Advanced Backpacking Skills

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 …

How would you like to save 40%-60% off hiking, backpacking, climbing, skiing, mountaineering, running, cycling, fishing and kayaking gear and apparel? There’s a good chance that you already qualify for these kinds of discounts from dozens or hundreds of manufacturers, but don’t know it. What is a Pro Deal? Outdoor …

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 loose unconsolidated snow.  However, putting on microspikes, mountaineering crampons, or …

Do enough hiking and sooner-or-later you will be forced to hike a substantial distance on a paved road. Maybe the trail you’re hiking is still under development and you need to hike a stretch on roads, maybe a bridge has been washed out or a forest fire is blocking your …

Shaped tarps get boring after a time. Most are pre-cut with a specific shape in mind and they can only be pitched that way. If you are bored of the A-frame and pyramid pitches, then gather round and let me tell you about flat tarps. They can be pitched in …

I’ve been getting a lot of emails this year from beginner backpackers who want guidance about how to estimate that time it takes to backpack a long section of trail. Here are some examples: I plan to hike the Presidential Range and the Maine Appalachian Trail this summer. How long should …

There will probably come a time in your hiking career where you need or want to do a big day hike or a backpacking route that requires hiking longer daily distances than you’re used to. While training for bigger mileage in advance can help tremendously, there are often limits to …

There aren’t many peat bogs in the continental United States and it’s difficult to learn the skills for safely hiking across them in Scotland, England and other parts of the world without first-hand experience. While you can avoid peat bogs and stay on well-defined paths or tracks that circle around them, …