Outdoor Research Ferrosi Pants Review: Versatile Workhorse Tested Hundreds of Days

At some point along the way over the last 20 years, there has been a subtle (or maybe not so subtle) shift to hyper-specialized outdoor gear. I became acutely aware of this last year when I was in the market for a backcountry ski pack.

But, every time I walked into my garage and looked at all the hooks with various backpacks hanging on them, I felt a pang of guilt — and it was difficult to justify purchasing another backpack based on the number that I already owned. I have specialized packs for backpacking, alpine climbing, day hiking, trail running, fastpacking, sport climbing … and the list goes on.

With this in mind, it’s nice when you occasionally find an outdoor piece of clothing or gear that does a handful of things pretty well. The Outdoor Research Ferrosi Pants ($99) fit squarely into that category.

In short: I purchased my first pair of Ferrosi pants 7+ years ago, and since that time, I’ve spent hundreds of days in them backpacking, rock climbing, backcountry skiing, day hiking, mountain biking, doing yard work, and they’ve occasionally made an appearance at the office or on a date with my wife. They are, without a doubt, one of the best pieces of outdoor clothing that I own, and despite 7 years of hard use, they’ve still got a lot of life left in them.

Compare the Outdoor Research Ferrosi Pants with the best hiking pants for men.

Outdoor Research Ferrosi Pants Review

Features

I recently picked up a new pair of Ferrosi pants and have put them through the paces over the past few months. This includes several summer and fall backpacking/fly fishing trips in the Colorado Rockies and Kings Canyon National Park in California. Along with this, they’ve been out on a bunch of day hikes, a handful of climbing days, and even a cross-country ski trip or two.

In recent years, the folks at OR made a few small updates and tweaks to the Ferrosi pants, which made an already awesome pant just a little bit better. First, they moved the thigh pocket zipper from a vertical orientation, which made it difficult to get items in and out of it (I had a few close calls with my cellphone on multipitch rock climbing adventures!), to horizontal. This makes it that much easier to retrieve items from this pocket.

They also added a drawstring at the waist, which allows for microadjustments — we appreciated that on days when we weren’t wearing a belt.

Finally, a note on the fit. It’s rare to find men’s outdoor pants that come in even and odd waist sizes. Outdoor Research makes the Ferrosi pants in both, and this is appreciated for those of us who just don’t seem to fit into the even sizes very well.

Versatility

The secret sauce with these pants is that they do a lot of things well. Despite hundreds of days spent bushwacking through manzanita or scraping up off-width climbs in places like Joshua Tree National Park that tend to quickly reveal any sort of durability shortcomings, the Ferrosi pants show almost no signs of wear after a lot of years of hard use.

While most of my other hiking pants have small holes or tears from an errant stick, sharp rock or glissading on icy snow, my 7-year-old Ferrosi pants still look great.

Although these shine in most moderate temperatures, the fit easily allows for a light or midweight base layer underneath for skiing or alpine climbing days when the temps dip below the 30s. On a recent late fall backpacking trip in the California desert, I wore these for 6 days straight in temps that were up in the mid-70s during the day and 20s at night. They provided just the right amount of sun protection during the hot days and warmth during the cold mornings.

Price Tag

At $99, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better pair of outdoor pants, especially anything that will last as long and give you so much versatility. Sure, you could buy a pair of specialized pants for your next climbing trip in the North Cascades or your summer backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail.

Or you could pick up a pair of Ferrosi pants and have a single piece of clothing that you can wear backpacking, climbing, canyoneering, or day hiking, and 8 to 10 years from now, they’ll still be going strong and won’t be out of style.

Critiques

There is very little that can be said in the critical column for these hiking pants. With that said, I learned the hard way a few years ago that their water repellency has its limits.

I was leading an early spring mountaineering course in Mt. Lassen National Park in northern California, and on our final day out, we started hiking in cold and rainy weather. Over the course of a few hours, it turned to heavier rain with a bit of wind.

By the time we finally made it to the National Park visitor center, my base layer underneath was completely soaking wet and my mountaineering boots were literally filled with water. There’s a time and place for water-repellant pants — 37 degrees and hard rain is the right time for a pair of waterproof/breathable hardshell pants.

Conclusion

If you live in the mountains or spend most of your weekends and free time clamoring to spend more time hiking, climbing, caving, backpacking, and biking — and you don’t have an endless budget to purchase another pair of specialized pants for your activity of choice — then, take a look at the Outdoor Research Ferrosi pants.