Pioneer Camp Hiking Trousers

A hiking trouser is bought for four things and this page is arranged around them. Weight, because a heavy trouser is felt from the second hour. Stretch, because a high step over a stile in a woven trouser with no give is where seams die. Drying time, because a river crossing at eleven should not still be with you at four. And pockets, in particular a thigh pocket, because a phone in a hip pocket slaps your leg on every step downhill and a phone on the thigh does not. Nearly all of these are a stretch nylon with a water-resistant finish, which is the fabric that answers the first three at once.

The convertible pairs are the ones that divide opinion. The legs unzip at the knee and you are left with a walking short, which saves carrying a second pair on a morning that turns hot; against that, the zip is a seam across the knee that you feel when you kneel. Several of the pairs here print a UPF figure, which is worth having on open ground above the treeline: it describes the dry, unstretched cloth, and a trouser pulled tight across a thigh on a steep step is letting more through at that moment. Sizes run XS to 3XL, and part of the shelf is sold waist by length.