Review: North Face pants

Welcome back, readers. I've been a bit slack recently whilst working hard, traveling and generally trying to be a more rounded person. Well, I've had enough of that and its time to get back to Apocalypse Blogging! I like to pack lightly, if I can, at least in regards to what I'll be wearing. SO I often look for clothes that will serve me over several different seasons in one day. Melbourne is like that, and I like being able to move from warm to chill, indoor to outdoor, with ease and still fit in wherever I go. I've been wearing cargo-pants for years now, and cargo-kilts to boot, but last Giftmas, my lovely partner got me a set of these, which are smart looking and add a touch of slacks to my otherwise khaki wardrobe. Here they are on me, the North Face Burke pants in "NEW TAUPE" after a week-long trip to New Zealand for work, and wrangling Triceratops Girl and Tactical Baby on my return. The best parts of these pants are their ease of wearing, and how they handle a variety of use and still coming up looking snappy. I keep my pants up here with my 215Gear Riggers Belt which made it though airport security without having to come off even once, WINNING! The only drawback is the belt loops being a little narrow, I had to detach the male end of the Cobra buckle to feed it through.


So, what can I tell you about the pants? They are made of a 92% Nylon, 8% Elastine blend, which is supple, abrasion-resistant with very good stretching, whilst not feeling like wearing baggy lycra. A cool thing about the fabric is that is has been treated with a Durable water repellent (DWR) finish which I found was able to not only shed the light drizzle and fog I encountered in Wellington, but dried really swiftly when it did become damp. It also stays fairly clean, even after several crammed-into-economy-seat airplane meals and a weeks wear, and baby-dribblings. There are several pockets, which I always find very handy. One great feature of these, are the zippers that are fitted, which are reverse-coil zipped for smooth opening and were cleverly placed so that the zipper head tcked under a hood, out of the way, and snag free. The two front pockets, two at the back and one at the leg feature that zipper closure, and there is a second front of leg, unzippered pocket as well.

I really like being able to stow my needfuls, and have them on-hand when I need them, or just to free up my hands for a moment whilst I breach containment, make up a baby bottle, or crawl under a desk to find loose cabling. I wanted to show you the insides of these pants too. The waist band is Brushed tricot, and is both smooth, soft and grippy, an unusual combination, sure, but helped to keep my shirts tucked in, as well as feeling pretty good on the skin when going topless. You can also see the stitching, which was solid all the way though, and also isn't rough on the skin after prolonged wear. The waist size worked well for me, and was true-to-measure, I tend to get a size or so too wide, and belt up, in order to get legs long enough. The fit around the legs was great, and the range of motion, and their "ride" was really good too. The fabric clung to me knees a bit when clambering over obstacles, but the stretch of the fabric stopped this from slowing me down much. The material is also very light, and surprisingly good at stopping the high winds I encountered in Wellington, crease resistant and roll up nicely to convert these pants into erstwhile shorts when the need arises. They also stayed wrinkle free, which was a super bonus. So, in summary, I can heartily recommend these pans for those who want the functionality of outdoorsy clothes, pockets and durability, but don't wish to look all "tacti-cool" at the office, lab or airport-security line.

Review: 215 Gear Sling

Here is another piece of rugged kit that I have gotten very attached to over the last little while. For the Stargate Lasertag LRP that I do, I had the option of slinging my tagger with laptop bag straps and cable ties, or get something deigned to do the job. This is the 215Gear Ultimate Single Point Sling . This is a heavy duty, made of MilSpec materials, from the inch-wide tube-webbing, and the heavy adjuster buckle (which also has a lanyard hole fitted to act as a draw-pull), down to the heavily shock-corded ends which lead to another of the very impressive Cobra-buckles I covered in the Riggers-Belt I reviewed previously.

The other end of the Cobra-buckle is another piece of webbing, with a loop of paracord, which is offered as a means of attachment to your platform of choice.  The combination of webbing and paracord is billed as assisting in eliminating metal-on-metal noise. What I like about this is that it is possible to detach your slung load, which is always a boon when the chance to sit, rest or pass it on to someone else comes along, but with the cord loop, it is possible to rapidly swap the buckle to a -different- load withiut the need for any tools or adjustment. If it has a lanyard loop, it can be slung with 215Gears sling.

I think this is a pretty cool piece of kit for anyone who is out and about in adventure-land and needs to have something at-hand, which at the same time they can go hands-free with in a moments notice, and back again, with the springiness of shock-cord to get it where you need it at a moments notice, and the durability and survivability of the heavy nylon webbing to give you rock-solid support.

Great addition to my gear, all around.

[edit] I was asked to do a vid-review, so you could see this in action, so, here goes....

Review: 215Gear Ultimate Riggers Belt

I've been wanting a decent, MilSpec belt for some time now. Something I could wear day to day, and not look like too much of a dork with metal grommet-ed webbing everywhere. I frequently carry a number of things on my person, often on my belt. Drink bottles, hammers, axes, phone, small satchels, my coyote tail (no, really). All kinds of things, time to time. I'm very fond of going "hands free", and having a belt dig into my boney hips one too many times led me to do some research. I managed to find something that fit not only my aesthetic visually, but also met my desire for a rugged, dependable and multipurpose item. A Riggers Belt.

Following a link I saw online, I was lead to 215Gear, who's Retention Lanyard I reviewed recently and settled on their "Ultimate Riggers Belt" over the slightly less awesome but still impressive looking "Enhanced" version. Both belts are made from parachute quality webbing, and "7 Class sewn" throughout. The webbing is doubled for most of the belt, and is adjustable via a full width and very long hook-and-loop band which feeds through the male end of the very spiffy anodized aluminium "Cobra Buckle" which has a quick release safety lock, which if I read correctly, has a 9kN rating by itself, with the whole belt rated at 18kN. (NB if you are baffled by what all these load ratings really -mean- have a read of this document, essentially, anything more than 12kN is going to mess your body up, but the belt will hold). That's good enough for me! It should be good enough for anyone who doesn't have a T-800 endoskeleton. 

Apart from the awesome buckle (which I feel the need to add, has confused some testers when trying to undo it), being a Riggers Belt, it features a bunched loop hole for use an an attachment and anchor point for a carabiner for a Retention Lanyard, accessories, or in a pinch, an emergency rappelling/belay point as demonstrated by the awesome team at ITS in this clip. 

The only drawback I have found with this belt is that the buckles are quite wide, and I've had trouble wearing it with some pants with sewn on loops. I -could- detach the male end buckle and feed the belt, reattach it and off I go, but its just been too much effort. Similarly, the belt is too wide for my multitool pouch's belt-loop, so I have to pocket that when I wear this belt. Again, I -could- adjust, just laziness on my part. 

Awesome, awesome piece of gear. I'd stake my life on it. I probably will, soon enough.

Review: 215Gear Retention Lanyard-Frog Zero

I've done some pretty interesting and dubiously safe adventuring, mostly climbing up things and places that were not necessarily intended to be reached. Over the years I have put together a reasonable set of gear and kit for doing so, but one thing I've lacked is a dedicated retention lanyard. I've always made do with loops of webbing, lengths of rope and Expresses. I finally found a purpose made piece of kit to include when I venture up high things or perch somewhere I might be inclined not to fall off. This is the Operators Retention Lanyard by 215Gear. 

These guys make some no-nonsense nylon gear, and look to fill some niches that other suppliers tend to glaze over, in comfort, safety and K9 equipment. I especially liked their range of options for fittings, which are all high quality brands which they have fitted to their own well tailored nylon. This particular lanyard is made from 1" MilSpec tubing rated to 4,000lbs (1814kg), heavily constructed with eight, 42 stitch bartacks and is offered with empty loops, or fitted several different combinations of options. For example, I've currently fitted the empty loop end of mine with a 600kg rated Kong carabiner, but also have a higher rated carabiner which i swap out if I know I am likely to be experiencing higher fall risks. The other end has something quite special.

Here's what is on the grabby end; a Kong Frog which is an awesome piece of engineering, giving a 26kN safety rating (equivalent to 5,850 lbs, or 2653kg) to a one-handed attachment system when will lock down on whatever you can reach, even at what would normally be beyond safe carabiner reach. One drawback of the Frog is that the "jaws" are a little narrow and it will not fit over any of the random things I have tried, like my larger carabiners, but it does "bite" my 11mm static line, as well as this rope which I've previously used as a retention lanyard.

I really like this lanyard, and whilst have not had an instance where its full potential was tested, the fact it sits at 17 inches long and stretches to 26 inches means that I can hook myself up, have room to play, and be able to get physical feedback when reaching that limit, AND then give a little bit more slack for either squirming to reach something, ducking out of the way of something, or just pure shock-absorption. All in all, a very satisfying, compact, solid and dependable feeling piece of kit.