As the days go by, I slowly descend more and more into sloth/slob-dom. Any jacket that feels like a fuzzy blanket is a winner in my book. With the Mountain Hardwear Monkey Woman Grid II jacket, I can get outside and be fuzzy and comfortable too.
For the past few years I’ve been relying on my Tarptent Scarp 2 or my Teton Sports Mountain Ultra 1 for any of my tenting adventures. They’re both great, but the Tarptent is designed to be an ultralight, small thing and the Mountain Ultra only sleeps one. I wanted something that was big enough for two with more room for luxuries. When Mountain Hardwear gave us the chance to pick out our ambassador kits for the winter season, I jumped at the chance at working with the Optic Vue 2.5.
Down jackets are kind of my thing and I really love them. Which is weird because I live in California and the last time we had a winter was probably before I graduated from college. But come on, a down jacket is your best friend. It keeps you warm. It packs down super small in your pack and is forgotten until you need it. It makes a great pillow when you forget yours while camping.
Photo by Nelson Salvatera
Since moving to San Francisco, I’ve come to realize that space and storage is a premium. There’s only so many backpacks I can own in a space that’s sub 600 square feet. I find that solid, all-around backpacks are hard to find. Most only excel at one thing or another, resulting in a giant collection of packs that you use for one thing, maybe two. This is where the Mountain Hardwear Scrambler 30 pack shines.
A few months ago I got an email inviting me to the Mountain Hardwear #findingwinter program! Mountain Hardwear sent over the Plasmic Jacket, Ghost Whisperer Down Hooded Jacket and Scrambler 30 pack, but we’ve been hard pressed for winter this year in California.
