Finding a good pair of trail pants is a surprisingly difficult task. Having personally tried many different types over the years and being disappointed with most – I was interested to try out Hi-Tec’s Trail Pants. Hi-Tec sent me a pair to test, which I used on my recent trip to Nepal, they were one of the two pairs of pants I used for the trip. The trip totaled 275km with 18km elevation gain and loss, including the Three Passes Circuit, Annapurna Sanctuary Hike, the basecamps of Ama Dablam, Everest and Annapurna, as well as a few summits above 5000m.

Weight

At approximately 250g for a medium sized pair, these are on the lighter side. Ultra-light trail pants tend not to last very long, especially on rough terrain, so this is about the optimum thickness of fabric between being sufficiently durable and not excessively heavy.

Pockets

One aspect of trail pants design that leads me to believe that gear manufacturers rarely test their equipment in the environment it was intended for is the layout of pockets on trail pants. Invariably there’s a pocket over the knee that is unusable while walking, or a pocket placed just perfectly to prevent you from doing any mild scrambling without cracking your phone screen!

The design of these pockets was on the better end of the scale, although I would have liked an additional zip-up pocket on each side slightly below the pockets. The pants only include two standard internal pockets, one on each side.

I guess ideal layout really depends on the user – extra pockets means extra weight and extra failure points for when the pants get older. I usually have my phone in one pocket, and my GPS in the other. The problem with my GPS is that it is a reasonably thick item – which means it needs to be in an external pocket to avoid it pressing into you hip and being very uncomfortable – which is something these pants don’t have.

With most backpacks having hip strap pockets these days, this is unlikely to be a problem for most people, though.

Legs

These trail pants do not include detachable legs in order to convert them to shorts. Many trail pants include these, and it is generally a feature I don’t enjoy for two reasons: 1) a zip rubbing against your leg every step of every day for multiple days gets really annoying; and 2) as they get older, the zips detach partly and result in all sorts of complications – especially on overgrown ground. So this design choice is one I absolutely agree with. If you want shorts, carry shorts!

Fabric

I was fortunate to have perfect weather for my trip, so I didn’t get a chance to verify how quickly these pants dry. Based on drying times after washing them, the fabric selection does appear to have been selected with this in mind.

The fabric was generally comfortable – which is important when it will rub against your skin every step for thousands of steps each day! They do get less comfortable as they get dirtier, which is to be expected – I don’t think anyone designs a pair of pants to be worn every day for more than a week without being washed!

Waist

The waist includes short elastics on the sides, and eyes for a belt around the outside. I like this design as it provides a degree of flexibility, especially for a longer hike where ones weight at the start might not be the same as it is at the finish. I have never hiked with a belt, they usually end up directly under your pack’s hip straps, which is very uncomfortable. I actually use the belt eyes to attach my GPS strap to pants, which is very handy!

Overall

I generally enjoyed these pants. They are reasonably priced and are good quality. A minor improvement of adding two external zip-up pockets would render them even better, though.