Having to play taxi for a certain occasion with a few hours of downtime in between, I decided that I would go and hike weathered cinder cone and I would take my pair of 3rd Alternative CQB pants for this hike to for light testing. I was looking at a 1900ft elevation gain in 4 miles (8mi round trip). The environment isn't horrible like some trails that I'll get around to sometime. It's just a hike up a huge glorified steep pile of dirt with green grass and occasional cow shit of amazing patterns.
That said I'd like to note few things before I go on. These pants are advertised to work in a close quarters environment and they do offer other pant designs that might better suit for hiking activities or have better suited features. Also I will be using Crye G3 pants as a comparison which can be a little unfair but really, the G3s are great combat pants and I need some kind of baseline/reference for comparison. And maybe this post is just full of nit picking that could have been solved with a different set of pants. Now onto the report.
Starting the hike later in the day than I normally would it was already warm. No biggie since the summit of the cinder cone would be cooler than 4 miles down towards the parking lot. For hiking I decided to ditch the provided P5 knee pads since they were unnecessary extra weight. In my pockets I carried my Ferro Concepts wallet, some "good luck" trinkets that has become a habit to carry, cellphone in my back pocket, and my Benchmade Saddle Mountain Skinner knife on my belt.
The first phase where I had to make it to the base of the cinder cone I quickly noticed that the pant cuffs were riding up my mid height boots and barely onto my ankle. The cuffs have a built in elastic band that is retained by a button, kind of similar to Russian oversuit pants or even the Gorka pants. Personally I'm not a fan of elastic pant cuffs for this reason. The bootlace hooks did prevent the pants from riding any higher. Ultimately the pants did not slide all the way up and over the boot lips.
The side zipper was really nice to utilize. While the cuff is still buttoned, you can partially unzip the cuffs which is still held together by the button. This allows for air flow without the cuffs flapping around if it didn't have that button.
As I kept making my way up, I occasionally checked my phone for messages. The zippered rear pockets is very secure. Nothing to lose and the zippers run real smooth. I did indeed have a problem with the pocket design which I did not notice in the first impressions post, which was the size of the rear pockets. The rear pockets are HUGE. You can probably fit a folded laminated map, a Rite in the Rain notepad, or even a H&H compressed 8x10" flat folded H-bandage. While this is a huge plus for carry capacity, cellphones and heavy small items can occasionally become awkward to carry because they sometimes ride up your nether regions due to the free space they can move around in.
One thing I would like to see is some ventilation holes around the crotch. For example my Prana Stretch Zion has six sewn holes, three on each side of the crotch. This allows additional ventilation where it matters combined with unzipping the pant cuffs and the fly. I can imagine the knee area could potentially use sewn holes as well especially if I had the knee inserts worn, but since I didn't have the inserts there was enough room around my knee for air to flow.
(Image of the ventilation holes on the Prana Stretch Zion pants. Image from OutdoorGearLab)
(My summit resting spot. A fallen branch covered in dead grass made a nice bench/bed)
At the end of the day these pants were overall comfortable and performed well. They are pretty light, no noticeable binding or movement restrictions, and they breathed reasonably well the way I had it set up.
To sum it up I would make the following changes based on this one trip:
1) Make the elastic cuff more adjustable by using bungee with a toggle lock on the inside of the pant so that the user can tighten or leave the cuffs loose and open. Alternatively the elastic band could just be replaced by velcro just like the Crye G3 pants. Personally I like to keep the cuffs open and loose rather than cinched to the boot.
2) Add sewn ventilation holes to both sides of the crotch and knees to promote maximum ventilation without redesigning or adding significant materials to the pant. Easy said than done but who knows. Everyone likes a pant that breathes a lot.
3) Probably the least significant thing to change and it's really just a end user thing, but add a phone pocket. The rear pockets are really deep and I have to dig down there to grab it if it's sitting horizontally. Again, just user preference and does not apply to everyone because maybe not everyone carries their phones in the rear pocket and I could've used one of the front pockets instead.
Loadout:
3rd Alternative CQB pants Triple-X
Dutch army surplus turtleneck longsleeve shirt
Solomon GTX Ultra Mid 2?
Some Russian Gorka-like material boonie
Gatorz magnum
Direct Action Dust 2 with Prometheus Design Werx morale patch
(Passing two groups of hikers on the way is a good sign)
(Looking a little chunky after being stuck indoors for a few months)
(Sure I can't see the mountains but being in the clouds is just as nice)
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