Kuhl Frost Softshell Pant Review: Best Women’s Hiking Pants?

Pros / Best Features

High-quality and well-made

Kuhl is a brand that I am very familiar with and have loved for a while. I know that all of their stuff is great quality, and the Kuhl Frost Softshell Pants are no exception. The stitching and fabric used to make these pants feels very high-quality and is definitely more technical than the fabrics used in some of the brand’s more casual pants options.

Due to the types of hikes I prefer, I usually gravitate toward more technical clothing and fabrics to ensure I stay warm and dry in all different weather patterns that exist at varying altitudes. Even during some of Washington’s warmest weather months, there could be snow above the 7,000 ft. mark. And considering many of my hikes take place on trails at higher altitudes, durability and overall fabric quality is extremely important to me. I wore these pants on several hikes ranging from sea level to 4,000+ ft, and they held up great!

Extremely soft thermal lining

The lining of these pants is seriously one of the softest linings I’ve ever felt in my entire life. No lie. The interior thermal fabric feels amazing against the skin, and it also glides over base layer pants or leggings pretty easily.

Aside from them being super soft, they also provide a good amount of warmth. During my Heather Lake hike, temperatures were in the low 30s (F). I didn’t wear base layer pants on that hike, and yet my legs still felt nice and toasty. I even used the zippered leg vents at one point to release a little heat while going uphill so I didn’t overheat.

With the added protection of a base layer, these pants could definitely keep me warm in below freezing conditions for hours on end! This was one of the features that made me realize these pants are the real deal, and could very easily be among the best women’s hiking pants on the market compared to some other softshell pants I’ve tried over the years!

Easy to clean if they get dirty or muddy

I’m pretty notorious for getting messy during my adventures. Dirt, mud, debris–I seem to track a lot of it back to the car or back home after hiking or camping. I’ve certainly had to retire a few pairs of pants because of mud stains or stubborn dirt marks in not-ideal places. Thankfully, I don’t have that same issue with the Kuhl Frost Softshell Pants.

Dirt from the trail seemed to brush off pretty easily without much effort. Even with a couple of the caked-on mud marks, I had no trouble wiping them clean upon returning home with a warm washcloth. I’m pretty happy with how well they clean up after some hardcore adventuring!

Water-resistant

In case you didn’t know, it rains a lot in the Seattle-area (and in the PNW in general). Going out on a hike wearing pants that aren’t water-resistant is a recipe for disaster. Thus, knowing that the Kuhl Frost Softshell Pants are water-resistant I got super pumped to test their limits. Turns out, they are in fact extremely water-resistant–even in pouring rain and snow (both of which I expereinced during my Heather Lake hike)!

If you’re in need of an insulated, water-resistant technical hiking pant, I think these might be the best women’s hiking pants I’ve tried to date!

Comfortable to wear for multiple hours

Over the last couple of months, I’ve worn these pants for dozens of hours (both hiking and camping) and clocked well over 15 miles hiking in them. The longest continual wear period I spent in these pants was about 11 hours, and they remained comfortable during that whole time! For me, comfortability primarily pertains to warmth, stretch, and absence of chaffing.

The Kuhl Frost Softshell Pants were decently stretchy for a technical soft-shell pant without being too stretchy. This was a nice balance because I felt supported without any feelings of restraint from the fabric.

Also, the pants kept me warm the whole time and I didn’t experience any weird inner-thigh chaffing (which can sometimes happen with soft-shell pants due to the weight and thickness of the fabric).

Cons / Dislikes

Lower-cut waistline

I am a ride-or-die high-cut waist girlie, and I prefer that my bottoms rise above my waist and sometimes even above my belly button. My biggest con or dislike about the Kuhl Frost Softshell Pants was that they’re pretty low-rise and that made me feel slightly awkward when bending over or scrambling over large rock structures. I also thought that they fell on my waist in a way that seemed to force the appearance of spillage (or muffin-top) when in motion.

This is my biggest con about these pants and about hiking pants in general. I really wish Kuhl made a higher-cut waist on these pants! It wasn’t enough to drive me away completely but it definitely did stand out as a con.

No back pocket zippers

I loved the front-pocket zippers and I wish that these pants had done the same with the back pockets! While for certain less-technical hikes, I did love keeping my phone easily accessible in my back pocket I noticed that on my technical hikes or scrambles the contents of my back pockets would come loose and fall out. Not ideal, especially on more technical routes where you need to be hands-free and utilize pockets to their fullest extent!

Snap button closure

For me, this honestly wasn’t a huge deal but I did notice that the snap came undone once or twice during technical ascents. It’s pretty easy to snap back together when this does happen, but a button closure would likely have been a better option for the true intent of what these pants are made for: alpine hiking and climbing.

⭐️ OVERALL RATING: 4/5 Stars ⭐️

🤩 Check out more KÜHL products on their website!🤩