I used a set of these climbing one day instead of my Black Diamonds (I never would have complained about them) and couldn't believe how much easier these seemed to place. The placements were almost too solid if you can say such a thing because they didn't want to come out. Light weight and well designed. Only possible complaint is the way the wire fits into them doesn't allow you to use the wire to loop over a horn, but I have never used that and don't know of anytime that you couldn't just use a sling or webbing for that.

I got this jacket about two months ago and have waited for it to be actually put to the test. I found the cut to be perfect. I'm 6' 3" and 175 lbs, I got a large because I use it for Snowboarding and backpacking and wanted room to layer. It has enough room to layer well without being overly baggy (fit mid layer puffy perfectly.) The arms are articulated so that you have full range of motion without lifting or pulling the jacket in any way. The cuff is slightly small so putting it over ski gloves is a little difficult if thats how you prefer to overlap. The powder skirt is a little loose, but still functional. One thing I did not understand until today was why the collar in the back came up above where the hood meets the jacket. It seemed to get caught up when I put the coat on. However, when you're riding in stomach deep snow there are very few things that can ruin your day. However, having your hood off on the ride down and throwing it back on without thinking you dump snow down your back is really annoying. This does not happen anymore, and I never realized how much more fun powder is when you get face shots without snow down the coat. I've tried to find problems with this jacket because of the price, but its pretty much as good as you can ask for plus a couple little extras.

I bought a pair of these so I could use them as an approach shoe for climbing and not have to bring a pair of sandals to hang out in at the craig. What I didn't expect was to wear them everywhere. I've had them for about a year and there is almost no signs of wear when I've probably used them over 100 days including long hikes, approach climbs and scrambles, stream crossings, and walking around town. would recamend them to anyone and everyone.