Actually I added more water than the directions called for. I guess it depends on how you like your potatoes. Also, I thought the flavor was great, a nice change from the "noodle and chicken" backpacking meals.

After wearing MK Alpine Pants for a couple of seasons I decided to break down and buy some of the shorts. They have the same solid build as the Alpine pants and the same fit. The gusseted is nice for climbing and hiking. My only complaint is that the stash pocket on the side of the right thigh doesn't have a cover so my cell phone falls out regularly when I'm sitting down.

I'll admit it, I have a huge head. I'm not talking 'got my own satellites' huge, but more 'got my own zip code' huge. So beanies have always been hit and miss with me. Usually they don't cover my ears completely so I end up getting cold. So I went looking for a larger beanie and this thing didn't disappoint. It's really XL. Was too large at first so I hand washed it and tossed it in the dryer on delicate for a half cycle and it shrunk a bit. Now it fits my head perfect. The fleece lining extends beyond the edge of the beanie to ensure that wool doesn't come in contact with your face, to minimize the itch factor. Bueno.

I stopped skiing 16 years ago because snowboarding just had more appeal, especially at the resorts. However, I was always at a disadvantage on a snowboard when it came to backcountry riding. I usually had to swallow my pride and strap into some skis again. I've used snowshoes with limited success, but the rest of my party usually ended up waiting for me at the top of the runs.

A few weeks ago I used a Burton S Series Split Board for the field portion of an avalanche 1 certification class. I'm sold. No more lagging behind everyone, no more slowing the whole trip down, no more fumbling with the switch to snowshoes at the top of the ridge. With the S Series Split Board, the change over from skinning up to riding down was a breeze, and the riding was never sweeter.

This is basically a Burton Custom split down the middle with a few extra pieces of hardware to hold the board together. It's lightweight and good for varied snow conditions. While the people on skis complained about poor snow conditions I was loving the added stability of a wide board. I still felt like I was a little behind everyone else during the change over to riding down. However, no one had to wait for me to make the switch and start down.

You have to buy a Voile binding interface and some skins and getting everything dialed takes a little while. But once you get used to the system the change over is pretty fast. And I never felt like the board stiffness was compromised by the split.

After wearing out my Montrail's I was in the market for a new pair of trail runners. I had tried Salomon's initial offering for the adventure race market, the Raid Race, and had been somewhat pleased. So I opted for the XA Pro 3D this time around and I'm glad I did. The XA Pro 3D is a solid shoe. The lacing system is easy to tighten and balance the load. The heel cup is sturdy and increases the lateral stability, and the mesh upper has great air flow. All in all, another solid shoe from Salomon.

It had been quite a while since I had purchased a new pair of climbing shoes. When the shoes I had been climbing in began to wear out I purchased the Galileo on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm glad I did. The Galileo have Five Ten's Onyx rubber which are so sticky that you can stick the shoes together by the rubber and lift one shoe with the other. The heel is greatly improved over Five Ten's other shoes and the fit solid. These are very comfortable shoes, sporting a padded opening and Velcro closures. The synthetic upper keeps the shoe from stretching, but this shoe feels comfortable enough to climb all day in.

After using this pack for overnighters as well as multi-day trips, I'm convinced that this is one of the most comfortable packs that I've used. As an adult leader of a youth group, I seem to carry a lot more weight than I usually plan. This pack makes it easy to carry the extra items and weight. It's comfortable to wear, easy to adjust and has plenty of straps to accommodate extra items that I end up carrying for the kids.

I love the recurve suspension. On a recent trip I had to pack in 60 lbs in water for a water cache because we're currently suffering from a drought. This pack made the job much easier and held up to the excess wear the extra weight caused.

I wasn't expecting much from this stove before I used it. But I was pleasantly surprised when we used this stove on an ultralight fastpack trip. For the $ this is a great stove and handled all of our cooking/water boiling with ease. We made our own wind screen from a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil and that solved our wind problems. Easy to use and light to carry.

If you live in flip flops and would like to have more support, this is definitely the sandal for you. Recent medical reports reveal that podiatrists have found foot and leg related problems in teens and twenty-somethings that are normally seen in the elderly because the people wear flip flops all the time. This sandal would solve the problems. The cupped heel, and heat molded custom fitting helps to create a supportive foot bed that goes far and beyond any other flip flops out there. It's a little pricey at $50 but well worth the investment.

I recently found myself the leader of a youth group of 12 people that was planning on spending a week in the a remote area of the backcountry. Faced with the prospect of 12 people spending 6 days in the semi-alpine environment, I was looking for better options than the age old 'cat hole'. We decided to give these bags a try and they worked out great. We actually got one of the PETT toilets as well. While Phillips Environmental says that these bags can be used multiple times, I wouldn't suggest it. However, they are easy to use and rather convenient. The powder in the bags will reduce the solid waste to a biologically safe, trash disposable gel. We packed the used bags in 5 gallon bucket with a lid that had been decorated with a 'toxic' symbol and easily disposed of the bags when the trip was over.

I love the Jetboil system. This stove has consistently performed well for me on numerous backpacking/camping/mountaineering trips. I consistently get boil times of 2 minutes or less. Even when using this stove for melting snow for cooking/drinking water, I was pleased with the results compared to my companions cannister stoves. All in all this is a great unit.

I'll admit it, I never really get a good night's sleep, even at home, so camping is a total crap shoot for me. However, the very first time I used one of these pads from Exped, I slept like a rock. I've used this pad exclusively for the last few years, in winter and on 3-season trips, and my sleep in the backcountry is almost better than at home. Takes a little while to get used to inflating this mattress, but it's literally the best sleeping pad I've ever used.

I got this tent a couple of years ago when it first came out and have really enjoyed camping with it. Living in Utah we don't get a great deal of rain, but on the occasions when I've been tent bound for up to eight hours during a rainstorm, I didn't have any problems with the tent leaking. Water was even flowing under the tent and still no problem. The tent is rather small for 2 adults plus gear, so the vestibule is a nice addition. The main drawback I can see is the price, at $300+ it's rather hard to swallow.

Not very impressed with these ear bud headphones. Within about 2 weeks of buying my first pair all of the silicon ear pieces had fallen off and were lost. So I used ear pieces from other headphones I had and within another week there was a short in the mini plug. After trying a few more earphones, I decided to try these again. Skullcandy seems to have made some inline changes, as the silicon ear pieces didn't get lost as rapidly, but within a month, the I had a short in the mini plug again. I wouldn't buy these earphones again.

These are great pants. Durable, comfortable, and they just feel great. A little heavy for summer use, these things are perfect the winter. I wear them so often my wife calls them my uniform. Some people have complained that these fit small, but I find that they're spot on. They do fit smaller than Carhartts, but I've always thought Carharrts were a little big on me. I'd buy these again in a heartbeat.

I bought one of these to round out our number of kids to the number of harnesses we have. They love this harness and fight over who gets to wear it. It's easy for them to put on and comfortable for them to wear. My oldest did his first lead climb in this harness!

Owned a pair of these several years ago and was impressed. So when I was looking for a new pair of trail runners I bought these again. Very light weight and super comfortable. They are sized a little small; I bought a half size bigger and feel I could still go even larger.

I bought these because of the price and I've been pleased with them. These goggles are quite large and give unobstructed view. The biggest drawback is that they don't have a clasp in the back on the band.

I ordered these bars for my Mazda MPV so my wife could haul her mountain bike around. We started our vacation this summer before I had a chance to install these bars. Five miles down the road the box on the factory bars started to vibrate and thump the roof of the car. Turned around and installed these bars and never had a problem since.

Climbed Rainier a couple of years ago and one of the guides had this jacket. I was impressed with the compressibility and weight verses the insulating ability of the jacket. So I decided to buy one and wore it almost every day this past winter. I used for snowboarding, ice climbing, and just strolling around town. First impression was that it wouldn't keep me warm. I was pleasantly surprised to find it almost too warm.