Even though a good pair of blue jeans is certainly sturdy and can withstand a lot of punishments from a rough hike, there are plenty of good reasons why professional hikers turn to hiking pants, instead. Common jeans— while stylish and affordable— are heavy, hot, and can even be dangerous to wear once it’s wet since they are very slow to dry. Hypothermia can kick in quick if you wear a soaking wet pair of pants at high elevation or in cold temperature.
For all of these reasons, in this
best hiking pants review, we’re going to go through some of the
best outdoor hiking pants on the market and our buying guide will show you exactly how to choose the best model for you.
Styles of Hiking Pants
There are two styles of hiking pants: Standard pants and convertible pants.
[center]
[/center]
Standard Hiking Pants
All of us are familiar with standard hiking pants. These aren’t very different from your normal pants aside from their special construction and materials to give them better strength against rough trail conditions, better ventilation, waterproofing capability, and better comfort for long hikes.
Standard pants will usually have zippers at the bottom of the legs to make it easier for you to remove the pants without having to remove your hiking boots.
For most models, unless you tell beholders that you’re sporting a pair of hiking pants, chances are great that they would’ve thought before that it’s just a normal pair of dress or cargo pants. You can wear your hiking pants in day-to-day life without much of a problem when you’re off of the trails.
Convertible Hiking Pants
Convertible pants have zippers ⅔ the way down the pants. By working with these zippers, you can shear off a good portion of a convertible and transform it from a pair of standard hiking pants to hiking short in mere seconds.
If you often have to hike in hot weather or in the desert where cool air around your legs is much appreciated, a convertible pant is going to be a sensible investment. When the temperature is high in the day, you can zip it off to become a pair of shorts. In the evening when the temperature drops, the legs can be re-attached to become longer and warmer.
Flexibility aside, a convertible is going to free up a lot of space in your backpack since you won’t have to pack a dedicated pair of shorts for day-time hiking.
There are two drawbacks to a pair of convertible, though. Because of the extra zipper systems, they are often heavier and bulkier than your standard pants. Additionally, since hiking pants are expected to have to go through a lot of abuse while on the trails, the zipping systems in low-quality pairs could break and make the rest of your journey rather miserable. This is the reason why finding good pants for hiking is so important.
But don’t worry too much, our review section has a pair of convertible top rated hiking pants that will be able to keep up with you even in the toughest of trails.
✜✜✜ Related Article: https://thekinglive.com/how-to-pick-the-best-hiking-pants-an-a-z-guide.html
Best Hiking Pants Reviews
Best Standard Hiking Pants: Outdoor Research Ferrosi
The Outdoor Research Ferrosi provides comfort unlike any other pairs of hiking pants we had tested. The fabric is thin and breathable enough that even during day-hikes lasting for hours, our testers reported that their legs remained relatively cool and comfy. The fabric’s thinness also contributes to its lightweight, which is highly appreciated by customers due to hiking pants’ infamous bulk.
The Outdoor Research Ferrosi is weaved from ripstop fabric, so there’s no doubt that it can hold its own on the trails against pointy shrubberies and brambles or trail debris and rocks. The pants also incorporate 14% Spandex into its weaving to improve flexibility and mobility. This gives it a very stretchy quality that mountaineers would love since it allows the wearer to exert a full range of motion without tightening up and causing discomfort.
For all of these reasons, it is easily one of the
most comfortable hiking pants we have tested.
However, due to its high breathability and performance in hot weather conditions, the Outdoor Research Ferrosi fared poorly in cold weather. The thin fabric just doesn’t provide enough coverage and retain enough warmth for the legs to be completely comfortable in cold weather.
The waist fitting has also been noticed by customers to loosen and slip over a period of use. The pants were intentionally designed to hang lower down the hips of the wearer, but repeated use can wear the fitting down to the point it could easily slip off if you don’t wear a belt.
In spite of these problems, the Outdoor Research Ferrosi must still be one of the
best men’s hiking pants yet and worth considering if you’re out for a hot-weather, all-purpose pair of hiking pants.
Best Convertible Hiking Pants: prAna Stretch Zion
The prAna Stretch Zion is a pair of highly-rated
best backpacking pants that are favored by hikers for its lightweight and durability.
This convertible is weaved from 97% nylon and 3% Spandex. The thin nylon helps it cuts down on weight while also giving it great breathability. The Spandex addition makes the convertible stretchy and flexible so that even while you’re scaling mountains the pants won’t tighten and limit your range of movements. In our tests, the Spandex addition gives the convertible such flexibility that it is possible to do splits and yoga with it.
Comfortable and flexible, the material is also highly durable and can bear a lot of abuse on the trails. Although the nylon already does a fine job of ventilating, there are breathing holes punched into the crotch area to improve breathability further.
prAna Stretch Zion is water-resistant and the fabric is coated with a layer of Durable Water Repellent (DWR) coating. The coating prevents water from soaking into the fabric and works really well in normal rain. But even when it becomes soaking wet like after being submerged, it dries out quickly.
[center]
[/center]
There are zippers at the knee-level and the bottom half can be zipped off to transform the pants into full-length shorts. The pockets are positioned perfectly on the pants so that you won’t lose them when you zip off the legs. There are plenty of multi-access zipper pockets all over the pants, too. It’s surprising just how much storage space the pants actually have.
There are a few complaints from the customer-side, the most popular of which is that the legs are relatively baggy for some people. The zippers are also fairly short and while it doesn’t disrupt any functionalities, it sure is annoying. Some people further found that the inner flap of the converting zippers can rub onto the skin and cause chafing.
Other than that, the prAna Stretch Zion must definitely be one of the
best pants for hiking you can get at the moment.
Conclusion
With all of that said, we hope that you find this
backpacking pants review to be useful and has been a fine information source for you to base your purchase decision on. If you are still looking for new products to put onto your shopping list, we have plenty of other review articles for you to go through.
Happy shopping!
