During an Adirondack bushwhack, these shoes bit into all sorts of variable terrain, ice, rocks, etc with no complaint. They went rock-to-rock on stream crossings, and I kept them on for much of the way up a fairly icy slide on E. Dix. The heel bars were nice and made a noticeable difference for the way up.

On the way back down, I had some increasing foot discomfort as my boots slid forward in the snowshoes; the snowshoe straps were effectively cinched down tighter and tighter on my foot, causing some notable discomfort by the end (we descended for roughly 3 hours). I will hopefully be able to rig up another strap to hold my foot forward and reduce that discomfort for future hikes.

Of final and important note, I've found that the under-foot crampons on the shoes were bent slightly on the trip. Not so mangled as to be ineffective, but certainly a bit concerning. I contacted Louis Garneau right away, and they've been very responsive, offering to replace my pair and pass my concerns on to the designer of the shoe. Hopefully the next pair won't see damage so quickly, but if they do, I have confidence that, based on their first response, that LG won't hang me out to dry.

I bought this rope, but haven't yet found occasion to use it, so there's no first-hand usage experience behind this review. However, I wanted to mention that the "Not recommended for half roping or doubling" line as given above perplexed me, so I did some digging.

According to a video interview by mammut (search for "mammut serenity" on spadout.com), this rope tests adequately as a half/double rope but is not recommended for regular use because it employs a very thin sheath. Its core is the size of a larger single rope; a thin sheath is what makes the rope so narrow and light. They recommend using a rope with a thicker sheath (their Genesis, for instance) in a regular double-rope application, as, despite its narrower diameter, it has a thicker sheath and is therefore more abrasion-resistant.

Hope this helps someone!

WARNING: This cassette DOES NOT WORK with Shimano freehub bodies. It's just dandy with a Mavic freehub body, but the spline is not right for a shimano hub. The spacing works fine with a shimano setup, though, if you get the cassette mounted on a mavic freehub body.

I spent quite a bit of time getting this one straight, and I hope this helps someone!