These pants were purchased on closeout to replace Colombia Shell Pants. The pants are great, they look great and work well. I use them for snowsports (snowboarding) which is their intended use. They were only $150 retail so I wasnt expecting the performance of $500 mountaineering pants. I was pleasantly surprised, however because they have up 'til now they have been dry and durable. A good buy, especially now that they have apparenly been discontinued and are now about $60 or $70 at the ems website.

Customer Service

I have heard that the North Face's support department is less than stellar, but clothing warranties are pretty superfluous, because all clothes wear out eventually and manufacturers defects are hard to deal with if the defect is spotted far into a products effective life. The North Face makes quality products that hold up well, but no outerware will last forever.

Similar Products Used:

EMS nylon shell pants, Colombia Sportswear snow pants

i regret this purchase.tnf has experienced such inner termoil from changing their distributing headquarters at least twice in the past several years to massive personal changes. the are no longer product oriented but they have a popular name god knows why
i work in a camping store and should have known better i got them because they fir the best over my clothes. they do stuff nice and small but no leg zips just velcro closure which makes it hard to throw on quickly over hiking boots in a suddden storm. no problems with leakage even at the seams but so are plastic garbage bags which they resemble as far as breathability ie none
when i bend down the balloon out until the air slowly is forced through the seams i recently got caught in a rain shower while hiking in yellowstone allthough i didnt get wet from the rain i was drenched from perspiration absolutly zero breathablity as with all tnf crap you pay for the name and not product quality

Customer Service

horrible response time it takes them five times longer to get products shipped out than any other company
too many recent personal changes for them to be familiar with good company techniques and policies

Similar Products Used:

arcteryx, marmot, siera designs, mountain hardware, patagonia