Marmot Oracle Pant

I completed a month and a half of sea kayaking and mountaineering in Chilean Patagonia from March through mid-April. I am normally very pleased with all of my Marmot gear, but these were useless to me.

One of the recommended uses on the Marmot website is mountaineering and the fabric is not tough enough to deal with any serious hiking or mountaineering. These pants tore open with every small slip while climbing over moraine. I am not talking about major falls where I would expect most fabrics to tear, but normal slips that always happen while climbing over slippery rocks. They also tore numerous times while bushwacking through trees and scrub.

After several in-field repair jobs, I gave up and resigned myself to being wet - and carrying around a useless piece of gear for weeks. They would probably be fine for normal hiking on well maintained trails, but they are not tough enough for serious pursuits.

Bottom line: do not buy these if you are considering any serious hiking or mountaineering. Marmot should be embarrassed for even suggesting that these would be appropriate for mountaineering.

"It's completely waterproof alright", but that's it. No lining. If you are wearing the pants over your bare skin, it's horrible, especially if the weather is cool to cold, and sticky like hell if the weather is warm. The fabric is so thin, because the pants are supposed to be light, one must take extra precaution not to tear it down.

I would expect from Marmot to design and produce a more sturdy piece of equipment. For the price you will pay to buy these pants, you can get much better ones. I do not recommend it.

I work for a guiding company and we have used these for several years in outfitting. They do need some care but they are excellent, lightweight and surprisingly tough. We have only had to repair 2/3 from 40/50!!!! The reinforcement is in the right places. I wouldn't recommend them for off track but great trail pants, good price for a well designed, high spec overpant. On sale, you could buy several pairs for the cost of gore and they will likely outlast. I agree that they are not much fun on bear legs but then what rain shell is?

They do what they claim. Tough, well fitted, completely waterproof, long enough not to ride up when seated. Recommended.

Breathes through PreCip laminate, which is well though not as well as the Teflon laminates costing three or four times as much. The suspenders can be removed if desired. Full side zip but covers with a traditional storm flap rather than the trendier PU coated zippers, therefore slightly bulkier. These would double well as spring ski pants or similar.