Reviews by User: skier219 (7)

The construction and materials are excellent, and these pants can clearly take a lot of wear and tear. But they have an odd feature -- the entire seat zips open. Since I have no need to drop the seat of my pants when skiing, I found this feature to be strange. It contributed to a bulky feel (zipper and flaps) and it puts a non-watertight zipper in the wrong place when sitting on snowy or wet chairlifts. I am sure these are great mountaineering pants when a potty break is needed, but I found them to be ill-designed as ski pants.

These are awesome bindings, but beware -- they come with 115mm brakes, not 100mm as specified by backcountry.

The high build quality and super-beefy construction make these the best bindings I have owned (and I have tried dozens over the years). Not only are they built like tanks, but the heel piece has a direct metal-to-ski mount that I have not seen on many consumer bindings (even the Look PX-14 mounts through plastic). The reinforced heel pin tells you they mean business. If there's any downside, it's that these Peak-15s are noticeably heavier than their flimsier 12-DIN cousins, but it's a small price to pay for a bomber binding.

I like the pants except for two aspects. First, the fit is oddly tight in the thigh, hip, and crotch area. I say odd because the waist fits fine -- actually a teeny bit loose. The other aspect I dislike is the absence of ankle gaiters -- they would really make for a more versatile set of pants if they were included.

Nice fit for large faces, and excellent sightlines through the frame. Never fogged up on me once in 4 days of skiing, including a warm day. The strap is long enough to go around my helmet, but requires the $5 Smith Universal Helmet Helper accessory to really fit correctly. This is due to the location of the goggle strap buckle in the middle of the strap, where it interferes with the goggle clip on the back of my helmet. I guess I would prefer a simple one-piece strap rather than the one with a buckle in the middle. The RC36 lens offers a good overall compromise, but can be a bit too light for super bright days. But if you want to carry just one lens around, this is a good choice. The lens itself seems very durable. I try very hard to protect the lens from abuse, but inevitably someone else will drop my goggles or bang them up. So far, the lenses are holding up great.

After shopping around, we bought this jacket for my wife and she loves it (heck, I want one too!). It has a bunch of smart features for skiers and is very well designed and put together. Really an outstanding ski jacket, and highly recommended.