Half-Bag / Insulated Pants

[Jeff Jackson]

Hey Bill – did you ever do anything with the REI pants that convert to an elephant’s foot? ( http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/4455/index.html?skip_to_post=32055#32055 )

I prototyped an uninsulated pair to see how it would work…not sure if I’m gonna make an insulated pair or not.

http://www.tothewoods.net/HomemadeGearHalfBagPants.html

[ROBERT TANGEN]

Perhaps the greatest advantage of going through the hassle of converting pants to a half-bag is not to keep your body warmer, but to avoid waking up to your water container a solid brick of ice, your camera frozen shut, your socks stiff as a board from ice, and your boots like concrete. You can’t very well stuff all that crap down the legs of insulated pants, but you can put it inside a half bag for instant use in the cold, cold morning.

[Jeff Jackson]

True. But I don’t foresee using these without at least a top quilt b/c I only need insulated pants when it really cold…otherwise I just get into my quilt.

I could put these pants on over my boots, though…another advantage.

Still not sure if it’s worth the effort, though.

[Roger Caffin]

> not to keep your body warmer, but to avoid waking up to your water container a solid brick of ice, your camera frozen shut, your socks stiff as a board from ice, and your boots like concrete.
You forgot the worst one of all: frozen contact lenses! Found mine is a little bed of slush one morning…

[Joshua Mitchell]

hmmm… that’s pretty neat… gotta bookmark this…

[Kevin Pietriyk]

Not sure if anyone thought of it already, but I seem to remember somewhere a mention that the zippers would be on the inseam and therefore irritating. I just had a thought about making the zippers on the outside, full-length, and flipping it around somehow to make the waist/crotch area the foot, and zip it together that way. Not sure if it would work at all, but it just came to me a minute ago. Might have to hack into an old pair of pants tonight to satisfy my curiosity.

[Jeff Jackson]

Making the circumference of the ankles big enough to fit your waist when you flipped it around might make for baggy pants…like bell-bottoms! At least you'd be stylin!

Of course, it depends on how big your waist is compared to your ankles…might work better for some than others…

Definitely worth experimenting with.

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