My Rab Calibre pants are more or less on death's doorstep after several winters of use and I'm looking for a replacement. I did momentarily replace them with the Rab Winter Torque pants but on day one, these got a big L-tear from a brush with a pretty innocuous branch in Smugglers' Notch, the likes of which the Calibres went toe-to-toe with hundreds of times. I thought these would be nice for the money I paid, but it seems like Rab's proprietary fabrics can't really step to good old powershield. So I guess durability is important, but I also liked how they seemed to work very nearly as well as a hardshell at keeping out wind and moisture.
Any recommendations for a good, all-around softshell pant to get these days? Even better, anybody have a pair of size small Calibres they would part with?? Thanks!
Here in the northeast, I use the Rab Ascendor pants and find them pretty good - tough and weather resistant. I also like the ME Kinesis pants - they are lined with the same material that the Kinesis jacket uses and are warm and tough. The ME Ibex pants are pretty good too.