Review: Berghaus Paclite Waterproof Pants

                                                                  - Product provided by outdoorkit.co.uk for the purpose of review - 

Lightweight, strong and reliable... A few buzzwords for the Berghaus Paclite Pants. Now for a little more detail...

The basics:

• Made with Goretex Paclite Helium fabric
• 185g weight
• 3/4 zip
• RRP of £100

First impressions:

As with most orders of technical equipment these days I always think they've forgotten to pack the kit because the bag is so light! Straight away I got the familiar feel of Berghaus quality with these pants, no loose stitching or manufacturing errors to be seen. A true sense of fit to size - I went for XL with a 38" waist and they fit perfectly, it's easy for brands to be over eager with an elastic waist and create a "one-size-fits-all" product which doesn't provide a technical fit, Berghaus have avoided this problem. 

On the hill:

The pants arrived around mid July and I was itching to get them out on Dartmoor to see what they could do, unfortunately, heatwave threats from the weatherman meant I had to wait until a stormy August before the heavens opened with some beautiful British rain. 

With a big grin on my face I headed out into the pouring rain while others hid in their cars...

Initially I was worried about the "lite" aspect of the pants, I've never been one to count grams with kit and I wondered how much damage shaving a few hundreds grams off could make when it came to waterproof trousers. 

There was no need for me to worry, the pants exceeded expectations and kept me 100% dry out in the rain with the water beading and running off well. After the rain, the trousers performed well, quickly drying out allowing them to go back into a rucksack and keeping you comfortable on the hill. They were breathable, not mind blowing, but definitely there - what's the point of overtrousers if there's condensation making your trousers wet while walking? This is a common drawback with "lite" equipment, sacrificing technical benefits like breathability to save weight.

When not being worn the pants pack up into a very small ball which can easily be put into a large pocket or rucksack. If you're going for an lightweight or ultralightweight setup where space and weight are priority then these pants will save on both. 

Packed up Paclite Pants... That's a lot of P's. Fruit Pastilles for scale!

Overall I was very impressed with how well the Berghaus Paclite Pants performed under testing Dartmoor conditions. No rain got in and there was enough breathabilty that the pants didn't feel uncomfortable even with the sunny spells between showers. My main concern with the Paclite Pants is the longevity of such a lightweight material - how much of beating can they take compared with other technical fabrics? 

Quickfire review...

Positive points:

• These pants pack away to a very small size and are very light.
• Reliable material, goretex is famous for maintaining its waterproof ability.
• Quick drying, allowing you to pack the pants away and keep comfortable. 

Not-so-positive:

• "lite" pants means they can't take knocks like traditional goretex can.
• Less breathable then some other lightweight overtrousers.

Summary:

The biggest selling point of these pants is the lightweight and space saving aspect of the Goretex Paclite material, the drawback of this is the loss of breathability and robustness. Personally I think it's worth it if you can look after the pants and make full use of the 3/4 zip to help the water vapour leave the trousers.

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Thanks for reading, please share with anyone you know looking for new waterproof trousers.

Thanks to outdoorkit.co.uk for providing the Berghaus Paclite Pants for the review, if you're interested in buying the Pants then they're currently 20% off of RRP on their website.

If you want more information about the Paclite Pants please don't hesitate to tweet me, @PaulWRickard.

Or you can contact OutdoorKit through their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Thanks again,

Paul Rickard