Although I did not buy this jacket from backcountry I thought I would give it a review here since this is the most comprehensive review site. I have had mine for about 2 months and have primarily used it as a skiing shell in the washington cascades. It gets a little stuffier than I would have expected (doesn't breathe as well) when I'm working really hard on challenging ski runs but overall is fairly breathable for being totally waterproof. I used it on a really wet snow day recently and I stayed bone dry after 3 hours and probably 20 or so laps. I also can confirm that the pockets are super waterproof. It's a little bit larger cut than I thought but it doesn't get in the way and I could definitely wear a heavy fleece or synthetic puffy jacket underneath. I am 5'5" and 135# and got a small. Mine is made in Canada. Also, the hemlocks (mentioned on arcteryx site) are basically foam cylinders/tubes in the bottom seam of the jacket (running around your waist) and prevent the bottom of the jacket from riding up and out of a climbing harness. It's pretty cool and totally removable.

This is a good lightweight pack. It's very simple, a good moderate size for most backpacking needs, and fairly comfortable. I have used mostly larger heavier packs (and still do sometimes) like the gregory palisade (great pack). I have been impressed with how well the suspension performs on this pack. I have definitely loaded it with at least 40 lbs and it carries very well. It's definitely more comfortable with even less weight but it's not bad even with 40. I really like the big zippered pocket on the outside of the pack because you can put a decent amount of stuff in there even with the main compartment being full. The pockets on the hipbelt are very spacious and can easily hold even a medium size digital camera. The compactor system is a cool idea. The pack definitely scrunches up quite a bit. You still have quite a bit of pack for just a day pack but it's better than no compression system. Some of the minor gripes: I don't like how long the suspension stays are; they stick up at least an inch above my head which is fine if I have a full pack but when using it as a day pack (which is one of it's big selling points) you can't reduce the height of the pack very much. even when you remove the stays the upper part of the pack is stiff so it doesn't really pack down out of the way so you have a really tall day back that can sort of get in the way if you are wearing a helmet for climbing (but not too bad). One other small gripe is that the ice ax loops are really big and if you have a full pack and the zippered pocket is full, it holds an ax or trekking poles securely but if the pack or the zippered pocket is not full, then there is some slack and the ax moves around a little bit (but it won't fall off). Hopefully you'll be using your ice ax or trekking poles and won't have to worry about it! Overall this is a great lightweight pack that is very versatile and comfortable and the price is awesome as well (even at full price).

I just ordered my second pair of these after owning a pair for about 3 years. I really like these pants and almost always wear them when I am backpacking because of how lightweight they are. Over the years of backpacking through brush and scrambling over rocks several holes developed though they weren't that big and I just patched them with some repair tape and it sticks to the fabric of the pants extremely well; I've washed them probably ten times since putting the patches on and they are still adhering really well. My only gripe about the pants is that where the zipper comes together at the bottom of the pant legs there is about an inch left where there is a slit so you don't have a solid cuff which is great for putting over boots but it doesn't look so great if you're trying to wear them as casual travel pants with regular shoes or dress shoes.

These glasses are definitely some of the best I've ever had in terms of fitting the width of my face but the lenses are very small vertically and don't give me a lot of coverage on the bottom part. While walking over snow there is definitely a lot of reflection that gets under the glasses and I can imagine the same would be true of fishing with light reflecting off the water.