Backpacking Skills

While camping chairs are getting lighter and lighter weight every year, you really can’t beat a sleeping pad chair kit when it comes to lightweight seating on a backpacking trip. These kits transform inflatable sleeping pads into comfortable and insulated chairs, so you can sit up and read, eat, or …

There’s a simple rule of thumb for figuring out how many days of food you can fit into a bear canister. Find out the capacity of your bear canister in cubic inches and divide by 100. That will give you a pretty good approximate of the number of days of …

Arm warmers are usually sold as cycling gear, but many winter hikers also use them for insulation because they’re easy to take off when you warm up or put back on when you get cold. Frequent stopping, unpacking, and repacking isn’t good form when you’re hiking with others because no …

Winter hiking, backpacking, and camping in snow and mountainous terrain requires additional skills and experience that are hard to come by unless you do it and make a few mistakes along the way. I was fortunate to have some excellent mentors who taught me the basics and I picked up …

There is really no substitute for experience when it comes to winter hiking, backpacking, and camping. You can read about it in books and watch videos, but the best way to learn is to go out with an experienced friend who can teach you the ropes. Here are a few …

Snowshoes are heavy, weighing between four and five pounds a pair, so most winter hikers are happy when they don’t have to carry them on a winter hike. But how can you tell when they won’t be needed? This is a question that vexes many winter hikers. When you add up …

Ultralight backpacking gear lets you hike farther, faster, and with less of a physical impact so you can enjoy yourself more. While you can spend an arm and a leg to switch to ultralight backpacking gear, the cost of doing is probably less than you realize. As an example, I’ve …

Winter hikers use three different kinds of traction devices in winter: microspikes, mountaineering crampons, and snowshoes. Microspikes and mountaineering crampons are used to provide traction on ice and packed snow while snowshoes are mainly used to provide flotation on top of unconsolidated snow.  However, putting on microspikes, mountaineering crampons, or snowshoes …

MSR’s Ascent and Trail Series Snowshoes have a binding that closes with ski-style straps along the top and rear. The binding has four elastane straps, three that loop over the top of your winter boots and one around the heel. It’s designed that way so that the straps lay flat when …

Wilderness navigation requires planning routes across terrain that doesn’t have pre-defined trails or roads to follow. While following a route using a map and compass, GPS, map-to-terrain association or just dead reckoning is required, those tools and techniques don’t provide you with the skills to plan good cross-country routes. Part art and part …

Have you ever wondered why you don’t get thirsty on winter hikes even though your pee turns yellow and it’s clear that you need to drink more? Blame your brain. It’s not wired to recognize the increased amount of water vapor you expel in your breath when the air is …

Closed cell foam sleeping pads are quite popular with ultralight backpackers who want to shave every ounce from their gear list and need gear that can’t fail. If you want to carry multi-purpose gear to save weight, you’re hard on gear, or want to save money, closed cell sleeping pads …

If you’re going to hiking or backpack in mountainous terrain in winter, you should learn about the prevailing weather patterns and forecasting tools that are are available for planning hikes and other backcountry tours. The weather in valleys seldom matches the weather at higher elevations, especially in terms of temperature …

When should you switch from trail runners back to waterproof or insulated hiking boots when the temperatures drop in autumn? I get asked this question frequently and it’s something I wrestle with myself every autumn. The easy answer, is when temperatures drop below freezing (32 degrees) during the day or …