Review and Analysis of Nordisk Horizon Shell Pants
Introduction
Shell pants are a very useful piece of clothing during expeditions outside the winter season: they offer wind & rain protection, and can be used as an additional layer when it gets really cold. Among the models I have used over the years, a recently released Horizon by Nordisk is definitely worthy attention. I have tested it during the 2022 summer solo expedition to the Anabar Plateau, an extremely remote region in the High Arctic of Siberia, full of dense taiga, vast and empty tundra, large fields of sharp stones and boulders, and numerous strong rivers that cut the plateau with deep valleys having steep banks.
These things are lightweight: they tip the scale at 225 grams. For 3-layer waterproof pants with long side zips and fully taped seams, this is bordering with insane. Now, of course these days you can get pants weighting as low as 50 grams… but they won’t be anything close to shell: merely impregrated nylon that will get holes the moment you use it for anything else than mountain running. For expeditions and anything requiring some more involved contact with surroundings, you’ll need pants that actually withstand some abrasio. Here, Horizon also shines – during the expedition, I had to fight with some bushes and dense forests, I was often sitting on boulders and stones, and the pants still look nearly brand-new. I would not take them for a trek that has predominantly dense forests (such an expedition would destroy essentially any ultralight shell pants), but for anything open spaced with some bush-fighting, definitely yes.
Other features that make them even more attractive are – in addition to the side zips – velcro adjustment on calves to reduce volume and minimize abrasion, pre-bent and shaped knees, elastic bottom hem, and reflective details. Squeezing all these features, together with a 3-layer membrane that has 10,000mm hydrostatic head, is a major achievement.
To summarize, Nordisk Horizon are an amazing pair of ultralight shell pants that I fully recommend for any expedition or trip with predominantly wet or windy coditions into the open-spaced or partially forested terrain.
More details are available at the producer’s website. You can order them online on Sklep Gorski.
