Reviewer Information

• Name: Cora Hussey
• Age: 23
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
• Weight: 150 lb (70 kg)
• Email address: cahhmc "at" yahoo "dot" com
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
• Date: April 8, 2004

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
  

Long Term Testing

My continued testing occurred in the Sierras of California. Conditions ranged from dry, sunny springlike conditions to wet stormy conditions. Temperatures ranged from 75 F (24 C) to -5 F (-20 C), elevations ranged from 8,000 to 11,000 ft (2500 to 3400 m), and the terrain was mostly snow covered and mountainous. I only tested the Denali pants over the long term on ski touring and mountaineering trips.

I continue to be amazed by these pants. One night, I woke up shivering in my 0 F (-17 C) rated bag under a tarp when it was -3 F (-19 C) outside, and I managed (without so much as unzipping my sleeping bag or turning on a headlamp) to take the pants (which I was using as a pillow) out of their stuff sack, insert them into the sleeping bag, partially unzip the sides, put them on my legs, zip them up, (all while in the sleeping bag!) and continue the rest of the night sleeping warm and undisturbed. Now that is a sign of easy-to-use pants.

On another trip, the Sierras were releasing an attempt at dry champagne powder which later turned wet, clumpy, and dense. I was wearing my down jacket, but the down was slowly getting damp and the outer fabric was wetting out. I took it off and stuffed it in the tent in my sleeping bag to prevent further wetness, but then I was cold. The Denali pants came to the rescue! I put them on over my bibs, and with nothing more than a fleece, long underwear, windbreaker on my torso, and waterproof bibs on my legs under the Denali pants, I was warm in 15 F (-10 C) weather just sitting around making dinner in a storm. What is more, they stayed dry. The fabric never wet out, and I just brushed all the wet maritime Sierra snow off of the outside before getting into the tent.

Finally, on a third trip I took my tent instead of my tarp, and we had another heavy wet storm which caused rampant condensation inside of the tent despite our best ventilation efforts. Plus, it was cold enough to cause the condensation in the upper part of the tent to freeze, and then drip. Luckily, we were sleeping with our heads on the other side of the tent away from the super-drippy door, but the feet of our sleeping bags saw pretty awful conditions -- dripping wet ice. After a while, my feet started to get cold from this, and so I wrapped the Denali pants around the outside of the foot of my sleeping bag. Not only were my feet warm for the rest of the night, but when I packed up the next morning (expecting to stuff up a pair of Denali pants-turned-chunks-of-ice) the Denali pants seemed to have passed the night in some other tent -- the Primaloft was dry and the frozen outer just scraped off as if it was some windblown rime.

I present these examples for a very good reason. During the Field Testing phase, I discovered that these pants are warm, durable, and practical. During the Long Term Testing phase, however, I discovered that these pants are awesome enough to deserve a permanent spot in my skiing and mountaineering pack. I took them into uses beyond what I would expect for any piece of gear -- from being an insulating cover for my feet to sitting on mounds of clumpy snow during dinner -- and they took everything in stride. They are also amazingly squishable and compressible, and I even was pleasantly surprised to find they fit in a snug and snow-proof manner over my bulky telemark ski boot cuffs (a great relief after having the cuffs flop around a bit on smaller boots). The pants never slid around on any clothing, and fit well over all of my various snow pants and underwear. Additionally, I found it easy to vent the zippers down from the waist while keeping the hook and loop flaps closed. When the insides became damp from my nighttime perspiration, they dried easily in under an hour when hung up in sunshine.

Long Term Use Comments

Durability

I was actually surprised by the durability of these pants. As I mentioned in my Field Report, the fabric feels thin and so I assumed I needed to take special care not to abuse it. Granted, I have not encountered many abrasive situations, but I have shoved my feet with boots on them through the legs many times, sat and slid around on snow snow and small tree branches, and squatted on my boot heels and ski binding cables for hours. From all this, the butt and inner fabric looks like the day it arrived new on my doorstep. Additionally, after five snow-logged trips of everything from wet slop to dripping ice, the water resistance of the pants seems to be as good as new. The fabric never wet out at all over the course of the test. The only thing that looks different is that the fabric wrinkled a little bit from being stuffed and unstuffed and taken on trips nearly every five days for three months, but they finally have a nice loved look, which is certainly different than any sort of worn look. I was so impressed with the fabric of the pants that I decided to take a picture to point out its continued water resistance after nearly 20 backcountry skiing days. Here is a picture of water beading up on the lower leg of the pants, and it also gives a better idea of what I mean by the fabric wrinkling:

Care and Maintenance

The pants have needed literally no care or maintenance. They started to smell after the fifth snow trip (although I believe that was more due to me than the pants themselves) and washing was no problem -- I just washed them in the tub and air dried them. The abuse from Times Square mentioned in my Field Report long disappeared, ketchup spots and all. I have even gotten into the habit of assuming they can take whatever I dish out, and doing things to them such as stuffing them when they are wet and ice covered (to stew in my pack in the afternoon) and using them as a butt pad while cooking -- for both uses most of my other gear would have to be babied and cared for at night or when I returned home, but the pants seem to be need no care even for those uses.

Summary

These pants rock. I have used gear that keeps me warm, dry, and comfortable, but these pants are in a class by themselves, even compared to other similar lightly insulated pants I have used. They are easy to pack and not bulky, dependable in all the weather I've seen in the Sierras, super warm, pretty lightweight, and useful as more than just pants. They have earned a spot on all of my winter and spring trips, no question.

+ Upsides for me:

• Low weight with lots of warmth
• Compressible
• Easy to put on and move in
• Impressively weatherproof

+ Downsides for me:

• Ankle cuffs have limited stretch and sealing ability
• I look pretty funny in them (in that warm sort of way)

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