Heated jacket keeps you toasty while skiing, snowboarding

Those who love outdoor winter sports might not love the cold.

OK, so a Canadian like yours truly might get strange looks from such a comment, but just because one enjoys snowboarding or skiing doesn't mean they're thrilled about freezing their buns off while shredding down the mountain.

And so this is why I was eager to try out Columbia Sportswear's Circuit Breaker Softshell jacket ($850) that claims to keep you warm on a few levels — including a built-in electric heater, which we'll get to in a moment.

Columbia Sportswear employs "Omni-Heat" technology, which includes a silver-dotted thermal lining on the inside of the jacket to reflect your body heat. This soft, synthetic insulation feels like down and pumps out 30 percent greater heat retention per gram than the leading competitor, says Columbia Sportswear.

But there's a more interesting part to Omni-Heat — a built-in heater that warms the jacket up when you need it. Press and hold a small button on the outside of the jacket, near the right lapel, and the logo will glow red, to indicate it's on the highest heat setting. Press it again and it'll turn to yellow for medium heat or one more time to green for low heat.

Powering the heater are two rechargeable batteries that snap into the inner right and left zippered pockets. You get an AC charger to plug them in when not in use. They're not the easiest to get in and out of the jacket due to a snug space but once they're in and you're zipped up, you're good to go.

Bonus: Each battery also has a micro USB and full-size USB slot in case you want to charge up your gadgets while out of the house. This will prematurely drain the battery, of course, but you should get a good 3 to 4 hours on high heat without juicing up a dying smartphone.

Available in blue or grey, the sleek-looking jacket also has a detachable hood, removable snap-back powder skirt and multiple waterproof, zippered pockets.

While this Circuit Breaker Softshell jacket wasn't as hot as a jacket reviewed two years ago by Mountain Hardwear (now discontinued), this Columbia Sportswear model is much better looking, made from high-quality materials and does in fact keep you toasty warm while braving the Great Outdoors in the winter months.