What are the best tents for thru-hiking? The first major option is choosing between a semi-freestanding tent which comes with tent poles or a trekking-pole tent. Semi-freestanding tents are usually easier to set up than trekking pole tents but often weigh more. …
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10 Best Winter Backpacking Packs of 2023
Winter backpacking packs are more specialized than regular three-season backpacks, with a stronger emphasis on heavier weight loads, external attachment points, and durability for carrying bulky gear with sharp points like snowshoes, skis, ice axes, and crampons. They also favor more pockets …
Read More »10 Best Thru-Hiking Sleeping Bags and Quilts for 2023
When choosing the best sleeping bag or quilt for your thru-hike, you want it to be warm enough for the lowest temperatures you might encounter on your hike, pack down small, and not be too big or heavy to carry for weeks …
Read More »10 Best Winter Hiking Boots of 2022-2023
Today’s winter boots are waterproof, insulated, and compatible with traction aids such as microspikes and snowshoes. While 200 gram Thinsulate insulated mids are fine for commuting and short local walks down to about 10-20 degrees (F), we recommend buying boots with higher …
Read More »10 Best Hiking Foot Care Products
“The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art,” said Leonardo Da Vinci, but like all hiking gear, you need to take care of it to make it perform optimally. When it comes to your feet, an ounce …
Read More »10 Best Bug Shelters for Ultralight Backpacking
There are three different types of ultralight bug shelters suitable for cowboy camping, sleeping in a lean-to, or underneath a flat tarp: bivy sacks, bug bivies, and net tents. They all have their pros and cons, but that’s true of all ultralight …
Read More »10 Best Down Sleeping Bags for Backpacking
Down insulated sleeping bags are still the most popular nighttime insulation option with backpackers because they’re highly compressible and warmer in cold, damp, or drafty weather particularly in the spring and autumn when temperatures are close to freezing. While mummy bag designs …
Read More »10 Best Women’s Lightweight Backpacks of 2022
Women have a better selection of female-specific lightweight multi-day backpacks weighing less than 3 pounds than ever before. With more and more women on the trails and in the hills, major backpack companies have responded by building new products for this rapidly …
Read More »10 Best Ultralight Backpacking Tarps
Backpacking tarps are a great camping option if you want to significantly reduce your backpacking gear weight while experiencing a deeper connection to the outdoors, by sleeping under a shelter without walls. Backpacking tarps come in two basic flavors: shaped, catenary cut …
Read More »10 Best Ultralight Backpacking Knives and Multi-tools of 2021
You don’t need a big knife for hiking and backpacking when an ultralight folding pocket knife or multi-tool is just as good for opening freeze-dried food packages, slicing cheese and salmi, adjusting sunglasses frames, cutting guylines and cord, shaping moleskin, cutting strips …
Read More »10 Best Backpacking Sleeping Bags for Women in 2021
Women’s sleeping bags are the best sleep insulation for female backpackers because they’re warmer than quilts in cold, damp, or drafty weather. While mummy sleeping bag designs still prevail, there’s a lot more variety in the types of sleeping bags that have …
Read More »5 Best Leave No Trace Trowels of 2021
Using a Leave No Trace trowel is one of the most responsible things you can do to preserve the backcountry for others to enjoy. While there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having a good bowel movement outdoors in the crisp morning air, …
Read More »10 Best Backpacking Tents of 2020
There are so many great one-person and two-person backpacking tents available today, that choosing between them has become one of the biggest challenges faced by many backpackers. For example, improved tent fabrics and lighter weight tent poles have reduced the weight of …
Read More »10 Best Backpacking Sporks of 2018
Sporks are one of the backpacking industry’s greatest inventions. It’s a wonder that they’re not more widely used since having multifunction utensils would be such a great way to cut down on the plastic utensils polluting our oceans and urban landscape. Perhaps more …
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