Above: Sophie climbing in the Prophet Bib Air Pants on the Weeping Wall, in the Canadian Rockies
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Last spring while sorting out gear for a trip to climb a 3000m peak on the main divide I decided my old dearly treasured over-trousers had seen more than one too many trips to be a reliable outer layer. Excitedly I rushed off into town in the hope of finding some shiny new soon to be favourite pants.
Now this was not the first time I had done this but previous trips had always resulted in
disappointment and failing to find anything suitable. Every brand and model seemed to have some irritating problem that proved to be a deal breaker like no front zip, too wide at the cuff, too narrow at the cuff, no side ventilation zips, too heavy, too light, can not be put on or taken off with your crampons on, poor quality material or a bad fit. Yip I am a real ‘hard to please’ shopper when it comes to my climbing gear and my latest trip seemed to be following a similar patten until I went to the local Macpac outlet store to check out their new and revised Prophet Air Bib pants.
I had once before tried on their previous model but they were quickly placed in the poor fit category, not so the new model and they seemed to have all the right features. The cuffs are just big enough to slide down over my ski touring boots in walk mode but not too big to be a concern with catching my crampons and have been reinforced nicely, they have perfectly fitting
powder cuffs, great zips and systems that solve the other aforementioned problems, a nice stretchy back panel that allows for a form fit with different clothing layers, shoulder straps that don’t slide off your shoulders, a nice thigh pocket, they are not too heavy yet obviously well made with a good level of durability and a really comfortable fit.
Now the other important bit, the fabric, Macpac have used Pertex Shield-Air as the main fabric
which has a two way stretch that I think much of the exceptional fit and comfort can be attributed to. The specs say it is an air permeable nanofibre membrane that has a hydrostatic head of 10000mm and a breathability of 45000 [G/m2/24hr]. It could be said that old guys like me do not place enough importance on manufactures technical specs and it’s how it works and feels in the field that really matters. The standout thing for me was over a 15hr day to climb our peak where conditions varied from swinging leads with cold shady early morning belay’s, extended periods of simul-climbing, a breezy summit ridge to a sunbaked descent gully I never once thought about them or even noticed I was even wearing them, it was just total comfort.
That is the kind of performance I am looking for and has quickly made them a dearly treasured piece climbing gear.
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Sophie Jenkins rapping in the Prophet Air Bib Pants on the Weeping Wall in the Canadian Rockies
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