rain pants, full zip or half?

another serious down side to full zip is that if something goes wrong with the zipper they can become next to worthless.

if you simply buy pull on rain pants that are roomy (meaning easy to pull on and off) you should never even have to consider full zip.

Ventilation.

Rain kilt

ZPacks™ Cuben Fiber Rain Kilt

ULA RAIN KILT

HELIUM HIKING EQUIPMENT RAIN KILT

MOUNTAIN LAUREL DESIGNS RAIN KILT

MAKE YOUR OWN KILT

Sticks Blog Kilt Review

thanks all. Im getting the North Face venture at 8-ish ounces. Kilt? Never!

Why add zips at all? We just pull our rainpants on over our shoes. Much lighter.

Cheers

My rain pants have full zips for ventilation.  They weigh 10 oz in L.  However, I only ever use them in the cold shoulder season up here.  Otherwise, MLD’s rain kilt is used.  Works the best out of anything I have ever used.  Legs get wet but the crotch stays dry.

I only wear over trousers when it’s raining, so ventilation is pretty pointless as it’s a place where water will get in.

If it’s raining slow enough to leave a side zip open then for me personally it’s raining slow enough to do without over trousers.

So for me and the conditions i’m out in zips are pointless.

Although when i did used to wear waterproof hiking boots they were handy for pulling the over trousers on without having to take my boots off and get my feet wet.

Now i wear trail runners if it’s raining my feet are wet already so i just pull my trail runners off and pull on the over trousers.

I have rain pants with full side zippers. I wear them seldomly but when I wear them, it is because it rains that hard or long and I’m on a multi-week trip wearing the only hiking pant that I have with me and that I want keep dry for as much as possible. For myself, keeping it absolutely dry is not the issue; keeping myself warm and comfortable is. Long zippers because once I’m sheltered from the rain, I overheat pretty fast. That then with the zips open in some places, some rain will come in, doesn’t bother me. Pants instead of a kilt because we sometimes stay on campinggrounds in villages and then those rain pants suddenly become my ‘decent’ pair of pants.

Don’t forget 3/4 zip, like on Berghaus’ paclite goretex pants (6.5 oz.).

Or ‘rainbow’ zippers:

I like full zip for all day rainy hikes. My local weather tends to be on and off drizzle, wet brush, mud and high humidity. They are easier to vent as well as muddy on and off

I wear silk weight long johns under for all day stuff. That keeps the cold fabric off my skin  and aids wicking. It helps the fabric slide and avoids all the bunching when trying to wear the rain pants over other layers.

I own full zip, half zip and no zip.  My Montbell Versalites are no zip and they are what I use for backpacking because they only weigh 3.7 oz for a size large (and pack really small).   The zipper convenience isn’t worth the extra weight IMO.   I now only use the zippered pants for fishing trips.

In my limited experience, a 3/4 zip is far superior to a full zip for my purposes: I have found that with the full zip, where the zipper starts at the waist and goes down from there to be completely impractical for proactive or reactive venting when working up a fair amount of heat. Since having purchased pants with 3/4 zip pants, where the zip starts at around the mid-thigh point, I can easily be proactive in venting a lot of excess heat.

An observation on my part is that not many US brands offer 3/4 zip but only full zip which to me seems a bit peculiar. I should add the caveat that my only waterproof pants have been from Mountain Harwear, their men’s Seraction, Torsun and Quasar pants. The first and last I picked up for a steal on Sierra Trading Post. But again they are all full length zip pants.

Eric

went with 1/2 zip, North Face Venture, 8ish oz :) Found a good deall too