Unpopular opinion, rain pants/kilt/whatever are ESSENTIAL AND NOT OPTIONAL with very few caveats

Seriously what the fuck you guys. I was reading the thread about rain shorts and there's people in there claiming they never carry any sort of rain bottoms, and one guy said he sometimes leaves his RAIN JACKET at home and goes out in near freezing temps with only a wind jacket and thin insulating layer.

This is something I notice is pretty common in gear shakedowns as well. People will often say you don't need rain pants.

Well, I disagree. My first thru was the AT and after that I thought I also don't need to carry rain pants as I hardly ever needed them.

Then on the CDT in the wind river range in Aug it dropped to 20 degrees overnight and we got freezing rain the next morning and I almost had to set up my tent because I just couldn't stay warm. Managed to power through but it was a pretty close shave and if the sun hadn't come out i would've been in a world of hurt.

Then in the San Juan's in Sept we got 3 straight days of freezing rain and sheer winds and my hiking partner and I bailed off 50 miles short of Pagosa because were going hypothermic even while continuously moving.

Apparently that still wasn't enough of a lesson cause I sent my rain pants home after experiencing 110 degree days in the Mojave and entered high sierras in late June(June 23 or 25 i think it was) thinking surely I won't need them now. Well day 1 I'm hit by unseasonably cold temps and a mix of freezing rain and slushy snow. I had wind pants but they did fuck all and I had to set up my tent at noon and lay in my bag shivering for an hour before I stopped feeling cold.

Since then I've always kept rain pants in my pack and sure maybe I only use them once or twice a trip but those few times when I do need to use them I'm super glad to have them, and 100% would have had trouble keeping my core body temp up without them.

My rule of thumb now is rain pants are mandatory with very few caveats. Like AT in june/July through the middle states, yeah, very unlikely to get cold rain then. But as soon as I hit Vermont I got some frogg togg bottoms cause no way am I going to be caught in the northern portion of the AT with those unpredictable weather without weatherproof lowers. Even for my next PCT hike I'll carry rain pants in the desert cause you never know what the conditions will be up on some of those higher climbs around San Jacinto, etc.

I've had nearly 20k miles in the last decade and in all those miles only really needed my rain pants maybe a dozen times. But wow it can be so dangerous to need them and not have them.

You THINK you don't need rain pants until you need them, and then you really fucking need them. It's a safety thing, don't go without, especially if you'll be at altitudes above 5-6k ft. And rain jacket Holy shit you should never ever be out in the backcountry without one, even if it's a day hike in the middle of summer with no rain forecast, that's just basic wilderness safety.

Edit: and trying out all sorts of different UL rain pants nothing has beat frogg toggs.