The Solution Pants are a hugely impressive offering from British brand Montane. I can’t think of any other waterproof trousers out there that strike the balance between performance, price and also sustainability so well.
Released alongside the Solution jacket from Montane, both products are made from an excellent three-layer fabric called Pertex Shield Revolve. This is a polyester face fabric, membrane and backer that’s derived from recycled materials (100%, 75% and 100% respectively) and that’s designed to be recyclable too. Alongside this, a solution dyeing process is used in its creation. This means that the fibres used to form the garments are dyed before they’re woven together – normally they’re dyed after. What’s good about this is that it’s less water and energy intensive and it also results in more colourfast garments.
Performance
The Pertex Shield Revolve membrane feels like a slightly thinner version of Gore-tex Pro. It’s certainly protective against wet weather – it feels bombproof in that regard – and I’ve also been impressed by the levels of breathability too.
OK, membrane-lined trousers are always going to feel a little bit clammy, but I had to run about a mile back to my car while wearing these (I’d forgotten something) and they didn’t turn into sopping wet sweat buckets, which is always nice. The backer fabric has a smooth feel to it too, so it’s reasonably comfortable to wear against the skin if you have to – if, say, you need to pull the trousers on over shorts.
Details
There’s a ¾-length zip down each leg which makes these very easy to pull on or take off quickly, even when you’re wearing hiking boots. With just a standard pair of boots I had no problem. It’s a little bit trickier with chunky alpine trekking boots (like the Zamberlan 226 Salathe Trek, which I tried them with) but it’s still doable.
