Backpacking Skills

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 …

Buying a backpacking or camping tent is a big investment, but you can extend your tent’s lifetime and get many years of use from it by spending a little time on tent maintenance, repair, and cleaning. While there are many types and styles of tents, the techniques and tools required …

Many canister-style backpacking stoves, including Jetboils, have a built-in sparker to light the gas so you don’t have to carry matches or a disposable butane lighter with you to ignite them. It’s usually an orange button along the base of the burner connected to a wire over the burner head. …

Polenta Mush is an amazingly simple one-pot backpacking meal that can be combined with all kinds of different add-ins such as cheese, nuts, dried fruit, spices, dried vegetables, olive oil, butter, honey, maple syrup, or even canned fish to produce a wide variety of breakfast or dinner meals. If you’ve …

“You need to buy the tent footprint if you want the fast pitch option,” is the common refrain of tent manufacturers and retailers. But you wonder, “When would I use the fast pitch option and what am I giving up if I don’t buy the footprint now?” Many double-wall tent …

I carry a separate set of clothes to sleep in on backpacking trips because it feels nice to put something on that’s clean after perspiring in my regular daytime hiking clothes. They also serve double duty as an extra baselayer in cold weather or if I need to change into …

I have a bad blister on my foot that’s taking a long time to heal. Technically, it’s not a blister but a wound, because the skin covering it was ripped off and the deeper tissue exposed. To make matters worse, I continued to hike and walk quite a lot with …

Many people like to carry a hydration system (reservoir and hose) on day hikes and backpacking trips, but others prefer carrying water bottles instead. While you can chalk up the difference to personal preference, there are definite pros and cons to hiking with a hydration system in different circumstances, depending …

One of the hallmarks of good hiking and backpacking navigation is picking trails or routes that reduce the level of effort required to climb mountains or descend into valleys. The steepness or slope angle of a trail is usually the best indicator of the level of effort required to climb …

Ultralight backpacking tents and shelters come in all shapes and sizes, but each type has advantages and disadvantages for different camping conditions. It’s best to understand these before you waste money on a tent or shelter that doesn’t suit your needs or comfort preferences. There are six basic types of …

A GeoPDF Map is a PDF map that you can use for GPS Navigation on a Smartphone. You can easily make your own GeoPDF maps using a FREE online mapping tool called Caltopo.com (best used with a computer), email them to your phone, and navigate with them in a FREE …

Most US Government Land Management Agencies, including the United States Geological Survey, the National Park Service, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Land Management publish FREE maps using a format called GeoPDF. Like Adobe PDF documents, these maps can be displayed on many different computers, tablets, …

Ultralight bivy sacks are used by backpackers using floorless shelters to protect their sleeping bags or quilts from moisture and their heads from biting insects, as a kind of substitute for the inner tent that you find in more conventional double wall tent setups. They’re basically sleeping bag covers with …

I’ve been evaluating a mobile navigation app for the past few months called Topo Maps+ (IOS only) that lets you print maps and routes to wireless printers without having to go through a computer or an internet portal to print them. Many people have stopped buying computers and laptops and only …