Patagonia Galvanized Pant 6 month review

This review is a few years late, especially given that the Galvanized Pant is no longer part of Patagonia's line-up, but I wanted to share my experience with this pant.

The Galvanized Pant is lightweight, stretchy, and form fitting. It's advertised hardshell like capabilities are as advertised, though the fabric itself is prone to tears and punctures, and is not quite as durable as one would hope from a pant designed for mountain use. 

I picked these pants up off the Patagonia worn-wear website in late 2022, with the intention of having them replace two previous pairs of Patagonia pants that were deemed non-repairable by the Patagonia repair team. The steep discount of these pants from 329$ to 160$ seemed like a steal, and the initial price point indicated to me a few more years of use than my other worn out, and cheaper garments.

The pants worked great for ice climbing and a bit of skiing, and even some light mountaineering. The crampon holes in the fabric, I learned to live with as they were pretty easy to repair with some tenacious tape and Aqua-Seal. However, after no more than a few months of use, and only a week or two of long mountain days, the pants have started to fall apart at the seams. With the internally welded pockets being the first to go, and now the crotch seam at the back of the legs. 

For a pant designed for mountain use I was hoping to at least get a few seasons out of these, and from a company that markets itself as aggressively green as Patagonia does, I would expect durability to be a key design element in the production of their gear as a means of helping to reduce global waste.

Durability aside, for an Alpine pant it had many attractive design features. A drop seat that also acted as side zips to vent heat. A baggy fit around the butt to allow freedom of movement on the approach, waterproof, stretchy, light, all good things. But for everything it got right, it seemed to have something to offset those good choices. The suspenders were removable, which seemed odd given that the pants have no belt loops. This meant that every pitch of high-step climbing would be followed by reattaching the suspenders at the belay, as they would inevitably come unclipped. The pants cuffs had no reinforcement, perhaps to save weight, perhaps as an oversight. This lead to the frequent crampon gouging that would occur when walking off a climb in ankle deep snow. Additionally with no ankle zips, the pants were limited to use with mountain boots, as fitting them over ski boots was a pain.

The search for the perfect pant continues 

Thanks for the review!

Maybe try the Arc Sigma AR next? Also discontinued, but can be found on their regear website for cheap. Pretty happy with mine so far