Alpine Guy

This stove is awesome. I have cooked on many stoves out there and my backpacking buddies all agree that this is the best of the bunch for cooking for a small group. If I'm just going to eat MRE's, then I'll go with my jetboil, but if we're going to cook real food then the Primus comes along. Packs up tight with fuel canister inside. Extremely efficient. I cooked at least 5 meals and boiled water at least 25 times on one fuel canister. Boils water super fast and has great flame control for cooking. I do almost all my backpacking at 9000-12000 feet. Highly recommend.

So I used this hammock all summer. I tried out several of my hiking partners hammocks and this one was my favorite. Here's the thing about hammocks- the bottom of course will get cold, but the sides of the hammock also wrap you up. If your sleeping bag gets compressed by the hammock, then it can't loft. No sleeping bag works if it can't loft. I simply purchased an extra large sleeping pad that is wider then my body. The pad keeps the hammock off of my shoulders so that my bag can loft and keep me warm. I was burning up in my hammock at 35 degrees. You have to use a nice thick sleeping pad if you want your bag to be able to loft.
Rained all night twice this year. I love being off the ground. I don't care how much it rains! Of course I had a nice cat tarp over me.

I love my Palisades! I used this pack when my gear was big and heavy. I have slowly upgraded to smaller and lighter gear. I also do most of my trips with several other guys now, so we share the load. I now use a 60 L pack, but if I ever do a weeklong trip or more, then I will definitely pull out the old workhorse again- I know my Palisades is up to any challenge.

If you're looking for a lighter pack that can hold enough gear for several nights out, then the Aether 70 is a great pack. I was a bit worried about the flimsy hipbelt and shoulder harness system, but my fears were put to bed on my first trip with this pack.

3 day loop in the Maroon Belles wilderness- total pack weight of 42lbs. I have never been more comfortable with a pack on. The compression system was excellent and the pack shifted in sync with my movements. I don't know how they made this pack capable of carrying so much weight and still kept the weight of the pack itself so low. The new trekking pole holder is excellent!

The Pros- Not too heavy, comes with a compression sack, low low price.

The Cons- Not very warm, zipper sticks EVERY time, pretty big even when compressed.

Picked this thing up on SAC for next to nothing. Been using it for 2 seasons (7 Backpacking trips +loads of car camping). It works for what I need it for, but when it gets down near freezing temps I get very cold while wearing thermal underwear and thick socks. It's bearable, but I certainly wouldn't want to be near 20 degrees in this bag.

It does fit in both of my backpacks, but barely. I really have to push hard to squeeze it into the 60 L pack. It is pretty big. The zipper sticks every single time you unzip. You have to have the patience to pull the material out of the zip several times in order to unzip. But it's not that bad.