Joel Scheingross

Had this on a 3 day backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada. It would've been great if the Macaroni had cooked all the way through, but I was left with macaroni that was soft on the outside and hard on the inside. Totally edible, and better than a lot of other freeze dried meals I've had, but not amazing. I waited an extra 10 minutes trying to get the macaroni to fully hydrate, but to no avail. I'd be willing to try again and hope that it cooks the next time.

Doesn't compare with what you can make at home, but for a freeze dried meal that's light to pack, this thing was awesome. It's definitely coming on my next backpacking trip!

I bought these for a 3 day winter trip up Mt. Whitney via the mountaineers route. They performed great, my feet were never cold (despite temps down to around 10 F), and my cramp-ons never slipped off. I've found them to be fairly comfortable for such a stiff boot, I think adding superfeet helped a lot. However, I would never use these for regular trail hiking as they're very heavy.

I waterproofed my pair with nikwax and didn't have any problems with frozen boots in the morning, after hiking in snow the previous day.

I bought my first pair of chacos in 2007 and fell in love. Now that I live in Southern California, I wear them just about everyday. Super comfortable and perform well in a mix of activities (light hiking, walking around town, beach, rivers, etc). My first pair lasted ~2 years, with ~1 year of wearing them daily (only had to replace them because the webbing was getting dangerously close to slicing through), my second pair I've been wearing daily for the past year and they're still in great condition.

The only annoyance about them is that if you're hiking or walking in a river, it's easy for a little piece of gravel to get caught under your foot, and you usually need to remove the whole sandal to take it out. But it doesn't happen super frequently, and having all the webbing to secure your feet in place is nice for hiking.

I've been using a pirana to rappel with since I started canyoneering about 2 years ago. I like it more than an ATC (which I occasionally use) because it's so much easier to add friction on rappel (just throw a wrap around the horns) and you can get a lot more friction with the pirana than with an ATC (which comes in handy for big drops).

It's a great product, but I see 2 downsides compared to an ATC. 1, it's a lot heavier, and 2, I find it harder to choke up with, (and maybe 3, you can't belay with it, but I only use it canyoneering, so that's not really an issue).

All that being said, I'm upgrading to the Sterling ATS mainly because it has horns on both sides of the device, so you never need to worry about having the brake line on the correct side to add friction mid rappel (the ATS can also serve as a belay device, which is nice too).

Got this after I tried the Black Diamond Half Dome and didn't find it vary comfortable. I use it mostly for canyoneering, but also a bit of climbing and mountaineering. What I really like about the helmet is the webbing straps on the inside so that your head is resting against the webbing (not foam), with a gap of air between the webbing and the shell of the helmet. For me, this means every time you bump your head on something, it hurts a lot less (so I imagine the helmet would be great for caving).

I bought these a few years for a mix of traveling and hiking and they've turned out to be the best pair of all around pants I've ever owned. Unlike the other Kuhl pants (at least the ones I've looked at) these are lined with nylon on the inside of the pant which creates a nice smooth surface and helps keep you cool even on hot days.
Despite being 2/3 cotton, they're relatively quick drying, and I've worn them for everything from rock climbing, to light hiking, to traveling, to dinner with the parents. I've found these to be comfortable in temperatures from near freezing (if you're moving a lot) to up ~85 F (if you're just walking around town or on a light hike).

As far as durability, my first pair started getting some holes after ~2 years of medium to heavy use.

For fit, they run ~ 2" smaller (in the waist) than my normal size. They're a bit baggy, but not overly so.

I recently bought this knife because of the claim on Trango's website that it was impossible to open when looped onto a carabiner. Turns out this isn't true. I managed to open the knife on every carabiner I tried (a Petzl Williams screw-lock, Petzl Williams triact-lock , Petzl Attache screw-lock, and Black Diamond positron screw-lock). It's true the knife won't open on the main body of the carabiner, but I was able to open the knife at the point where the carabiner thins at the top of the gate (even when the carabiner was locked). Since I was only able to open the knife on one small portion of the carabiner, I imagine you'd need to be pretty unlucky to have the knife open up on your harness, but it's definitely possible. Also, in the knife does come open, keep in mind the tip will likely be pointing up towards your torso where it would be easy to cut your arm on the knife. With a different knife (like the Gerber Remix) if the blade comes open, it will be pointing down towards your leg where it seems less likely to cause damage to you.

If the knife was truly impossible to open on a carabiner, I would have given this five stars, because everything else about it is pretty awesome.