Prana Moab Pants
April 28, 2011
Prana contacted me after reading my four year old review of their Bliss pants, which I can’t say that I liked but can say that after all this time are still going strong. Prana thought I’d like to try some of their other gear and sent along the Moab pant, which is recommended by none other than Steph Davis herself. I was stoked to try them because great outdoor pants for women are so hard to find.
I asked for a pair in my regular size. Not having worn Prana in a while, this was a gamble, as I’d no idea how they would fit. At first I thought they were a little too form-fitting for my taste, but after only a few wearings and washings, they’ve broken in well and my regular size fits great. I also tried on a size up, but that was a miserable failure which I find weird – more on that in a minute.
The Moab pants are a tough, quick-drying, abrasion-resistant pant, which is super great because with all the lightweight options out there, it’s nice to have pants on the market that can take brushcutting and climbing abuse and survive. I’ve worn them hiking and out on the town, and they rise to both occasions. While hiking, I didn’t really notice them much, which is a major plus in my opinion. The last thing you want to have to think about is your clothes – you want them to just do the job so you can forget about them. The Moab pants worked for me in this regard for the most part. I did have trouble with wearing them with one of my backpacks – the smaller, lightweight pack worked fine but the larger pack contacted my sacrum right at the beltline of the pants, which pushed the pants down. Not a good combination! Because of my long-legged, short-waisted build, I’d hesitate to wear these pants with a big or heavy pack due to this issue. However, hiking without a pack and hiking with a lightweight/smaller pack have been just fine.
The fit of the Moab pants is very intriguing to me. From this review and the accompanying picture, I assumed this would be a more loose-fitting, drapey type of pant. Evidently Whitney and I have completely different body types, for I found the fit to be body-skimming in the waist and ass, and even a little slim (but not tight) in the thighs. The fit loosened up after some washing and wearing, which is good because the size-up strategy did not work for me AT ALL. The size up was just as snug in the ass, but just looser in the waist (ugh) and legs, making me look like I had weird elephant legs. It’s bizarre to me because Whitney reported having to order one size down from her regular, and the Moab pants are baggy on her, whereas even one size up from my regular does not result in baggy pants for me. To me this kind of clarifies that Prana pants are usually cut for straighter, slimmer figures rather than curvy, muscular badonka donks like mine. Still, the pants flatter me and fit fine, with none of that dreaded back-of-waist gap that signals ‘bad fit’ to me. Be advised, the rise is low, but not so low that you show any crack – still, some people might find that it needs a bit of getting used to.
Still, I wasn’t completely sold on the pants at first. I like the low rise and the flattering fit, and they’re nice for hiking, but for me the low rise eliminates them from climbing potential because I kind of hate it when my pants are lower than my harness. However, maybe I should actually try it before I knock it. I like the built-in webbing belt, which is nice if the fit is generally good, but won’t save you if the pants are too big. At least it’s not a drawstring! And the pants are sized numerically so that you can dial in the fit – none of this S-M-L crap. I was intimidated by the snug ass/hips and the low rise, but now that I’ve worn them a few times I like them more and more. I even bought a pair of my own with my own money (very rare for gear-tester mentality, believe me, even though I did buy them on supersale) which is a good sign that the Moab pants are worth checking out. I just wore them for a search and rescue dog demonstration and I notice that they don’t retain dog hair, which is a MAJOR PLUS in my book.
I’m appreciative of this effort from Prana. As I mentioned, women’s pants are one of those categories that is commonly neglected by the industry. Jackets and tops, they have dialed, but pants are still hit and miss (and the selection really isn’t as good as it needs to be, as Whitney points out in her review). It’s gratifying that a company has made some steps to improve women’s pants design, and from the fact that the Moab pants are sold out all over the place, I’d guess that other women feel the same way.
If you want them, you better hurry. They are sold out everywhere except, seemingly, here:
Click here to be taken to CampSaver.com for the last pair of size 8 Moab pants. Except for the pair I’m about to return to backcountry.com…in either case this is an affiliate link. If you click and buy, I make a depressingly tiny piece of money.
Prana Bliss Capri Pants
January 27, 2008
Just for the record, I will not be spending valuable typing time remembering to type “prAna” for this review. In this blog, it’s Prana. Spare me the pretentiousness of the ludicrous “prAna,” already.
So, the Bliss capri. I wear these pants a lot, but it’s not because I like them all that much. I wear them a lot because I wear them climbing, and climbing clothes tend to get wrecked, and I really don’t care all that much if these pants get wrecked. That said, they’ve held up really, really well for all the climbing I’ve done in them.
Regardless, I’m not excited about these. Like everything Prana, they fit weird. The low rise is nice for fashion, but sucky for climbing, as is the drawstring waist. Yep, a drawstring waist, on climbing pants. That’s quite possibly the worst design ever for climbing pants, especially ones with a low rise. When you’re climbing, things catch on other things, and if the only thing keeping you from exposing your plumber’s crack is a little drawstring around your waist, it can be a bit unsettling.
They’re very nice and stretchy, great for climbing and general comfort. However, the slick-ish nylon feel is a little yucky. Yes, those are technical terms for fabric, by the way.
These aren’t particularly flattering, either. On ANYONE. Many of my fellow female climbers wear these pants to the climbing gym, and no one looks good in them. NO ONE. No one looks truly bad, either, I suppose, but if stretchy, low rise pants can’t flatter a slender, gorgeous woman with lovely blonde ringlets and a climber’s lean physique (note: I am NOT talking about myself here), they can’t flatter anyone. See the picture above? That’s pretty much how they look when they’re on. Those don’t even look flattering when there’s no body in them. Which really doesn’t matter, but I will admit that it matters to me.
