Topic: The Best Puffer Pants of 2022 (Read 41 times)
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The Montbell Light Down Pants do plenty to keep your legs warm in shoulder season temps while disappearing into your pack as the day warms up.
At 7.1 ounces, the Montbell Light Down Pants are the perfect fit for early-season backpackers and alpine adventurers. I’ve carried earlier versions of the Montbell Light Down Pants everywhere from the High Sierras to the North Cascades and never once regretted the extra weight in my pack. The three ounces of 800 fill power down is enough to keep you warm in 30-degree temps in the evening (or 20-degree temps if you’re on the go), while still co*pressing down to about the size of a pair of socks in your bag when not in use.
While I looked at a pair of the newest model of the Montbell Light Down Pants for this story, I have a pair in my gear closet that I’ve had for close to a decade—it’s picked up exactly one tiny rip in that time, attesting to these puffers’ overall durability.
The low fill weight paired with the side zips and reinforced sections of the pants marks the Kuiu Super Down Ultra Pant the ideal choice when you’re on-the-go
The problem with the best puffer pants is that sometimes they work a little too well—if you’re consistently taking off your puffer pants three minutes into hiking, it might be time to switch to something with a little less fill.
The Kuiu Super Down Ultra Pant hits the sweet spot of performance: better warmth for weight than you’d get out of even the best base layers for hunting (and more packable than fleece) but not so much warmth that you’ll be soaking the down with sweat ten minutes into an uphill climb. It had the lowest fill content of any puffer I looked at (1.7 ounces for an 8-ounce pair), making it appropriate for either early shoulder season conditions or thirty-degree temps when you are on the move. While at first glance it looks like side zips mean you could put on or pull off these puffers without having to take off your shoes, they only unzip from the top to the bottom—you’ll have to unzip these into two separate pieces to take them off in the field without removing your shoes.
While most people choose to wear their puffer pants under other layers of clothing, the KUIU Super Down ULTRA Pant incorporates a thicker 30D nylon at the cuff, knee, and seat for added durability in the event you make this your outer layer.
The ability to customize for your exact size and temperature ratings makes the Goosefeet Gear Down Pants a great option for those who know exactly what they need.
The more time you spend out of doors, the more attuned you get to your exact needs. For a pair of puffer pants, you might have a sense of the exact width and inseam, the exact temperature rating, the features you want, and the ones you don’t. (This goes double for backpack hunters and backpackers.) So if you’ve been scouring this list for a pair of puffer pants that match what’s in your mind’s eye, then you can stop scrolling here.
While the Goosefeet Gear team sent me a pair of puffer pants to test out—Assistant Editor Ashley Thess took them out into the field and was impressed by how durable and co*fortable the 20D nylon was, as well as how warm they were for the weight. However, this configuration isn’t what I would design if I were planning a backpacking trip. For that, I would choose a 20D shell with an 8D liner to save on weight. Next, I would add a pair of 18-inch zips on the side of each leg (Other options include: 24-inch, 30-inch, 36-inch, full-size zips, or full two-way zips, like the Stone Glacier Grumman).
Then you can choose your 850 down fill power weight from 2.5 ounces (early alpine mornings) up to 8.5 ounces (expedition weight). Next, select your waist, hips, inseam (between 20” and 38”), thigh circumference, and calf circumference.
This level of customization is not for everyone, but for serious, weight-conscious adventurers, it’s a must.
The Rab Argon Down Pants kept me plenty toasty while sitting in a deer blind in below freezing temps.
When hunting plans called for getting up well before dawn to sit in a deer blind in 28-degree weather, there was no question which puffer I was going to test: the Rab Argon Down Pants. At 800fp, it didn’t have the highest fill power of the puffers I looked at, but what it lacked in quality, it made up for in sheer quantity. With 5.6 ounces of down packed into its 13.2 ounces, the Rab Argon Down Pants had a bit of the traditional “sausage” look that the puffers of yore were known for. And I was glad of it. With nothing more than a base layer underneath these puffer pants, my legs were honestly warmer than my double-base-layer, down-layer, shell-layer-clad torso.
While the Rab Argon aren’t exactly UL, they are extremely lightweight for their performance. The downside of that is that these lacked some of the functionality of other puffers, like the Stone Glacier Grumman. The only on-off-mechanism is a zip, snap-button, and belt at the waist, making it difficult to both moderate your temperature or remove the pants without first taking off your shoes. Snag a pair of these if you plan to be primarily stationary or if you expect unusually cold temperatures.
The somewhat heavy Stone Glacier Grumman incorporates warmth and on-the-go functionality.
If you spend enough time outdoors, you eventually get used to all the outfit changes. You start the day, frost on the ground, air steaming with breath, wearing basically everything you have with you: base layers, midlayers, insulation layers—maybe even a shell layer. As the sun rises in the sky, you start to peel off the layers until you’re down to your base layer, everything else dumped into your pack. This gets pretty old after a while, especially if you have to take off your shoes each time you want to shed a layer.
While other puffer pants I looked at incorporated some side zip element, the Stone Glacier Grumman took it one step further: Two zips on each side meant that I could pull down the zips at the top as far as I wanted to easily pull the puffer pants up, while zips at the cuffs made it easy to pull the pants on over my shoes. (In fact, it was so easy that when I did finally start overheating at deer camp, I was able to just discreetly pull them off right where I was sitting). Even better, the Grumman stayed warm even when I wasn’t doing anything more physically exerting than sitting perfectly still in a deer blind, providing plenty of heat for this cold-blooded writer during low-40 temps.
After testing six pairs of the best puffer pants in a number of environments, including a December Missouri deer hunt and overnight snowshoe trip, the Outdoor Life gear team was able to identify a number of excellent options for different outdoor scenarios. Anyone looking to keep the weight down in their pack should pick up a pair of either the Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer or the ultralight Montbell Light Down Pants. Conversely, individuals facing the coldest conditions (or who just run cold) should snag a pair of either the Rab Argon or Stone Glacier Grumman or customize a pair from Goosefeet Gear to meet their needs.
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