Gaiters are an essential element of your gear for winter and spring backpacking. Many backpackers and hikers also use them year round.
In the winter and spring, gaiters provide extra insulation for your lower legs, particularly if you are snowshoeing. During mud season, they are also essential for keeping your socks dry. If you do a [...]

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The Ursalite bear back system is only available at the BackPackingLight.com store. It weighs just under 3 oz and I tried it out on an Autumn hike last fall in the Pharoh Lakes section of the Adirondacks.
The Ursalite system (shown above) is unrelated the kevlar Ursack I reviewed a few weeks ago. It includes a [...]

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I own some compression stuff sacks but I never user them. They weigh too much. If you are counting ounces, you can usually get the same amount of compression for half the weight by simply kneeling on the item you want to compress and putting in a simple stuff sack.
Let me give you an example. [...]

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Ursack is a company that specializes in the manufacture of bear bags made out of bullet proof fabric that are far lighter than rigid bear cannisters. Weighing only 7.5 oz, the TKO (since renamed the V27) sounded like it was worth trying out and I took it on a few trips last year where I [...]

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