Reviewer Information

• Name: Cora Shea
• Age: 24
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
• Weight: 150 lb (70 kg)
• Email address: cahhmc "at" yahoo "dot" com
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
• Date: August 24, 2004

Basic Product Information

• Year of Manufacture: 2004
• URL: http://www.redledge.com/
• Listed weight: Unknown
• Weight as Delivered:
  • Pants alone: 11.2 oz (318 g)
  • Included stuff sack: 0.6 oz (17 g)
  • Total: 11.8 oz (335 g)
• Size: Unisex Medium (M)
• My Body Fit Dimensions [Waist Range] x [Inseam]: 30-31 x 32 in (76-79 x 81 cm)
• Color: Black

The Thunderlight Pants are advertised as waterproof breathable rain pants with taped seams and full side zips.

This report covers the field testing performed from June to August, 2004. For more general product information, more visual details, and more reporting on appearance and structure, please see my Initial Report. For more varied use and long term care/maintenance comments, please see my Long Term Report.

Field Testing

In addition to the trips below, I also brought the pants on three additional day and overnight trips, but never wore them. I found these trips to be important since they tested the packability of the pants. In a word, the packability was not a concern. I brought the pants along on dayhikes and they fit just fine in my standard daypack in addition to my normal gear.

• Trip One: Backpacking in the Sierras
  • Dates: July 4-7, 2004
  • Location: Jennie Lakes Wilderness, California
  • Weather: Sunny with afternoon thundershowers 80 to 45 F (27 to 7 C)
  • Elevation: 8000 to 10,000 ft (2400 to 3000 m)

  Description:
  I used the pants as my afternoon rain pants. In addition, I forgot my swimsuit, had only one pair of hiking pants (which I did not want to get wet), and wanted to swim in a crowded lake, so I wore these pants while lounging on my sleeping pad out in the water.

  Comments:
  After this trip, I immediately began to like these pants a lot. They fit well, stayed on, moved when I moved, and generally protected me without my having to think about them much. The side zippers are super easy to use and nice to have to put the pants on at any time.

  I was also impressed by their durability. All things considered, when I took the pants out of the box I felt the thin fabric and thought that perhaps these pants would not live very long under my use. During the afternoon rain showers, the pants kept me dry but did not get challenged in durability (or waterproofness) very much. The real test came when I wore them swimming.

  Of course, I expected everything to get soaking because, while waterproof, the pants are obviously not immersion-proof. I wore the pants rolled up to my knees and floated around on my sleeping pad. I floated out to a rock that stuck up about a foot and a half (a half meter) out of the water. And, I proceeded to scrabble, claw, flail, and belly flop my way on to the rock. The pants were very slippery against the granite (which didn't help the speed of my ascent) but my knees would have been quite raw without the pants over them and the pants themselves did not have a single hole.

  The pants dried very quickly (about 20 minutes in the sun and wind). The elastic in the waistband, however, took hours to partially dry, and barely dried fully by the end of the trip. I could imagine that completely immersing the pants (and thus forcing water into the elastic via the untaped thread holes at the waist) is an uncommon occurrence and that the waistband is normally protected by one's rain jacket.

  However, on this trip I was seriously worried about the elastic mildewing and rotting from the wetness and could think of no good way to dry the elastic. This probably does not comment much on breathability since waterproof-breathable coatings usually need a temperature gradient that the elastic would not provide, but hopefully the elastic will not be damaged.

• Trip Two: Santa Cruz Island Camping
  • Dates: July 9-10, 2004
  • Location: Santa Cruz Island, California
  • Weather: Beautiful, 75 to 35 F (24 to 2 C)
  • Elevation: Sea level

  Description:
  I stayed on Santa Cruz island to do some kayaking, and wore these pants over my long underwear at night. This is something I do not often do, but did to test the pants out and to be able to leave my fleece pants at home.

  Comments:
  With the nighttime use, I discovered why I usually do not like wearing rain pants on a normal basis. It may seem silly, but if my pants crinkle and swish every time I move (even when sitting down) it kind of throws me off. Perhaps it brings back images of being encased in a crinkly hardshell jacket in one too many sleet and snow storms, but noisy fabric just drives me nuts. I like quiet pants, and so all readers can take my fabric woes here with a grain of salt.

  That said, the pants are certainly not as noisy as full-blown brushed and reinforced Gore-Tex, for example, but they certainly crinkle enough to make me think twice about wearing them at night. It was nice in one way because the pants fit much better than my fleece pants do (and I got to leave the fleece at home), but I think because of the fabric noise I'll stick to using them in the rain.

• Trip Three: Hiking in the Sierras
  • Dates: July 15-18, 2004
  • Location: Inyo National Forest, California
  • Weather: Sunny with afternoon and night thundershowers 80 to 45 F (27 to 7 C)
  • Elevation: 7000-11,000 ft (2100 to 3400 m)

  Description:
  On this trip, I used these pants as rain pants. It would drizzle for an hour or so before it really got going in the afternoon, and then drizzled on and off each evening.

  Comments:
  This trip presented the first good downpour. It was enough to soak completely through my softshell on my arms and torso (which is unusual for an afternoon Sierra spate), and even pounded its way through my hat. Unfortunately, I did not put on the pants until I had gotten drizzled on a bit, so I cannot report whether the pants are completely waterproof.

  What I can report, however, is that my legs ended up drier after the thundershower abated than when I put the pants on in the first place. Granted, we were essentially just hiking quickly downhill to re-reach treeline and were not working up much of a sweat at all, but I can certainly say that these pants are considerably more breathable than any polyurethane coated pants I've ever worn. It was a nice surprise.

  These pants also received a good bushwhacking test. I encountered light alpine scrub -- not the most abrasive stuff out there but certainly stiff enough to leave a few scratches in my shins had I not been wearing pants -- and wore the pants bushwhacking my way up a ridge of the stuff. No tears, and no abrasions so far, yay!

Summary

So far, the Red Ledge Thunderlight Full Zip pants have been comfortable, breathable, packable, and surprisingly sturdy rain pants. Since I have shunned simple rain pants such as these from other brands because of predictably bad fit and high price, these pants have given me a nice welcome back into using rain pants.

• Upsides for me so far:
  • Fit (especially knees and length) is fantastic
  • Side zippers are smooth and easy to use
  • More durable and breathable than I expected
• Downsides for me so far:
  • Crinkly and swishy sounding fabric
  • Waist elastic takes a long time to dry

Read more reviews of Red Ledge gear
Read more gear reviews by Cora Hussey

Reviews > Rain Gear > Jackets and Pants > Red Ledge Full Zip Pants > Cora Hussey > Field Report