Not sure this will replace the G3 L7 Parka for me
"I bought one of these after having used the marshmallow/puffer ECWS Gen III L7 parkas during the midwest winters of the last several years. There are some notable differences from the older parkas: The good - the outside material is more rugged and less likely to rip/tear or wear. - external pockets! 2 external cargo pockets for storing stuff. - External pass through to the interior pockets - zippered access so you can access the internal pockets where a slash pocket would normally be. - Sleeve has a velcro tab to cinch down open sleeves - Side ventilation zippers to prevent over heating - Hood opening has semi rigid insert to shape the hood around your face - Front zipper is a two-way zipper -Front Zipper flap has velcro, so if you don't want to commit to zipping up, you can flop the flap over and velcro it closed. -All zippers have rubber protected lanyards- easier to use with very heavy gloves. -Interior chest pocket is enormous and much larger than on the G3 ECWS L7 parker (and has zippered access from external and interior as well). The Meh- - Sleeve has interior knit cuff. I can see if you are wearing a lot of layers under this where this interior knit cuff can become a pain. What I don't like - - large opening at the neck - by the top front of your chest - its essentially bowed open. You will have to wear something like a scarf - a neck gaitor is not going to keep that part of you warm, nor is it large enough to close the opening at the neck. On the other hand, you aren't going to overheat wearing this, unlike the puffer parka. However, if you get snow or precip from above, its going to go funnel right down the front of your chest. - like if you are walking under some snow covered trees hit a branch overhead that has snow on it. . . . It also seems lighter weight than the previous generation parka with less insulation. I couldn't wear the puff parka unless it was under 25F without having to worry about overheating, where I tried the CTAP out the first time around 32F and a l1 layer and did not feel as warm as I would with the puffer parka. The CTAP is more adapted to active usage, - with the side zips, an uninsulated area on the small of your back, and the opening at the neck. I also miss having insulated slash pockets as the puffer has - yes- on the CTAP, you can use the pass through zips to the interior chest pockets as a slash pocket, but then you are directly introducing cold air into the inside of the jacket. Will see as the winter progresses how well this fares as an insulation layer with weather below the mid 20's and into subzero when that hits again later this winter. I think, I won't be retiring the puffer parka though."