Arc'teryx Alpha LT 1/2 Bib Pant - Men's

   Retailer Reviews

Gets the job done - but expensive

It's not a burly bib, it's not a simple pant cut that would get all the snow into your thermals after an embarrassing moment on the powder.Proper disclosure: used it only for ski touring/resort skiing and not for climbing (yet).However the 1/2 bib feels rather technical, I don't get much bulk. I wear a small (5'9, 145lb) and it's perfect.The good: * High enough to keep the snow out, not too high to make it uncomfortable. * The reinforcements in the lower parts of the pants definitely protects against skis cutting your pants, however I'm not sure about crampons. * Zippers go all the way up for good ventilation * Altogether a really nice pair of pants for skiing (and probably also climbing), it doesn't feel cheap, the opposite actually, it's Arc'teryx after all * Pretty lightweight I would say, packs nicelyOK, the good stuff, or actually - the bad - this is usually what I like to hear about gear: * NO POCKETS - Why? - no idea. A little pocket on each side could have made it a bit nicer. Where am I supposed to put my phone while I'm BC skiing? (can't use the jacket pockets as they would interfere with the transceiver). * Suspenders suck - they are not really detachable. If you need to go for a number 2, you'll have to supposedly strip down to your thermal shirt, pull down the suspenders, take a number 2, then do everything in the reverse order. Or perhaps maybe I'm missing something. In my old pants my suspenders could have stayed on me, could detach them from the pants - and pull the pants down. Not here - or maybe I'm missing something but I don't believe so. * Black black black - I'm tired of stuff in the color of black. I don't need a zebra/tiger sample on my pants, but red/blue/green would have been much nicer than the boring black. * PRICE - wooohoo, it's $450 for the retail, if you can get it for $350 then it's OK, if it's anymore than that - it's a ripoff in my opinion. It's a good pair of pants, but you don't need to take a mortgage for it.So it gets 3 stars, mainly because it's not perfect (-1) and the price is ultra high (-1). The rest is perfect and I'm enjoying it.