Best Hiking Pants for Women

Outdoor Research Women's Ferrosi Pant

The Ferrosi is the pant the rest of this list gets measured against, and OutdoorGearLab picked it as their best overall women's hiking pant. The stretch nylon face fabric is light and quick-drying, blocks wind on an exposed ridge, sheds a passing shower, and carries a UPF 50+ rating. At 255 grams it disappears into a daypack, and the drawcord hem lets you cinch the leg out of the way at a creek crossing. The trade-off is fabric weight: this is a light softshell, not the armoured trekking cloth you get from Fjallraven's G-1000 further down the table.

Outdoor Research Women's Ferrosi Convertible Pant

This is the Ferrosi with zip-off legs, for trips where the morning starts cold and the afternoon does not. You get the same wind- and water-resistant stretch nylon and the same UPF 50+ rating, plus the option to walk out of the zip as shorts without taking your boots off. The zips and extra fabric add about 46 grams over the standard Ferrosi and twenty dollars to the price. Worth it if you genuinely switch mid-hike; dead weight if you know you never will.

Outdoor Research Women's Ferrosi Joggers

Same Ferrosi fabric, cut as a jogger with an elastic waist, an exterior drawcord and a cuffed ankle. Outdoor Research pitches it as an activewear piece rather than a trail pant, and that is the honest framing: it is the one here you would wear to the trailhead, on the plane and out to dinner. It still carries UPF 50+ and the same wind and water resistance as its siblings. The cuffed ankle is the catch, since it traps more heat than an open hem and is harder to push up over a boot.

Patagonia Women's Quandary Pants - Regular

Patagonia's long-running hiking pant, now cut with a mid rise and a slimmer leg. The face fabric is 96 percent NetPlus recycled nylon spun from discarded fishing nets, with a PFAS-free water-repellent finish and a 40+ UPF rating. A cord and button on each leg roll the hem up out of mud, which is a quieter version of what the convertibles here do. Only 4 percent spandex, so it gives less than the softshell pants above, and the 30 inch inseam runs long unless you order the short.

Arc'teryx Gamma Pant Women's

The Gamma is a true softshell rather than a light woven pant, built from Arc'teryx's Fortius DW 2.0 double weave with a brushed backer, and it is the one here you would take into cold wind and wet rock. The waistband uses a low-profile adjuster that sits flat under a harness or a hipbelt, and the cuffs cinch with a drawcord to keep scree out. It is cut trim, which Arc'teryx does deliberately so you can see your feet while climbing, and it is the second most expensive pant in this table. Arc'teryx publishes no UPF rating for it.

Black Diamond Women's Alpine Light Pants

Black Diamond builds this one for mild-weather climbing, and the details follow from that: articulated knees, harness-compatible front zip pockets and cord-lock hems you can pull tight over a boot. The fabric is a four-way stretch nylon-elastane with a DWR finish, and at 15 percent elastane it is the stretchiest woven pant in this table. At 278 grams it sits right in the middle on weight. Sizing stops at 12, which is the narrowest size run here, and Black Diamond publishes no UPF rating.

Fjallraven Keb Trousers Curved W

The Keb is the heavy-duty end of this table and a genuinely different kind of garment: G-1000, a tightly woven polyester-cotton, across the seat, knees and cuffs, with stretch panels where you need to move. You can rub it with Greenland Wax to make it more weather resistant, and long mesh-backed ventilation zips run down the legs for when you overheat. The curved cut is shaped through the hip and seat rather than cut straight. At 584 grams it is more than twice the weight of the Ferrosi and it dries slowly once soaked, which is the price of fabric that will outlast everything else here.

Fjallraven Abisko Trekking Tights W

A trekking tight rather than a pant, for people who hike in leggings but want real pockets and a fabric that survives granite. It is 82 percent polyamide with 18 percent elastane, the highest stretch content in this table, cut with a high waist and four pockets including a map pocket on the right leg. At 256 grams it is among the lightest things here. There is no UPF rating published, and a tight this close to the skin is warmer than a woven pant in still heat.

prAna Stretch Zion Halle Mid Rise Straight Pant

The Halle is prAna's trail pant that reads as normal trousers, which is why it turns up in travel packing lists as often as hiking ones. It is cut from Stretch Zion, a recycled nylon-elastane with a PFC-free water-repellent finish and a UPF 50+ rating, in a mid rise with a straight leg. Roll-up snaps, an interior drawcord and a hidden security pocket are the trail-facing details. Only 5 percent elastane, so it moves less than the softshells here, and prAna does not publish a garment weight.

Mountain Hardwear Women's Dynama Pant

The Dynama is Mountain Hardwear's do-everything stretch pant and the lightest full pant in this table at about 236 grams. The fabric is a plain-weave stretch woven nylon with a water-repellent finish and UPF 50, and the cut is a standard fit that Mountain Hardwear sizes XXS to XL rather than by numeric waist. It is the pant to reach for on a hot approach or a climbing day where you want nothing binding. Light fabric means it is less abrasion resistant than the Keb or the Gamma.

KUHL Women's Freeflex Roll-Up Pant

The roll-up is the middle path between a pant and a convertible: the legs roll and snap to capri length in seconds, with no zips to lose or chafe. KUHL cuts it mid rise and relaxed, which makes it the roomiest pant in this table, and gives it six pockets, a water-resistant PFC-free finish and UPF 50+. It is the pant for people who find hiking pants cut too close. KUHL publishes neither a fabric composition nor a garment weight for it, so two columns here are blank.

Eddie Bauer Women's Guide Pro High Rise Pants

The cheapest pant in this table and the one with the highest rise, which is the point: it sits above the hip so a pack belt does not drag it down. Eddie Bauer builds it from a nylon-spandex with their StormRepel water-repellent finish and a FreeShade UPF 50+ rating, and adds forward-zipping cargo pockets sized for a phone. It comes in regular, plus, tall and petite, the broadest size run here. Only two-way stretch and 5 percent spandex, so it gives less than the softshells, and no weight is published.

The North Face Women's Aphrodite 2.0 Pants

The Aphrodite is the softest and most casual thing here, a herringbone knit-feel fabric with four-way stretch, an elastic drawcord waist and shirred, adjustable leg openings. The North Face rates it UPF 40+ and finishes it with a non-PFC water repellent, and it is triple-stitched at the seams. It is the pant people buy for day hikes, travel and errands rather than for weather. It is also the least technical: no articulated knee, no harness-friendly waist, and The North Face does not publish a garment weight.