Contributions by Oliver (4)

I'd just like to say that I've been impressed with this shovel but I have a couple of important quibbles with it. Cutting snow out for avalanche tests, a very important function of a back country shovel, would be made much easier by the cutting area and base of the scoop being flat. The concavity of this shovel and the trough running along most of its base made cutting the snow flat very awkward, and compression tests difficult and painful enough to be unreliable. This is a big design flaw but not insurmountable. I hope to see a redesign on the market soon as it is potentially a very good product.

This is a very sophisticated pack design. For a snowboarder like me the back panel access is a godsend, as is the ripstop nylon. I fall on it a lot! However, being 'sophisticated' doesn't necessarily mean it wins me over. Socrates would dismiss the poor arguments of some of his contemporaries as 'sophistry' - a term meaning merely being clever with words. I'd argue that this pack is a little too heavy, weighed down by its many clever features. I sense the pack would lose a lot of weight and only a little functionality by Dakine adopting a more minimal bag design. Smaller componentry could be used for weight shavings too. An Occam’s razor for Pack design is needed!

I have enjoyed a number of hikes using these snowshoes. Being new to snowshoeing I can't comparatively rate them but I have a couple of observations that may merit this review. I came into two problems using these. First I had a problem of loosening, and then losing straps. This wasn't a loosening from the buckle end of the strap but from the inadequate tethering of its other end. This problem may have been sorted out in the latest MSR models. Second, there were unforeseen dangers in its use! These nearly caused serious injury and I was left wishing the relevant cautionary information had featured in the instruction booklet! I wasn't warned about the need to take flotation tails off for descent. Neither was I warned about the limit of the snowshoes capabilities going UP a certain inclination! The limits of this snowshoe was somewhere around 40 degrees in the soft and wet spring conditions I used them. Finally, I just wonder if there wasn't too little nose flotation provided by these - the cost of having un-'Frankenstein'ing snowshoes perhaps? Sometimes the toes would sink deep and so I was forced put my weight back, walking with my feet out in front of me, pulling my way up the mountain (using my hamstrings instead of my quadriceps to climb). As I mentioned earlier, I'm new to this lark so this problem may merely be due to my ineptitude!

This is a top product. I've had a similar positive experience to other users whose comments have been pasted here. What really made me appreciate the purifier was trekking in Nepal's Khumbu region where food was of limited merit!! It was a blessing to be able to wash those unavoidably drab, but vital meals down with the freshest tasting water.