Gamma Bukse Herre

Arc'teryx has long made my favorite all-around climbing and hiking pants—they’ve always checked all the boxes. The face fabric has been incredibly durable, and over the past 10 years, I’ve purchased 8 or 9 pairs of Sigma and Gamma pants in various weights. They’ve performed flawlessly and held up impressively well over time. But something seems to have changed recently. With the three pairs of Gamma pants I’ve purchased in the last year or so, I’ve run into a recurring issue: the stitching, glue, or tape in the waistband and crotch begins to fail quickly and then deteriorates rapidly. It usually starts with the internal belt twisting inside the waistband, followed by the stitching or bonding coming apart—leaving a spreading gap that exposes the belt and interior structure. This occurred on one pair of gamma purchased within the ladt year or so and I can feel the belt twisting and waistband separation beginning on a second. What’s especially frustrating is that all of my much older pairs are still going strong, with no signs of this problem. I returned one of the newer pairs under warranty and received a credit, which I used toward the Serratus jacket instead. While I’d love to pick up two or three fresh pairs of pants, I’m now hesitant to spend that money on another round of Gamma pants given these quality concerns and recent reviews about quality control and sizing issues of the revised edition.