Vintage Backpacking Gear

It’s SectionHiker.com’s 10th anniversary this year. During that time, I’ve hiked a lot of miles and written a lot of backpacking gear reviews, including gear that could now be considered vintage, since it’s no longer made. I find it fascinating to trace the evolution of different backpacking and hiking gear …

The Mountain Hardware SuperMegaUL 1 Tent is an ultralight 1 person double-walled tent that weighs 1 pounds 14 ounces, not including tent stakes and stuff sacks. With a tunnel style design and front vestibule, it has a long bivy style feel to it. Still the interior headroom and foot clearance …

Katabatic Gear is best known for their quilts, but they also make backpacks, including the Helios 55 cuben fiber pack, what I jokingly refer to as “the other white backpack.” I’ve been using the 32 ounce Helios 55 for backpacking and winter alpine ascents and it’s a great four-season capable pack, definitely …

The Berghaus Hyper Jacket is a minimalist rain jacket that can be used by hikers and runners. Weighing just 3.3 ounces in a men’s XL (94 grams), it is a waterproof breathable jacket with a surprisingly good DWR coating that sheds rain well and a breathable shell fabric that visibly works. The …

The Big Agnes Bitter Springs UL1 Tent is a double-walled tent with a very large front vestibule that is useful for gear storage or for your dog to sleep in if you backpack with a canine friend. Weighing just 2 pounds 5.5 ounces, this tent is amazingly lightweight and well-ventilated for …

Montane’s Tigertooth Pro Glove is a technical softshell alpine glove that provides enough dexterity, warmth and water resistance, to hold a mountaineering ice axe in the ready position in cold winter weather. The problem with most high dexterity gloves is that they don’t provide enough insulation when gripping an ice axe is …

The Zamberlan Fitz Roy straddles the technical hiking and mountaineering boot categories. I received a pair late last winter, too late to really put them to the test for winter hiking, but I’ve been hiking in them regularly this year in late autumn, and now winter conditions, and can finally evaluate them …

The Outdoor Research Acetylene Jacket is a hybrid midlayer jacket suitable for use as an external jacket for highly aerobic activity in very cold weather. The front and shoulders of the jacket are filled with Primaloft Eco insulation for warmth while the back and arms are a grid-backed radiant fleece …

As a side sleeper, I’ve struggled to sleep comfortably in mummy shaped sleeping bags for years. They’re usually too tight around the shoulders and legs for me to roll onto my side. So I was intrigued when I learned about NEMO’s new spoon-shaped sleeping bags which are wide in the shoulders and …

The Bergans of Norway Helium 55L backpack took me by surprise. Weighing 2 pounds 9 ounces on the SectionHiker scale, the Helium is set up like a climbing/winter backpack with tons of external attachment points but carries very much like an ultralight backpack, with side mesh pockets to carry water …

The online retailer, Campsaver, has started to manufacture and sell their own branded men’s and women’s mummy bags and hoodless sleeping bags, including the Campsaver Ultralight 30 Down Sleeping Bag, filled with 850 fill power goose down. Priced at just $299.95, it’s an excellent value (see table below) relative to …

The Big Agnes Pitchpine 45 SL is a lightweight hoodless sleeping bag that only weighs 20 ounces. Perfect for summer or lightweight backpacking, the Pitchpine is insulated with highly compressible 850 fill power Downtek treated down which is more resistant to moisture and faster drying than untreated down feathers. The Pitchpine 45 …

The MSR Nook 2-person, double-walled tent is spacious and quite lightweight, weighing 3 pounds, 3.7 ounces. With a built-in vestibule, it is suitable for 3+ season camping and backpacking with a built-in front vestibule to store gear, ample tie-downs to improve stability in high winds, and well-sized side vents to improve …

In January, I published  a post titled Backpacking Gear from 1975: A Time Capsule. Here’s a collection of more wonderful gear and advertisements from that golden era of backpacking gear. I get a hoot from looking at these old-time advertisements. Funny how some things are so different and some things …