Susan H

Do you happen to have the BSL info for the 22.5? Is it going to be sharing a shell with the 23.5 or will it be smaller (she asks hopefully)?

There's a popular saying about weight, price, and performance: you can only pick two. You can expect to pay out the nose for the lightest and sexiest of bindings and the definition of the word "performance" begins to change when you start prioritizing the uphill to the down. As has been said before by several other reviewers, these bindings do a pretty darn good job at being lightweight(-ish), inexpensive(-ish), and perform admirably in a wide variety of settings. From the backcountry, to side-country, to ...

These are a gateway binding: once you go minimal-ish, it is hard to remember why those Speed Turns (or Speed Rad's) sounded like a good idea in the first place. Try these, and next thing you know you'll have an excel spreadsheet with weights and binding deltas for various franken-binding setups, a cart full of 170 heel pieces (they share the same hole pattern), and be scheming various ways to even further lighten your quiver. Your pants will get tighter, your pack smaller, and you'll have to fight the sudde...

I purchased these pants to supplement my Dynafit Mercury Pros for early/late season tours but have also ended up using them for fitness laps and nordic skiing. In the Susan ranking of Pants these score a solid 9/10 (versus the Mercurys, which earn a 7 for being functional but much less visually appealing). Sizing for bottoms is always a little tricky because I'm short and have a small waist and larger thighs. In the Dynafits, I straddle the XS/S size range and was worried that I wouldn't be able to squeeze...

After having mercilessly mocked Brian H all season for carrying jellybean-colored majorette batons, I came to the realization that I was just jealous and should probably try them before I continued to rag on them. The poles I replaced were BD traverse adjustables from 2010 (the orange ones with the rubber choke grip that you still see everywhere). I stuck with them as long as I did out of a pragmatic belief that if something isn't broken, don't fix it. My BD poles took me to some great places, but the alm...