DaddyNeedsPow

I'm overall very happy after the first few nights out. Bought to function as a backpacker's first car camping tent, its biggest pluses are the ease of setup and the roomy and airy interior. The poles appear to be super burly, and the color coded sleeves and clips seem completely self-explanatory even though I did read through the instructions first.

A couple of minor things prevent it from receiving a 5-star review. The fly, while it covers the mesh roof thoroughly, leaves the doors uncovered. Therefore, rain protection is left to the interior zipped nylon door panels. I suspect that a windy storm would easily drive some rain in through the zippers. Additionally, I found the fly somewhat tedious to attach. Kelty advises to attach the small pockets on the roof poles first, which definitely isn't the way to go unless you have a partner helping. Clipping the corners first and leaving plenty of slack will allow much easier attachment to the roof poles. Then tighten it up.

The other minor problem: the stakes are TERRIBLE flimsy pieces of crap. Since this is a car camping tent, toss them and go buy some heavy duty Coleman junk at your local discount store and save yourself the indignity of bending half the stakes while driving them into the ground.

After a long hiatus wearing nothing but cheap shades and scratched-up crap found in ski resort parking lots, I blew some tax refund and bought a pair of these. I love them. Looking through these lenses is better than real life. I hope I manage to hang onto them for a long time, because they are spendy, but if you value optical clarity and quality construction you deserve to own a pair of these.

But zero degrees is pushing it. I've spent several sub 20F nights in it and been comfy. Then there was a night at 10k in January where the wind HOWLED and even behind a burly tent wall and a snow barrier outside there was enough air moving around to chill me out pretty good. I don't blame the sleeping pad sleeve as much as the draft collar and tube.

I do like the fit of the BA bags in general. I'm 6'5", 230 lbs, and don't prefer to sleep on my back. Even with the bag loaded up with clothes, water bottles, and ski boot liners, there's still plenty of room to move.

I'm considering upgrading to one of their down bags for more compressibility. This one does take up a lot of room in the pack! Overall I'm very satisfied. It's a lot of warmth for the price.

I bought this little guy for the light weight and versatility. So far we've spent two weeks together in canyons on Cedar Mesa, UT, and I've been blown away. I'm tall at 6'5", so when I buy a tent I expect to share it with nobody (unless in an emergency, romantic or otherwise) and sleep diagonally. This size is perfect, and the high-angled walls gave me plenty of sitting up clearance. The vent opposite the big open door is small but has an ingenious little support pole that prop it open nice and wide. I haven't had it any more wet than a few sprinkles in the desert so I can't comment on condensation issues yet.

The one con worth mentioning is the vestibule size. My big pack fit nicely but there's definitely not enough room or clearance for winter cooking. Also, depending on how you've got the vestibule rigged up, zipper access into the tent proper can be very acrobatic.

The tabs near the pole grommets are indeed annoying as one other reviewer pointed out, but I suppose they're necessary to add the paw print floor accessory. If I commit to never using it, I'll probably just whack off the extra tabs.

I love the compression sack to pack it down small and slip the poles in with my sleeping pad. The stakes are minimalist but stayed put nicely in hard desert sand. For summer desert use, get yourself a Nano. I think it may do nicely for light winter use. I'll keep you updated.

These climb like crazy, stay on your skis like crazy, and give you a great upper body work-out when you first unfold them on a cold winter morning. Their stiffness makes them much easier to deal with in the wind than the G3 Expedition skins.

A couple tips:

1. Only use the plastic storage mesh for long-term (summer) storage. It's too much trouble dealing with the backing all the time, and bits do tend to come off and stick to the glue.

2. Treat the plastic STS tabs gently. They're very durable, but, especially when you're peeling off with skis still on, you'll get much more life if you hold the tab and then extend your leg backwards to peel the ski off the skin instead of jerking the tab to get the skin off the ski.

I don't have Giardia yet.

Soft and warm, but not so stifling that you burn up on the up-track. The pocket is awesome, but I actually haven't used it for anything yet. Seems like a good place for your spring resort skiing prophylactic stash. ;-)

These pants have exactly the right combination of features for me: full zipper vents, burly waterproof hard shell, awesome breathability, indestructible waterproof zippers, built in suspenders, logical and USEFUL pockets, and a great fit that flatters my ass but loose enough in the leg to keep the ladies from being intimidated by my giant skin-track dominating quads. Ahem, I mean they fit really well. I like the way they ride high on the waist to keep the pow out but aren't suffocating like full bibs. For this level of awesomeness the price is quite nice, too. If I ever manage to wear them out, I will gladly buy another pair.

In the summer, this jacket is a permanent resident in my pack. I've never felt a drop from the sky after putting it on and zipping up (the front hook and loop closure flaps protect the zipper from leakage), and love using it as a windbreaker on summits. Not burly enough for winter or mountaineering use, and, as others have noted, not the most breathable jacket around, but does its job amazingly as a summer afternoon mountain storm insurance policy.

I've used these mainly for spring backcountry skiing where the only real use for any pair of pants is keeping you cool on the skin up and keeping things dry on the ski down. The fabric is very delicate, so if you crash on a rock or get too close to a tree, be prepared for a snag. My only other reservation is that the full zip, when used as a vent, requires both hands and a little too much coordination to zip up again. No gaiters means that you're better off using something more technical for powder. If I hiked in rainier weather than the Wasatch and Tetons they'd have a perminent place in my summer pack.

I like my gear durable and basic (you won't catch me hiking around with a full-on spice rack) and this set fits the bill. There's plenty of room to fit your MSR firefly stove to protect it from a tight pack, and I can usually squeeze in my bag of coffee and extra matches. Cardinal backpacking rule: keep your matches and caffeine dry.

We've just returned from our first trip together, a lovely cross country ski outing around Taggert Lake in the Grand Teton park. The weather was sunny but cold (5-10 degrees) but I was kept warm and dry on the track in. I pulled a puffy jacket out of my pack when we stopped for lunch, but the wind protection of the figure 4 meant the puffy went back in the pack for the downhill cruise out. It also kept me nice and dry when I crashed in the pow off the side of the trail. Why do snowshoers always tromp up the ski track??? Next time, I'm gonna plow right into them, so watch out, you know who you are!

I've been very happy with this pack, but wish I'd gone for the 32L size. 22L gives me enough room for skins and an extra layer. It would be nice to have a bit more of a buffer. There's a slick rescue whistle built into the chest buckle. The avy gear storage pocket is a great idea -- depending on the shape of your shovel blade you may end up with less usable space in the main compartment.

The shell is impressively stiff and very light. The stiffer black tongue can wait until the corn comes in spring! With the rubber soles, these things almost look and hike like a mountaineering boot.

But the standout feature is the Intuition liner. The fit that I got for my narrow, flat feet beats the crap out of the heat fit Salomon liners that I ride inbounds.

They come out of the box with a very upright stance. I've been gradually leaning them forward (easily adjustable with hex bolts on the cuff) and have found my happy place after a couple tours. The walk mode is perfect -- I no longer hold up the party by tightening and messing with buckles. One flip of the switch and down you go.

I love this stove. It boils fast and has the fit and finish of a really bomb-proof piece of gear.
BUT, save yourself a little bit of money and don't get the model with the auto igniter. It's never lit using MSR's ISO fuel, which is the only fuel I've tried with the stove. It's an easy problem to fix (flick your bic or bring matches) but a disappointing waste of money.

I've skied it in the resort and in the backcountry all spring and love it. Opinions are really divided on its performance on hardpack and groomed terrain, but I think it carves really nicely as long as the frozen stuff is smooth. Off-piste frozen potatoes give it problems for sure, so go look for some nice smooth corn and rip!
PS it's really light and is an awesome AT ski.

I managed to break the thing in its first outing at the Snowbird Rescue Training Center.

The cord which holds the sections together has a nice looking durable wrap around it. With repeated aggressive probing (anybody else have problems actually hitting the targets even though your beacon says they're right there?), though, I managed to wear through the wrap, exposing the inner cord. Unfortunately, the friction between the wrap and the handle is what holds the thing together. No wrap = no friction = no tension = probe falls apart.

I've purchased a Voile probe with metal cable guts instead of string and will be putting it to the test soon.

I'm a beacon newbie and approached my first outing at the Snowbird RTC with trepidation. The beacon however, performed flawlessly and was very intuitive. I found myself getting to within a meter of the targets very quickly (2-3 minutes).

This is a great piece of equipment. Paying $300 for an altimeter watch is no longer necessary. The altimeter stays pretty accurate over time and weather changes and I couldn't be happier!
Yeah, it's big, but we're mountain hippies not supermodels, right?