UKC

Hi all, I have booked in on a winter skills weekend at PYB. Although the weather is unfortunately not looking very wintry at the moment I still need to buy some trousers.

I could just take my snowboarding salopettes, but they feel quite bulky and unwieldy. I do have cheap waterproof trousers for summer walking, but they are quite uncomfortable and not breathable. Can anyone recommend me some makes/types which will be good for the weekend and beyond?

Thanks

In reply to louiesmith: There are a wealth of good options... However, given that you've just booked onto a skills course, You probably don't want to go and pay a fortune for all singing all dancing... Just yet!

On the basis of that assumption, a cheap softshell trouser will do the job admirably, Decathlon's Bionnassay range have a couple of good options at reasonable prices.

In reply to louiesmith:

I used to wear vapour rise trousers when i first got into winter stuff. Really good and good value.

You can pick up some bargains on ebay tho dont forget, i recently got some winter Marmot goretex proshell salopettes used once for £40.

Just spend a while looking.

Wearing snowboard pants, you will roast lower down the hill and sweat a lot, reducing your performance. Do PYB not hire some kit out? I know at Glenmore Lodge you can borrow softshell pants for free.

thanks guys, I'm going to try out some rab vr trousers at my local shop tomorrow... I like the look of the decathlon trousers, but I'm not sure I found the correct ones on their website, it's quite confusing with lots of similar named brands!

In reply to louiesmith: I was on a winter course a couple years ago and got myself some haglofs softshell trousers ( can't remember model). Did fine in them but they were far too warm for anything but winter.
Recently got myself some Rab neoshell trousers, halfway between softshell and hardshell, totally waterproof, stretchy, very breathable and I just wear baselayer leggings underneath.
I tend to overheat rather than get cold though.
If I'm fairly sure that I'm going to be in the snowline without much rain/water I'll just get any softshell trousers like the VR or if I can afford, something like the mammut base jump.
Otherwise I'll stay in my waterproof neoshell.

Another one to consider is paramo, which is great in winter, depending again on how cold it is and how warm you run. Slightly heavy/bulky at times.