Backpacking Skills

It’s a hot day and you’ve been piling up the mileage, hiking up one mountain after another. You come to another peak and you are overcome by fatigue and self-doubt. You think, “there’s no way I can make it up this hill. …

We finally have significant snowfall in the White Mountains and I've got a two night camping and hiking trip scheduled this weekend. All I have to do now is to figure out how to get all of this gear (there's still more …

Last week, I heard a great talk at the AMC Boston Winter Hiking Program given by Larry Takiff on Mountain Weather and Avalanche Awareness. Larry is a very seasoned winter hiker and climber with international experience. The gist of Larry's talk was …

This past Tuesday, I heard a great talk on Winter Hiking Safety given by Mohamed Ellozy, a leader with the Boston AMC Winter Backpacking Program and former Appalachia Magazine accidents editor. I thought I'd summarize the key points he made during his …

As I was following the discussion of the expense and weight of winter tents, I thought of a shelter I used for an overnight backpack I did a couple of years ago. The total weight of everything I needed for my shelter …

Winter camping, hiking, backpacking and mountaineering are not without peril. If you have never done them, it’s best to receive some training from your local outdoor club or a professional guiding service before you try it yourself. I just started last year …

The main reason I bring a camping towel on a backpacking trips is to wipe down the outside of a wet tent or shelter before packing it away for the day.  It’s a neat little trick to cut down on extra water …

I’ve met a few hikers who prefer wearing kilts instead of hiking pants. Hiking kilts are a practical hiking garment for men and it’s surprising that more hikers and backpackers don’t use them. They’re great way to avoid moisture build-up and chafing in those …

Long-distance AT hikers love to obsess over pack weight and gear choices. Eventually any extended or thru-hike planning effort will come to a decision on what stove to bring. For me, this was quickly remedied by the statistics on what kind of …

Today was the second day in a row where temperatures have been over 90 degrees F in Massachusetts and firing up my stove was not on the agenda. So I decided to try Packit Gourmet’s Cajun Ranch Chicken Salad this evening, which …

 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 …

  Ibuprofen (trademarked at Advil or Motrin) is so popular amongst hikers and climbers that it is often called Vitamin I. Ibuprofen is an over the counter pain reliever and anti-inflammatory that can speed recovery during training or the main event. Muscle …

  I’m not a big soup eater on the trail, so I was blown away when I tried a Packit Gourmet’s Tortilla Soup last week (2.7 oz) on a long backpacking trip. I made this meal on one of those nights when …

Benefits of Dehydration Dehydrating your own backpacking meals is a great way to add variety to your backpacking menu, save money, and eat a healthy diet. But those benefits aside, I’ve found that dehydrated food help with backpack volume reduction, weight reduction, …