cody.eilar1319559

This jacket has kept me warm in some cold situations but I am unimpressed by two things: 1, the zipper only lasted me about 1 year before it got stuck and ultimately ruined several of the zipper teeth and 2, the jacket is too short! I can't tell you how many times I've bent over to pick something up off the ground while in the backcountry and have this jacket expose half my back to the freezing wind. Other than those nuances, I think this jacket works well and would probably in the end recommend it to a friend.

Bought these boots two years ago and they are still going strong. I've taken them through just about every type of environment there is within a 1000 mile radius of Albuquerque, N.M. and have been very pleased. Not only have they performed well for hiking and mountaineering, but I have used them for ice climbing as well in the middle of the winter in Ouray, Colorado and they got the job done. On top of that, they are still water proof and I have used nothing to treat them since I got them. Like most people, one complaint is the width of the boot. I have wide, flat feet and so this boot definitely gets a little "spicy" after a long day of climbing. Part of the problem is that since I have a low instep because of my flat feet, it's hard to get the boot to feel equally tight along the top side of my boot. I fixed this by putting some more padding in the bottom of the boot and putting my orthodox in. This kept my foot from sliding around as much in the boot and maximum comfort was achieved (although there is always room for improvement). That said, after doing some very cold high altitude mountaineering in Ecuador and Peru, I decided it was time to get a more burly boot (mainly for the warmth and automatic crampon features) so just recently I bought the big brother of these boots, the Nepal Evo GTX. After two more years, I hope to write a good review about those boots as well!

Oh yeah, one more thing--in cold weather camping situations these boots are EXTREMELY hard for me to put on if they get frozen. If you plan on camping in really cold weather, figure out a way to keep these babies warm. If not you'll end up like me spending the better half of an hour with your feet halfway in boot waiting for them to get warm enough to shove the rest of the foot in there--not fun.