backpacking

Fresh Goods: Safari Multitool

by michael frank on April 23, 2012 · 0 comments

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If you’ve ever found yourself idly opening and closing the various blades and saws and scissors of your Victorinox, this tool is for you. It’s really not a multitool at all, but a form of entertainment, where you can open a pair of legs here, a head there, a tail at the back and not [...]

Colorado’s Berthoud Pass Gets Backcountry Hut — More on the Way

by michael frank on February 16, 2012 · 1 comment

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While Colorado’s Tenth Mountain Division huts are hugely popular, there’s been a movement of late to add more backcountry huts in the Rocky Mountain state. Now, in Grand County, in a line heading north of Winter Park, a new hut system is cropping up run by the Grand Huts Association. The new huts will both [...]

Yosemite Wants to Cut Half Dome Permits by 25%

by michael frank on January 30, 2012 · 2 comments

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With an eye on improving the safety of hikers heading to the top of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park officials are proposing to reduce the number of daily permits from 400 to 300, according to a proposed management plan. The Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan, now open for public review through March 15, says limiting [...]

The List: 7 Great Ways to Poop Outdoors

by brendan leonard on January 24, 2012 · 19 comments

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There’s pretty much one way to poop indoors: In a toilet. No real room for creativity. Or at least functional creativity. Outdoors, though, the world is your canvas. Dig a Leave No Trace six-inch hole and make yourself comfortable. Here are seven different strategies, of which we can recommend five. Actually, just four. 1. The [...]

Links We Like, December 23, 2011

by michael frank on December 23, 2011 · 0 comments

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IN SANTA CRUZ, A FIGHT FOR CONTROL OF THE LOCAL SIERRA CLUB chapter shows a deeper rift between the interests of mountain bikers and other environmental advocates. At issue is whether several mountain bikers who are running for seats on the chapter should even be considered — there’s some debate about whether they care about [...]

Hiking Boots, Birthed by Mad Scientists!

by michael frank on December 21, 2011 · 0 comments

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We don’t know a whole lot about Native Shoes, save that they’re, uh, unique. And they’re big in Japan, which you shouldn’t scoff at, because lots of nifty, niche brands here exist by charging mega yen over there. Still, even their “boot,” the Fitzsimmons, strikes us as strictly urban wear, what with its unbreathable rubber [...]

The 12 Days of Chris-annu-kwanza: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite

by michael frank on December 16, 2011 · 0 comments

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This may be one to wait for until after the holidays. It will be worth it. Why the wait? Because Therm-a-Rest is only selling the NeoAir XLite as part of a sleep system right now. We’ll explain that part in a second; first though, the 12-ounce XLite is amazing. We tested it recently against the [...]

The 12 Days of Chris-annu-kwanza: Mountain Hardwear Hunker Down Bootie

It’s that time of year…yes…for gift guides! But they feel a little pat to us, so instead, we’re going to riff on the stuff we like already, or would like, in our stockings…Or beside the Hanukkah bush (an old joke in my childhood house where we never managed to get precisely eight gifts despite that myth perpetuated [...]

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Declination: Pacific Crest Trail Journals

After being laid off from his job in April 2011, Kolby Kirk (The Hike Guy) decided he would attempt to complete as much as he could of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. Starting at the Mexican border near Campo, California, he walked for 159 days and nearly 1,700 miles. In that time, Kolby wrote 850 [...]

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Wild Things Climbing Gear Returns to Consumer Market

This might be my favorite piece of climbing gear I used in all of 2011: TheWild Things Guide Pack. I got one of these to review back in July, and then spent the better part of two months beating on it over several days and several dozen pitches in Idaho, Yosemite, and Washington. I used [...]

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Fall Peaks: The Best Autumn Escapes — Big Bend, Texas

At this time of year, fall and winter cross like two slow moving ships. Snow falls in the north, while down south the desert hits its high season. And as we look to squeeze the last bits of vitamin D from the year, one spot stands bigger than the rest…big is its name, of course, [...]

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Fall Peaks: The Best Autumn Escapes — Anza-Borrego, California

The better part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park’s 600,000 sun-drenched acres are comprised of sand, dirt, dust, rocks, gravel, thorns, needles, spikes, tarantula dens, and rattlesnake burrows, but way up in the northwestern corner, past the bleached-out town of Borrego Springs, beyond the half-underground visitor center, after the dented brown sign that urges you to [...]

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Fresh Goods: Hyperlite Windrider Ultralight Backpack

A few months ago, while visiting the guys from Outlier at their Brooklyn headquarters, I noticed a bright white backpack poking out from under a desk. It was my introduction to Hyperlite Mountain Gear, the brainchild of Mike St. Pierre, who has been making ultralight packs and shelters out of his small Biddeford, Maine, factory for the last [...]

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The Muir Project Makes Hiking and Backpacking Look Cool

Hiking is one of the most boring activities in the world to watch. Meditation might edge it out, but beyond that it’s difficult to think of too many pursuits that are so fun yet so deathly dull to view. And photographing it? Yikes. Trust me on this one: I’ve done more hiking photo shoots than [...]

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Fall Peaks: The Best Autumn Escapes — Asheville, North Carolina

Few places in the country are as transformed by fall than the Southeast. The hardwoods are a riot of color, of course, but more than that the annoyances of summer shrink to almost nothing. The bugs are gone, poison ivy isn’t ever present, and the humidity has fled for more southern climes. The mountains are [...]

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