trying to get some long pants for climbing this winter, stuck between the prana axiom jeans and anything mountain khakis...was wondering if the gusset in the MKs allows for the flexibility of the axioms....thanks...

Check out Arborwear. They make pants for Arborists that are basically gusseted Carharts, and WAY cheaper than Mountain Khakis. They have canvas and jeans. Pretty much my favorite pants for climbing if I don't need to be in synthetic clothes.

-Rich

Best bet is 2$ Docker type pants from the thrift store.

being a preppy snob from boulder I only climb in patagonia...

kidding - MKs are great, but stay away from the double kneed reinforced styles they are too stiff to climb in. Same goes for Arborwear and Carhartt.

Patagonia duck pants have been my favorite - until they cheapened up the cotton canvas.

KAVU makes seriously awesome climbing pants with the Chiliwack or chili lights...

Hope that helps

I haven't had any problems with the Mountain Khakis I have while climbing. Most of their pants have a bit of stretch to them, which will help too.

MKs are some of the least durable 'outdoor' pants I've found. I've ripped two pair within a month of owning each, just from climbing/long walkoffs. Go with Dickies, they're 1/4 of the price and more comfortable.

I'm on my 2nd pair of Carharts in 8 years. $10/year for climbing pants seems like a pretty good deal if you ask me.

MK's are fine, but you can get a pair of carhartts from sierra trading post or getz.com etc for like 1/2 of the cost. Takes a while to break in the carhartts, but after several years I finally developed a pencil size hole in the back pocket...very durable.

Only thing with canvas is that it gets very cold and stiff!

I'll go with Carharts. They are cheaper and far more durable than anything from Patagoochi, Gramici and especially Prana. Plus even more important you will avoid the foo-foo all organic Boulder climber look. Not that there is anything wrong with that...

They're only stiff if you wash them!! Otherwise sooo supple.

everybody has an opinion and a favorite climbing anything - just like every piece of advice given here at the old MP - go try em on, lift your knees, bend your legs - squat. Make sure people are staring and then you will find your answer.

Style points count especially in climbing clothing!

Mountain Khakis suck. I had a pair last about 4 months then they blew out it the seat and knee. Total crap product. The best climbing pant I've found is the Patagonia Simple Guide. Not baggy, so you can see your feet, stretchy, super durable, wind/water resistant. Great for alpine stuff when combined w/ long johns. You can find them online sometimes for cheap too. Google/shopping. Carhartt's are good for Vedauwoo or the Creek offwidths, but too bulky/baggy to move fast in. Just my .02

I have had three pairs of mountain khakis since june and I have HUGE holes is all of them. I display myself to the public on a regular basis. Now that it is cold I just wear pajama pants under them so my stuff doesn't shrivel because that is embarrassing. I would say that they are over rated and expensive.

MK are stiff and boardy and they wear pretty quickly, I really like the Arbor wear light climber pant they wear well and give you good flex. My favorite these days are my Levi jeans- $25.00 and wear as well as any climbing pant I have had.

I've had a pair of $70 Mountain khakis that tore after 2-3 months of weekend climbing. There are holes above the rear pocket and the knees. The $10 Dickies that I bought from Walmart are holding strong after a year. MK's fit me pretty well and look nice, unfortunately they are good for light hikes. I won't be buying any more in the future at least not for the price that they sell them at. I've worn other brands too, but won't go into that since this is about MKs. All of the climbing clothes that I use now are cheap, since they get thrashed. The expensive stuff never seems as durable.

Carhartts for trees, Arborwear for crags. I have a funny shirt from Arborwear that says they're "For Climbing Trees, Rocks, or Trees growing out of Rocks"- I've found they don't really hold up for treework though. For rock I like their single knee climber's pant.

Didn't know this was the slam mountain khakis thread...

It's a good company and they back their product, so everybody who hates can just take em back to REI where you got em in the first place...

To much clean white snow all around to be so negative.

i've climbed in MK's a lot and they've held up as well as any other climbing pant i've worn. the gusseting is sufficient for climbing and they've allowed for plenty of mobility up to high steps that are at the threshhold of my flexibility.

my only complaint is that they're soooo high waisted.

Mountain Khaki, if you're reading this, lower the waist line. I don't want to look like an old man hanging out having beers after climbing.

MK waist line causes me to hike them up before getting on a route. They do well then, but if I don't hike them up, there are issues with high-stepping and other moves, because the crotch then remains too low. Mks wear out quickly if you wear them everyday like I do, because I love them that much, but I would never pay retail price for them.

I have a pair of Patagonisyourmoney pants I climb in the summer which I have been extremely happy with both durability and mobility. If you snosealed them they would be perfect.

Glad to see everyone letting out their inner fashionista!

I nominate this thread for the "Most Metrosexual 2009" MP award.

Also nominated for "Tough to Care 2009"

MK's are nice pants - to wear to the office/ work, maybe outside hiking or hanging out at camp, doing yard work. Maybe if you are slabbing it alot they would be good, but if you are climbing cracks - particularly wide stuff - they dont wear well. Pretty much ripped out the seams on the sides of the knees quickly. Same happened to my arborwear pants.

I performed this experiment myself several years ago- bought the double layered knee arborwear pants, single layered knee arborwear, MKs. The single layered arbor wear performed the best, the double layered knee ones pretty much were trashed after one weekend at indian creek. Seems like I wore out the ass of the MK's quickly but that was due to polishing a chair with my ass back then.

Go to your favorite thrift store and buy some nice dress slacks- you can look sexy at the crag that way. It can be cheap.

That or look into some Sporthill type pants - the ones without zippers on the legs- they have a variety of styles and seem to hold up pretty well.

Option 3: you can go back to the old days of lycra and tube socks.

I like my MKs overall, but I prefer non-double-knee Carhartts, primarily because of the price differential. I bought a pair of twills last spring and have probably worn them at least three times a week ever since (with a bunch of bouldering thrown in) and they're great, so I got a pair of the canvas ones, which are considerably better in terms of protecting your knees (I don't climb anything too abrasive though). It's not surprising to see people cragging in jeans (although I prefer the gussets/flexibility/breathability of MKs to denim) but I don't get the $70+ 5.10/Prana jeans.

I'm trying to get a pair of Patagonia Simple Guides for nordic skiing/climbing. They seem well-designed, and all the guides at Exum wear them.