Apparently, the Turret GTX pants sit in Spyder's 'silver' range which goes to show the overall quality of the brand as these are far from 'middle of the road'. A classic freeride shell construction marries 3L Gore-Tex with a range of functional features designed to keep your legs dry and free from sweat.
The face fabric feels very durable and easily capable of dealing with regular hard skiing. This durability is bolstered at the bottom with big reinforced patches, great for protecting against ski boots and ski edges. At the hem there's also a popper and zip that opens to an elasticated inner gaiter for easy and secure fitting over ski boots.
All this material is, of course completely waterproof and benefits from fully taped seams, as well as watertight YKK Aguaguard zips all over. In terms of weatherproofing, rest assured, the Turret pants are up there with the best.
Those Aquaguard zips give access to two hand pockets, a big thigh pocket and two inner leg vents. The vents are big enough to provide a lovely crossflow of air when you get hot and sweaty and are easy to operate on the go.
We like the innovative popper system at the waist but must admit to desperately trying to pull them open on first use - until we read the big red 'WARNING' label with instructions on sliding the poppers open rather than pulling. Presumably this stops the poppers pulling through the material with regular use, but they also do a great job of holding your ski pants up.
In case these fail (which they won't) there's also a double run of Velcro on the high, elasticated waist. This stretch waist does a fantastic job of sealing out the elements, it seems to be tailored perfectly, providing a close fit that rises just above the belly button. If this feels in any way uncomfortable you can roll the material down for a more conventional ski pant fit. Cut across the pants is on the freeride end of the spectrum without resorting to uber bagginess - they have a kind of freeride skier done good look about them. We also love the maroon colour with contrasting red zippers which sets these ski pants off nicely.
If you're wondering what the comparative quality of the Turret pants is, we would compare them to Arc'teryx, that is to say they're some of the best out there. And performance levels in real world use matches this quality, making the Turret pants a highly recommended buy for any seasoned freeride skier.
