I picked up one of these at a nice 50% off price. So, I was happy with that for sure.

The shirt has an athletic/slim cut, which was expected, however, I still went with my normal size and it fits me fine. (This is, after all, a base layer shirt for me, which should be close to skin.) Although, due to the slim cut, when I zip the front zipper all the way up, it is a bit tight around my neck. Not strangling, but definitely noticeable. (I hope that this stretches a bit over time.) The sleeves are a great length for me, even when I use the thumb loops.

I do find the shirt a bit itchy, but it usually goes away a little while after I have been wearing it. (Maybe this is just me though, I generally don't wear too much wool.)

Being that it is wool, it does not dry out too fast, at least when compared to thin, base layer synthetics (such as my Patagonia Cap 2, which is what I have been wearing). My back generally gets soaked from hiking and wearing a backpack, and this is the area that stays wet for quite a while after taking the pack off. If this shirt is my outer layer then it tends to get cool (naturally) and especially if the wind is blowing (despite the saying that wet wool will keep me warmer than wet synthetics). For this reason, I am having a hard time wanting to use this as my primary base layer during the winter, which is why I bought it in the first place...

However, this is typical of any wool shirts, so I am not picking on IB for that, but it is still worth noting. I give this shirt a 4 because it is a nice shirt and is constructed well. The fit is even ok, but maybe a little tight around the neck... It is not perfect, so no 5 here, but it is still a great shirt, especially if close fitting wool shirts is your thing.

I have shied away from filters quite a while back and have been fine with using chemical treatments. However, this filter made me give filters another shot, and I am glad I did. Simply put, this thing is lightweight and works great. There is no futzing around with hoses and tubes...just fill the bladder and squeeze it through the filter.

For a more detailed write up on this filter, check out my blog:

http://sticksblog.com/2012/03/22/first-look-at-the-sawyer-squeeze-water-filter/

I have been very happy with these socks. They seem to fit my feet the way you would imagine a good sock should fit...perfect. There is a little padding to make my foot feel coddled, but not too much to feel all bulky inside my shoe. I enjoy wearing these for daily use as well as to hike the trail with.

I bought this mask primarily to sleep in. I did not want a full balaclava. Instead, I use this mask in conjunction with my Black Rock Gear down hat and a buff. All 3 pieces offer a wide range of versatility being that I can use only the piece(s) that I want when I want.

When I initially ordered the mask I went by some of the measurements in the comments below. I ordered the medium because my measurements was within the quoted 20 - 24". However, when it arrived it was too small. I had to ship it back and reorder the large, so that kind of sucked paying shipping twice.

Anyway, the large fits me good. My head is not too big and I typically have to order S-M size hats. So, I would say the sizing runs small on these. I would suggest at least a size Large on adult men, and if your head is a little bigger than normal, I would go with the XL. (Besides, after having one too small, I would way rather have one that was a little big. At least it would work.)

Since the medium was too small for my head I did not get to use it yet. I did take it on a 3 night trip but I just couldn't get the velcro to stay connected so I didn't use it. I was kind of depressed because I think that this will make a great sleeping piece.

Normally, my nose and my chin will get cold at night if the temp is around 20 F or less, which is why I ordered this. My main concern is how will it manage moisture throughout a night sleeping in it. Unfortunately I cannot say at this time how it will do, but I feel like it will be ok. Just wearing it the holes around the mouth seem adequate for letting my breath pass through. As well, the nose piece is simply shaped to fit around my nose, but the underneath is open, so here again, breath is not trapped. Due to this and the fact that I usually breath through my nose when sleeping I feel like this mask will meet my needs.

As well, my size large weighs 1.1 oz so I am pretty happy with the weight. It would have been nicer to have came in at under an oz, but considering the benefit (comfort) it will provide, I can handle the 1.1 oz.

So far, even though I believe that the sizing is smaller than normal, I will still initially give this thing 5 stars. If my thoughts change I will annotate this "review."

Bottom line, this really is a great jacket. It keeps me dry, fits me good and does not feel clammy on the inside (even next to skin) when I know I am sweating. The inner lining does a great job at absorbing the moisture and from what I can tell, does a decent job at pushing that moisture right on out. It was pretty amazing when I took this thing off and saw how wet it really was inside, but never once could tell it while wearing it. Then, just open it up and lay it out and it will dry out in no time flat.

The outer shell does a great job at repelling water, but I did notice that the jacket would wet out pretty quickly around the places that have been bonded, such as around the pockets. However, this never proved to be anything worth worrying about. Other than this, a quick shake and you would never know that the jacket had been worn for hours in the rain.

But, a few hang ups...

Namely the lack of hand pockets. My opinion, this is not a light weight jacket, not even close. My large weighs in at 15.9 oz. Saying this, my XL GoLite Tumalo weighs in at 10.8 oz and does feature hand pockets, although no chest pockets. But, there are easily jackets out there that weigh as little as 7 - 9 oz with features, and to make matters worse, I recently had my hands on a ZPacks cuben fiber rain jacket that was 3 oz, with pit zips (no hand pockets).

Anyway, said all that just to say that I don't think that there is a good reason that hand pockets were left off of this jacket considering the weight. At least swap the chest pockets out for hand pockets...

Now I am not going to be hiking with my hands in those pockets, but what about while I am at camp, it's cold and wet and I want to (naturally) put my hands in my pocket. In this case I will have to either stuff my hands in my pants pockets (which means I would probably have to remove gloves) or shed that jacket and lose a bit of warmth.

I know that I spent a good deal of time talking about pockets, but still in all, like I said, this is a great jacket. If you can do without pockets, and don't mind dropping the dough, this jacket should be considered.

This jacket is now listed at 9.3 oz on the Montbell site, so the stats on the BC site are still last years model. Bummer that they are adding zippers to the pockets on their jackets/parkas. Just added weight, and for what?

I recently picked one of these up and I sure am glad I did. There are others at half the weight, but also twice the price, and lets face it, this one works. I usually leave the stuff sack at home, which makes the head net alone weigh in at 0.7 oz. It is fairly durable and it fits well over my Sunday Afternoon Visor.

The breathability on it is so-so, but obviously better when moving, or if there is a slight breeze. I have not cinched up the draw cord much so far as I like to let a little draft in, but it is good to know that if it is awfully buggy outside, I can do so if I want. (But I have contemplated cutting it out to save a little more weight...)

Visibility is pretty good, but occasionally I have caught a glare from the sun, hard to explain, but it happens...

Other than being great for mosquitoes and other larger bugs (this will not keep out noseeums) I have been really happy with it on morning hikes... it does a great job at catching the spider webs spun across the trail rather than my face...

All in all, I am happy with this head net, and for the price I can't see why anyone else wouldn't be. But, in the end, I will let you decide that...

5 stars!

I have enjoyed using Aqua Mira Drops as my sole water treatment while on the trail, but recently I decided to pick up a Frontier pro filter to use in conjunction with the chemicals. The AM drops will kill the little stuff in 15 minutes (depending on water temp and turbidity) and then the filter will remove the big bad guys (Giardia & Crypto). So, I also decided to keep weight down, I would pick up some tabs (they weigh less than the drops).

20 of the tablets weigh in at 0.5 oz in the packaging. Sweet!

The packaging can be a little tough to open, so before leaving I snip the edges of the wrappers with a pair of scissors. This way when I use them I can simply tear at the snip. Still a little tough (especially if my hands are wet) but still manageable too.

These tablets will leave a strong chemical taste to the water if the water is not ran through a carbon filter. During the day I treated the water and then filtered it so I would only wait 15 minutes. The carbon filter removed the chemical taste very well. However, at night I dropped in the tablets and then did not filter the next morning since the tablets had more than enough time to thoroughly work. The chemical taste definitely woke me up! Wow. It was strong! Good thing I had flavored drink tablets to add to it, although they still did not cover the taste completely. (And just for the record, I have never tasted a chemical taste using the AM drops, without filtering.)

So, because of the strong chemical taste, I gave these a 4. Also, considering how expensive the pills are compared to the drops. But, I can only they assume that they do work (I haven't gotten sick anyway), however, they are the lightest water treatment option available. I will continue to use these, but I will definitely bring my filter along too!

This hat is sold in 3 different sizes (M, L & XL). My head measures 22-1/4″ so I opted for the medium which fits up to a 22-1/2″ (and is the smallest size available). When I received the hat I found that it fit me decent, but really it was a little large. (But in its defense, a lot of hats tend to be too big for my head…) Of course the diameter was just a little too large, but this can easily be adjusted with a cord lock adjuster on the back of the hat. However, the hat itself is also a little to deep for me. In order for the hat to sit down on the top of my head, the hat actually then sits over my ears. This is just a little annoying, but the adjuster on the back does improve the fit slightly.

I also found the headband to be a little itchy on my forehead. This may have something to do with the fact that I don’t typically wear hats though. I have had limited use with the hat so far, but for the one outing I wore it on, the headband seemed to do well at keeping any sweat from rolling down into my eyes.

I like the fact that the adjustable chin cord can be removed, but I have found that there is really no reason to actually remove the cord, for me. There is no way to predict when the wind will or will not blow, so I cannot see any reason to remove the chin strap. Saying this, I have not used the cord lock to actually secure the hat on my head. Of course though, this may have something to do with the fact that I have the back adjuster tightened down to keep the hat from sliding down over my ears too…

Given my limited use so far, it is hard for me to comment on the breathability of this hat at this point as well. The one trip that I wore this hat on so far was a short day hike with my kids and on that trip the temperatures were in the high 70′s to low 80′s. I did break a sweat, and I do not remember my head overheating, so it did fine on that trip. But the temps that I am wanting to use this hat in will be about 20 degrees higher…

Of course the hat did do a fine job at keeping the sun out of my eyes, and from what I could tell, even from off of my face as long as I was not staring up into the sky. It is somewhat hard for me to actually see the back of my neck though, so it is hard for me to say if my neck was shaded. And since I was only out for 3-4 hours and under the cover of trees mostly, I most certainly did not receive a sunburn on my neck.

One other thing that I figured out about the hat that I must admit I did not think about to begin with was wearing the hat in the rain. This hat is not waterproof, and I realized that when I bought it. Truth is, I was not interested in a waterproof hat since I am intending on using this hat in the summer, when it is warm. When it is cold, I will wear my Black Rock Gear down boggin, and that is a whole different set-up. But what I did not think about was when I need to pull my rain jacket hood over my head. I have experimented with wearing the rain jacket hood over the hat, and while the brim of the hat will bend and mold to the inside of the jacket’s hood, it makes turning my head a little difficult. It is really not ideal. Also, I have to think about stowing the hat somewhere when the time comes.

So, even though this hat is a fine hat considering what it actually is, I do not think that it will fit my needs, and comforts. I think I would like to try something more similar to a ball cap style hat. I have looked at some that have the flap in the back that will cover my neck, but I am not so sure that I will like that flap on the back of my neck all day. However, with a ball cap style hat, this design will surely make wearing it under a rain jacket hood simpler, and would actually help to keep the rain jacket hood from falling in my face.

So, yet again, I have found that even though a product is quite effective, it may not be for me. Also, if I choose to go with a ball cap style hat, I will be trading in some things for others (shade for fit and ease of use with a rain jacket hood). Or to put it another way, I will be making sacrifices and choosing which needs are more important to me than others. Even though this is a simple hat, there are still decisions to make, and just like all other pieces of backpacking gear, there may not be one perfect hat that does it all for me…

But I shall see…

I bought one of these at the end of last year. I initially bought an XL but I found it to be quite baggy, especially in the chest area and it felt like it hung off of my shoulders a little too much, so I went with a large. The fit is much better, however, I find it to be a little tight under my arms if I wear much bulk at all under the jacket. Just wearing a tshirt or a light weight long sleeve is ok, but much more is pushing it. But this is fine with me. I use this jacket as a late fall jacket. Once temps drop considerably, I pull my warmer jacket out.

I have worn the jacket in times of slight rain and many times in misty weather. The shell did fine in the misting weather, however, I noticed that it began to wet out in the light rain pretty quickly. Still, I am happy with it since this is not a rain jacket. It kept me dry underneath, and the jacket dried out fairly quickly. I was able to shake a lot of the water right off.

I am a little disappointed in the wind blocking capabilities of this jacket. I know that some of the wind is sneaking in around the openings of the jacket, but on a cool, windy day and wearing only a tshirt underneath I feel plenty of air circulating through the jacket. I really expected it to block more wind. My sewn through Montbell UL Down Inner actually blocks more wind than this jacket, which really surprised me.

The pockets are nice and big, so that is a plus, although I rarely use the chest pocket. Also, I am not too fond of the velcro wrist adjusters. TNF uses a somewhat thick plasticky strap. If I try to cinch it closed around my wrist it feels very bulky and a little annoying.

I would actually give this jacket 3.5 stars if available, however I cannot, so I am going to give it 4 stars. Mostly because I do like this jacket and it is my go-to jacket until winter time, and it seems to be quite durable so I am confident that it will be around for a long time. I do wish they would change the wrist closure though...

I recently picked up a pair of these but ended up getting rid of them. I took them with me on a recent backpacking trip, and while I started the hike out with the glasses hung around my neck, they ended up riding in my pack for the remainder of the trip.

Simply put, the arms squeezed my head and the arms were really uncomfy when I wore a hat while wearing them. I may have been able to deal with this alone, but that was not all. I also felt like the small frames limited my field of vision too much. Not just from side to side (meaning I did not find the side shields a problem). My problem was that light was coming in from the bottom if I pushed the glasses up, or from the top if I pushed the glasses down. Also, due to the narrow frame, I felt like the frame was always blocking some part of my field of vision. I have realized that I prefer glasses with larger frames.

Saying this, the glasses seemed to be quite durable and seemed to be very promising, however I just realized that they did not suit me.

I gave the glasses 3 stars because they do seem to be a fine pair of glasses, but I took 1 star off for fit and another for lack of vision.

I recently picked one of these shirts up to give it a try for use in the SE (hot & humid).

I typically wear an XL in most shirts and I decided to go with the same for this shirt, but I will admit that I was hoping it would not be a tight fit. So I was quite happy when I found that the shirt fit me fairly loose. I am actually quite happy with the fit.

I have worn it on a few day hikes so far and will wear it for a 4 day hike next week so I should get a little better understanding of how it will work in our weather. So far though I have found that the shirt does a pretty good job at moving the sweat away from my body to the outside of the shirt so that it could evaporate. And once I get done hiking, the shirt will completely dry out from my body heat pretty quickly too.

I love the deep zip on the front, great for venting and the zippers work smoothly. The pocket is huge, although i am not a fan of having too much stuff in shirt pockets, so I don't think I will load it down too much. It would be a great place for one of the smaller iPods but I don't typically carry mine. I can easily store my camera in it but it will probably be too heavy for it to feel comfy for me. Plus, with the amount of sweat I will build up in this weather, I don't think that putting electronics in this pocket is a great idea.

I have washed the shirt after each hike (a total of 3 times) by using a little Woolite in the kitchen sink, gently massaging it and then hang drying it inside the house. So far this has worked well. There has been no noticeable damage to the shirt from washing, and better yet, no shrinkage!

So far I am quite happy with the shirt. The fit is good, and the shirt is very comfy next to skin, plus it dries pretty quickly. So, as of now I definitely give it 5 stars, but a better test is coming up, so I will be sure to report back on how it does after then.

I ordered 2 pairs of these sock in the black in a size XL. (I wear a size 12 shoe.) They fit great. They hug my foot comfortably, not too tight. There is "extra padding" (which is simply thicker areas) in the areas which pressure is usually applied (at the heel, around the outside of the foot and across the front of the foot) . The ankle cut outs are not as severe as I thought they would be either, but that doesn't really matter.

I wore one pair one day and then the second pair the second day. I wore them to work rather than on the trail. They fit fine inside my normal around-the-house tennis shoes, not too bulky at all. Once I got to work, I changed into my Crocs for the day.

What I found is that these socks are extremely hot! I work indoors (in surgery - so it is actually kept a little cold) and I was wearing a pair of Crocs with holes all in it. As hot as I found them, I tried to imagine how hot I would be on the trail, wearing them with enclosed shoes and hiking in temps of 90 F or above... I have not found my medium wt Smartwool socks to be this hot...

The other thing that I found is that these socks pill terribly bad. At the end of each day, these socks were fuzzy, bad! it was hard for me to believe how much they had pilled, but they did.

I have not washed them yet, but I will be sure to follow the directions for wash when I do so, and I am very curious to see if they pill as bad after an initial wear and wash. If they continue to pill as bad as they have, I do not forsee these socks lasting terribly long.

So, I gave these socks 3 stars for the time being. The fit is great, but they are terribly hot, and they pill terribly! So, time will see.

I typically use the GSI Kettle and a White Box Stove (original). I am planning an AT thru hike in 2013 and I figured a regular cook pot would be more ideal since I may actually have to (or on occasion want to) cook in it. I imagine this cook pot being a little easier to actually cook in, but much easier to clean up afterwards.

I had wanted the UL version but unfortunately they have been almost nonexistent over the last few months since the earthquake/tsunami hit Japan. Unfortunately, these pots are not made in the US but rather in Japan, and with the disaster they experienced, these pots were not delivered for a while.

In the mean time, I thought about why I wanted this cook pot over my kettle, and in doing so, realized the non stick version may be a better choice. I wanted the UL version because it was ~ 0.5 oz lighter, but sometimes weight is not everything. So, I happily ordered the Non stick version.

When it arrived it was exactly what I expected. I put the pot and lid on my scales and it settled on 4.8 oz. I measured the stuff sack separately and it weighed another 0.5 oz. However, I ditched the supplied stuff sack and went with a ZPacks Cuben Fiber cook pot stuff sack which is 0.4 oz lighter!

The pot measures 2-7/8" from the bottom of the pot to the top of the lip (measure on the outside of the pot) and the bottom diameter is 5-1/8" (again, measured on the outside of the pot). I am very happy with the short and wide design. The large flat bottom allows most of the flames from my alcohol stoves to remain under the pot which allows for faster heating and better fuel efficiency!

I did 2 test burns using my White Box Stove (with wind screen and aluminum foil heat reflector on a dirt ground) and this cook pot with 2 cups of cold tap water. The first was with 3/4 oz of HEET (yellow bottle) and resulted with a 4 minute 45 second boil time! The second was using 3/4 oz of Everclear (190 proof) and resulted with a 4 minute 50 second boil!

When extended (opened), the handles protrude out from the pot 3-1/2" and have silicone handles which cover most of the handle. When I grab the handles the end of the handles stop near the center of my palm, and while it is not a full grip, I have no fear of dumping any amount of food/water that this pot will hold from being to heavy. Also, the silicone handles do slip around, but again, nothing to make me fear of losing grip, but instead just rather annoying.

As well, the lid has a slight catch when lowered down in place over the pot. This is great so far because it is too tight to simply fall off if flipped around, but when filled with water and using it over a stove, the weight of the contents will allow enough counter pressure to safely lift the lid off without spilling the contents. However, out of fear, I still only barely set the lid down so that removal is that much easier.

All-in-all, I am very happy with my decision to go with this cook pot. I highly suggest it to anyone that may be interested!