Gear Repair and Maintenance

How many of you have holed hiking pants laying around the house waiting for a generous sewer to repair them for you? Did you know that you can just as easily repair them with Tenancious Tape? I’m not talking about rain pants, but regular nylon hiking pants. I wouldn’t have …

You can’t use a water filter or water purifier when temperatures dip below freezing without risking the integrity of the filter element. Filters and purifiers can be expensive to replace, so it pays to take a few simple steps before you store them so they’re fully functional and ready to …

I like wearing fleece gloves for winter hiking because they’re inexpensive, they are warm, and quite breathable. The problem is that snow tends to stick to them and they wet out when the warmth from my hands melts it. While I am very careful to brush off any snow that …

If you use a Camelbak Hydration Reservoir you’re going to want to keep it, its hose , and bite valve clean. If you just drink water, you can store it empty in the freezer or dry it out after each use and nothing bad will grow in it. But if …

I wear a pair of Outdoor Research Crocodile Gaiters in winter to keep snow out of my mountaineering boots and to provide some protection for my legs against self-inflected crampon strikes. I’ve owned a pair for going on 4 years and they are in rough shape, but rather than replace …

Gear Aid’s Outdoor Sewing Kit is a great hiking and backpacking sewing kit if you already know how to sew. While it includes an “Expert Repair Guide”, McNett’s claim that “anybody is going to be able to make a sewing repair even if you’ve never picked up a needle” is …

Backpacking and hiking gear has a nasty habit of failing when you least expect it or you need it the most – in the dark, when it’s pouring rain, or in the middle of nowhere. Knock on wood, I’ve never been stranded by gear failure, but it can be damn …

Describe a piece of hiking gear or hiking clothing that you damaged, destroyed or wore out this year, including what it was, the circumstances leading to its demise, whether you plan to repair or replace it, and if the latter with what. Here are a few examples: Damaged: I tore …

Do you remember the orange tag that was attached to your eVent jacket when you bought it? The one that said, Please Wash Me Often. It sounded like a good idea then, but I never seemed to get around to it.  That finally changed this week. My jacket was noticeably …

Washing a Down Sleeping Bag Your down sleeping bag will loft better and keep you warmer if you wash it occasionally. I try to wash mine annually, but I also spend many dozens of nights out using it each year. If you don’t have the time to wash your down sleeping …

I’ve owned my Western Mountaineering Ultralight 20 down sleeping bag for about 4 years now and I estimate that I’ve slept in it over 100 nights. As you can imagine, it doesn’t have that new smell anymore and could use some freshening up. One option is for me to take …

 Backpacking gear is expensive and you need to take care of it to extend its lifetime. Here’s a checklist of gear maintenance tasks I try to do the morning after I get home from a backpacking trip: Air out my sleeping bag or quilt to make sure they’re dry before storing un-stuffed. Hang up …

This year, I’ve had a hard time preventing red mold from growing in my Platypus hydration reservoirs. I don’t know why mold started to be a problem this year, but I think I’ve finally found a way to clean it out of my bladders and prevent it from returning. The …

Do you see that red stain on the inside of my platypus hydration bladder  in the picture below? That’s mold, like the stuff that grows on our bathroom shower curtain. I only noticed it on my last backpacking trip, and since getting home I’ve tried a few things to get …