akas

***MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE***

Okay, I've have a unique perspective on these boots. Not only do I wears these, I also work with many people that do wear these too. I am military personnel who works in a special unit (thats all i can say). Many of our folks use these boots and say they are very comfortable. HOWEVER, in real world operations, these suckers can slip on wet metal/steel. This is key when many of our operations occur on big sheets of metal (get the hint?). I have authored a medical board for someone who slipped and exacerbated their herniated disk and claims they were wearing this boot when it occurred (I have no proof and I am not saying the shoes caused the slip or the eventual medical board)

My unit is no longer ordering these boots, we have since moved on to the Rocky S2V boots and, to me, they feel more sturdy on wet surface. ie, there is no longer a confidence issue when it rains

I have owned the following pads

ALPS mountaineering lightweight air sleeping pad - most comfortable, fastest to self-inflate. However, when rolled up, it was the bulkiest one

Big Agnes Iron Mountain (I have 2) - lightest and packs down the smallest, took about 25 breaths. Least comfortable because of the 6 baffles. R-value was next to nil.

Thermarest Trail Pro - self inflating, comfort was not as good as ALPS but better than prolite plus

Thermarest Prolite Plus - self inflating but would still put in about 5 breaths. Packs down slightly larger than the big angnes.

CONCLUSION - for car camping, i take the ALPS. For lightweight or sleeping 14 hours at the airport, I used to take the Big Agnes. However, since I got the prolite plus, I haven't looked back. It is the best of self-inflating, lightweight, and easy packability. I wish I bought the prolite first, because the other 4 just sit there now. It's true, "buy nice or buy twice"

I have 2 of these bottles and have owned them over the past 1-2 years. I use them regularly

Cons
1. On 1 of the bottles, the tab that you press to flip the straw out have broken off. This is will normal use. I have met 2 other folks who have had the same problem (I also own 3 1 L better bottles and this happend on their cap too) I called camelbak and they sent me free replacement lids
2. Bite-valve eventually developed a small tear (on my 1 L, but they are the same bite-valve/lids). This decreased the amount of water I could drink at one time as air interfered with flow of water. Again, camelbak replaced this
3. MOLD MOLD MOLD MOLD MOLD. I know regular cleaning should prevent this, however, there are many parts, lots of small crevices, the tube is hard to clean without a proper tool, and the bite-valve has to be removed and cleaned with a q-tip. Tough to clean when in austere conditions.
4. Ahh, this is the kicker. I am active duty military and am exposed to unpressurized aircraft on a routine basis. As we go up in altitude, the air that is trapped inside expands and pushes on the liquid inside. If not careful, when i flip the straw, the liquid would shoot out great distances and randomly hit people IN THE FACE, thus leading to akward moments with the commanding officer

I will move onto nalgene bottles to see if they are any better.

I have 3 of these bottles and have owned them over the past 1-2 years. I use them regularly

Cons
1. On 2 of the bottles, the tab that you press to flip the straw out have broken off. This is will normal use. I have met 2 other folks who have had the same problem. I called camelbak and they sent me free replacement lids
2. Bite-valve eventually developed a small tear. This decreased the amount of water I could drink at one time as air interfered with flow of water. Again, camelbak replaced this
3. MOLD MOLD MOLD MOLD MOLD. I know regular cleaning should prevent this, however, there are many parts, lots of small crevices, the tube is hard to clean without a proper tool, and the bite-valve has to be removed and cleaned with a q-tip. One of mine had so much mold, and I was in the middle of no-where, I ended up throwing it away :(
4. Ahh, this is the kicker. I am active duty military and am exposed to unpressurized aircraft on a routine basis. As we go up in altitude, the air that is trapped inside expands and pushes on the liquid inside. If not careful, when i flip the straw, the liquid would shoot out great distances and randomly hit people IN THE FACE, thus leading to akward moments with the commanding officer

I will move onto nalgene bottles to see if they are any better.

I purchased this item 6 months ago and have used on on many backpacking and camping trips. It gets the job done but there is room for improvement

1. Plastic lid was warpped after first use. I didn't cook with it on. All I did was place it over food that was just cooked to keep it warm. It no longer has a practical cooking use. I use it as a storing lid. They gotta fix this!
2. Yes there is a simmer function. However, the temperature dial is 2% "simmer" and 98% full flame. To get a lower temperature, you have to lower the dial ever-so-slightly until the flame decreases. Once it starts to decrease from full flame, you have about 3mm of movement before you kill the flame. This is where the simmer comes in. Because of this, it is common to accidently shut off the gas as you try to lower the flame. Gotta fix this!
3. Starter works for the most part. There were a handful of times when the starter didn't ingnite the flame. The problem corrected itself once it was heated up again.

Loden color is perfect for ABU's and sage green boots, fits with uniform regs

Very comfortable, will buy some more!

We love this tent, it's easy and fast to put together. Rainfly works well. There is lots of room to stretch out and play jenga with the kids. Able to fit me, wife and 2 toddlers in there. I give it 4.5 stars, wish vestibule space were bigger.

I am active duty military and have used this backpack for nearly 100% of my travels for the past 2 years. I routinely carry heavy gear in this bag, more so than most people. It's seen every type of terrain imaginable, it's been thrown around in aircraft and heavy duty vehicles and it's been carried by several different types of stinky hairy mammals and it's still going strong

Keep in mind this is a 50L backpack, yes it will hold more than other packs made for backpacking.

The right shoulder strap padding is beginning to wear down but everything else still functions as new

I have been issued other backpacks since getting this one but the Icon 3.0 is still my go-to bag

Already had jetboil's GCS, so this was a perfect purchase to go with it

The water in the cup got hot, really hot, downright dangerous hot in about a minute.

Be careful because the sleeve around the cup is fairly thin. I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and they are forbidden to touch this cup when it has hot water in it because i can see how easy it would be to burn themselves

Made ramen and tea

Burned my tongue . . . live and learn

I purchased this item from backcounty and when it arrived, the sliding mechanism that allows you to push the spatula down the handle didnt work. The spatula would not lock in place and would either slide off the handle completely, or push back into the handle when i put pressure on it. IOW, it failed to lock in place

My other jetboil utensil's locking mechanism was just fine, so I decided to return this for another one in case I got a bad batch.

The new spatula arrived and the locking mechanism is solid.

Locks like a quality control issue. If you get one that works, it's great otherwise, but since I had to go through the hassle of returning it and waiting for a new one, it's 3 stars

(though 5 stars for backcountry return experience)