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Reviews > Rain Gear > Jackets and Pants > GoLite Whim Pants > Roger Caffin > Initial 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 Claims
Initial Impressions
The Whim pants arrived in a simple envelope: no big box for these trousers. A plain plastic bag and a swing-tag giving the product details was all there was. And the envelope didn't weigh very much either. Opening the envelope up gave me a very light and rather glossy pair of 'wind pants' (as the swing tag says). Straight legs, with only a very small dart at the knee for 'articulation', and straight ankles - no elastic at the cuffs. This is a very simple design - which is a good thing in my books. At first glance they look exactly how the web site shows them. The picture at the top is in fact from the GoLite web site, but it shows the trousers perfectly.
I tried to slip the wind pants on over my light joggers as this is how I would put them on in the field - when I need them. However, to my considerable astonishment this proved not possible. The ankle circumference of 16" (40 cm) is simply not enough to fit over even my very light walking shoes. I had to take my shoes off to get the pants on. This has got to be a mistake in the design in my opinion - who wants to have to sit down in the mud and take their shoes off?
The length was long enough on me for my knees to bend easily, while not having the ankles drag on the ground. The slight dart at the knees doesn't really seem significant, but we shall see. There was plenty of room at the backside and the waist, but as I weigh only 139 lbs (63 kg), this was hardly surprising.
There is elastic in the very slim waist band, but it isn't very strong, and my experience of similar waist bands is that the elastic usually dies fairly soon. This is something I shall have to monitor. Fortunately, the waist band comes with a drawcord as well, and I quickly found the waist cord is necessary to hold these trousers up, despite their very light weight. The drawcord supplied did this very easily, although it was rather heavy.
With the Whims on over my trousers I tried to grab my handkerchief out of my trousers. This gave me my second surprise: there are no pocket slits. In the field I shan't be able to access my pockets without pulling the waist of the Whims down. I am not sure this is a good idea, especially as it seems likely that I will have the waist drawcord done up.
The fabric is 98% polyester and 2% 'carbon fabric'. Well, I guess the choice of colours (black) fits in with the 'carbon' bit, but I can't say that the fabric really looks much different from 100% polyester. Fair enough of course: 2% is not a lot. As I was not sure what 'carbon fabric' was, I contacted GoLite and asked. They replied 'the carbon fabric is actually carbon fibers blended into the polyester'. This sounds very High-Tech! The seams are overlocked, but they also look as though they are very neatly double stitched. This would more expensive to do than simple edge-sewing, so being interested in such things I asked GoLite about this as well. They replied 'the leg seams are done single-needle overlocked finish'. Well, the seams look very nice.
The inside of the fabric seemed to be a bit more glossy than the outside. In my experience, this usually means there is a coating of some sort on the inside. However, the specifications didn't mention a coating, and indeed I found I could blow air through the fabric. So I am not sure why the inside is shiny, but it probably doesn't matter anyhow. Certainly, I don't expect a lot of condensation inside the fabric.
Finally, I noticed this very cute little stuff sack sewn to the waist band at the back. It's a very small stuff sack (the ruler is metric), but the Whims do fit inside quite easily, and the top folds over to make a neat package. There's a little loop which can be used to keep the stuff sack closed and to clip it onto something else, but I doubt very much it will be useful or even needed in practice. We shall see.
Planned Testing
Testing will be done on trips, both one-day and extended. Our 2006 summer of extreme heat seems to be over - we have been caught with snow in the mountains once already this autumn, so I will have plenty of opportunity to test the pants for their wind resistance in our mountains. Despite the drop in temperature, we still are not getting much rain close to home, but up in the mountains anything can happen (and it usually does, too). I expect these trousers to offer some wind and rain resistance, but I do not expect them to offer any intrinsic warmth by themselves - they are very, very light.
The second picture actually shows the Whims on me in the Australian Alps, on the Goodradigbee Plains at about 1,200 m (3,940'). They arrived the day I was leaving for this trip and I couldn't resist taking them with me. It may be obvious from the way my clothing and poncho is billowing that there was a rather strong wind howling past at the time. But more of this in the Field Report.
Things I will be monitoring in the GoLite Whim Pants include:
