Bill Stadwiser

I found the book to be rather informative, compact, and convenient. The photos and diagrams inside are easy to understand and they help support the concepts in the text. The information is well organized and presented and, overall, I found it to be a great supplement and resource.

I had the privilege of meeting Mike Clelland a few years back and it's cool to see his personality shine through in his illustrations here. Overall, the book is super informal, easy to read, and fun to pick up. The information on avalanches was a bit sparse, but, as the authors fully admit, you need to take a professional-grade class and practice those skills first hand. I also thought they devoted a lot of time to winter camping and cooking skills, which is important and was certainly informative, but I thought that info was disproportionally represented in the book at the expense of more detailed info on the ski itself. Anyway, don't let those two observations dissuade you--it's an awesome book and should be part of any backcountry skier's library.

The concourse is an awesome bag with a huge amount of space. Not only did it fit my powder skis, groomer skis, and boots, it also had plenty of space left over for my ski clothes. In short, I just had a small carry on for the plane and everything else I needed for the week fit in the concourse. Of course, packing all that stuff in made it pretty heavy, but that was a small price to pay for the convenience of having everything in one place.

Not sure how, but kleen kanteen ' seems to withstand drops without denting better than other stainless bottles. Did leak on occasion. the powdercoat has lasted longer than I expected it would. overall, better than plastic bottles for keeping water cooler on hot backcountry days

Great durability like most lexan bowls. this is a little deeper than the older lexan bowl which is nice for bigger portions, but makes it difficult to lick out if you're trying to minimize your dish washing.

This sock has great cushioning and is extremely comfortable. They are durable and have lasted longer than comparable socks from other manufacturers (e.g. patagonia, keen). they still maintain their softness even after repeated hand-washing and line-drying.

This is a very powerful and versatile headlamp for the price. While ultralight backpacking purists may take issue with the size and the weight, I think that 3oz is not very heavy for the amount of power this headlamp provides. I've used it for both winter camping and cycling thus far and have been thoroughly impressed with the light output of the superbright white LED light. It takes other lamps constellations of up to 4 regular LED lights to match this lamps output with a single bulb. The lamp is super energy efficient as well and battery life tends to last a long time without diminishing brightness (as can be the case with other LEDs). To echo a comment that other reviewers have made, the red light function is also a great feature to use in situations where minimal light is best (i.e. not disturbing a sleeping tent mate or preserving your night vision for stargazing).

Patagonia's down sweater is a staple of their product line... its a warm,lightweight and highly packable jacket. It works very well on its own and as a part any layering system. At 15 oz. it has a very high warmth to weight ratio, which means that there's rarely a reason not to bring it along.

This is the second puffy jacket I have purchased from Patagonia and have found with both that they are sized up one size larger than my normal size. I typically wear a size L for all my shirts and jackets, but found that M fits me better for this jacket. Although I have somewhat less room to layer under it, the M has a much more natural fit for me.

The down in this jacket is quality 800 fill down as well, which means that it can survive multiple and frequent compressing and bounce back to shape and retain a good amount of loft. Some people have complained about Patagonia's decrease in zipper quality over the past few years, but I haven't seen any evidence of that in the two Patagonia puffy jackets I've owned.