Sorry, Angus, allow me to clarify my question:

Would anyone who has skied with THIS pack care to comment on its performance, when used for skiing?

Specifically, I'm curious about the ultra-wimpy hipbelt and how you felt about it.

well, personally i'd take chris davenport's word for the pack. he skied all the colorado 14ers in one year. that's 59 14,000 ft elevation mountains. so, props to him on that, however, i don't know if he used this particular pack for that. the pack's hip belt is uber wimpy and is really only used for stability, and can be used without it. it's a super light pack. and if you're looking for a pack with more hip belt padding get the BD demon, which is essentially the same pack but with a better hip belt. if you read the description it's main use is for trad climbing and shorter hikes. you can carry you whole rack on this pack. i mean you could jimmy rig this to hold your skiis, but it's not really intended for this purpose. if you want some other alternative ski packs, the BD revelation pack has an excellent setup and can hold your skis, shovel, probe, etc. the new and updated version is better than the original. the osprey switch, BD Alias, BD covert, and if you can get your hands on it, the Haglofs Edge is one of the best and most functional ski packs i've ever owned. Those are all good packs.

I've skied with other BD packs of similar size and construction, and they've been fantastic, so this one should be just as good. Also, if you look at the page, you can see that Chris Davenport and Renan Ozturk both love it. I'm not sure if you know who these two people are, but rest assured that they have beaten the bejesus out of every piece of gear they use. If they like the pack, it's a good pack.