Eddie Bauer First Ascent Igniter Pants

First Ascent's Primaloft insulated pants. I purchased these to use for extremely cold hiking and climbing days, and also to use around camp and minimalist sleeping in cold weather.

These pants turned out to be quite disappointing. The insulating value of the pants was OK and they worked OK for staying warm, but the insulation was definitely on the thin side.

The fit of the pants was not good. First Ascent has only one length of pant - - which I'd call pretty long - - and jumps the waist size from 32-34 in Medium to 36-38 in large. That would be OK but First Ascent does not include a feature that would allow some adjustment to the waist size or alternatively perhaps an elastic waist - - a feature found on pants in brands like Patagonia and North Face.

The legs are cut very large around as well, I would imagine First Ascent wanted to allow for a lot of gear underneath, but I think they over did it. With the fit I have - - a 35 inch waist and 30 inch inseam - - the pants were annoyingly bulky and the wast was too large (the Medium size was way too small).

Overall these did not meet my expectations and seem to be a lot less thought out than some of the other very good items in the First Ascent line (see my other reviews).

-g

I just acquired these, and agree about the fit in terms of leg girth. I have three different models of FA pants. The ski bibs, the mountain guide softshell pants, and the Igniter Pants. All claim to have the same sort of fit, but the bibs have a huge amount of space in the upper leg area, while the fit is similar in the igniter pants, but the softshell pants fit perfectly.

I would have expected the Igniter Pants to have fit snugly, using the insulation to fill the space.