The Paulie

Hahaha, I had a such a debacle getting the correct size. I bought this shirt with various other items in the one order. All the items i bought were a L. When I got this shirt, the package said L but the label was XL. I got in touch with Backcountry who sent me out a new one and even let me keep the XL as the cost to send it back from Australia was more than the shirts price!
The replacement was an L but read XL on the label (again!!!). I got to keep that one too. It turns out that these are sold as US sizes but made in Euro sizes - i.e. If you order a L, you'll get a Euro XL. I ended up getting a Medium in this shirt....... confused? Me too! I now have two L's (Euro XL) and a nice fitting M (Euro L). Guess my bro is get two identical shirts for his birthday.........

The shirt is really nice BTW.

I am loving these shorts. My fav..... Even wore them on Christmas day!

For it's price, this shirt is awesome. Like other reviews, I found the fit a bit strange. It's tight in the armpits and the sleeves and quite long. Does an adequate job nonetheless.

This jacket ticks all the boxes in the functionality section: it's warm, fits well, keeps you dry etc. The only problem I have with this jacket is an aesthetic one. I live in Western Australia, so this jacket won't even be used during the coldest winter's day. I bought it for use on climbing trips to higher, colder places. If you want this jacket to keep you warm as you prance around the high street shopping, it's not you. It's pretty ugly and actually looks like a cheap knock off you'd see along the streets of Namche Bazaar, Nepal. The colour, although described as Sapphire, is actually navy blue - nothing fancy here! To sum up, it's a great, functional jacket but hideously ugly and best left for the cat walks of the mountain side.

This watch is good but could be better. Apart from all the goods things you’d expect from this watch, there are a few flaws. I live in Western Australia and they recently (2006) re-introduced daylight savings time. Unfortunately, the core does not have a feature which allows you to calibrate the sunrise-sunset time and thus displays my sunrise-sunset time 1 hour out for the daylight savings period of the year. Also, the stop watch only goes to tenths of seconds and not the standard hundreds (but that’s not too bad, I was just surprised). The backlight is a little weak too. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the watch.

This handy lighter is so easy, a child could use (DO NOT GIVE IT TO A CHILD!!!). Fuel it up and its ready to go. There's some great little features: the viewing window which lets you see how much fuel is remaining, the spring loaded opening button and the waterproof seal.
This lighter is a must have for the outdoor enthusiast.

This handy lighter is so easy, a child could use (DO NOT GIVE IT TO A CHILD!!!). Fuel it up and its ready to go. There's some great little features: the viewing window which lets you see how much fuel is remaining, the spring loaded opening button and the waterproof seal.
This lighter is a must have for the outdoor enthusiast.

I actually only wanted to buy the Terra cook set but it came with the Stella stove for a great price, so I thought I'd go for it! The stove is really great. So quick and easy to use. The auto-igniter is the best I’ve used ever. Works a charm every time and saves you from singeing those precious hairs on your fingers!!
The cook set it neat but it came with a little dent in the pan. The dent conveniently has shaped the edge of the pan into a pouring spout, so it's actually an improvement but it's never nice to receive damaged goods. I like to call the pots 'anti-Backpacker's Maracas' as they don't make a sound when stowed. The 'hot blanket' for the pots keeps your meal warm while you cook something else with the other pot.This slim-fit insulated stuff bag made of nylon and neoprene allows you to boil water, kill the flame, strap on the packing bag and to continue the cooking process. I’ve never seen this feature with other cook sets. The whole package fits snuggly into the pots and stows away nice and light (minus the canister).

This footprint is a must have. For only a few bucks extra when you buy the tent, you save yourself a whole lot of hassle trying to clean all the mud off the bottom of your tent. It fits into the tent stuff bag, so it doesn't cause an added weight/space issue. It's thin but I reckon any extra layering will aid insulation from beneath. If you're a cheap-skate, you could always stick a survival bag under the tent, but what happens when you need the survival bag!!!? The only thing wrong is that it doesn’t encompass the ‘porch’ area of the tent. This would have been nice.