Mountain Hardwear Yuma Pant
September 3, 2010
[All right! It's New Geargal Time! My latest writer contacted me last year to ask about writing reviews, and after checking out her creds and her writing style, I happily passed a bunch of gear to her and sat back to reap the rewards of letting other people do my job for me.
This Geargal is a Trail Ranger for the Forest Service in Alaska. I have to say that all the Forest Service folks I know in Alaska are pretty rad, and she is no exception. In her own words "I regularly hike, mountain bike (mainly in summer but am getting into winter riding), back pack, snowboard, cross country and skate ski, ski jour, ice skate and snowboard in my job." And I thought MY job was the best. -Ed.]
Yes, I love it, a cool looking pair of pants in a great color that fit me, can’t wait to try these out. Mountain Hardwear produces a women’s size 8 that fit like a size 8, hallelujah! Waist just below the belly, zip off pant legs, and the total length is just about right.
I was so excited to wear these pants on my next outing, a mountain bike ride. These pants have a loose leg fit, lots of room with a neat little elastic tightener on the bottom hem to snug the leg tight, for keeping bugs out, maybe? Even after tightening them I decided they were still too loose in the legs to wear while biking, because I didn’t want the poofy leg fabric to get caught in my chain. Instead, I decided, I’ll wear them on my upcoming weeklong backpacking trip.
The fabric is nylon with a good feel and look, and is thankfully quick drying (I sweated quite a bit on the uphill climb), and the pants have two front leg pockets with zippers for closures. The pockets are quite small and not too easy to get my hands into. The front closure is easy with a snap and zipper if you don’t bother with the tie that doesn’t serve any purpose other than to get in the way or to perhaps look cute. If these were my pants I would simply pull the string out. [Woman after my own heart. I pull the drawstrings out of all of my pants, ESPECIALLY when the pants already have a button closure. What's the point of the string? -Ed.]
I wore these on the first day of the trip, congratulating myself for looking so good; thinking “my, do I look stylish” in these cool nylon pants. Like all hubris, my smugness came before an inevitable crash down to earth. At the end of the day one leg was very sore – a raw section of skin was developing on my inner leg. I was so bummed. I had to take these pants off and couldn’t wear them again for the rest of my trip. Boy, I am not too smart wearing a new pair of pants for the first time on a backpacking trip. [Er - yeah, like we all have time to pre-test the gear before we test it. It's the nature of the job, sorry! -Ed.] It turns out there is an inner panel 2” wide sewn into each pant leg so instead of one inside leg seam, there are two. I’m not sure why they took the time to add this third piece of fabric, it’s not like it is for looks, as you can’t see this part of the pants very well. The extra seams rubbed like hell and felt horrible by the end of the day. I was sorry to have to throw these pants that fit well and looked great in the bottom of my backpack for the rest of my trip. If these were my pants I would have let the dog sleep on them and at least felt like they earned their space/weight in my pack. [Ouch! Truth hurts. But I hope the dog had something else to sleep on anyway. -Ed.]
I didn’t get to try the zip off legs. [The Alaskan "summer" this year didn't produce many bare legs, I'd imagine. -Ed.] I had intended on wearing these pants for a few days and knew I would wear them without the legs eventually, but the inner part of my leg cried “no, don’t put these on again, you fool for not trying me out before your trip”. Mountain Hardwear, thank you so very much, I have learned a huge lesson from wearing these pants. Try out your gear before you head into the woods with just a backpack you bonehead.
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great review…
You really got an experienced gal there….and she speaks it the way she sees-feels it. no bull.