First Ascent Heyburn Pants Review

Can you say Primoloft in all the right places?  First Ascent by Eddie Bauer sure can with the First Ascent Heyburn Snow Pants.  Primoloft is a down alternative insulation that is lightweight, compact, and keeps you nice and toasty.   With backcountry ski guides to help with the design of the Heyburn Pants, First Ascent has done a great job with putting together a pair of insulated ski pants.  Now most insulated ski pants are insulated throughout the entire pant, but in this case, the designers decided to put the insulation in the places where it counts most.  Those places with Primoloft insulation include the seat of the pants and from the knees down to the shins.  The rest of the insulation in the pants is a mesh like fleece material that doesn’t allow for too much fabric and warmth.

Now I wouldn’t recommend using the Heyburn Pant for all conditions as I found them to get a little too warm while skiing in warmer conditions.  When Temperatures were 25 and below, I thought the pants had a good temperature regulation. In case you get a little warm, the Heyburn has vents on the inside of both legs that go from the crotch of the pants down to just above the knee.  As with most higher end ski and snowboard pants, the Heyburn Pants are waterproof, in this pant, First Ascent uses its own WeatherEdge PRO, so whether you are in waist deep in powder at Vail or skiing or snowboarding in wet snow elsewhere, you are sure to stay dry. To keep snow from getting up your cuff, the Heyburn has a built in gator that fit over all the boots we tried them with.  This is also a feature that is fairly standard in most higher end snow pants, but I find it a must.

If you’re looking to stash your phone, wallet, camera, or a sandwich, there are 4 water resistant pockets on the front of the pants for easy storage.  Two of these pockets have a bungie style cord for keys and other important things to attach. There is also a mesh pocket within one of the pockets, but we haven’t found that much need for the pocket.  The Heyburn pants are equipted with the RECCO system that is typically used as the last resort for finding someone caught in an avalanche.  For more information on the RECCO system, please visit Recco.com

All in all, I found the Eddie Bauer First Ascent Heyburn pants to have a good functional fit and they are a great option for cooler weather skiing.  The Heyburn Pants retail for $249 which I find to be an average price for a high end ski pant with similar technology and features. For more information, please visit www.eddiebauer.com/