Review: Fjällräven Bergtagen GTX Touring Bibs
What we liked
High-quality fabric and manufacture.
Cut for a tailored-feel fit.
Excellent freedom of movement and venting.
What we didn’t
Only a one-way fly zip - less good when wearing a harness for glacier-travel or alpinism.
Lack of inside leg vents (though we know some prefer it this way).
The Verdict
THE SHORT READ…
My initiation into bib-style trousers with the Fjällräven Bergtagen GTX Touring Bibs did not disappoint. The fit feels bespoke, classy. A robust but not heavy construction for touring, with a fabric more than capable of repelling rain, strong winds and snow, with more than enough stowage in the pockets. For skinning there’s excellent ventilation with 2-way zips from knee to rib cage, and the rear ‘drop-zone’ just works. The only niggle being the fly being one-way only, meaning access when wearing a harness is more awkward.
Rear view
THE LONG READ …
The Fjällräven Bergtagen GTX Touring Bibs are the partner of Fjällräven’s Bergtagen GTX Touring Jacket, and they make a great team. It’s been quite change of perception, from thinking Fjällräven was all check-shirts and backpacks, to realizing they make top-quality touring gear. As with the jacket, these bibs got a run out in the wilds of the French Alp’s Haute Maurienne valley, during Backdrop’s recent Backcountry Skills week, where the weather tested us from blue-bird to 120kph winds and -20C temps.
Fabric & Construction - As with the jacket, the Goretex GTX Performance PFAS-free fabric feels softer and much less ‘crinkly’ than GTX Pro - literally less noisy when you are wearing them, and softer-feeling. Supposedly more breathable than GTX Pro, if perhaps less ‘storm-resistant’ (but it seems it would need to be a 100-year storm to notice the difference). It’s 600g feels quite light considering the solid-feeling construction. Excellent quality and strong seams all round.
Fit - Regular fit, with more than sufficient freedom of movement. Sizes pretty true - the model on Fjällräven’s website is 181cm and wears M. I am 183cm and the medium fit was fine. I’m pretty solid and it felt tailored around the middle and was plenty long enough in the legs.
These bibs are higher up the body at the front than the back. Other bibs have it the other way around. I’m not quite sure of the pros and cons of either, a matter of personal preference? Is this how bib tribes are divided?
On skinnier people, there’s plenty of room around your mid-section at both front and back - It seems these would be a more perfect fit on more, ahem, ‘solid’ types, unless you like having a bit of extra air movement around those areas (can be good on a hot day!). Having said that, on the hips and thighs, on skinnier people these are still a good fit, without any apparent excess material in those areas.
Performance - I immediately felt confident in these trousers. The fit is great and once adjusted with the shoulder straps you are good to go. Sitting on snowy lift chairs, they kept out the wet. On the super windy days, they kept out the drafts, and at the other end of the spectrum, on when skinning on hot days, their huge side vents cooled me down well and I didn’t feel like I was boiling in a bag.
Venting - The outside leg vents run from the bottom of the leg pockets, all the way up. Two-way zips let you vent from either direction.
I’m a big fan of having inner leg zip vents as well, to get some real ‘cross-flow’ of air going on super hot days. These don’t have them. Some riders I know prefer not to have them as they say the zips can ‘chafe’ their inner thighs. Snowflakes.
Leg cuffs - Your standard siliconised elasticated inner cuffs that are tight enough to make a good seal on soft boots. Not tried with (generally narrower) hard-boots but feel there’d be a good seal there too. A nice touch is the adjustable outer cuff diameter, offering 2 popper settings to adjust bagginess.
Each leg has reinforcing at the bottom, just on the inside of the leg - makes sense, why go all the round? Save some weight.
Yeah, just pretend you can’t see that these are ski boots…
Regarding the leg cuffs, slightly weirdly - I’ve still not figured it out - instead of the inner elasticated cuff having a traditional metal hook at the front, to latch over laces say (it’s only ever by luck that those things work well with hardboots), these have two material side-loops, as if they are meant to latch onto something on both sides of your ankle… not sure what that could be though…
Any suggestions, let us know!
Pockets - You’ve got three in total:
Two big zippered leg pockets - Where the right-hand one has an internal elasticated media/transceiver pocket plus a loop for attaching a transceiver. Do they need the weather flap over the top of a weather-proof zip? Not sure, and does mean slightly less efficient hand-entry into those than if they weren’t there, but no biggie.
One mid-size vertical zip pocket on the top left side on front the bib, on your belly - quite a decent size, I could get my whole hand in there.
Fly zip - Super sturdy arrangement with double poppers at the top. However, it is let down (boom boom) by being only a one-way zip - this seems to be the only significant design issue with the bibs, in my mind, at least for a certain section of the target market, since this makes access difficult when wearing a harness for glacier travel or alpinism - depending how tight the harness is done up, it can be super awkward to have to get your hand down between the harness and fly to push the zip down far enough to set your old fella free. Two-ways fly zips typically make accessing the fly noticably easier with a harness on.
Braces - These are excellent. Nice and wide, so won’t twist in their fixings and can’t spontaneously unhook from either end. They are embossed with rubberised (non-slip) branding and have full diagonal cross-over at the back, to your waist, helping them stay on the shoulders and not fall down during big upper-body movements (a definite issue with some bibs). Depending how tall you are, the front length-adjustment plastic buckles might end up under your backpack strap, which might bother some of the more bony of us. When tightened to your required length they don’t gradually slacken off and slip down.
External rear locker loop - Just above bum level, a nice touch as often I’ve found bibs don’t have them, and hanging up bibs by their braces means the cuffs might hit the floor (maybe more of an issue for the larger sizes…).
Rear entry - A good system - undo one popper at your waist for each side, then unzip all the way down, the whole rear panel gets out the way super easy so you can do your thing. You can do each side back up one handed. but on our skinnier colleagues, where the material around the waist is all a bit looser, you can need two hands to do up each side.
Single-zip fly
SUMMARY…
Highly recommend general touring bib trousers. Quality constructure, good looks, will protect you in all weathers, they move well, have decent pockets, excellent braces, a solid rear-entry system and good venting. The only caveat is, if you are thinking to wear a harness with these at any point, be aware the fly zip is only one way, which will make access more awkward.