Dave tests the TNF Summit Series climbing specific Corona Climbing Pants.

The North Face Men’s Corona Climbing Pant is a Summit Series pant in TNF Apex Universal fabric with a tapered lower leg for unrestricted footwork.

The North Face Summit Series continues to grow and improve and the range has some great pieces for mountain athletes. This season they have produced a rock climbing specific pant that would be suitable in all climbing environments from sport climbing to alpine.

First and foremost for most of us is that the Corona Climbing Pants are a very athletic and slim fitting climbing pant. When I first tried on the size Medium I was a little surprised at the fit as a TNF medium usually fits me perfectly. I am somewhere between a 32” and 33” waist and err to the 33” and although the Corona Pant fitted my waist the seat area felt a little on the tight side, so did the thighs. I don’t know who The North Face have been working with but they must have been on the thin side of athletic.

That said, they have grown on me and the fit is excellent when climbing, I like the low rise waist which is very flat and elasticated with no fastening, so they fit supremely well with a harness on. In fact the Corona Climbing Pants have been designed with a harness in mind, the flat elasticated waist band with a flat drawcord all makes for a comfortable fit. They have a bottom up zip, which I have come across before and although feels weird (as well as everyone telling me my flies are undone) works really well with a harness on.

The tapered leg makes it easy to see your excellent foot work as well as making the Corona Climbing Pants feel much more like a mountain pant than a fashionable ‘hipster’ style climbing pant. The hem is a 1” hem and as the regular leg (32”) is a little too long for me it was good that they turned up well and stayed up. There are also two eyelets on each leg to make bungy stirups in case you want to keep the pants over a pair of mountain boots or approach shoes (handy if you have to cross some snow). I really did like the leg on the Corona Climbing Pants but do be warned they are narrow fitting.

The North Face Corona Climbing Pants are made using The North Face’s Apex softshell fabric. The actual model of fabric is Apex Aerobic, I found it nice and supple to wear, wind resistant and reasonably shower proof with the DWR finish. Like all softshell materials it did leak after a short amount of time, especially if was windy. The knees and seat had a harder wearing weave of the Apex fabric but it was still very stretchy.

The North Face Corona Climbing pants were finished off with two bright green, zipped pockets which I feel didn’t really add much to the style of the pants, there was also a TNF and Summit Series logos. I would have preferred the pockets to be grey like the pants colour but hey, life’s too short for dull colours and if it bothered me that much the range also comes in black.

So, in conclusion The North Face Corona Climbing Pants are a great alpine and mountain pant that worked really well for rock climbing. The Apex Universal fabric was stetchy, the cut was great and if you are on the slimmer side the fit will be good.

Available from: The North Face

SRP: £110.00

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