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Reviews > Rain Gear > Jackets and Pants > GoLite Whim Pants > Roger Caffin > Field Report
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Reviewer Details
| Reviewer: | Roger Caffin |
| Age: | 60 |
| Gender: | M |
| Weight: | 63 kg (139 lb) |
| Height: | 167 cm (67") |
| Email address: | r dot [surname] at acm dot org |
| Home: | Sydney, Australia |
I started bushwalking at 14 and took up rock climbing at University with the girl who became my wife and my permanent walking partner. Ski touring and canyoning followed. Winter and summer, we prefer long hard trips by ourselves: about a week in Australia, up to two months in Europe/UK. We prefer fast and light in unfrequented trackless country. We would be out walking and skiing for at least three months a year. We have now moved to lightweight gear, much to our backs' relief. I designed and made much of our lightweight gear myself.
I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/.
Product Information
| Manufacturer: | GoLite | |
| Manufacturer URL: | www.golite.com | |
| Year of manufacture: | assumed 2006 | |
| Country of manufacture: | China | |
| Size: | Medium, Unisex | |
| Waist: | 43.3" (110 cm) circumference (measured) | |
| Inside leg: | 31" (80 cm) (measured) | |
| Ankle: | 16" (40 cm) circumference (measured) | |
| Material: | 98%polyester, 2% carbon fabric | |
| Finish: | 'Super-DWR' | |
| Colour: | Black | |
| Listed weight: | 4 oz (113 g) | |
| Actual weight: | 3.7 oz (105 g) | |
| MSRP: | US$70 |
Product Description
In a nutshell, these are ultra-light wind pants. They are not waterproof as such, but they don't let much water through until you apply considerable pressure - like kneeling on them. For further description, see my Initial Report.
Field Experience
As mentioned in my Initial Report, I can't slip the wind pants on over my light joggers, and this proved to be very inconvenient in the field. The good books say you should get into your raingear before the rain sets in, but I rarely do this - something to do with hoping it won't really get wet I imagine! Having to take my shoes off to get the pants on remains a very serious annoyance.
I also mentioned the very small packed size in my Initial Report. I have to report that this has occasionally been a problem - when I have to find them in a hurry inside my pack because the rain is setting in fast! Actually, the small volume is wonderful compared to the huge old Gore-Tex overtrousers I used to have. More seriously though, this has nothing to do with the pants: I just need to be a bit more organised. What it does show is my need to change how I do things as my gear evolves.
The surface finish of the fabric is very smooth. There is obviously some friction on the fabric as my legs go past each other, but this has produced no visible wear so far. The very smoothness of the fabric probably helps here. The smoothness has also meant that the fabric tends to slide past the scrub, rather than catch on it. So far I have managed to avoid wearing the Whims while in contact with raspberry vines and lawyer vines (the latter have even worse and sharper sharp hooks on them), so I can't report on how they survive that stuff. In practice, when fighting that stuff I tend to rely just on my tough nylon clothing and not risk wearing any rain gear, so I haven't babied the Whims compared to my other rain gear.
I showed a photo in my Initial Report of the Whims being worn on the High Plains in the NE part of our Alps - the photo is repeated above. The wind was cold and it was blowing hard - 100+ kph (60+ mph). That was strong enough to blow my wife off the track a few times. All I had on under the Whims were my plain light single-layer nylon trousers. But the Whims did shed the wind very nicely, and I didn't really notice any significant airflow inside them. There wasn't any condensation inside them either. That's been the result of my wearing them several other times against the wind: no detectable condensation, even when close to freezing. They breathe very well.
I took the Whims on a 12-day trip along the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia in June. However, we saw faint clouds just once in that time, so the Whims never even emerged from my pack.
So far I haven't detected any significant wear in the trousers, and the waist elastic also remains fine. However, owing to the vagaries of the weather around here, I have only managed to wear the Whims a small number of times, so I don't think they have had nearly enough testing for me to be able to comment on their life yet.
Simulated Rain Testing
The Whims are not specified as being waterproof pants. They are 'wind pants', or part of a wind shell. However, it is noticeable that they do have a very good Durable Waterproof Repellent coating (DWR), and of course the obvious question is whether they could be used as rain pants. This is very hard to test in a sensible manner as every outing and every storm is different, and I haven't had much rain in the last two months anyhow. So I set up a simulated rain test. This is illustrated in the pictures to the right.
I placed one leg of the Whims over a length of 100 mm (4") PVC piping and arranged a shower of water from a nozzle about 1 m (1 yd) above it. The drops were not large, so the impact pressure was not very high. Also there was no fabric movement such as one would get while walking. I left the shower running for about 1 minute (picture A) while I took a series of pictures. Then I turned the water off and shook the whole thing gently to remove excess water. Finally, I carefully removed the Whims from the pipe to expose a layer of paper towel I had secured to the pipe beforehand (picture C). The use of a light paper towel or tissue under the fabric to be tested is a very sensitive way of detecting any water which leaks through.
One thing was immediately clear from watching the water hit the fabric (picture A). The fabric currently has a very good DWR: the water was cascading off it. What is not covered by this test is how good the DWR would be after a year of heavy use. (The slight rainbow in the top right hand corner is purely for artistic effect ...)
With the water turned off and the assembly gently shaken, some drops of water did remain on the fabric (picture B). However, they were drops: the fabric itself seemed dry to me. Of course, this was only a very short 'shower', not an eight hour day of walking in the rain, and the pipe inside the Whims was cold, not warm like my leg.
The paper towel which had been under the fabric (picture C) shows two small areas of dampness. (The picture has been enhanced to improve the visibility of the water marks.) The area on the right with the blue border corresponds to just one ordinary-sized drop of water. The area on the left with the red border corresponds to three very small droplets of water. This result shows that the fabric is not waterproof: water can get through. However, it also shows that not very much got through in this very simple test.
While the results are interesting, this test misses out on several important factors which should be considered when evaluating rainwear or pseudo-rainwear:
Fabric movement while walking
Leg rubbing on fabric while walking
Deterioration of the DWR over time
Evaporation/drying due to heat from the leg
Evaporation/drying due to air movement inside the Whims
The first three items could be expected to reduce the performance of the Whims, but the last two should improve the dryness in practice. So the results are only indicative, not conclusive by any means. However, they are good enough that I plan to try the Whims out in the snow in the next phase of testing.
Planned Further Testing
Testing is being entirely done on trips, both one-day and extended. So far most of the trips have had fairly benign weather, which is great for me but has not tested the Whims very hard. However I do expect to have the Whims out in the snow fields for winter for the Long Term Report phase of testing, and that will be a different story (snow permitting!).
Things I have been monitoring in the GoLite Whim Pants include:
