Rain pants. Now there’s a topic that I am sure many of us have different opinions about!
I almost always wear my rain pants over my hiking pants, except when I am doing laundry in a trail town and rain pants are the only pants I am wearing!
Joking aside, I wear my rain pants over my hiking pants because it’s much easier to put them on and take them off when it starts and stops raining. Think about what a hassle it would be to switch between the two every time it started or stopped raining during the day.
I also wear hiking pants under rain pants because they slow body heat loss when my outer layer is wet. It’s the same reason I wear a fleece sweater or mid-layer under a rain shell in the rain, because it keeps the cold shell fabric off my skin where it can rapidly chill me.
I know a lot of people who don’t hike with rain pants at all. This is really a regional issue; New England weather tends to be much wetter than many places in the western USA where it doesn’t rain or doesn’t rain enough. That’s why I always carry rain pants on hikes, even on day hikes.
Lightweight Rain Pants
Model | Venting | Weight |
---|---|---|
Outdoor Research Helium Rain Pants | Ankle-Zip | 6.7 oz |
Outdoor Research Foray Pants | Hip-Zip (3/4) | 10.7 oz |
REI Trailmade Rain Pants | Ankle-Zip | 7.7 oz |
Rab Downpour Eco 2.0 | Full-Zip | 12.0 oz |
Black Diamond Stormline Stretch | Ankle-Zip | 8.3 oz |
Columbia Rebel Roamers | None | 11 oz |
Marmot Precip Full Zip Pants | Full-Length | 12 oz |
Marmot Precip Eco Boot Zip Pants | Ankle-Zip | 8.1 oz |
Marmot Minimalist | Ankle-Zip | 10.5 oz |
Patagonia Torrentshell 3L Pants | Mid-Thigh | 11.8 oz |
Frogg Toggs Ultralite Pants | None | 5 oz |
Montbell Versalite Pants | None | 3.2 oz |
Montbell Rain Trekker Pants | Knee-length | 6.1 oz |
Lightheart Gear Rain Pants | Ankle-Zip | 3.7 oz |
I always bring rain pants (my current ones are OR Helium) because they are an integral part of my cold weather layering system even when it’s not raining.