Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket.

Review: Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket

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Note: See my review of updated-for-2022 Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket.

Down Jacket
Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket
$409, 11 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
featheredfriends.com

From lunch stops at mountain passes buffeted by cold, autumn’s-around-the-corner winds in Glacier National Park in September, to mornings and evenings in temps in the thirties and forties on that six-day Glacier backpacking trip, another September backpacking trip in Yellowstone, and a four-day August trip in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, the Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket persuaded me that it’s hands-down one of the very best puffy jackets on the market—and an incredible value at its price. I don’t offer such praise casually or very often. But there are few pieces of outdoor apparel or gear on which your money would be more wisely spent. Read on to learn why.

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Aside for Widgets

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Sidebar Widgets are a main feature of any Magazine Blogging site. To aid with that Dispatch uses a nifty little plugin and a couple of custom CSS classes to make styling your sidebar a breeze. Widget CSS Classes Using the namesake plugin you can now add CSS Classes to Widgets. Simple. Dispatch Widget Classes CSS Class: zero-padding Removes the padding …

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The Osprey Exos 58 in Glacier National Park.

Gear Review: Osprey Exos 58 and Eja 58 Ultralight Backpacks

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Ultralight Backpack
Osprey Exos 58 and Eja 58
$240, 58L/3,539 c.i., 2 lbs. 11 oz. (men’s medium Exos)
Sizes: men’s Exos S-L, women’s Eja XS-M
backcountry.com

It’s difficult and sometimes dangerous to improve on a piece of gear that’s nearly perfect in its simplicity and functionality. So when Osprey rolled out the redesigned Exos for 2018, along with a women’s version, the Eja, with some changes to this popular model—which became an ultralight pack archetype when it was introduced in 2008—I immediately wanted to see whether the changes represent an improvement. Taking it on a six-day, 94-mile hike on the Continental Divide Trail through Glacier National Park, I found definite improvements—including that it carries better than the previous iteration—and I think some backpackers may miss one convenient feature that’s absent from the updated pack.

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A Perfect Week of Hiking in the North Carolina Mountains

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A hiker atop Looking Glass Rock, Pisgah National Forest, N.C.
A hiker atop Looking Glass Rock, Pisgah National Forest, N.C.

By Michael Lanza

Warm rain drums lightly on the lush deciduous forest around me as I walk up a long-abandoned dirt road that has narrowed to a trail with the gradual encroachment of vegetation. The wind assaults the treetops, the outer edge of a hurricane hitting the Southeast coast right now; but here, far from the storm, it sounds like waves rhythmically lapping up onto a beach and retreating. It’s a gray, early evening in mid-October in the basement of a compact valley in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina—a valley that, due to its tight contours, sees precious few hours of direct sunlight at this time of year—and the daylight has filtered down to a soft, dim, tranquil quality.

A bit more than a half-mile up this quiet footpath, I reach my destination—and unconsciously catch my breath at what must be one of the most lovely cascades in a corner of North Carolina spilling over with waterfalls.

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The Sierra Designs Whitney DriDown Hoodie.

Review: Sierra Designs Whitney DriDown Hoodie and Sierra DriDown Jacket

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Down Jackets
Sierra Designs Whitney DriDown Hoodie
$169, 14 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
Moosejaw.com

Sierra Designs Sierra DriDown Jacket
$159, 12 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
Moosejaw.com

The best, three-season down and synthetic insulated jackets stand out for high-quality construction and materials—which translates to abundant warmth per ounce, low weight, and excellent packability. They also range from over $200 to nearly $400, and while worth every dollar, those prices put them out of reach for some consumers. What do you do? More-affordable puffy jackets generally have lower-quality insulation. That’s why the Sierra Designs Whitney Hoodie and Sierra Jacket, stuffed with 800-fill, water-resistant DriDown, look so enticing. My field testing found some flaws but still demonstrated why they’re a good value. Read on.

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