Backpacking Skills

It’s important to bring water with you when you go day hiking to replace the fluid you lose to perspiration, help keep you more alert and flush waste products out of your body.  Not bringing enough water can lead to discomfort, while bringing too much can slow you down. How …

What is the right footwear for spring conditions: winter hiking boots or trail runners? When can you switch between the two? There is a point where avoiding frostbite trumps lightweight footwear and wearing insulated boots still makes sense. Knowing when to choose between them requires understanding: where is the snow …

Day hiking is a great way to get some fresh air, exercise every muscle in your body, and spend quality time with friends or family. Wearing the right clothing for a hike will help keep you comfortable and safe, so you can focus on your surroundings and your hiking partners. …

The camping “landscape” is often divided into frontcountry campsites, backcountry campsites, designated campsites, and dispersed camping. You’re likely to encounter these terms if you camp or backpack in National Parks, National Forests, and State Parks and it’s important to understand what they mean. Frontcountry Campsites Frontcountry campsites are located in …

A compass is one of the 10 essentials and while many hikers and backpackers carry one, many don’t know how to use it to navigate in the backcountry. This is something I hear often when I teach map and compass skills courses and describes my experience as well: I carried …

A trekking umbrella is a useful piece of backpacking gear for rain and sun protection. But an umbrella can be a real pain in the butt if you have to hold it up for hours at a time using one arm, especially if you use trekking poles to hike. Here’s …

GaiaGPS is the smartphone navigation app that I teach students how to use, in addition to map and compass, in the Backcountry Navigation classes I teach. GaiaGPS works on iPhone and Android smartphones, which makes it easy to use in groups that use a wide variety of devices. It’s also the best …

I’m often asked whether Smartphone GPS Navigation Apps like Gaia GPS can work when they’re not connected to a cell phone network. Most Apple and Android Smartphones purchased in the past 2-3 years can operate in what’s called offline mode without access to to WiFi or a cell phone network. This …

Backpack frame stays are aluminum rods that many ultralight or speciality backpack manufacturers use in their backpacks instead of full frames. They usually slot into pockets that run down the inside of the backpack along your back and slot into the hip belt or lumbar pad to help transfer load …

Satellite imagery is a powerful source of information for planning backcountry routes but it takes practice to interpret what you’re looking at, and whether it depicts features you can use to make your route easier or whether you should avoid them. The best way to view satellite imagery is side-by-side …