Reviews by User: never2dark (5)

Ok - I've suffered with foam ThermaRest and Z-Rest pads for years and toss and turn the latter half of every night due to painful pressure on my hip bones and shoulders. I have also used the Camp Rest pads with the same effect. This pad with a little extra air pressure in it is the BOMB! After the first night, I didn't even think about it for an hour after I got up in the morning, and then I realized that I hadn't had any painful awakenings in the middle of the night! My snap decision to go with an extra 1/2 inch of padding (ProLite 4 vs. 3) has really paid off in all of my trips. People are right, though - don't expect to get the pad back into that plastic sleeve. I'm sure they have a hydraulic press to put it in there in the factory. Just throw the wrapper away and get a little stuff sack - save your fingers:)

My Gypsy/Grill jacket is actually brick red - not orange like the photos show. The more I wear it and look at it though, the more I like the colors. The stretch is not as much as fleece, either. You can feel it stretch if you grab two handfuls of cloth and pull hard, but when moving around in it, you do seem to hit your limits here and there, but it's not bad. It's just not like fleece. One little faux pas is that the zippers are cold against the inside of your arms if you wear short sleeves since there is no protective flap inside the pit zips. There isn't any insulation in the sleeves, either. Just the cold-feeling taffeta. This wasn't what I had in mind when I bought a Columbia softshell because I'd had and lost a previous Columbia softshell, and it was more like a '70's polyester pantsuit on the outside. This jacket is more like their Winter jackets (like Titanium or Vertex) on the outside, but with a bit of stretch. Noisy when you rub it with your hand. Nevertheless, I'm seriously considering getting another one with the Cordova/Pewter color to go with my Titanium ski pants of roughly the same colors (Kettle/Khaki). I really do like it a lot no matter what I said above. I really would buy it again.

Buying clothes online is often a problem for me, but I had looked at dozens of convertible pants at a couple of local outdoor stores and not found anything. On the rack, the ones at the store all came up to my armpits! Anyway, I checked the sizing chart on this page and chose S/Short pants to fit my somewhat less than 30" inseam and 30-31" waist. Well, they fit perfectly! Aside from the sizing, the fabric feels a bit thin like swim trunks, but seems plenty strong. The pockets are roomy, deep and useful. I kept a camera, bags of snacks and a GPS in various pockets comfortably. The webbing belt is thin enough to be comfortable under medium to large backpacks. These are definitely my favorite hiking pants ever.

It's a little bit more like egg corn puffs, but they're actually pretty darn good. I suppose the puffed dry eggs serve to keep them together while steeping and keep them from ending up like oatmeal. The final texture is pretty good. Would definitely get them again.

The Hestra Heli-Ski glove is a super-hot-looking glove. Get your game on 'cuz these gloves make you look like you know what you're doing! A little less warm than I expected, but your hands won't get wet, and wind won't be an issue at all. All-in-all, an excellent glove with looks to beat anything out there. My friends who have seen these immediately started planning to get their favorite colors of heli-ski gloves when they saw mine.