Neoplume Pants
I've used the Neoplume pants for high altitude mountaineering.
Pros
- Lighter than fleece pants of comparable warmth
- Very compressible
- Full length zippers (meants putting them on at belays is even an option)
- Snow cuffs
- WInd and water resistant shell
- Primaloft fill stays warm when wet
Cons
Not flattering for your figure.
Final Result
I used these pants in a particularly cold season on Amadablam and they were great for 3 reasons:
- Hanging around base camp. These pants are super warm and cruising around base camp is a breeze with these. If the sun pops out, down go the full length zippers and you're walking around in your rainbow thermals without taking off your booties. Come late afternoon, back on they go and dinner is served.
- Bivies/camps on the mountains. Up until Camp 2, these are too warm to climb in. So I was climbing in either Cirques (light softshell) or a hardshell pant. Once you arrive at your camp, however, on they go straight around your boots, crampons, or whatever. No taking off your boots and climbing pants, losing all the heat you've generated whilst climbing to put on your fleece pants for bed. Also, wearing these and a down jacket while sleeping on the mountain meant I could carry a much lighter sleeping bag than many other people, who were haulging up humongous monsters of sleeping bags.
- Climbing above 6200 metres. From Camp 2 to the summit I climbed with thin long johns, Neoplume pants, and a light 2.5 layer shell pant. My legs were absolutely toasty the whole way. THe system was incredibly light and with the shell pants containing everything it was not bulky.
I will definitely be taking these on the next mountaineering or backcountry snow camping trip.
Matt
Matt gets bored quite easily, so never spends too much time doing the same thing. The result is that he can boulder okay, sport climb ok, trad climb okay, ice climb okay, mountaineer okay, trail run okay, but is terrible at chess. Contrary to what his mother told him as a child, he doesn't believe bored people are boring.