Al testing Arcteryx Stingray Pants at La Grave

We’ve been using these as our winter ski guiding pants down in La Grave this season – ie as good a test as any – skiing continuously in backcountry conditions every day.  These are definitely the best fully waterproof powder skiing pants we’ve ever used.

The first thing that strikes with the Stingray Pants is the cut and attention to detail – the ergonomic leg shape and high cut back are well fitted to a skiing stance, so you don’t have problems with untucked clothing, snow entry, or restriction in movement.  The internal snow gaiters fit neatly over boot tops whilst still allowing buckle adjustment, the instep fabric is incredibly tough (it still hasn’t got a mark on it!) and good length thigh zips allow efficient venting whilst skinning.  Add in two zippered hand pockets, waist adjusters, low bulk seams, plus a recco reflector and you’ve the perfect ski pant – they look great too.

After several weeks on the hill, the other thing that becomes apparent is how hard wearing these pants are.  They are made of Goretex Proshell with a polyamide face fabric – which makes a huge difference to the fabrics durability.  We’ve not only used them for skiing, but alpine climbing on North Faces, where they withstood abuse from crampons, ice screws and rough Chamonix granite.

Gore don’t like this talked about much, but there’s a lot of different ‘flavours’ of Goretex out there that all share the same label (Proshell, XCR, Paclite etc), but there are significant differences in durability between the cheaper polyester faced fabrics and the higher quality polyamide ones.  Arcteryx are known as one of Gore’s most demanding customers in terms of fabric performance and it definitely shows in the quality of the garments: all ski fabrics are tested for snow shedding ability as well as durability etc – rather than chosen by price point, which is what happens with a lot of companies. The end result is that you pay more up front, but get a garment which lasts 2-3 times longer…