Reviewer Information

• Name: Cora Hussey
• Age: 23
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
• Weight: 155 lbs (70 kg)
• Email address: cahhmc "at" yahoo "dot" com
• City, State, Country: Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Date: January 8, 2003

Basic Product Information

• Year of Manufacture: 2003
• URL: http://www.integraldesigns.com/
• Listed weight: 19 oz (535 g)
• Weight as delivered:
  • Silcoat Stuff Sack alone: 0.6 oz (17 g)
  • Pants alone: 17.1 oz (485 g)
  • Everything together (pants, stuffed): 17.7 oz (502 g)
• Size: Medium
  

Field Testing

Trip Details:

• Trip One (Camping):
  
  • Date: November 26-30, 2003
  • Location: Death Valley National Park, CA
  • Weather: 35 F to 75 F (2 to 24 C)
  • Elevation: 0 - 1000 ft (0 - 300 m)
  Description: I brought these pants anyway when I went to Death Valley instead of the Sierras, and I was glad I did. We camped close to our van, but the weather dropped to just above freezing one night and so the pants were a welcome addition. I wore them over a single pair of nylon hiking pants.

  Comments: As my first time using the pants, I was very impressed. They fit well over my single layer hiking pants, never bound up or prevented me from moving, and kept me warm. They also fit nicely in my backpack. What more can I ask for?

• Trip Two (Snow Dayhike):
  
  • Date: December 6, 2003
  • Location: San Gorgonio National Forest, CA
  • Weather: 40 to 65 F (4 to 18 C) cloudy
  • Elevation: 7000 to 8000 ft (2100 to 2400 m)
  Description: I took these pants as an afterthought as I do not often take warm pants on a dayhike. However, as before, I was glad they came along. I only wore them while standing around during breaks, but it was still cold and snowy enough to enjoy them. I wore them as the outermost layer over long underwear, shorts, and gaiters.

  Comments: On this trip, I really appreciated their compressibility. I carry a pack just large enough to take a small sit-pad, and so I have to work to get everything I want into the pack. Yet the Denali pants squashed right in. As for comfort, I have a special place in my heart for that feeling I get when crawling into my sleeping bag, and the Denali pants felt the same way whenever we took a break. The fabric withstood the snow well, although the ankle cuffs would pop up over the tops of my boots. In addition, I found them much to warm to hike in for any amount of time during this trip. Since there are no ankle closures in addition to the zipper, there is really no way to vent the lower legs during exertion without the leg fabric flapping all over.

• Trip Three (Times Square New Year):
  
  • Date: December 31, 2003 - January 1, 2004
  • Location: New York
  • Weather: 35 - 40 F (2 - 4 C) and windy
  • Elevation: Sea level
  Description: Due to security concerns, New York closes off its Times Square area during the New Year celebration. This means that in order to get a spot, we arrived and waited (standing and sitting on the exposed edge of the crowd) for 10.5 hours in the cold and wind. I wore the Denali pants for the last 6 hours of those 10.5 hours, and I wore them over jeans.

  Comments: This was perhaps the most brutal test for these pants so far. Not only were they keeping me warm and protecting me from wind, but they withstood splatters including ketchup and soy sauce from nearby revelers, kneeling or sitting for hours on New York asphalt, and general rough wear and tear. This test more than anything showed me how warm these pants were. While everyone else in our group were shivering or close to it, I wore no gloves or warm hat and yet I was still warm. Usually in the outdoors, I am able to run around or shovel snow to get warm, but that was not possible in New York, and yet it did not matter with the pants on -- they kept me warm anyway.

Comments by Attribute

Fit

The fit looks a little funny (all insulated pants do) but the fit also performs very well. The pants did not restrict any of my movement so far, layered over a few different layering configurations well, and nothing rode up or got crammed anywhere while moving. On the dayhike, the snow pushed the ankle cuffs up and over the boot tops, but at Times Square the cuffs stayed put despite repeated changes between kneeling, sitting, and standing. The waistband stays high and keeps heat in effectively.

Fabric

I am almost glad that I was pushed and shoved against countless things in New York because of the crowd. Otherwise, I might have been too afraid to abuse the lightweight and thin-feeling fabric for fear of tearing it. But now I know that it is tough stuff. I never felt any wind through the fabric on any of the trips, and, as mentioned above, the fabric also withstood snow pretty well. The inner lining does a good job of sliding around and adding to the overall mobility of the pants. And the Primaloft really surprised me with how compressible it is (I shoved the pants into the large inner stuff pocket of my jacket at one point in Death Valley). Overall, I feel the fabric and design choices work well.

Zippers

The zippers are wonderful for getting on and off. The anti-snag tape on the inner wind flaps does its job and the zippers have been very smooth so far. The hook and loop flaps at the top are necessary to keep the zippers from sliding down of their own accord (which I discovered when bending over without them fastened). The venting options, as mentioned above, are limited. If I zip up from the ankle, the ankles do not stay fastened and the leg fabric flops around. If I zip down from the waist, the pants slide sideways and the hook and loop eventually comes undone. This is not a big deal to me since they are so easy to put on quickly if I get cold.

Summary

+ General Comments:
These pants rock. I am taking them to the High Sierra next week to ski (ahem, waddle) through a snowpack twice my height, and I am actually excited to be taking these pants. I feel I have very little to say in this report since I have used them in a variety of environments so far, and they have done exactly what they should do -- keep me warm.

+ Upsides for me so far:

• Low weight with lots of warmth
• Compressible
• Easy to put on, layer, and move in

+ Downsides for me so far:

• No way to fully seal ankle cuffs
• Venting options are limited

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Reviews > Clothing > Pants and Shorts > Integral Designs Denali Pants > Cora Hussey > Field Report