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I may be the only person on earth who prefers to hike in long pants (even in summer). I find the grass scratching my legs highly annoying. I have been trying to find some light weight pants to wear, but the only technical pants I can find are skiing pants, and thats not much use in summer! The cheapest skiing pants I have come across are Cape Union Mart's pairs at R400.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to what works? I find the current Mr Price cotton pants I wear (costing the exorbitant amount of R50 per pair ) to be a bit too heavy, they also are cotton, so they don't dry in a hurry. Any suggestions?

You certainly aren't the only one, both ST² and I hike in long pants all year round, and have been doing so since at least 2004. (In fact, I will share a little secret, ST² used to hike in white long john's for many years ) This is not only for the scratching and thorn issue, but also because sunburnt legs behind the knee can not only be annoying, it can be downright painful and dangerous from a dehydration aspect. You also get a ridiculous sock and shorts tan.

We both use Cape Storm Technical pants which are durable (i have been using mine pair since 2005) and have endured a rather extended walk through a thick bramble patch and shrugged them off and numerous long and torturous hiking trips. They have multiple pockets and also zippers from ankle to knee, which means that with a bit dexterity, you can take them on and off over a pair of La Sportiva Makalu's, which are not the smallest boot around. The other good thing is that you can zip these up almost to the knee while hiking and help to vent any heat, a good form of ventilation. They also dry very quickly and can be washed on multi-day hikes and left in the sun for a 10 min or so and will be pretty much dry.

I seem to have a slightly skew walk (from an op on my lower right leg to remove part of one of the three muscles) and my right ankle area has rubbed a raw patch on each inner side of the pants. This has been remedied with two patches of fake leather and they are good to go for another couple of years. I swear by these pants, and would not get anything else. Harsh conditions, bring it on, they rock!

ST² with his Cape Storm Technical pants.

Thanks ST, I'm going to visit Bush and Bundu this morning to see if they have those.

I also hike in long pants. Have 2 pairs of Columbia Titanium pants.
Really can recommend them. They are costly (about R700 a pair), but are very light, SPF 50 sun protection. Good pockets. Have zip off legs and turn into really decent short pants. You can walk through any bush with them without tearing them and getting any scratches on you. They dry extremely fast and you hardly sweat in them. In fact I sweat less in these long pants than shorts.
I would definitely buy another pair, in fact I bought one of their hiking wide brim hats. Excellent!

My wife has a pair of the mountain hardware pants and Columbia titanium pants. She also says that the Columbia Titanium pants are far better than the Mountain Hardware.

You can buy them at Columbia shop (Eastgate) or Due South.


Hope this helps

Cool, thanks Dunmor. Had a bit of a look around today, my conclusions come to the fact that no one stocks any significant amount of hiking pants. The only ones people seem to stock are Capestorm and First Ascent. I'm probably going to go with the Capestorm ones, they seem good.

You refer to caps, I had a look at wickable caps, the only ones that come up are First Ascent ones. How good are these?

Hi ghaznavid

Your question about hats.

For me the most important thing for a hat is:
1. Shades you from the sun and the UV protection for the hat is good. Wide brim and UV protection fabric are important
2. The hat is breathable. You do feel that you need to take it off because you are sweating with it on ie the air flows freely through it and cools you down
3.Its light.

For me if the hat is water proof is not important. For me if its raining then I take my hat off and where my rain jacket.

That's why I went with the wide brim Columbia hat, it met these requirements and it also has fast drying fabric.