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: November 18, 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: M
  Advertised dimensions:
  • Inseam: 30" (76 cm)
  • Waist: 32-34" (81-86 cm)
  • Hip: 39-41" (99-104 cm)
  • Outseam: 40" (102 cm)
  My dimensions:
  • Inseam: 32" (81 cm)
  • Waist: 31" (78 cm)
  • Hip: 39" (99 cm)
  • Outseam: 39" (99 cm)

Preliminary Information

• Date of arrival: November 13, 2003
• Contents of package (contents were complete):
  • One pair of Denali Pants
  • One Silcoat Stuff Sack
  • A catalog for the rest of the Integral Designs line
• Condition upon arrival: Excellent
• The pants were easy and intuitive to use out of the box.
• The pants were also very much what I expected from viewing the web site.

Product Description

+ General:

The Denali Pants are Primaloft-insulated pants with ripstop Pertex on the outside, and nylon taffeta on the inside. Both the waist and the two ankles have flat elastic in them, and the waist has a non-elastic draw cord and cordlock. The side zippers are tooth-style zippers, and they separate at the waist. The waist also has one hook and loop flap on each side to cover each zipper and keep it from separating. Full wind flaps run along the inside of each zipper, and are protected from snagging by grossgrain ribbon sewn all along each flap. Here is a view of the top of the zipper at the waist, including the hook and loop flap, the inner wind flap, the grossgrain on the wind flap, the elastic waistband, and the zipper itself:

The stuff sack seems to be as well made as the pants are. The sack has a grossgrain ribbon handle on the base, and a grommet / heavy nylon reinforcement where the draw cord exits the top. Here is a picture of the pants stuffed into the stuff sack, with my hand for scale:

+ Fit and Dimensions:

On me, the fit is loose but not baggy. They fit best over the few shells (my bibs and ski pants) I tried them on over, and less well over a single pair of long underwear. Over my full farmer-john suit of underwear, the Denali pants slipped off unless I pulled the waist draw cord very tight. One note about the fit is that the cuffs just barely come down to my boot tops, but stay there even when I crouch. Another note is that the waist of the pants (distance from crotch to waistband) seems especially long in these pants, causing them to come up to my belly button when pulled all the way up. I appreciate this feature, because my low-riding pants form a bad seal with my jackets, and these pants ride high.

The size of the provided stuff sack is a tubular 5" diameter x 14" length (12 cm x 35 cm). Note also (above) that my body dimensions would place me in-between a small and a medium, and that a medium fits me well for my purposes.

+ Details and Other Notes:

The provided stuff sack is more than large enough for the pants. I like that it is a bit too big -- some of my other clothing is difficult to stuff into too-small sacks when my fingers are cold. Even when stuffed in the stuff sack, I can easily hand-compress the pants to two-thirds the sack size.

One Integral Designs logo is sewn to the front upper hip of the pants, and a second logo is on the middle of the stuff sack. There are no hook and loop flaps across the bottom of the zippers, only the waist. The fly zips from top to bottom, and is a coil type zipper.

Field Testing Plan

Trip Details:

I plan to test the Denali Pants on 5-8 trips over the next six months. Two or three of these will be skiing or snowshoeing trips, and the remainder will be late fall and early spring trips. The locations would include the Sierras (Yosemite, Sequoia, and King's Canyon National Parks, along with Inyo National Forest), and the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests. Weather will probably include wind, rain, snow, and temperatures ranging from 70 F (20 C) to far below freezing. The trips would include abrasive, wet, and sunlit conditions. Snow conditions range from early and mid season powder and ice to late season slush and corn. Elevations would average between 8,000'-11,000' (2,400-3,000 m) with a standard deviation of 3,000' (900 m), and the trips would be mostly in mountainous terrain.

Test Plan Details:

I plan to test the following aspects of the Denali Pants:

• Wearability over different boots, pants, and underclothes
• Venting options in different weather and activity
• Ability to move, work, and live in the pants while hiking and skiing
• Weatherproofness of fabric and fit (including warmth retention and waist/cuff seals)
• Ability of the pants to stand up to general winter (ab)use

Initial Tests and Personal Observations

As mentioned earlier, I tried these pants on in a variety of configurations, and they fit well on all the combinations of shells I tried, and were slippery though manageable over my long underwear. I also tried them on over my leather hikers (a bit loose around the cuffs) and my plastic boots (snug and well-fitting). I will try my ski boots in January. I also tried the pants out in some more active stances (telemark stance, crouching) and the pants neither rode up nor pinched. The fit seems very good from twenty minutes of dancing around the apartment. Finally, I tried my climbing harness on over the pants, and I was even happier when I discovered that the high waist of the pants extended a good inch (2.5 cm) above the top of the harness waistbelt, where I hope it will continue to live up to my expectations and not creep under the harness like most of my shells do.

Overall, on a pre-testing basis, I am very impressed with these pants. I thought I would have at least one nitpick (the only one that I would have is that the fly zipper slider ends up being unreachable under a harness, but I am a woman so I do not really care) but overall they seem well made and thought out. Time and testing will tell more.

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