Pants or no pants

Wear shorts and put on some comfy bottoms at night, do not wear anything compressive to bed it will mess with blood circulation on your legs. I like running tights that aren’t compressive because they are more durable/functional for hiking in if needed. If your shorts are thin nylon then you should be able to slide the tights over the shorts instead of taking the shorts off first.

It’s really a personal choice. Me, I like convertible pants with lots of cargo pockets (can carry snacks, handkerchief, compass, lib balm, knife, etc in those pockets). And I take base layer thin long john bottoms and fleece or very light puffy pants for night.

billy

I really liked wearing my RR Ecomesh pants on the JMT. I brought a pair of super thing polyester shorts that I wore on just a couple days.

man, that’s click bait.

I was going to say NO PANTS.

Guess the real question is how cold are the nights generally . Im a shorts all year guy . We are talking 25 Degree morning here in the winter but with a down or fleece jacket my core is warm enough that my legs dont get cold .  Ill generally hike in shorts down to freezing , Once moving / hiking don’t even notice it . I imagine after a long day hike ( we are going Mammoth to Horseshoe Meadow (with a Whitney summit )  in 10 days ) legs might appreciate the added warmth / Compression . I have superlight capilene I could put on in evenings as another alternative .

I mostly hike in shorts. Sometimes I bring Cap 1 bottoms or Tychon wind pants.  When I don’t hike in shorts, I just wear RR EcoMesh trousers. Winter is another conversation.

+1 for wind pants.

I am shorts only for 3 seasons even when temps are in the 30’s and 40’s during the day.  I carry wind pants that are just under 2oz and some long bottoms that are for camp and sleeping in, but I have donned both the base layer and wind pants from time to time when the weather turns especially nasty.

I carried the leg portion to convertible pants for years but never used them for anything other than bulk to my pillow stuff sack.  For August in the Sierras I wouldn’t take hiking pants.  Just make sure you have a good base tan or some sunscreen for the backs of your calfs and top of your knees.

I am also a shorts and wind pants person

Favourite light wind pants ??

Most of what I wear won’t be of use to you, because they are not made anymore or are women’s, but I did have a pair of Montbell DYNAMO WIND PANTS MEN’S ( 2.6 oz $69) but they were huge for me and I gave them to someone else(not John Abela) who really likes them( here is JOHN ABELA’S  Very Long Term Usage Review)and here is Will Rietveld’s BPL MONTBELL TACHYON ANORAK AND DYNAMO WIND PANTS REVIEW . Montbell also makes the TACHYON PANTS MEN’S (1.9 oz $99 ) I do have the women’s version of the Montane Featherlite Pant – Men’s (4 oz $66.71 at backcountry but you can shop around the internet). Some people like to make their own Liberty Ridge Pants Kit , there are the Patagonia Houdini Pant – Men’s ( 3.4 oz $99) I have never tried them but some people have said that they don’t breathe well. A lot of people have found these a good and cheap alternative to the name brand ones INTRESTING UL WIND PANTS FROM DANCE WORLD, here is PMAGS review Gear Review: Discount Dance Supply Rip Stop Pants (3.5 oz $18 ) Not as light or cheap as most but in a lighter color(unless you make the Liberty Ridge ones)WILD THINGS WIND PANTS WT 1.0 in the color coyote or MULTICAM (8 oz $149 )Dave Chenault talks about them here Wild Things Tactical wind gear, and there is also LUKE’S ULTRALITE ARGON WIND PANTS (1.6 oz $79 )

Thanks for all the input , think Ill just make some . Have some Fabric 1 oz Robic XL that should be perfect , just need to be careful with the Mother in Laws Machine .

I have a pair of Montbell wind pants, I thought they were called Tachyon, perhaps they are the Dynamo. I also use an older model Houdini.

Before I got this set up, I bought some Montbell pants and wind shirt, I think they were called the ‘UL.’ They were awful, more like those sauna clothes people wear in gyms to sweat and lose weight.

The thing I dislike about all of them is they don’t have pockets. I like pockets in my clothes to carry stuff, and prefer not to have a bunch of pockets or mesh on my packs to carry the stuff I need during the day. Clothing pockets are more convenient and weigh less than pack pockets.

I used some Wild Things EPIC wind pants for years, and recently switched to some pants from Luke’s Ultralight.  They breathe much better but not as weatherproof and just under 2oz vs the 5.5oz for the WT pants.  Like Luke says, “they are everything you need and nothing more” (paraphrased). These new ones are made of Argon 0.9oz fabric, and only time will tell how durable they will be, but honestly I don’t wear them much hiking, mostly in camp, sleeping in them on cold nights, and the occasional lunch break.  My wind shirt is the last of the more breathable Houdini.

“the last of the more breathable Houdini.”

That sounds like a great movie title for an epic movie.   …hmmm, wait just a second, sounds almost familiar for some reason…  “No matter how fast you go, no matter how far, I WILL.. breathe you!”

Just a lighthearted, silly moment, no harm or poking fun was intended.  I also have a 2012 Houdini.

duplicate…deleted

While the pants were epic, they were constructed of EPIC by Nextec fabric.  Highly water resistant but not real breathable under strenuous hiking.  They might keep you pretty dry behind a waterfall but if you jump you are going to get wet.

Hi John, the epic double entendre comment was about the Houdini.  It seems that Patagonia used a similar process as Nextec for their older, “Deluge” DWR which the 2012 and earlier Houdni’s apparently had (or so Richard Nisley has mentioned).  Being a similar silicone encapsulation, it supposedly was much more durable, but also prone to contamination from dirt, oils, etc as EPIC is likewise (which is why both need to be periodically rinsed in cleanish water to refresh it, and occasionally washed with mild soap).

The Houdini material was a lot more breathable than a lot of the heavier, higher denier EPIC stuff, so silicone encapsulation treated fabrics can remain fairly breathable.  A lot of it depends on how tightly woven the fabric is to begin with, and how thick the silicone coating applied.

Also, with lower denier fibers and woven fabrics, you potentially get more void spaces per area, so if not very tightly woven, it will tend to be more breathable than a similarly woven fabric with high denier fibers/threads.  You can also get a higher HH per higher CFM with lower denier fabrics for similar reasons, and that the void spaces are potentially smaller, though there is more of them.

+2 for wind pants- if you hit some chilly/windy stretches (seems a almost a given above tree line), slip them over your shorts; if you hit some precip and need some additional warmth-add the wind pants- the DWR should do a pretty good job shedding at least light precip and even if they wet out they will still be warmer than shorts alone; get chilly at camp or need something more in your quilt/bag- again add the pants- pretty good bang for the weight at 3-4 oz imho

Just finished the wind paints , very basic used the scraps I had of 1 oz Robic XL . toggle cinch at top , shock cord at ankles 1.75 ozs , think i need to make a pullover top just for kicks.

mike