Cotopaxi Fuego Down Pant and Vest Long Term Review

The down jacket is a staple of any outdoor adventurer’s kit. Warm and lightweight, it packs down to nothing but can keep you toasty in subzero weather. So, why haven’t we all gotten onboard with down pants too? Okay, wear the whole outfit together and you might look a little like Michelin Man, but I am sold. 

Down is generally not what you want to wear while climbing—too easy to tear on sharp rocks—but it’ll stop you from freezing on belay or at the campsite later. I took the vest and pants to the snow. Not exactly a climbing trip (rather a first step towards my vague but long-held ski mountaineering aspirations), it was a chance to see how it performed in subzero temps.

The 800-fill down pants (397g) and vest (227g) mostly kept me wonderfully warm (though I did pop a down jacket over the vest in the evening and early morning). When I got moving, the pants quickly became too warm, and were easily shoved into the smallest side pocket of my pack.

One of the joys of a vest is that it keeps your core warm, but leaves your arms free, which is great for most activities… You could even leave this one on for your warm up route on the rock. The vest has good coverage too, zipped up it covers your neck right up to the chin, and reaches down to mid-hip and had a cord to tighten it, so you don’t get hit with a breeze to the midriff every time you reach upwards. 

The pants have leg zippers, meaning they can be pulled on/off over shoes—maybe not over ski or mountaineering boots, but will definitely go on easily over climbing shoes as you take the belay on a multipitch. They have deep pockets (with zips). In fact, these are deeper pockets than I’ve encountered in any other women’s pants. You could fit your phone and three power bars in a single pocket, and still have room to stuff your beanie in. 

The vest comes in six colours and the pants in two. As someone who has often been vocal about brands that steer towards pink and pastels for women’s gear, I loved that Cotopaxi clothes come in a range of bold colours. 

The pants and vest aren’t designed specifically for climbing, of course, but there are many climbing-adjacent contexts I can see them working in. And for general outdoors adventuring, the pants and vest have quickly become as much part of my standard kit as a down jacket. In fact, the vest is getting almost daily wear in Sydney this winter. 

Finally, Cotopaxi is a B Corp that allocates one percent of its annual revenue to the Cotopaxi Foundation, which then distributes grants to charities dedicated to fighting poverty. 

Overall, I’d rate it 4.8 out of 5 blue offsets.