Flylow Chemical Ski Pants Review

My home mountain range outside of Vail, Colo., is notorious for challenging tree skiing due to pokey or fallen beetle-kill pines. I’m used to my ski outerwear torn and tattered by scraggly branches. But wearing the updated Flylow Chemical men’s ski pants felt like leg armor. The burly main fabric and reinforced knees fended off sharp sticks and rocks. That characteristic stretches from waist to cuff.

I had a lot of fun testing the tenacity of these snow pants over 3 months in the backcountry and at the ski resort. In addition to being genuinely burly, the Chemical pants scored high for most qualities. That’s perhaps no surprise: Flylow’s first product, a pair of ski pants, came out over 20 years ago. Since then, they’ve been tinkering with design, materials, and details.

With so many notches in the “pros” column, I was surprised at the price tag — $365 — which is very reasonable for ski pants of this caliber. While they’re not the most versatile pants out there — and aren’t my number one pick for a 50/50 mix of resort and backcountry — they make a strong case for resort skiers looking for a solid pair of ski pants that will last a decade or more.

In short: The updated Flylow Chemical ($365) ski pants for men are the newest evolution of a classic pair. These burly hardshell pants tick almost all the boxes for a stellar pair of ski pants. In addition to an easy aesthetic, the Chemical Pants fit great, vent well, and can stand up to a thrashing at the ski resort or in the backcountry. They should be on the shortlist for any skier looking for a solid pair of ski pants that will last season after season of heavy use.

Study our select lineup of ski pants for men in our Best Ski Pants buyer’s guide.

Flylow Chemical Ski Pants Review

My Carhartt double-front work pants have been my favorite outdoor and work slacks for over a decade. They fit well, they’re durable, and they simply work. Flylow’s Chemical Pants are the Carhartt double-fronts among hardshell ski pants. And not just because they have knee reinforcements. It’s the sentiment I kept returning to while testing them in and around Central Colorado’s mountains over several months. 

The Chemical Pants have been a mainstay in Flylow’s lineup since 2011. They fill the niche that inspired the founders from the early days of the 24-year-old Colorado company. Flylow has an extensive array of ski pants. The Chemical Pants are a high-end, burly, hardshell. After testing, I found the design suitable for 75% lift-serviced skiing and 25% backcountry. 

Durable Materials

The Chemical men’s ski pants are burly. The main textile is the Surface three-layer fabric, which is heavier-duty than typical GORE-TEX pants like the Arc’teryx Sabre.

If that wasn’t enough, the knees are reinforced with heavy-duty patches that feel like tightly woven canvas. The combination made the pants feel like armor on a long tour in Colorado’s Gore Range. The zone is notorious for jungle gyms of downed trees and rocky scrambles. The Chemical Pants came away unfazed after crawling over scratchy, dead lodgepoles and scraping down slabby granite.

I appreciated the Chemical Pants’ relative heaviness and solid protection while skiing on the resort. I eventually settled on my favorite base layer this season, The North Face Futurefleece Pants, after experimenting with a few different base layer combinations. That combo was plentifully warm for the coldest days at the ski resort, where temps dropped to 0 degrees F with wind chill. For reference, I run warmer than the average skier. 

Decent Breathability, Exceptional Vents

Despite the beefy face fabric, the Chemical Pants were decently breathable for hard shells. Flylow claims a Moisture Vapour Transmission Rate (MVTR) of 20K — not near the breathability of most softshell pants. But my lower half didn’t turn into an absolute swamp on a tour during one of the warmest, sunniest days of late February. I overlayered my bottom half with a medium-weight merino wool Roni 3/4 baselayer from WOOLF. 

The other reason I didn’t fill the pants to the brim with sweat is that the Chemical Pants are exceptionally well-ventilated. Each leg boasts big inner and outer zippered thigh vents — four in total — that create a cross breeze around each leg. That venting capability adds a lot of versatility to these pants. 

After trying a few ultralight base layers while ski touring in the Chemical pants, I dropped the base layer altogether to stay cooler while charging uphill. That’s my usual tack with softshell pants, but I often get too cold with a hardshell on bare legs. The Chemical pants are substantial enough on their own that they worked. 

Also, I prefer non-backed vents like the four in the Chemical pants. But they let snow freely pour in when you’re touring through deep snow. A lodgepole needle fascicle even managed to sneak into the top of my boot through the outer vent, which required me to remove my boot fully mid-tour. Backed vents would keep the elements at bay. While I prefer the vents as they are, the vulnerability is worth noting.

Fit

I want to take a second to applaud the Chemical Pants’ waist, the Achilles heel of many otherwise good snow pants. It’s not complicated what the people want — good coverage, security, and no restriction when bending and moving. Flyow delivered. I especially appreciated the Chemical Pants’ high, protective waist that didn’t let snow creep in when I was wallowing around in deep powder. 

Nothing annoys me more than wearing pants that don’t stay up. Flylow nailed pants security with the Chemical Pants, partly due to going the simple route in terms of design. The central button in the front of the pants is more secure than the snap closures that you often find on snow pants. That meant it couldn’t pop open with significant compression or after a mega plate of après French fries.

Flylow trusted wearers to source their belts instead of integrating one of their own, and I appreciate their confidence in their customers. It added big, burly belt loops that can accommodate basically any belt in your arsenal. I threaded through my tried-and-true Patagonia Tech Web Belt and didn’t have a single issue keeping my pants up. Who needs bibs with such a solid waist?

Sizing

I went with a size medium with the regular inseam. I’m 6’1″ and 190 pounds with a 33-inch waist. The fit was snug in the waist and seat, but it was the right call for my fit preference. Though I easily could have sized up, I got away with the medium because the Chemical Pants were field-tested and designed around the human body. 

The hips and knees are articulated, so they didn’t need to add extra material to accommodate movement. The crotch is gusseted, so I didn’t experience any restriction or pinching. The tiniest bit of stretch in the main fabric helped them move well, though I experienced some friction during long strides on the skin track. 

The Chemical Pants are offered in various waist and inseam length combinations — XS through XXL in the regular length and S through XL in short and tall inseams. Plenty of combos are available to accommodate most body shapes. Flylow notes, “If you are at the upper end of the size chart for size Small and Medium, we recommend sizing up. Size L, XL, and XXL are accurate, so order to the size chart on those, and you’ll be good.”

Another editor also fell between sizes and recommended choosing the larger size. He straddled the line between small and medium and chose the small. Even with a 30-inch waist, which should work with smalls, he found the pants too tight. You can always add a belt to snug up the pants, but if they’re too small, they’ll be uncomfortable. Go larger if you’re going on the cusp.

Pockets

No single garment acts alone in a skiing kit. I often find myself with a dozen more pockets on my jacket and pants than I could possibly use during a day of skiing. The Chemical Pants are minimalist in the pocket department with just two zippered hand pockets and one rear hip pocket. 

The right-hand pocket has the feature I’m always looking for in ski pants that might venture into the backcountry — an inner elastic pocket and a short, stretchy lanyard with a clip that, combined, are ideal for securing an avalanche beacon. There’s nothing special about the left pocket. It works and it’s secure.

Critiques

While I like the Chemical Pants’ streamlined aesthetic and set of pockets, I found myself reaching for the right thigh pocket over and over again — which of course wasn’t actually there.

The one thing I always need a spot for is my iPhone, and I’m not the only one. I found that when I zipped it into the hip pocket of the Chemical Pants, it was tricky to remove when I was sitting on the chairlift, especially when I was wearing a long jacket like my Norrøna Tamok. Phones these days are bulky enough that I could feel it jabbing my hip in big compressions, and when squatting from time to time.

I ended up keeping my phone in my jacket’s bouncier chest pocket. I think a single phone-sized thigh pocket would be a great feature in the next iteration.

Conclusion

Flylow’s Chemical ski pants for men have solid staying power because they do what they are designed to do. And it delivers a simple, streamlined fashion. These heavy-duty hard shells are protective and highly refined for resort skiing, side country, and the occasional backcountry tour. 

I would have appreciated a single-thigh pocket for easier phone access. But other than that, it’s easy to tell that these ski pants have undergone years of subtle refinements to get to where they are today. The details are well executed, and I doubt they’ll last the average skier a decade or more. 

Flylow states it plainly — these pants lean heavily toward resort skiing rather than backcountry, and I agree. They can handle medium to long strides, temperature swings, and all the conditions you’d encounter in the backcountry. But they wouldn’t be my first choice for dedicated ski touring pants. 

Instead, the Chemical pants are ideally suited to lift-serviced skiing, hike-to terrain, and lift-accessed side country. All that, and they have a very competitive $365 price tag. It would be silly not to recommend Flylow’s Chemical Pants to any skier looking for a solid pair of ski pants that are well-designed, thoroughly durable, and honestly priced.