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Video: Packraft Wet Reentry
Wet reentry is one of the most common rescues you'll perform while packrafting. Be sure to work the kinks out of your technique ahead of time so this self-rescue tool will be honed when you need it.
Packraft Wet Reentry Photo Demo
Foot entrapment among submerged rocks is the leading killer of whitewater boaters. Think about it: the most common way to die while boating is by doing something OUTSIDE your boat!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BACKPACKING LIGHT SEEKS PARTNERSHIP WITH OHV/ORV COMMUNITY TO PROMOTE MULTI-USE HARMONY IN AMERICAN WILDERNESS
Backpacking Light (www.backpackinglight.com), an internet-based community of hikers known for their pro-wilderness values, is forging partnerships with organizations such as the pro-trails Blue Ribbon Coalition (www.sharetrails.org) to join forces in the fight for American Wilderness preservation.
Uncovering the Truth: Underground Doping in the Long Distance Hiking Community
When Jason Goldman* (not his real name) completed a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in less than 100 days, not too many people paid attention: it had been hiked faster by others. But this was Jason's third thru-hike of the PCT. His previous two were completed in 183 and 174 days, respectively...
Make Your Own Gear: Light Fleece Pullover Top
This light fleece top is designed as a light winter pullover for snow conditions. It is very simple and styled as an anorak, rather than opening right down the front.
Podcast: Packrafting Safety Tips from the Experts Part 3
Seven packrafters with a total of over thirty-five years of experience under their bums share the safety gear they won't be without, skills that have kept them coming back for more, common - and dangerous - mistakes, and real life rescue stories.
Metamorphosis #4: Monocle
It is amazing how removing so much from one's hands puts so much at one's fingertips.
Metamorphosis #3: Walking the Edge
At the onset of my affiliation with Backpacking Light, my base weight stood at a whopping sixty pounds. After several months worth of hand-wringing and basic re-education in the art of backpacking, I'd dropped my base weight to nineteen pounds.
Metamorphosis #2: A Change in Attitude
Compared to the expertise written into surrounding pages, a nineteen-pound base weight must look like an embarrassingly tight pair of pants. With another ten pounds in food and water, my thirty-pound pack still needs heavy trimming.
Metamorphosis #1: Confessions of a Heavyweight Backpacker
At the trailhead, I saddle up: I don't carry my pack. It rides me. My steel-toed boots thunder along the trail, resonating tremors deep into the ground of high country tundra. My shirt clings heavily with perspiration, the soles of my feet cry out for air, and my shoulders ache for reprieve. My name is Nathan Boddy, and I have a backpacking problem.
Essential Canister Stove Maintenance
There you are, way out in the wilderness in bad weather, getting ready for dinner, and your canister stove fails. Now what? Rescue in the field is possible for many problems: learn rescue how-to and the technical details of why it has happened.
Podcast: Packrafting Safety Tips from the Experts Part 2
Seven packrafters with a total of over thirty-five years of experience under their bums share the safety gear they won't be without, skills that have kept them coming back for more, common - and dangerous - mistakes, and real life rescue stories.
Backpacking in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Photo Essay
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, situated in the southwestern Highlands, is Scotland's first national park, encompassing a beautiful area of mountains, forests, rivers, and lochs surrounding Loch Lomond itself, the largest lake in Britain.
Grand Canyon Rim-2-Rim-2-Rim
While perhaps a touch extreme, running Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim (RRR) is not uncommon within trail running circles. But within hiking circles, this trek does not seem to garner much attention, when there are few trips, mile-for-mile, hour-for-hour, that compare. In one day, you pass through 1.6 billion years of geology (four times) and span the grandest Big Ditch in the world (twice).
Terra Nova Laser Competition Review
Prior to the Terra Nova Laser Photon Elite, the Laser Competition was listed by Guinness World Records as "the lightest two-skin (double-wall) tent." While no longer the record-holder, at just over 2 pounds, the Laser Competition is still among the lightest double-wall tents on the market.
Podcast: Packrafting Safety Tips from the Experts Part 1
Seven packrafters with a total of over thirty-five years of experience under their bums share the safety gear they won't be without, skills that have kept them coming back for more, common - and dangerous - mistakes, and real life rescue stories.
GoLite Hooded Inferno Jacket Review
Great value on a super-warm, lightweight, 800 fill down parka.
Pitching a Tent in the Snow
Want to try tenting in the snow, but haven't done it before and not sure how? Haven't time in the evening to build a snow cave or an igloo just for one night? We walk you through the basics of what gear you need, how to choose a good site, how to create a platform, and how to pitch your tent (or a tarptent if you are brave).
Big Sky International Montana 2P Tent Review
At 2 pounds, 10 ounces, the Montana is the lightest two-person double-wall tent available, but extreme lightness comes with a few tradeoffs.
Testimony: How I Fell for Lightweight Backpacking
Fate stepped in and pushed me down some steps in November 2006, breaking my fibula at the ankle, requiring surgical repair. I asked my surgeon if I could backpack the following summer, and he said "If you can get your pack down to thirty pounds, you can backpack." My lightweight journey was launched in earnest.
Vapor Barrier Liners
Backpacking Light's Andrew Skurka on Vapor Barrier Liners: What they are, how they work, and when to use them.
