Gamma Lt Pants and Shell

I'm looking to upgrade my kit this season and think I'm gonna go with the Gamma Lt Series. Any feedback would be great!

So, gotta say, Arcteryx just made a change to that line, and I think it's for the worse.  The material seems a little thinner and less durable than past iterations, but they're still good pants.  The first pair I ever got were perfect.  Then again, I have long thin legs and they USED to make pants for long, thin legs.  Now they're a little baggier and not quite as durable imo.  Probably still worth it in the long run, but time will tell.  I have a few pairs of Gamma LT pants, and the oldest ones are still like new.  I use them in the gym, cragging, including chimneys, sport routes and bouldering.  I've been wearing them for about 4 years now.  I only have the pants though, not aware of any other Gamma LT offerings.  Hope this helps.

Jake Jones wrote:

So, gotta say, Arcteryx just made a change to that line, and I think it's for the worse.  The material seems a little thinner and less durable than past iterations, but they're still good pants.  The first pair I ever got were perfect.  Then again, I have long thin legs and they USED to make pants for long, thin legs.  Now they're a little baggier and not quite as durable imo.  Probably still worth it in the long run, but time will tell.  I have a few pairs of Gamma LT pants, and the oldest ones are still like new.  I use them in the gym, cragging, including chimneys, sport routes and bouldering.  I've been wearing them for about 4 years now.  I only have the pants though, not aware of any other Gamma LT offerings.  Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Tim Wheatley wrote:

Thanks!

You bet.  You're welcome man.

Consider the Gamma Lightweight pants unless you really need the added warmth. My lightweights are my go-to cragging and bouldering pants and seem to be invincible so far. A friend of mine has the LTs and has seen a lot of pilling and scrapes on his; mine are the same age and same uses and have a single pulled thread where I snagged them on a whole cactus.

Elijah Benson wrote:

Consider the Gamma Lightweight pants unless you really need the added warmth. My lightweights are my go-to cragging and bouldering pants and seem to be invincible so far. A friend of mine has the LTs and has seen a lot of pilling and scrapes on his; mine are the same age and same uses and have a single pulled thread where I snagged them on a whole cactus.

Im really looking to use these for ice so I'm not sure the lightweight version would be durable enough.

My Gamma AR's (95% sure they're the AR...) are like 7 years old at this point. They have two holes, both from crampons (in their defense, I rarely wear crampons, was in Europe, jetlagged, and nervous) but other than that, nary a scuff, scratch, rip, or tear. They are worn near daily to the gym in the winter, are my go-to for alpine climbing, and most trad climbing outside of the height of summer. They have been used and abused and have held up better than I ever imagined possible.

I don't see the LT version listed on the Arc site anymore, looks like they are now moving away from the LT, AR, MX, etc naming convention. That being said, you want the lightweight version for ice?

Ninja edit: the holes were patched with some tape-type product at their new Boulder location free of charge. Haven't used them since I got them fixed, but it looked well done. They have some heaters to heat the material and the tape, then clamp it down hard while hot to really help the glue bond. 

I feel Arcteryx has been drifting away from its original design philosophy, and most of their products are now intended to be worn to the mall and back, lol. 

Last spring I picked up a pair of BD Alpine trousers to replace the old MH Winter Wander - these have accumulated their fair share of crampon holes since 2006(?). Been using an OR Ferrosi jacket for ice and XC skiing. For colder days, just bought a Kailas Powershield O2 softshell - its material resembles the old Arc Gamma MX, and I am very curious how it is going to behave.