High Peaks Pinnacle II Fleece Pants

Owner Review
May 18, 2006

Tester Information

Name: Raymond Estrella
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 3" (193 cm)
Weight: 210 lb (95 kg)
Email address: rayestrella@hotmail.com
City: Huntington Beach
State: California
Country: USA 

Backpacking Background: I have been hiking for over 30 years, all over the state of California. I have also hiked in Washington, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho. I hike year-round, mostly in the Sierra Nevada, and put 555 miles (894 km) on my boots last year.  As I start my 4th decade of backpacking I am making the move to lightweight gear, and smaller packs.

The product

Manufacturer: Campmor
Web site: www.campmor.com
Product: High Peaks Pinnacle II Fleece Pants
Size: Medium
Year manufactured: 2004
MSRP: $80.00 (US)
Weight listed: 1 lb 8 oz (.68 kg) Actual weight 1 lb 9.9 oz (.73 kg)
Color reviewed: Black
Warranty: (Quoted from web site) “All merchandise in resellable condition may be returned for a refund within one year of purchase when accompanied by your receipt. If used and found defective, we will exchange or repair within one year of the purchase date when accompanied by your receipt.”

Product description

The High Peaks Pinnacle II Fleece Pants, (hereafter called the Pinnacle or the pants) are heavy-weight fleece pants. It is made of “450 gm double-sided, non-pill 100% polyester Grizzly fleece” and “abrasion-resistant nylon”.

The entire pants are made of the fleece. The nylon is used to reinforce the pants at points of wear. It occurs at the seat and back of the thigh, and over the articulated knees.

The pants have a zippered fly, but no front snap or button. They do not open at the front. To get them on I open one of the side zippers a little bit. There is a nylon web strap that threads through a flat buckle on the waistband above the fly to tighten the pants. At the back of the waistband is an area with elastic in it. It makes up about 30% of the diameter of the waistband. Inside of the waistband is a hang loop and a consumer tag listing size, materials, “made in Vietnam” and laundering instructions. (Wash cold, gentle. Tumble dry, no heat. Do not dry clean.)

A double-ended YKK zipper runs up the entire length of each side of the legs. A 1.25 in (31 mm) piece of nylon backed fleece runs under the zipper acting as both a draft stop, and a snag guard. (Snort! More on this later.) At the bottom of the leg is a flap with a hook and loop closure that goes over the zipper. At the top is a double-flap hook and loop attachment. When both closures are opened the zipper can completely separate, allowing the pants to be put on or taken off without even lifting a foot off the ground.

The bottom of the leg has a lot of extra loop material on it allowing the flap to be pulled tight against the ankle to close it off to wind and snow.

The only pockets on the Pinnacles are the two fleece-lined hand warmer pockets on the front. There are no closures on these pockets. I have noticed that things will fall out of them easily.

Field Conditions

These pants have been on almost every winter trip I have gone on in the past two and a half years. They have been on at least eleven trips that I can remember. I have worn them at elevations ranging from 7,000’ to 13,300’ (2,134 to 4,054 m). The temperatures seen on these trips were in the teens to twenties F (-9 to -4 C) as a norm, but were near 0 F (-18 C) on occasions. I have worn them in beautiful weather, and full on blizzard conditions. I do most of my winter hiking in the Sierra Nevada and White mountains, along with local stuff in the Mount San Jacinto and San Gorgonio areas. But I also wore them on Mount Shasta last year, where it was 13 F (-11 C) and storming.

Observations

I bought these because I wanted heavier fleece pants than the ones that I owned at the time, as I started mountaineering and was doing more winter specific backpacking, and I wanted something that would keep me warm while hiking hard. I also wanted full zippers on the side, something my other fleece pants were lacking. I have a high metabolism and put off a lot of heat. And I sweat pretty darn well too. (Oooh, gross.) So I bought the High Peaks Pinnacle II Fleece Pants and matching Jacket, (see review) to fill this need. As a rule I wear an Arc'teryx mid-weight base layer under them.

At 450 g (15.9 oz) per yard this is some thick fleece. It has no wind blocking film in it though, so a strong wind will punch through it. Which is fine with me. When the wind blows too hard or is just too frigid, I put a shell on over the pants. That of course makes me instantly too warm.

That is where the side zippers come in. The full length zippers allow me to put them on, or take them off, over my plastic-double mountaineering boots. And they match up quite well with the Sierra Designs MX-31 mountaineering shell-pants I use. They vent superbly. Unfortunately the zippers snag very easily. I can only get them down a little bit at a time before the zipper snags and comes to a stop. It makes unzipping them a two-handed proposition, meaning I have to stop to do it. It is my only complaint about these pants.

I like the major reinforcing on the knees and seat. It adds weight but is well worth it to me, when dropping to my knees, or sitting on a tree or rock not to be trashing my fleece.

 

And I have always read the statements about how fleece insulates when wet. I always said to myself, “right, who’s going to get their fleece wet in winter conditions”? And then I got my own example on Shasta in 2005. (Note: the piece that got soaked is the jacket, the pants were on, but protected by a shell. This story is shared in the other review as well.)

We went to climb Mount Shasta with a very tight time frame. We could only free up four days from the office and my brother-in-law Dave and I live down in Huntington Beach, the other end of the state from Shasta. So we drove up in one day and hiked up to Lake Helen the next. We had one shot at the summit. They were calling for bad weather so we got up at 2:00 A.M. to try to beat it. We made to within 900 vertical feet (274 m) of the summit when the storm hit the peak and was rushing down at us. We stayed ahead of (below) it back down to our camp, where it caught us as we were breaking down. We hoofed it down as fast as we could. Even though it was 13 F (-11 C) when we left Helen, I was burning up. It was too cold to just wear the shell, so I took it off and just wore the Pinnacle Jacket with the pit-zips open.

While we were in the storm (total white-out) the wind was swirling around and blasting us with tiny little snow balls, I couldn’t call them flakes. Somewhere around 8,500’ (2,590 m) we got below the clouds. Suddenly there was no wind to speak of, and huge snowflakes falling on us. I did not bother to put my shell back on, just kept on truckin’ for the trailhead. My body heat was melting the snow on the Pinnacle jacket. It was soaked through. We stopped to talk to a guy that wanted to know how it went on the mountain and water was running out of it.  (And out of my goggles too.) Dave asked how I wasn’t freezing, and I honestly told him I was fine. It was still in the 20s F (-2 to -6 C) at this point. I took it off at the truck and had to put it in the bed, it was so wet. But it insulated just fine.

At night I use the pants (and jacket) to help keep my water from freezing. I wrap my water in the fleece and put the whole works inside of my pack. It seems to help.

Except for the sticky side zipper I have been pretty happy with these pants. I will most likely keep my eyes open for a possible replacement with less aggravating side zippers.