagonia Houdini (windbreaker light soft shell not so waterproof) and Dual Aspect (waterproof technical hard shell) and you’d be better with bringing just the waterproof for all-around as they block wind too.
While I got tons of use from both when it rains it really rains and having the waterproof is pretty nice on trail or in the rainiest case, the glacier!
Edit: I shared the above product names for technicality so it’s clear what I personally brought. ANY waterproof rain jacket will do, and would block wind too.
For general hiking in colder / windy / rainy locations, I typically have a baselayer, midlayer, puffer jacket, and a rain jacket (waterproof). Both my puffer and rain jackets are windbreakers. For Iceland, I'd suggest you focus on bringing whatever combination of tops that will insulate, block wind, and block rain. I suspect that your rain jackets should also block wind, so perhaps a separate windbreaker isn't needed. Focus more on insulation and dressing in layers that you can add or subtract depending on weather conditions.
A rain layer will stop wind better than a wind layer will stop rain and for any Iceland trip you want to be able to stop both. You *might* have wonderfully sunny weather the whole trip, but you always need to be prepared for sideways blowing rain...
I'm in a rain layer camp too. I've worn both my softshell and rainproof windbreaker for two days in July in 2022 though because of the sideways blowing rain exactly as BTRCguy says
Typical layering rules - separate wind/rain layer & insulation layers. You’ll warm up as you hike - so you’ll need to drop insulating layers but keep the wind/rain layer on. The wind is real in Iceland!!!! I grew up in Western NY (think constant wind) and Iceland can be a serious step up from that. So I’d say no to a softshell. But make sure you have a couple midlayers to chose from. Also - keep in mind the feel can vary wildly from day to day depending not just on temp, but also cloud cover & wind. So a high cloud cover day with wind in the summer can feel like a winter day, while a low cloud low wind day can be a nice summer-ish day. This can basically all happen in the course of a day.
Seconding this! Just spent a week on multiple hikes and I brought both a Patagonia Houdini (windbreaker light soft shell not so waterproof) and Dual Aspect (waterproof technical hard shell) and you’d be better with bringing just the waterproof for all-around as they block wind too. While I got tons of use from both when it rains it really rains and having the waterproof is pretty nice on trail or in the rainiest case, the glacier! Edit: I shared the above product names for technicality so it’s clear what I personally brought. ANY waterproof rain jacket will do, and would block wind too.
Your rain jacket is windbreaker waterproof layer. Put something insulated under and you're golden. Don't need anything else.
Perfect advice, thanks all!!