Gear Reviews

I’ve been hiking with a special type of trekking pole for the past few years called Pacerpoles, which have a distinctive diagonal grip that’s quite different from the standard vertical grip ski poles that most other hikers use. Pacerpoles are made in …

The last thing you want on a winter backpacking trip is to wait a long time for dinner to cook or rehydrate. You need hot food – immediately – to stay warm while you melt snow to resupply your drinking water and …

Every year, I like to recognize the piece of new gear that has had the greatest transformational influence on my enjoyment of hiking and backpacking. This year’s winner is the Solo Wood Stove (click for my review from earlier this year), an efficient wood …

I sold my Mountain Laurel Designs cuben fiber Duomid last week. It is a great shelter and at 12.6 ounces including guy lines, it is insanely light. But I wanted a more comfortable shelter with a bathtub floor, so I bought a …

Note: This is a cautionary tale. Propane is a highly flammable and potentially explosive gas. Backpacking stoves are not designed to operate on 100% propane mixes. Use at your own risk. Risk includes loss of property, serious injury, and death.  I have …

I am a side sleeper, but I sometimes have a hard time staying asleep all night on backpacking trips because I don’t have a pillow to cradle my head and prevent me from rolling onto my back. Lately, I’ve been bringing an …

Whenever I get a new pair of trekking poles, the first thing I do is to cut off the straps. I don’t like them. And while I use trekking poles religiously, I don’t like the feeling of having my hand trapped in …

I got turned onto Helly Hansen baselayer garments and their wicking LIFA (pronounced LEEFA) synthetic baselayer fabric last winter, when I tested the HH Dry Stripe Crew (click for review.) I was blown away by LIFA’s ability to wick sweat away from …

I’ve been wearing and testing a Helly Hansen’s Dry Stripe Crew and Dry Fly Pant baselayers for the past 9 months, a major departure from the Patagonia Capilene 1 baselayers I’ve used for the past several years. You’re probably wondering why I’d undertake …

Ultralight Titanium Camping Pots I use an Evernew Titanium Pot (1.3 L) for melting snow for winter hiking and camping. It only weighs 4.8 oz, which is pretty respectable for a winter cook pot. It’s a little larger than the 900 ml …

I’ve been having  lot of fun lately discovering affordable lightweight backpacking products that won’t break the bank. Here’s another fantastic find from Australian Terra Rosa Gear, called the Wandering Tarp (8.3 ounces in Tyvek), which is priced at $50 AUD ($52 USD) …

Every year, I like to name a piece of backpacking gear that has had a transformational impact on my hiking and backpacking experience and recognize it by giving it the Section Hiker Gear of the Year Award. To qualify for consideration, the …

When I first learned about the possibility of sleeping in a hammock in the back country I was in awe.  I loved my backyard hammock and fall asleep in it all the time so this seemed perfect. Being a bigger guy, sleeping …

Gore-Tex and eVent have been the dominant forces in outdoor shell fabrics for decades. Although there have always been others, gaining a foothold in the marketplace has traditionally been an almost futile exercise as both companies battle for supremacy and that has …