Vintage Backpacking Gear

The Granite Gear Nimbus Trace Access 70L backpack is a high-capacity pack that can be used for long trips and expedition style travel. Weighing a hefty 4 pounds 6 ounces on the SectionHiker scale, this is not an ultralight backpack, but it’s still quite lightweight when compared to other expedition sized …

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 …

GSI Outdoor’s Halulite Minimalist Cookset integrates everything you need for rehydrating cook-in-the-pouch, freezer-bag meals. or making hot drinks in an impressively small footprint. Consisting of a 0.6 liter anodized aluminum pot, sip lid, insulation sleeve, pot grippers, and telescoping “foon,” the Minimalist weighs a miserly 6.3 ounces and is entirely self-contained …

You could say that Mountainsmith ‘has seen the light’ with the introduction of the Haze 50, a minimalist top loading backpack which weighs just under 2 pounds. With just over 3000 cubic inches / 50 L of storage capacity, the Haze 50 is ideally sized for overnight and multi-day backpacking trips …

The Sierra Designs Elite DriDown Baffled Parka is the quintessential puffy down jacket that’s equally appropriate for winter camping in subzero temperatures or standing on a windy subway platform. This is a seriously warm down jacket made to keep you toasty in the coldest conditions imaginable, above treeline on a frigid crag, or at your …

Kelty is not a name that you normally associate with ultralight backpacks. But between 1994 and 2004, Kelty manufactured several versions of a distinctive, all-white backpack called the Cloud which rocked the outdoor industry and helped establish many of the design concepts that are still in use by gear manufacturers …

This is an in-depth review of Granite Gear’s Leopard AC 58 backpack for winter use. Here’s a quick summary of my conclusions. Read on if you want the details. Summary The Leopard AC 58 is billed by Granite Gear as an alpine-ready backpack, suitable for winter use. While the Leopard …

The Easton Mountain Products Kilo 2P is a lightweight double-walled tent, weighing just 2 pounds 8 ounces, that features Easton’s latest ultralight carbon fiber pole system and a redesigned exoskeleton over last year’s model. Designed for 2 person camping and backpacking, the Kilo 2P includes a mesh inner tent and …

I always get a kick reading really old hiking and backpacking magazines and seeing the print advertisements that gear manufacturers used to run. I’ve pulled some of them together in this post to give you a look at the gear that manufacturers were trying to sell people nearly 40 years …

MSR has introduced a new variant of the successful Lightning snowshoe product line called the Lightning Axis snowshoe. It features a new snowshoe binding that is supposed to improve the efficiency of your gait and make it easier to put on and take off your snowshoes. The snowshoes I use …

The Exped Thunder 70 is an internal frame backpack with an adjustable frame and panel loading access. Weighing 3 pounds 6 ounces (tested), it has a very comfortable hip belt which ensures excellent load transfer to the hips and a single external aluminum stay which prevents torso collapse with heavier loads. …

One of the areas of the ultralight backpacking market that has long been underserved are lightweight (3-4 pound) durable backpacks for heavy loads exceeding 40 pounds and ranging up to 60, 70, or 80 pounds or more. Built using modern lightweight yet durable fabrics, with more streamlined UL-style designs, such packs would …

The REI Dash 2 is the lightest weight 2 person tent that REI has ever sold. Weighing just 2 pounds 7 ounces (not including stakes or stuff sacks), it is a double walled tent with a conventional hubbed poleset, two doors, and two vestibules. But the design of this tent …

The Golite Shangri-La 3 is a classic ultralight shelter that is lightweight enough that it can be pitched as a one person standalone tarp or used as a three-person double-walled tent. It’s rare to find a shelter that is so versatile, reasonably priced, and can be used for solo trips or …