"I wear 5.11 Tactical "TacLite" cargo pants. Love them"

I have a couple of pairs of those and wear them for overseas travel and also martial arts training. They are quite good for those purposes.

For general outdoors use I prefer pants that are heavy weight cotton. Mostly I work in hot climates and cotton is excellent for wicking moisture and staying dry. I just have not been able to find good new cotton cargo pants that are well made and durable.

Pete2

I like these Winter weight trousers;

http://www.haglofs.com/en-us/products/cl...pant_en-us.aspx

They are very durable and are wind proof. They are a little bit expensive but they should be durable enough to justify the price.

I will pay for quality,I HATE paying for quality and getting junk.

Given my durability needs of my pants, it would appear that most synthetic pants FAIL. While appropriate when wet, they do not last in a rough environment. Workpants would apparently be the epitome of durable pants and virtually ALL are cotton. There appear to be SOME cotton/polyester blends but only a few.

Looking at both 5.11 and Duluth Trading, the pants listed as DURABLE (e.g. fire hose) are cotton. Synthetic pants are NOT listed as being durable.

On another note, Ray Mears is a fan of Ventile outerwear coats which apparently is a cotton canvas that is largely only available in Great Britain. This is in apparent contradiction to "cotton kills." It apparently swells and becomes waterproof but I am unable to find much information about its availability in the USA. Anybody familiar with this?

Thanks.
Conway Yee

Orvis can supply single Layer Ventile Trousers in the USA.

http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=39PY

Wow! $300 for a pair of pants??? I don't think I can afford it.

Conway Yee

At one time, 5.11 offered the same pants (their original model) in either cotton twill or in a stout nylon fabric. I had a pair of each and wore them in the field. One of the cotton types ripped (through the fabric, not along a seam) on their first outing. The other cotton pair got so ratty and faded that my darling spouse (AKA the Domestic Supervisor) threw them out a few weeks ago. The nylon varieties are still in my work wardrobe; the pockets need patching, but they are otherwise unimpaired.

I have a pair of the Duluth Fire hose cotton canvas pants; I like them a lot and they are tough, as advertised, but I would hesitate to wear them in an extreme environment, especially cold and wet; I would shift to synthetics in a heartbeat.

Granted, I've never even tried on a $300 pair of pants, but surplus BDUs have never failed me. They're comfy, protective, durable, and for my money, very cost effective. YMMV.

That's a good point. I recall Les Stroud has a discussion about this in his book Survive; the benefits & trade offs of gear made with newer technical materials over more traditional ones. The latter definitely wins in the durability department.

That said, I have a pair of Exofficio outdoors pants that are a cotton / synthetic blend with a DWR coating that are perhaps a bit of a compromise. Kuhl is another brand of outdoor pants I've looked at that seem to have a good range of cotton, cotton blend and synthetic options that might be worth checking out.

I don't quite buy that as a universal concept. I don't think that newer materials/designs are automatically less durable than old school gear. It all depends on what weight of material was used, how well it was designed, and how well it was constructed. Just as hikermor noted above, I have blown out old school cotton pants in a single season of doing field work.

The "Winter Wander Pants" I mentioned earlier seem to stand up well. And they aren't $300 either. They actually sell for about $100. See a review at http://seattlebackpackersmagazine.com/mountain-hardwear-winter-wander-gear-review/

Cotton has it's place, to be sure. But having grown up in the Pacific Northwest and lived the last couple of decades in Alaska, I don't use cotton for serious outdoor activities in wet and cold climates.