Mont Austral Pants

I purchased these simple waterproof lightweight pants for my Broad Peak expedition.  The details can be found on the Mont website (http://www.mont.com.au/austral-pants-black).

They fitted me perfectly with easy crotch movement and with the easy waist adjustment and the adjustments on the lower leg were easy to use and functional.  The length was also perfect to suit my ‘vertically challenged’ legs.  What seriously impressed me, and the reason for this short review, is that these are super durable.  I did not test them out in the wet as the expedition did not really see any torrential rain in which I needed to use the pants, but I used it all the way up to nearly camp 3 on BP.  On my way down from the summit attempt I got lost in the glacier (refer to my Broad Peak diary for the details) and had several very bad falls and slides in the glacier and in crevasses.  The glacier surface was very pitted and rough but when sliding 5m+ on that surface (and also tumbling head over heels) I thought the pants would have been shredded and my skinny butt exposed to the elements (and any paparazzi that may be hanging about J).  To my surprise the pants stood solid, not a mark on them even though I was heavily bruised, light bleeding underneath and sore.  This was a testament to the excellent durable material used and construction that it did not fall apart.  I also believe that I had a few crampon scrapes but I could not see any damage.  Lucky. 

The only improvements that could be made on these would be full length side zips, and possibly a rainbow seat zip (or better still, front to back crotch zip) for quick toilet endeavours.  When in a climbing harness and needing to go to the toilet (suffering from gastro) it took a while to lightly loosen the climbing harness (be careful not to do too much or you can fall out of them!), then slip the waist of the pants down under the harness to leg loops to expose yourself for the much need ‘evacuation’.  It would have been much safer and quicker of there was a waterproof zip to cater for such things…but these are targeted for simple lightweight endeavours, and such features would obviously move them into the technical side of things and see the price increase dramatically.

Overall I was impressed by these and will be using them for future mountaineering and outdoor activities.  I even use them over my motorcycle pants for cold and wet winter motorcycling.  In this way I don’t have to compromise on so-called waterproof motorcycle pants (most will leak) and just buy cheaper and better motorcycle pants and use these Australs as required. 

If you are looking for some lightweight waterproof pants (yet super durable), then you cannot go past these.  I’ve already got my value from them given what they have been exposed to.  Highly recommended.