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.
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.
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.
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