Patagonia Retro Grade Pants Review

I love cotton. All you synthetic wearing hippies out there can have your stinky non-natural fibers. When I’m out climbing, I want to be comfortable, and for me that means cotton. That being said, it can be tough to find a good pair of cotton climbing pants that can stand up to the abuse of scummy trad climbing, which I suppose is why Sonnie Trotter designed the Retro Grade pants for Patagonia.

The Good

The organic cotton/spandex blend offers a great combination of durability and stretch. And of course they have a gusseted crotch, though I wouldn’t really notice if they didn’t, since my feet don’t go higher than my knees anyway. These pants are lightweight, and as such, are best suited to warmer days. If it’s colder, I usually opt for some climbing jeans. The fit is excellent, and despite some initial complaints about the sizing, which runs a bit small, I’ve found they are great even for us long legged folks. While climbing, you’ll hardly notice you have them on, and that’s the point. I’ve found them to be equally suited to everything from cragging, to long multipitch routes on warm days where you want a nice light pair of pants for when the climb goes into the shade.

The Bad

Only two complaints here. Sometimes the draw string seems to chafe a little at the end of a long day, and the side pocket zipper is designed in such a way that it wears out it’s top fabric quite easily. Not sure why they put the zipper where they did, maybe I just scum too much in corners. And as noted earlier, the sizing is a bit off, as I needed a large even though I have a 33 inch waist.

The Bottom Line

These are the kind of pants that I want to buy several pairs of, in case they stop making them. Light, yet durable, they are everything a good climbing pant should be, and you can head straight to the restaurant afterwards thanks to a relaxed styling. Five stars, A+, two thumbs up…