Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I started wearing around my Granite Peak Parka.

Retailing for about $210 from Hi-Tec Canada, the Granite Peak Park is in the affordable range of high-quality jackets. You don’t have to go out and spend $700 to pick one of these up.

It’s got the standard features of velcro zips around the cuffs, draws around the waits and around the face on the hood so you can tighten things up when weather goes south. Depending on the size of your noggin or if you’re packing a hat or 2 you can adjust the volume of the hood with a velcro strap at the back. It didn’t quite fit over my giant snowboarding helmet but anything smaller would be just fine.

The front of the jacket has 4 packets, 2 low, 2 on the chest. The chest pockets are super handy and I use them all the time for my camera lens cap, GPS, notebook or my point and shoot camera. They’re actually quite deep for pockets and not big enough to lose anything, they certainly hold more than enough stuff. The 2 lower pockets are all fuzzy inside making for a nice warm place to put your hands on cold wet days.  There’s also an mp3 player pocket on the inside with a loop further up the jacket for your headphone cords. Definitely works well if you plan on wearing it out all the time and can’t leave home without your tunes.

I’ve been out in some gnarly weather since I got the jacket and I’m happy to say it’s held up very well so far. One of the first few days I had it we went skiing on our local hill. We were hoping we hit the eye of the storm that had been pummelling the mountain that week but we sure didn’t. Battling 50-60 km/h winds and heavy snow all day we managed to make it through. The snow was amazing but we couldn’t see a thing. Most of the people we came with left before they even started but we stuck it out all day, thanks in no small part to the Granite Peak Parka. I thought I would be cold that day with the heavy wet snow and high winds but I was nice and toasty all day. I would have been a miserable snow monster that day if the jacket hadn’t worked very well.

It’s been cool enough around here lately to warrant keeping the fleece in. It’s starting to warm up though so I’ve been chilling with the fleece on it’s own if I just need a little bit of warm or just the shell on the warm wet days.

I’m really beginning to like this 3-in-1 stuff! If you’re just tuning in and aren’t sure what a 3-in-1 jacket is, let me explain. Most jackets only have one layer. That’s all you get. If you’re hot you have to take the jacket off, if you’re cold you need to find another layer. You can wear a lot of thin layers if you want but they get bulky quick.

3-in-1’s solve all this non-sense by attaching 2 jackets together. You have your outer shell that protects you from the rain and provides a bit of warmth. Then you have the inner fleece lining that gives the warmth a big boost. Both jackets have 2 zippers and a few snaps so you can attach them together and they act as one. Cold days, just leave them attached. If it’s warm but wet, unzip them and take the shell. If it’s cool but dry, just take the fleece. You really get 3 jackets in 1!

So far my parka has seen 3 days hiking, 3 resort skiing days and 2 ski touring days and it’s about to embark on another ski tour and hike this weekend. I hope my other jackets aren’t getting too jealous. 

The post Hi-Tec Granite Peak Parka Review first appeared on Pack & Trail.

I’ve rounded up a ton of reviews of the Lightning Ascents. They’ll be able to give you the pros and cons of these awesome shoes in case you’re looking for a new pair.

http://www.trailspace.com/gear/msr/lightning-ascent/#reviews

http://hikinglady.com/reviews/gear-reviews/msr-lightning-ascent-25-snowshoes/

http://sectionhiker.com/msr-lightning-ascent-snowshoes/

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web07x/ms-jr-msr-lightning-snowshoes

http://www.backpacker.com/fall-gear-guide-09-gear-review-msr-lightning-ascent-snowshoe/gear/13544

http://www.hikinginfinland.com/2010/01/video-msr-lightning-ascent-review.html

Lightning Ascents on Amazon

The post Link Roundup: MSR Lightning Ascent Snowshoe Reviews first appeared on Pack & Trail.

We can’t have you getting stuck before the adventure has even begun!

A new series on Pack and Trail, AdventureMobile will focus on the best transportation to your adventure launch points. Whether it be skiing, hiking, running, biking or whatever else you fancy doing, you’ve got to get there before you can do any of it. We’ll give you a hand with that. There are reviews out the ying yang for every kind of car and truck on the market but there are a few that stand out again and again as being trusted and reliable but still getting you to those hard to reach places.

Each of the vehicles has it’s pros and cons and which one you choose depends entirely on what you’d like to do with it. A few examples are in order.

The Toyota 4runner is a very capable 4×4 machine. Sometimes they offer enough room in the back if you can fold the seats down to sleep comfortable. That depends how bit the vehicle is, how tall you are and how the seats fold down. It easily seats 4 people, maybe 5, plus gear. Parts are easy to find and there’s huge market for bigger, better offroad parts.The Mitsubishi Delica is relatively a relatively unknown AdventureMobile. It can easily handle most offroad situations but is a little top-heavy so you have to take that into consideration when you get into the gnarly stuff. There is tons of room in the back for a bed or lots of people and gear. Parts can be a little hard to find so make sure you have a good source before going out and picking one of these up.

The Toyota Tacoma is an offroad beast. Held by some as the greatest offroad truck in history, these things will stand up to anything you throw at them. You do have some decisions to make. You can go with V4 or V6, 2 door or 4, standard or automatic. All of these things will affect what you can do with your truck and when. If you go with a 4 door, some models only get a short box. If you get a V4 you’ll get better gas mileage but may not have the power to haul much up steep hills. Then you have to decide whether you want a canopy or not. It’s nice to have a secure, covered area for great but it’s another expense.

The Subaru Impreza is a mean little machine that can rally any smooth offroad area. It gets better gas mileage than most trucks, seats 4 people comfortable and still has room for gear. Throw a roof rack on it and you got space for more. The all-wheel drive gives you great traction on slippery surfaces, letting you get out in wet, snowy conditions. Downsides? Don’t put any sort of big rut or tank trap in the road, Impreza’s don’t have much clearance. Little bumps in the road can put big bumps into your great adventure plans.

These are just a few of the great choices for AdventureMobiles out there. Every manufacturer has a few good choices but there are always pros and cons to each. Stay tuned each week as we add the AdventureMobile series to the regular lineup here on Pack and Trail.

The post AdventureMobile: The Series first appeared on Pack & Trail.

I worked at Valhalla Pure Outfitters for a couple seasons. The reps would come in now and then to see how we were doing and to do product knowledge sessions. The Salomon rep showed up and did our session. He was giving us a sneak peak at some new stock that could be ordered for next season when I saw the Wings. They were perfect. I hadn’t even tried them on but I knew I had to have them.

I’ve had my second pair of Salmon Wings now for just over a year now and they’re definitely the best shoes I’ve ever had. They’ve been everywhere with me. They were the one pair of shoes I wore every day in Australia and New Zealand when I was there for 4 months last year. They are my go-to runners now, I don’t own a pair of road runners. Any light hikes I go on, I’m wearing the Wings.

I’ve found they’re the ideal combination of stability and cushioning for a trail runner. You can even run on the road with them if you want. Road running is boring so I don’t do much of that but it does happen from time to time. If I could have it my way, I’d have a trail from my front door out to the mountains but, alas, there is only a road. Even still, I’ve not had any problems with the shoes on the pavement or the trail.

Along with coming to Australia and New Zealand with me, they’ve done a few races. Here on Vancouver Island there is a 5 race trail running series called the Gutbusters. Aptly named, the series takes you over some tough terrain and up some grueling hills, through a lot of mud and over a few mountains. Every one of the Gutbusters I’ve run have been in the Wings and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Another wicked race on the island is called the Kusam Klimb. Up and over Mount Kusam near Sayward, the race takes you up a steep mountain, through snow, puddles, streams and lots of mud. The Wings performed flawlessly. I can’t think of a single time in the hundreds of kilometers I’ve put on both my pairs that I’ve had an uncomfortable spot or a blister.

What’s Rad about the Wings?

They’re bomber.

They just keep going, no problems. My second pair I’m running now are getting a couple holes where my heels rub though. I’m not able to feel it when I’m running but I’m sure it will rub through eventually. I’ll be getting a new pair before starting the races next spring.

The laces are wicked

It’s such a pain to tie up runners over and over and these ones just stay done up forever. It takes 1 second to do them up and they don’t move at all. I’ve never had one slip.

Cushioning

They’ve got enough for me to run on the road and on the trails. I mostly run on the trails but I do want to run on the road sometimes for a quick run or to get to the trails. The Wings have enough padding to let me do this without too much trouble. They aren’t quite as squishy as road runners but they hold up a million times better. The last pair of road runners I tried on the trail were torn after the first run. That doesn’t work for me. My first pair of trail runners were the Salomon XA Pros. They were nice shoes and held up ok for trail running but they just didn’t have enough padding. I had to warranty them 6 months in because the lugs were falling off the bottom. After, I got a shiny new pair of Wings.

What isn’t so good?

The laces can be a pain.

If you snap one of your laces you can’t just put in your standard shoe lace. You need some pricey replacements for the laces and even then you don’t get exactly what you had from the factory. The ends that were connected at the factory on the shoe have to be connected somehow. You’ve got to do this yourself with a little connector that comes with the laces. I tried but I couldn’t get the connector to attach as well as it should have. I think the knots in the end of my cords were a little big and didn’t fit into the connector properly.

Insole edges are flimsy.

Be careful with the edges of the insoles that come with the shoes. I’ve had no problems recently but my first pair I had to spend a while getting the edge of the insole folded back to where it should have been after I ran on it once folded in. As long as you don’t slide your foot down the inside or the outside when you’re putting them on you shouldn’t have much trouble. You can always replace the insoles with something better if you really want to or the old ones have packed it in.

Thumbs up for the Wings

All in all, the Wings have proved to be a pretty deadly shoe and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another pair. I’m already picking out which colour I want next.

Have you tried the Wings? How’d they work out?

The post Salomon XT Wings Review first appeared on Pack & Trail.