Articles (2020)

Seven Million Toasters: A Tribute to Coghlan’s 50th Birthday

Coghlan’s celebrates 50 years of service to the Outdoor Industry.

My First Camp Toast

One of the very first camping products I purchased as a young boy was a toaster for a camping stove. An assemblage of wires connected to a plate that sat atop a gas stove, it afforded one the opportunity to enjoy … toast … while camping.

The first time I used it over my Svea 123, I was in awe, watching the bread slowly brown. Then, I turned it over with caution, not wanting it to slip from my clumsy pre-pubescent fingers and become tainted with the soil that loomed below. Then, I watched the other side brown. This was magic! When my toast was done, I carefully dressed its crunchy surface with butter, cinnamon, and a load of refined sugar.

With some trepidation, wondering (hoping! praying!) if my camp toast would taste like Mom’s, I took my first bite. I chewed. And chewed. And swallowed.

And noticed a funny thing.

A white gas aftertaste.

I fed the rest of the toast to the squirrels.

The Big Green Wall

I wrote the company upon my return to home and told them about my experience. I received an envelope, with a typed reply stating that my toast might taste better if it was used on a propane stove or campfire.

I eventually figured it out, and enjoyed toast on fires and camp stoves for many years in my youth.

That toaster was manufactured by Coghlan’s, perhaps one of the most recognizable brands in our industry. Coghlan’s green packaging reliably adorns the walls from Wal-Mart to back-alley camping stores to summer camp trading posts across the U.S.

When I was a kid, I had two favorite stores. One was the REI store that sat atop Seattle’s Capitol Hill. This is where I got my adventure fix: peering at photographs of famous Seattle mountaineers like Lou Whittaker climbing impossibly tall peaks across the globe, holding a fiberglass-shafted ice axe in arrest position on the show floor (“hey! what’s that little kid doing with that thing?”), and crawling into a TNF Mountain Tent dreaming about being battered by storms at the South Col.

My other favorite store was a long ways from REI. I don’t even remember the store name, or the location. I just remember that Big Green Wall.

The Big Green Wall was home to every single camping accessory that a young boy needed: tent stake mallets, stoves configured from folding metal and little cans, egg storage containers, pocketknives, long-burning emergency candles, lensatic compasses, and of course, camp stove toasters.

My dreams were spent at REI. My allowance was spent collecting gear from the Big Green Wall, home to Coghlan’s accessories.

Norm Coghlan’s Legacy

Norm Coghlan founded Coghlan’s as a gas appliance store in Winnipeg in 1959. Norm’s customers would inquire about better ways to toast their bread on camping stoves. Coghlan’s had the answer, and soon developed their very first accessory: the Camp Stove Toaster.

Soon, in response to customer demand for niche-market camping accessories that filled very specific needs, Coghlan’s grew its accessory line. Today, two warehouses in Winnipeg and St. Paul ship more than 450 different accessory products to 30 countries worldwide.

Coghlan’s integrity as a brand is undeniable. They have had a long history of outstanding customer service to both end-users and its retailers. When I was twelve years old, I purchased a Coghlan’s pocketknife and I couldn’t figure out how to use one of the tools on it. I wrote a letter to Coghlan’s and received a handwritten reply back with carefully drawn pictures showing how to use … the can opener.

Coghlan’s remains a family-owned company today and is an inspirational model to me as I ponder my own role as the CEO of a growing company in which my family is engaged: a place where my wife used to pack shipments in our garage, my son assembled and sealed dropper bottle kits, and my mother-in-law still ensures the smooth processing of our accounts payable. I often wonder what Norm Coghlan might be thinking as he looks back on 50 years of family ownership.

Coghlan’s remains the oldest client of Opportunity Partners: more than 250 of Coghlan’s products are assembled and packaged by people with disabilities. In addition to the powerful social contribution, Coghlan’s participation in the Opportunity Partners program allows them to bring products to market at economical prices, ensuring that camping accessories are affordable to the masses. That Coghlan’s does not discriminate against the privileged is perhaps their most powerful contribution to growing our industry, where trends towards more technology, more innovation, more cost, and more dependence on affluent customers is resulting in sweeping layoffs and production cuts. Coghlan’s may not be a completely recession-proof brand, but it has the right economic model in place to keep our industry thriving as we tighten our purse strings.

Coghlan’s continues to add new products (while preserving their oldies but goodies) to their lines. While not revered among the lightweight backpacking community as a “cutting edge” brand making the lightest products, it would be hard to find any one among us that hasn’t been touched in a positive way by a green-packaged Coghlan’s accessory at some time in our lives.

Two summers ago, my (then 9-year old) son purchased a Coghlan’s pocketknife from the Big Green Wall at the Trading Post of K-M Scout Ranch in Lewistown, Montana. Last summer, he saved up and purchased a Coghlan’s wood saw. We don’t find Coghlan’s in Barrel Mountaineering, but there is a Big Green Wall in Bozeman’s definitive camping store, the Powder Horn, and it never fails to draw us in.

Happy 50th Birthday, Coghlan’s, and congratulations for recently shipping your seven millionth Camp Stove Toaster.

Thank you for your service to our industry and country, and for inspiring us to enjoy the outdoors without breaking our bank.

Do You Have a Coghlan’s Story To Tell?

Maybe you too have been touched by Norm Coghlan and his vision. Let us know by participating in the forum below.

The Unbearable Heaviness of Business and the State of Outdoor Retailer

There is a cost of doing business in the outdoor industry, especially as a collective whole. Can social media alleviate some of that cost, or is it simply a mechanism for increasing the clutter of information coming from OR?

A Heavy Industry, a Heavy Trade Show, and a Heavy Cost

My inside source (let’s call him Mortimer) at an outdoor industry trade association tells me attendance at ORWM’09 (in terms of visitor-days) will be down significantly this year.

Some of this must be attributed to the economy. People are traveling less, and for shorter periods, to save money. Mortimer tells me that hundreds of faithful OR attendees may be skipping out this year, and most of the rest will be shortening their stay.

Maybe an environmental idealist will avoid going to the show to save on CO2 emissions. I almost never think about my own impact when driving down to Salt Lake City from Bozeman, but I can’t help to start adding it all up in my head when I walk onto the Salt Palace floor and think to myself: “Do we all really need to be here?”

But it goes deeper than conservation, certainly. What if this same industry that touts its service to the environment and social causes channeled some of what it spent on Outdoor Retailer to actually fund, oh, I don’t know, how about land acquisition for conservation and drinking water technologies in the villages adjacent to those cool places where we like to go trekking? We are talking about a pool of money well in excess of $100 million annually to tap into, if the Outdoor Industry completely nixed its trade shows and invented new ways of doing business. This is not a new idea, of course. Many industries have dramatically reduced their trade show footprint and are becoming more profitable as a result (simply through cost reduction!). It would seem logical, given that the average profit margin for a specialty retail shop is only 3%, that the industry would take a harder look at reducing its environmental footprint and lost opportunity cost by making Outdoor Retailer a little lighter.

In America, we are privileged to live in a capitalist culture where a single person starting out of their garage has the potential to create massive wealth. The Internet increases that potential, certainly. The Outdoor Industry Association has long advocated business growth as its primary objective. But just because you can grow huge, does that mean you should? One argument for a growing a trade group or industry is to increase that industry’s voice in the fight for social (or political, or environmental, or …) causes. But the costs of industry growth – including affluenza, development, and the unquenchable thirst for profit – cannot be ignored.

Syndicating Information from Outdoor Retailer: The State of Communications Technologies

Given the explosion of media technologies in the past three years, it’s hard not to argue that the utility of the trade show as a meaningful mechanism of doing business may be waning in an age where phenomenal productivity can be realized via other forms of communications.

If the last decade has taught us anything as a business culture, it’s that, actually, yes, meaningful relationships can be fostered remotely, and face to face relationships, while more emotionally fulfilling than an e-friendship, may not be as important as we think for doing business, especially in an economy where saving money and making sales are more important than spending on travel and other discretionary expenditures. The bottom line: the vast majority of routine business is done online today.

Seeking Ultralight Needles in a Heavy Stack of Heavy Hay

It’s been fairly obvious to us over the years that the Outdoor Retailer summer and winter markets are not exactly hotbeds for launching ultralight innovation, and the actual number of groundbreaking “ultralight” products that have been introduced there have been very limited.

However, the same technology that may be killing the need for trade shows is also making them more exciting and accessible to the general consumer. We’ve certainly taken advantage of that technology in the past (and will continue to do so in the future) because we are committed to providing our members with as much information as possible to guide their consumer decisions.

Social Media Contamination

However, communications technologies are also cluttering the information space. We’ll probably see dramatic increases in OR clutter this winter due to the explosion in popularity of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs over the past six months.

What that means to the consumer is that there will be more information to sift, more time to waste sifting it, and more energy put into (once again) trying to sort out marketing and the emotional excitement of a new products (and telling the world about them) from information that actually provides consumer value.

Some social media theorists believe that we are in a golden age of social media: rapid growth, excitement on behalf of both writers and readers, and expanding technologies. As with any technological golden age, social media too may “grow up” and normalize itself into a useful, efficient means of communicating.

But I don’t see that happening for some time. I think the excitement of “being connected” is too irresistible to people, and the temptation to tell the world about useless things before hitting the SUBMIT button is too high.

Moving Towards Lighter Information Technologies

Instead, I see the meaningful evolution of social media through the growth of disciplined writers who care about providing useful information, and our own discipline in being extremely careful about what types of social media we are subscribing to, so we can effectively and efficiently filter the information to get exactly the information that we need. As for Mortimer, he admits that he’s not tasked with the discipline of objectivity this January: you’ll find him posting frequently on a time schedule, justifying the existence of OR with hype and enthusiasm.

Which brings me to a thesis about doing business in the future and how social media can be part of that. Imagine a virtual trade show by which we syndicate, perhaps, live HD video feeds from our home offices, showcasing our new product lines to whomever would like to “drop by” and see them – strictly opt-in of course. Companies could even schedule virtual “private” appointments (the porn industry has already proved the success of this) where more intimate business can be performed. Heck, retailers could even go through online order forms with their sales reps in real time and transmit orders to the warehouse before they closed the call. The company’s marketing and PR folks could manage live news, interaction with the media and the public, and private appointments with huge audiences (and new customers!) in a way that could never be done on the floor of a trade show. This isn’t utopia, of course. It’s simply one alternative for making our industry footprint lighter in a dramatic way, and allowing more companies to play (a booth at a trade show like OR costs a company $10,000 or more – effectively pricing out the innovators in the industry that delivery cutting edge products to the earliest adopters and thought influencers – our cottage companies).

But for now, I suppose we all owe it to ourselves to experience the current and somewhat heavy state of social media by subscribing to as many Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, and blogs as possible, so we can have an appreciation later for obtaining meaningful value from a simpler, lighter strategy of information digestion.

After all, didn’t most of us come to enjoy a light pack by experiencing the pain of a much heavier load?

Backpacking Light and Social Media

Like everyone else, we too are experimenting with Social Media. We haven’t written our Social Media Vision Statement yet, but I do have a rough draft proposed: “We hope to not waste your time.”

Enjoy the coverage this year from ORWM’09 – the media industry will insure that there will be no shortage of information about new gear this year!

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

The Cairngorm Plateau consists of bare, stony undulating terrain and can seem benign in clear, summer weather. However it’s edged with cliffs and steep slopes, and poor visibility is common as clouds sweep across the slopes. Join Chris Townsend as he crosses the Plateau on a freezing winter day.

Click a thumbnail to view the image gallery.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 1
A lone Scots pine protrudes from the snow on the moors below the Cairngorm Plateau. The peak in the background is Creag an Leth-choin, which translates as Lurcher’s Crag. My route led across the partly open stream seen in the center of the picture, then up the ridge above that stream.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 2
On the western edge of the Plateau looking down into the Lairig Ghru (pass of Dhru), a deep steep-sided trench cutting through the hills. In the distance, the snow-free lower ground of Strathspey – the wide valley of the River Spey – can be seen with the snow-capped Monadh Liath (grey hills) rising on the far side. The pointed peak left of center is Creag an Leth-choin.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 3
Looking south down the Lairig Ghru pass with the little ponds called the Pools of Dee glinting in the sun. The slopes of massive Braeriach (brindled upland) rise on the right with the pointed peak of Cairn Toul (peak of the barn) to the left. Note the windblown clouds curving over the summits, a sign of changing weather.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 4
As I climbed the last boulder-covered slopes to the summit of Ben Macdui, the clouds thickened over Braeriach and began to sweep across the Lairig Ghru and onto the Plateau.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 5
Looking back north across the Plateau from the slopes of Ben Macdui as the cloud sweeps in over the peaks along the northern edge. Two lines of steps in the snow can be seen. Mine is the one on the left.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 6
On the western edge of the rounded summit dome of Ben Macdui above the Lairig Ghru. The sun still shone on the summit, but to the north the cloud was thickening fast and Strathspey was now dark under the thick grey blanket.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 7
View from the western edge of Ben Macdui across the Lairig Ghru to Braeriach, capped by a thin layer of cloud, and the huge bowl of An Garbh Choire (the rough cirque) with smaller side bowls cut into the slopes above.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 8
View from Ben Macdui to the flat-topped Cairn Toul, whose steep east face plunges down into the Lairig Ghru, where the infant River Dee runs out of An Garbh Choire. To the right of Cairn Toul is Sgor an Lochain Uaine (peak of the green pool).

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 9
The great sweep of the western wall of the Lairig Ghru from Cairn Toul over Sgor an Lochain Uaine round An Garbh Choire to Braeriach. The route between Braeriach and Cairn Toul is one of the other superb high level walks in the Cairngorms.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 10
In the featureless heart of the Cairngorm Plateau looking across hidden deep Glen Avon to the still sunlit peak of Beinn Mheadhoin (middle mountain).

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 11
By the time I reached the northern edge of the Plateau on my way back, I was in mist much of the time. The rocky edges of the Plateau faded in and out in the swirling air. This is Pygmy Ridge on the cliffs of Stob Coire an t-Sneachda (the peak of the cirque of the snows). The little pools on the floor of the cirque can just be seen bottom left.

Winter in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 12
A last view down the Stob Coire an t-Sneachda cliffs (popular for winter climbing) to the pools on the floor of the cirque. Shortly after this photograph was taken, the mist closed in completely, and I descended from the Plateau in poor visibility, worsened by the fading of the late afternoon light.

The Cairngorm Plateau lies between the summits of Cairn Gorm (blue hill) and Ben Macdui (Macduff’s hill), the second highest mountain in Britain, in the northeast Scottish Highlands. The plateau covers over eight square miles, the largest area over 3,000 feet elevation in Britain. The Plateau consists of bare, stony undulating terrain and can seem benign in clear, summer weather. However it’s edged with cliffs and steep slopes, and poor visibility is common as clouds sweep across the slopes. Good navigation skills are essential to find a safe descent route in such conditions. The Plateau is also subject to extreme weather. Heavy snow is common in the winter, often brought on strong winds. From October to May, winds over 100 mph occur every month and 173 mph, the highest wind speed ever recorded in Britain, was registered by the weather station on the summit of Cairn Gorm in March, 1986.

This means that hiking on the Plateau in winter is always a challenging adventure, especially as there are only seven or eight hours of daylight. On this occasion, late in 2008, I set out on a freezing but sunny day intent on crossing the Plateau to Ben Macdui.

Podcast: Alpacka Packraft Safety Design Features

Designer Sheri Tingey talks about the history of safety design in Alpacka packrafts and the latest tweaks she’s made to the boats to improve whitewater performance and safety.

Podcast: Alpacka Packraft Safety Design Features - 1
Matt Szundy leads a packraft charge across the Snake River a la George Washington. Designer Sheri Tingey doesn’t mention this in the interview, but stability is a definite safety feature of Alpacka rafts. 

PODCAST SPONSOR

Kahtoola, based in Flagstaff, Arizona, has a passion for innovation and quality outdoor gear. Their flexible KTS crampons, Step-in Snowshoe options and MICROspikes stretch-on traction products are trend setting designs that outperform other products in their category and are all backed by Kahtoola’s Satisfaction Guarantee. See them at www.kahtoola.com or call 866 330 8030.

To learn more about packrafting at Backpacking Light, visit backpackinglight.com/packrafting, or take a wilderness course in packrafting at backpackinglight.com/school.

Introduction

Packrafts are small and light enough to be carried in a backpack. They are opening up a whole new world for exploration by backcountry enthusiasts. Rivers that are formidable obstacles to a hiker can be crossed safely in a packraft. In the Grand Canyon, routes have been put together using packrafts to safely cross the Colorado that haven’t been explored since famous explorers Colin Fletcher and Harvey Butchart risked their lives on air mattresses. Fantastic traverses involving equal parts paddling and hiking have been created in places like the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana and in Alaska and New Zealand. First packraft descents of rivers have been logged in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

As packrafters have explored more and more routes with relatively easy water and become more comfortable in their craft, their adventuresome spirits have naturally turned to creating new trips that include harder whitewater. Packrafters now routinely raft Class III whitewater and some are running Class IV and V water. Sheri Tingey, Alpacka Raft owner/designer, has kept pace with paddlers’ desires by constantly upgrading boat design so that current Alpacka rafts are quite whitewater capable while still remaining lightweight and packable. In challenging whitewater, safety features become even more vital, and Sheri has never lost sight of safety. She designs the boats to be simple to get out of and back into from the water. Each time she is tempted to add a performance improvement that makes getting out of the packraft after a flip more complex, she goes back to her motto, “Simple is safe.”

I talked with Sheri during a break in a whitewater rescue course we were both attending in Jackson, Wyoming. She talks about the design history of the Alpacka packrafts and design tweaks she’s made to the latest crop of boats so they are as safe as she can make them in whitewater.

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster

Steve Hinkle relays that carrying all the comforts of home ultimately made for a miserable trail experience, and how shedding “comforts” was actually more pleasant in the long run.

It was a cool, cloudy spring morning on Snowbird Mountain heading to Max Patch. As I stopped for lunch, it began to rain. It didn’t stop until sometime in the middle of the night. Hours later, as I poured the water out of my Gore-Tex boots at a shelter, a thru-hiker asked me how they were working out for me. I looked at his trail runners and had to admit, I didn’t much like my boots at that moment. Those boots must have weighed five pounds apiece for the rest of the trip. Two days later in Hot Springs, while I was inspecting the blisters that the wet boots had left me with, I knew something had to change.

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 1

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 2

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 3

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 4
The old days, including chair.

I started out backpacking in winter. We didn’t care about how much weight we were carrying or how it felt; we had to take all the comforts of home: Gore-Tex boots, thick inflatable pads, and even relatively light aluminum folding camp chairs (with backs) that we got at Kmart. Man, those chairs were great for sitting around the fire or taking a break in the snow on the side of the trail. We knew that thru-hikers did all kinds of crazy stuff like drilling holes in their toothbrushes, but we were only out for three nights, and besides, we were tough and could handle all the weight. The more comforts you could stand to drag along, the cooler you were. Still, I can remember carrying a forty-eight pound pack six miles uphill on the first day out and wondering if we would ever get there.

On winter trips, being wet was not a problem because the cold air kept everything dry. But as we started going on more trips, I quickly learned that during warmer months in the Appalachians, it rains every day. And once everything is wet, it never dries. And when it’s not raining, the humidity makes you sweat so much you get soaked anyway. And the extra dry clothes and socks just become heavy wet clothes in your pack. I clearly needed different techniques for hiking in those conditions.

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 5
Although beautiful, climbing Big Bald with a 40-lb pack was the hardest day I have experienced. I sure could have used a smaller pack that day.

Ron, one of my hiking buddies, had discovered BackpackingLight.com and told the rest of us about it. One of the first articles I read was Water Weight Gain and Drying Characteristics of Lightweight Hiking Shoes after Submersion. It was just what I needed. I replaced the heavy boots with Montrail Hardrocks and went on a short overnighter. I was pleased to find that the bottoms of my feet didn’t hurt (more than normal) from the protruding rocks and roots that are common in our area. Also I felt like the flexibility of the shoe allowed me to get a better grip on the rocks and react to uneven terrain better.

Over the course of the next year, my buddies and I learned the techniques of lightweight backpacking, replaced key pieces of equipment in our kit, and scrutinized the clothes on our backs and everything that went in our pack. I probably saved five pounds by just removing unnecessary items. My attitude changed from “Could I possibly use this?” to “Do I absolutely have to have this?” The surprising thing was that I really didn’t miss anything that I didn’t have.

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 6
Now I just go straight up the mountain!

Each step along the way, we would go on another trip and challenge our limits further. Each time the trips got easier and more enjoyable. On one of these we rolled into camp for the last night at 2:00 pm after a fifteen-mile day. We knew then that it would be nothing to go the additional seven miles into town.

Finally, the transition was complete: Ron and I were ready to see how fast and how far we could really go with our lightened loads. We set out for a week on the Appalachian Trail from Springer, with no definite plans for how far to go or where to stop each night. The idea was to go as far as we felt like going each day. I started with a base weight of 13.7 pounds and a total weight of 24.2 pounds including food, fuel, and water. Ron had a similar pack weight.

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 7
Ron’s Gatewood cape, Opsrey pack, and patented sit pad.

The first sixteen miles went easily. That night we stayed with a couple of college boys who came in with two huge packs, bursting at the seams with all kinds of stuff tied on the outside. Even though they were young and in good shape, we never saw them again after leaving the next morning. It’s kind of thrilling for an old guy to blow by so many younger people and just give them the ‘nice ascent’ nod while doing it.

The next day we got to the Walasi-Yi Center in the early afternoon and, while enjoying a Coke, decided to move on to the next shelter, 23 miles total for the day, including the lovely 1.2-mile side trail to the Whitley Gap shelter. After 19 more miles the third day, we stopped at the Cheese Factory campsite. During that day we took a break with a granddad and two girls that were probably eight and ten years old. He had them packed right, in small external frame packs, and these girls were having the best time. They didn’t complain about a thing. It just made you feel good.

I was pretty chipper eating lunch at Bly Gap, the GA/NC line, on the fourth day, knowing that many thru-hikers pass this spot on day six or seven. In all, we did 106 miles in six and a half days, ending up at Winding Stair Gap. The entire trip was validation that we could do this, and we could do it in comfort and style (there’s something very stylish about having a small pack with all your gear inside). I never could have made this trip with a traditional pack.

Lightweight Testimony: Lighter, Farther, Faster - 8
Cruising along after 15 miles.

We continue to refine our gearlists as lightweight backpackers do. This year we went 115 miles through Damascus and the Grayson Highlands. I have whittled my base weight down below 12 pounds, even though I still carry such luxuries as a water pump, Crocs, and an iPod.

For a fifty-something occasional backpacker, going light doesn’t seem like it would be that important. I mean, I’m not going on a 500-mile traverse of the arctic tundra. But actually, the less you are able to go, the more you need to get out of it when you DO go. See more, do more, and enjoy it more. I really love the hiking part – “moving on” along the trail and covering a lot of terrain. With a lighter load, I am able to keep gliding along all day and the trips are more enjoyable. After all, that’s what it’s all about.

Major equipment changes

Item From (lbs) To (lbs)
Pack Gregory Forester 5.0 GoLite Jam2 1.2
Tent Kelty Zen 5.0 Tarptent Rainbow 2.0
Sleeping bag Marmot Wizard long 3.5 Marmot Atom 1.2
Sleeping pad Thermarest Inflatable 2.5 Thermarest Ridgerest 0.6
Shoes Zamberlain Mountaineering 3.5 Montrail Hardrock 2.0
Total   19.5   7.0

Full gear list. Summer 2008, one week with resupply

Clothing Worn      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Short Sleeve Shirt REI 7.3 0.5
Shorts Speedo 4.5 0.3
Underwear Under Armor 3.1 0.2
Socks Smartwool Lightwight Trail Runners 1.6 0.1
Shoes Montrail Hardrock 31 1.9
Hat Scrunch Wear 1.3 0.1
Other Items Worn / Carried      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Trekking Poles REI Peak UL Carbon 12.5 0.8
Watch   2.3 0.1
Other Clothing      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Wind Shirt Marmot Dri-Clime 9 0.6
Rain Jacket Marmot Precip 12.1 0.8
Rain Pants Sierra Designs 8.1 0.5
Camp Shoes Crocs 13 0.8
Sleep & Shelter      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Shelter Tarptent Rainbow 32 2.0
Sleeping Bag Marmot Atom with Stuff Sack 20.1 1.3
Sleeping Pad Thermarest 3/4 7.9 0.5
Packing      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Pack GoLite Jam 2 21 1.3
Pack Cover GoLite 2.7 0.2
Stuff Sack Large Gray 0.9 0.1
Ziploc Bags Assorted 1.5 0.1
Cooking & Water      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Stove, Alcohol Etowah Stove with Windscreen 4.4 0.3
Fuel Bottle Dasani 12 oz. Water Bottle 1 0.1
Cook Pot Evernew .9 L Titanium 4.3 0.3
Utensil Titanium Spork 0.5 0.0
Cup Evernew Titanium 2 0.1
Cleanup Camp Suds & Scrubber 0.8 0.1
Water Hose Platypus 2.4 0.2
Water Bottle Platypus 1 L 0.8 0.1
Water Bottle Platypus 1.8 L 1.1 0.1
Water Bottle Platypus 2.4 L 1.3 0.1
Water Treatment PUR Hiker 13.2 0.8
Food Hanging Kit Homemade 4.6 0.3
Other Essentials      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Maps     0.0
Light Petzl Tieka XP 2.9 0.2
First Aid Homemade in Ziploc 2.9 0.2
Firestarting Waterproof Matches, Case 0.9 0.1
Test Kit Test Kit 4.5 0.3
Sit Pad Homemade 1.2 0.1
Insect Repellent Cutter 2 0.1
Hygiene Toothpaste, Toothbrush, Contact Case, Comb 5 0.3
Emergency Snack Smartees 5.5 0.3
Wallet   2 0.1
iPod   5 0.3
Consumables      
FUNCTION ITEM (oz) (lbs)
Fuel, Alcohol   12 0.8
Food 24 oz per Day 96 6.0
Water   32 2.0
       
Weight Summary      
  Total Weight Worn or Carried 63.6 4.0
  Total Base Weight in Pack 196.6 12.3
  Total Weight of Consumables 140 8.8
  Total Initial Pack Weight (2) + (3) 336.6 21.0
  Full Skin Out Weight (1) + (2) + (3) 400.2 25.0

Staff Videocast: Cowboy Coffee

How do BPL Staffers stay warm, hydrated, and caffeinated in the backcountry?

PODCAST SPONSOR

Kahtoola, based in Flagstaff, Arizona, has a passion for innovation and quality outdoor gear. Their flexible KTS crampons, Step-in Snowshoe options and MICROspikes stretch-on traction products are trend-setting designs that outperform other products in their category and are all backed by Kahtoola’s Satisfaction Guarantee. See them at www.kahtoola.com or call 866 330 8030.

 

For a better viewing experience, please download the Flash Player. Cowboy Coffee, by Backpacking Light Staff.

 

Coffee. Tea.

Hot, caffeinated beverages keep some of us sane when in the backcountry. Some might argue that such beverages can even keep you alive. Here, a few Backpacking Light staffers share their favorite methods for staying warm, hydrated, and caffeinated while out and about. Whether you prefer tea (filtered or not), coffee extract, or cowboy coffee, there’s a little something for everyone… except the one editor who shall remain unnamed. He just takes two NoDoz and hits the trail.

Which could be why I might never backpack with him. – Addie

Lightweight Testimony: Jim Sweeney’s Enlightenment via Lead Weights, Helium Balloons, and Yachting

“I guess I first realized my pack weight had to change when I was in intensive care recovering from a bad fishing trip.”

Lightweight Testimony: Jim Sweeneys Enlightenment via Lead Weights, Helium Balloons, and Yachting - 1
The photos that should have accompanied this article were somehow lost in transmission, and we have been unable to contact the author. We have found, in a public archive, this photo, which seems to have been taken about the time of the author’s helicopter rescue.

I guess I first realized my pack weight had to change when I was in intensive care recovering from a bad fishing trip. I’m not sure how much you know about fishing terms, but I was a depth fisherman. A lot of guys seek the perfect location, others think the perfect temperature is what counts. I believed the best way to catch fish was to have the hook hovering at just the right depth in the water. To that end, I usually carried a variety of floats and lead weights to bring the hook to that perfect hover location.

Sure, the other fishermen mocked me. Measuring success as they did by "total catch weight," "most fish caught and released," or "shortest interval between catches," they had degraded a beautiful and subtle art form to a mere game of numbers, a classically hierarchical system of male bragging rights.

I knew I could make my technique more effective if I could make it more precise. On previous trips, I’d been limited to the commercially available weights. But this time I was going to bring along my own small lead-casting foundry, with accurate scales, variable molds, and many cans of butane to fuel its smelter. I could make my own weights on the spot and get my hook to within 0.03125 inches of the optimal depth (Floats, which are pressurized at sea level, expand slightly and float higher as the air pressure drops with altitude, and weights, farther from the center of the earth, weigh less, due to the inverse square nature of the law of gravity). And, so equipped, off I set.

It was clear that something was wrong when I got to my favorite fishing lake and could no longer feel my legs. Things turned out all right, though. Another fisherman spotted me collapsed facedown beneath my pack among the boulders at the lake’s edge; the heavy-lifting Sikorsky helicopter ferried me safely back down the mountain; the small hospital staff worked their magic. When I came to, the doctor reassured me that, though he personally had never seen so many discs so ruthlessly collapsed, he was pretty sure that hanging me upside down by my heels would have me fixed in no time. Two weeks later, I was walking again.

My first, failed efforts to lighten my pack went, of course, in completely the wrong direction. Foolishly, I brought more, not fewer, things, specifically helium-filled balloons and valved rigid backpack frames also filled with helium. The improvements in pack weight were short-lived, quickly erased by the escape of the notoriously leaky gas. Even when everything worked, any gains were nullified by the weight of the necessary helium resupply cylinders. The next stint in intensive care gave me plenty of time to think.

For starters, I gave up fishing. It wasn’t much of a sacrifice, as I’d never caught anything anyway. I began to scour the internet obsessively. I spent hours, then days, mastering the intricacies of translating from grams to ounces and back again, from 95/5 to 850 fill down, from centigrade to Fahrenheit. I drew up spreadsheets cataloging the claimed advantages of almost everything. For example: sleeping bags sewn into empty shape in Tunisia from fabrics first designed by a failed British company and later improved and woven by a Japanese textile giant, following patterns from a Danish designer living in the border region between France and Spain, which were then returned to the Pyrenees to be stuffed with exquisite down by goose farmers’ daughters seeking a better life. Weighed against these were bags made by American firms more generous with their down but with less of a flair for extravagant product names. I compared the properties of goose down from China, where the geese were raised listening to Brahms, with down from small French farms, whose geese grew up to bedtime stories about Babar, or about the little goose who learned that "foie gras" really meant "goose millionaire."

My family, heavily burdened by my hospital bills, were initially very supportive of my new enthusiasm. Gradually, though, as I continued to weigh in their presence the advantages and disadvantages of lightweight but noisy fabric, or supple but slippery yardage, or non-stretching but hopelessly fragile tent goods, their attitude shifted to polite acceptance, then to ill-concealed boredom, and finally, to outright hostility, often accompanied by hurled cans of pale fruits in syrup. Except for my uncle, who was always the odd man out, a grasshopper in a molehill full of ants.

One day he took me out to an obscure alley, in a derelict part of town, where he kept a garage. "Go on, take that tarp off. Check this baby out."

Under the tarp was a complex array of shafts and small motors, brackets and pistons and levers and conveyors, whose purpose was hopelessly unclear to me. How was this going to help me lighten my pack?

"Here." He handed me a sheet of paper with a wonderfully fine weave. "Stick that in the hopper, press that button, and put your hand out."

I did as he said.

"Now get ready for perfection." His ferrety eyes gleamed.

The machine shuddered to life, wheezing and clanking. It swallowed the sheet of paper, agitated itself for several minutes, then went strangely silent. Minutes passed. Sharp chemical smells wafted warmly upward. Was this some kind of elaborate practical joke? More time passed, lights flashing mutely. Finally, six brand new 100 dollar bills slid noiselessly into my hand, still warm from their time in the drying oven. He was right. They were perfect.

"Don’t get greedy. You can stay on top of this game. Forever."

And sure, it wasn’t necessary to get greedy. For less money than a would-be bicycle racer might spend on a new set of wheels, or a car aficionado on a new cam-shaft, I could completely overhaul a major part of my quiver. I’m down now to a pack weight of about four pounds and heading lower. In my warehouse, where I store the things I no longer need, I have the entire recent product history of the world backpacking industry.

I don’t get out backpacking much anymore, though. I just don’t have the time. With the Americas Cup coming up, I’ve taken to lurking around the racing docks, buying drinks for the deck hands in the local yacht bars, hiring on as extra labor, anything to get a look at the new sail fabrics. Some killer stuff is coming. I don’t understand the technology yet and really am not at liberty to divulge what I do know, but major advances are coming – my pack weight is going to drop three, maybe even four, hundredths of an ounce as soon as the new fabrics show up as gear.

GSI Outdoors nFORM Ultralight Nesting Bowl and Mug Set Review

Two nesting bowls, strong polypropylene, ~20 fluid ounces capacity each, about 1.5 ounces weight each and US$8.95 for the set: they can’t be too bad!

Overview

Some people like to eat out of a freezer bag with a long spoon, but that doesn’t work so well when you have to cater for more than one person. I find that method too messy myself, and anyhow, on a long trip you may not have that many separate freezer bags. Walking in France for three months, my wife and I had to buy stuff as we went. And, I might add, my wife expected dinner to be served in a reasonably couth manner. A light bowl is the answer – or better, style a pair of matching nesting bowls.

But good, light, inexpensive bowls with a decent capacity and fairly high sides are hard to find. There are plenty of light ‘plates’ on the market in a range of materials, but those flat things can spill so easily, all over your sleeping bag. Some bowls are available from both gear shops and supermarkets, but in general they are too shallow or too heavy for my liking. Shallow bowls can be as bad as plates: one slight lurch, and dinner can spill everywhere. I want a bowl with a decent depth, but not too small a base.

GSI Outdoors market two sorts of light polypropylene bowls. One has already been reviewed here: they are more conventional bowls with sloping sides. The nFORM bowls reviewed here have vertical sides and come as a nesting pair. GSI call them a bowl and mug set and also supply a neoprene cozy-sleeve and a lid for the mug. However, the two parts (bowl and mug) are almost identical, apart from a slight difference in diameter, and both parts work just fine as bowls.

GSI Outdoors nFORM Ultralight Nesting Bowl and Mug Set Review - 1
Breakfast in bed with complete safety.

The larger bowl has a thinner and slightly more flexible rim, while the smaller one (the ‘mug’) has a lip on the rim which can cover the neoprene foam sleeve if you want to drink out of it. The lip makes the rim stiffer, though I think both bowls are stiff enough for ordinary use. They are quite high at the sides – 55 and 58 mm, which makes them very ‘slosh-resistant.’ It is interesting that despite one fitting inside the other, they end up at about the same weight and same capacity. Very smart.

Another nice feature of these bowls is the smooth inside face. The Orikaso folding plates have a stippled surface which makes cleaning difficult; these GSI bowls require little more than a simple swirl of water to be clean. I have chopped up the inside surface of an older set of supermarket bowls (Decor brand) with a metal knife – I shan’t do that with these bowls.

We measured these at about 20 fluid ounces capacity – but that is filled close to the brim. You don’t have to ‘measure’ the capacity: there is a little scale marked in fluid ounces and millilitres on the inside. Well, the scale is there, but it isn’t all that easy to read in the evening when I’m cooking dinner by headlight! My wife and I found that we rarely ate more than 14 fluid ounces of breakfast or dinner anyhow.

GSI Outdoors nFORM Ultralight Nesting Bowl and Mug Set Review - 2
Bowls and gas canister.

The neoprene sleeve fits the smaller bowl or mug, as does the lid. The lid has a drinking notch on one side and an air hole on the other, though lightweight walkers probably won’t bother with these parts. What us lightweight walkers might like, however, is the sizing of the bowls: a standard 230 g gas canister fits neatly inside the smaller bowl. The photo here shows two bowls hidden inside a poly-cotton stuff sack and a gas canister inside them. I carry the two bowls (one for me and one for my wife) in a polycotton stuff sack to protect the smooth inner surfaces of the bowls, especially from any abrasion by the steel rim of the canister. There is enough fabric in the top end of the stuff sack to tuck neatly under the canister every time.

Specifications

  Manufacturer:

 GSI Outdoors

  Year/Model:

 2007

  Manufacture:

 China

  Material:

 polypropylene

  Capacity:

 20 fl oz (~600 mL) to the brim (BPL measurement)

  Sizes
(internal):

 Small bowl: 4.7 inches across x 2.2 inches high (120 x 57 mm); Large bowl: 5.0 inches across x 2.0 inches high (125 x 55 mm) (BPL measurement)

  Weight:

 ~1.5 oz each (~43 g) (BPL measurement)

  Colors:

 Orange and blue

  MSRP:

 US$8.95 for the whole set

What’s Good

  • Light
  • Affordable
  • Almost unbreakable
  • Stable
  • Nice and deep
  • Suitable capacity for walkers

What’s Not So Good

  • Can’t be held over a stove

Recommendations for Improvement

  • Slightly stiffer rim on the larger bowl perhaps, but it isn’t really necessary

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review

Tarptent’s newest, lightest solo tent is innovative and available in breathable Tyvek and traditional silnylon versions. At 18.5 ounces, the Tyvek Sublite is the lightest breathable fabric tent available.

Description

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 1
The Tarptent Sublite one-person single wall tent is available in Tyvek (shown) and silnylon.

The Tarptent Sublite is a one person single wall tent that comes in two versions: Tyvek and silnylon. The design is basically the same, but the two tents differ in details and performance. The Sublite is the first use of Tyvek in a tent, which is a breathable nonwoven fabric. Technically, this is the world’s lightest breathable fabric tent.

The Tyvek used in the Sublite is type 1443R “soft structure” Tyvek, which is soft, lightweight, highly water-resistant, very durable, breathable, and inexpensive. It is NOT the house-wrap type of Tyvek, rather it is the lighter, softer type used in Tyvek protective clothing. Tyvek is a “spunbonded olefin” and is not a true woven fabric. Fabric weight is 1.25 oz/yd2, which is about the same as silnylon at 1.3 oz/yd2.

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Views of the Tyvek Sublite. The tent is supported by trekking poles (or optional sectional aluminum poles) in an A-frame configuration near the front of the tent, plus two sewn-in vertical carbon fiber struts at the rear. A zippered entry is located to the right of the trekking pole (top left). The end view (top right) shows its boxed foot end without any vent. The top view (bottom left) shows its proportions. And the head end (bottom right) has a closable vent at the bottom and high vent at the top.

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Entry into the Tyvek Sublite is from the side; there is no mesh inner door or rain flap to keep rain from falling into the tent.

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 4
The Tyvek Sublite has a floating silnylon bathtub floor with a mesh panel on both sides for extra ventilation. There is a closable vent at the head end (left), but none at the rear end (right). The tent has plenty of room inside for one person plus gear.

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 5
The Sublite has a high vent at the head end to enhance ventilation. The photos show the vent on the outside (left) and inside (right). A panel of mesh on the inside excludes bugs.

The silnylon version of the Sublite is the same design and dimensions as the Tyvek version. However, since silnylon is not breathable, the silnylon version has a few extra features to enhance ventilation: a closable foot vent, a larger vent at the front, a zippered mesh door, and an extendable rain flap so the entry can be left open for better ventilation in rainy weather.

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 6
The Silnylon Sublite is the same tent design and dimensions as the Tyvek version, only it’s made of silnylon and weighs 3 ounces more. The photo shows the tent set up with Tarptent’s optional sectional aluminum poles. A zippered mesh door hangs partially open. It also has an extra guyline at the front.

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 7
Because silnylon is not breathable at all, the silnylon version has a few extra design elements to enhance ventilation. These are the addition of a mesh door (left, rolled up in the photo), and a large closable foot vent (right) which is not present on the Tyvek version.

Performance

The Sublite is quick and easy to set up, and requires two 53-inch (135 cm) trekking poles (or optional aluminum poles) to create its A-frame support and a taut pitch. Most hikers don’t use 135 cm fixed length poles, so adjustable trekking poles are necessary for the Sublite. The trekking poles in the top photos are 51 inches, my longest fixed length poles, and they are not quite long enough, so I resorted to elevating them with rocks get the needed length. In doing so, I had to futz with the tent to get a decent pitch and it is not as taut as it should be. Setting up the Sublite with adjustable length trekking poles also requires a fair amount of fiddling to attach them. The fastest, easiest and best support system for the Sublite is Tarptent’s optional aluminum poles (4.75 ounces, US$10). They attach quickly and provide a taut pitch with no fiddling with Velcro attachments.

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 8
The Sublite requires adjustable trekking poles or optional aluminum poles for support. The tips are inserted in a sleeve at the top (left) and the handles in a pocket at the bottom (right). There are two Velcro loops on each side to secure them to the tent body.

For a solo shelter, the Sublite is very hospitable. The A-frame peak of the tent provides lots of headroom right where I need it when I sit up. There is plenty of room inside the tent for one person plus gear. Although there is no storage pocket inside, the mesh sides above the bathtub floor provide a handy ledge for stashing small items.

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 9
The lack of an entry vestibule means that wet gear (or a wet dog) would have to stay outside or stashed at the foot of the tent. The Silnylon Sublite (but not the Tyvek Sublite) has a partial solution in the form of a rain flap (left) that can be extended to cover the entry. For some reason, the vertical part of the rain flap is sewn to the inside of the tent, so the mesh door cannot be fully zipped when the rain flap is extended (right), leaving a 3-inch gap for bugs to enter.

An unexpected benefit of the Tyvek Sublite is its white color reflects heat and its breathable fabric allows more air exchange, so the tent is significantly cooler in hot weather compared to its silnylon equivalent.

The only porosity test data I could find on type 1443R Tyvek is a Gurley Hill Porosity rating of 69 seconds/100 cc. This is the time required for 100 cubic centimeters of air to pass through one square inch of material under a pressure of approximately 4.9 inches of water (Test Method: TAPPI T460/ASTM D726). DuPont claims that this Tyvek is vapor permeable and six times more breathable than microporous film membranes (monolithic polyurethane).

In use, the Tyvek Sublite does seem to breathe quite will. On warmer nights (above about 50 F) with the door zipped closed to exclude bugs I did not have any condensation at all. On several clear/calm/cool nights I did not have any film condensation on the inside walls, which is typical for silnylon tents, but the inside walls were damp to the touch. The dampness did not wet my clothing when I brushed against it. On two occasions following calm/clearing nights after an afternoon rain, the inside tent walls were covered with small water droplets which dripped to the floor, but it was a minor issue.

Tyvek is rated as “highly water-resistant” but is not claimed to be waterproof. I have personally used this type of Tyvek as a groundsheet for several years and have had no problems with water passing through it. During a high intensity thunderstorm, I saw water droplets forming on the inside walls of the canopy that dripped onto me and my gear. The problem was accentuated by “condensation splatter” caused by hail impacting the outside of the tent. Tarptent’s statement that the Tyvek Sublite is “fine for all night moderate rains but not recommended for long-duration intense rainstorms” is accurate. Bottom line, the Tyvek Sublite performs very well in non-rainy weather, short duration showers, and gentle rains, but it is not the best place to be during a prolonged intense thunderstorm.

 

For a better viewing experience, please download the Flash Player. Video tour of the Tarptent Sublite Silnylon Tent. NOTE: The audio portion where Will states that the tent held up just fine is in error. The tent actually leaked quite a bit.

Because silnylon is non-breathable, the silnylon version of the Sublite has extra ventilation features, adding up to mesh vents on all four sides, a mesh door, and a high vent. I found the Silnylon Sublite to be very condensation resistant most of the time, especially when there was at least a light breeze. However, like most single wall tents, it will develop condensation on the inside walls on a clear/cool/calm night with a large temperature drop, and during an extended rainstorm.

Tarptent Sublite Tent Review - 10
Condensation on inside walls of the Silnylon Sublite after a rainy night.

Assessment

I tested both versions of the Sublite in an assortment of summer backpacking conditions and found it to be an excellent ultralight solo tent. At just over a pound including stakes, I definitely can’t complain about the weight! However, I have two issues with the Sublite; the first is the height of its A-frame is too tall for most fixed length trekking poles. It requires 53-inch poles, and that means heavier adjustable length poles for most people. The tent pitches faster and better with Tarptent’s optional aluminum poles. My second issue is the Tyvek Sublite has no vestibule over the entry, so rain will fall directly into the tent. The silnylon version has an extendable rain flap, but it makes entry/exit more cumbersome, and the mesh door does not zip up on one side so bugs can enter.

Overall, the things I really like about the Sublite’s design are its light weight, easy setup, side entry, ample headroom where you need it, ample floor space, and good ventilation.

The Tyvek version is definitely unique. It breathes as well as any Epic fabric tent I have tested, and the weight and cost are a lot less. Tyvek is very strong, so I don’t have any concerns about it not holding up over time. The shortcomings of the Tyvek version are 1) the entry does not have an inner mesh door (only one Tyvek door) so there are minimal views from the tent, and 2) intense rainfall will force water through the Tyvek. Thus, the Tyvek version is best suited for climates where prolonged intense rainfall is uncommon.

In its size and weight class, the closest comparison to the Sublite is the Gossamer Gear One. The One is made of spinnaker fabric, which is lighter, noisier, and more delicate. Both tents have a side entry, but the One has a large vestibule over the entry, which is a real plus, and still weighs an ounce less than the Tyvek Sublite. However, the One costs $100 more.

Specifications

  Manufacturer/ Year/ Model Tarptent 2008 Tyvek Sublite and 2008 Silnylon Sublite (http://www.tarptent.com/)
  Style One person single wall tent with floor and side entry. The Tyvek version is breathable fabric
  Fabrics Tyvek version is type 1443R Tyvek (1.25 oz/yd2/ 42.4 g/m2) with a silnylon floor; silnylon version is 1.3 oz/yd2 (44 g/m2) silnylon canopy and floor
  Poles and Stakes Two carbon fiber rear struts (sewn-in) plus two 53 in (135 cm) trekking poles or optional Easton aluminum poles, four 6 in (15 cm) Easton tubular stakes
  Floor Dimensions 86 in long x 26/42/24 in wide x 42 in high (218 x 66/107/61 x 107 cm)
  Packed Size 14 in x 4 in (36 x 10 cm)
  Total Weight Tyvek Sublite 1 lb 3.4 oz (550 g); manufacturer specification 1 lb 2.5 oz (524 g); Silnylon Sublite 1 lb 6 oz (624 g), manufacturer specification 1 lb 5.5 oz (610 g) (includes tent, 4 stakes, 2 stuff sacks)
  Trail Weight Tyvek Sublite 1 lb 2.9 oz (536 g), Silnylon Sublite 1 lb 5.5 oz (610 g) (includes tent and four stakes)
  Protected Area Floor 20 ft2 (1.86 m2), no vestibule
  Protected Area/Trail Weight Ratio 17 ft2/lb for Tyvek Sublite; 14.9 ft2/lb for Silnylon Sublite
   MSRP Tyvek version US$179, silnylon version US$199
  Options Footprint US$35, 10.3 oz (292 g) with stuff sack; aluminum poles US$10 , 4.75 oz (135 g)

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered

Lightweight Testimony: Tony Wong Finds, Loses, and Rediscovers a Lightweight Passion.

I took my first backpacking trip right after I graduated from college. I was living in a student co-op in Berkeley, and a bunch of us decided to celebrate the end of the year by going up to Half Dome in Yosemite. Having never backpacked before, I borrowed whatever gear I could from friends and scrounged an assortment of food from the co-op.

At the trailhead to Vernal Falls, I carried a Coleman external frame pack, a white gas two-burner car camping stove, a gallon of fuel, a four-person tent, a gallon jug of water, some extra clothing, and a five-pound jar of peanut butter.

I was twenty-three years old, young, fit, and I was in pain.

The pack I wore was two sizes too large for me. As a result, the hipbelt did not fit, and the entire weight of the pack tugged down on my shoulders. Just walking to the trailhead was difficult under this tremendous load, and I struggled to catch my breath.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 1
Yosemite Half Dome, Nevada and Vernal Falls from the Panoramic Trail south of Glacier Point.

I know we hiked up Vernal and Nevada falls, but I am not certain I ever saw them. Most of my memory from that part of the trip was of the mist from the water fall cooling my aching, sweat-drenched body as I stared at the endless number of granite steps I had yet to climb. In an attempt to shift the weight off my shoulders, I was bending so far forward that all I could see was ground. Any attempt to look up was rewarded with my head hitting the massive jar of peanut butter strapped on the top of my pack.

Mercifully, we made it to Little Yosemite Valley to set up our base camp and climbed Half Dome the next day with just daypacks.

The views atop Half Dome were breathtaking, with the tree-dotted expanses of granite everywhere I looked and the valley floor far below me. I was on top of the world, and I wanted more of it.

Educating a Mule

I bought my first book on backpacking, Karen Berger’s Trailside Guide: Hiking and Backpacking. It became my backpacking Bible, educating me on the myriad of choices I had to confront when buying gear. It also gave me insight into the skills I would need to learn and challenges I would face in the wild.

More books would follow, including Backpacker magazine’s Everyday Wisdom: 1001 Expert Tips for Hikers and More Everyday Wisdom: Trail-Tested Advice from the Experts.

I was determined to learn how to select gear wisely and remedy the mistakes from my first backpacking experience. Yet somehow years went by without my taking another backpacking trip. I found my career, got married, bought a house, got a dog, and then started a family. It was not until my daughter turned two-and-a-half that I began to reflect on my unfulfilled desire to go backpacking. While I wanted my daughter, Mei-Ling, to be comfortable in the outdoors, in truth, I wasn’t comfortable myself.

So, I dusted off my old books, re-familiarized myself with the essentials of backpacking gear and strode confidently into REI. It was July – the height of the camping season – and the ideal time to pay full price for all my backpacking needs.

After dropping a few thousand dollars, I walked out of REI with everything a family of three would need to take on the world and survive. The trunk of my car was crammed with an exhaustive array of outdoor preparedness apparatus, including repair kits for my stove and water filter and any other gear that could possibly succumb to disaster. I’d even found a portable nebulizer for my asthmatic daughter.

Being the Family Sherpa

For our first family backpacking trip, I decided to return to Yosemite and go to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. As I carefully loaded our backpacks, I took pride in knowing each item had been carefully considered and recommended by expert backpackers based on years of hard-earned trail experience. What I had not prepared for was carrying all of the gear for a family of three.

I was thirty-six years old, mature, relatively fit, had the best and lightest gear that money could buy, and I was in pain.

I weighed 135 pounds and, according to my backpacking book, I should have been carrying no more than a third of my body weight. Apparently, the 80 pounds I was hauling was closer to 59 percent of my body weight.

My wife had it even worse, struggling seven long miles with Mei-Ling on her back in an ill-fitting child carrier.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 2
“Backpacking is easy, Mommy!” Mei is riding in style in an early model Deuter Kangakid, which lacked any lumbar support padding. Notice the plastic bag full of used diapers.

Once we arrived at our campsite, the trip became quite enjoyable. With my aching, sweat-drenched body freed of the pack, I was able to appreciate the beauty of the park. Gazing out over the ridges of granite, hearing wind whistling through the pine trees and white water crashing down the river, I was reminded of the reasons I had wanted to do this again.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 3
Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is visited by less than 1% of park visitors, providing a unique opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the park without the crowds. Photo taken one mile northeast of Rancheria Falls campsite with Hetch Hetchy Reservior in the distance, which is the water source for San Francisco. Rancheria Falls campsite is about seven miles from the O’Shaughnessy Dam trailhead and is an easy trek with little elevation change.

But my aching feet and the crushing pain in my back on the trail told me I was still doing something wrong. What had I missed in all my books? They told me how much weight I should be carrying, but not how to lighten my pack. I realized I would have to experiment on my own.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 4
Yosemite Tenaya Creek is southeast of Tuolumne Meadows, off of Highway 120/Old Tioga Road near Olmsted Point, and flows from Tenaya Lake.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 5
My wife Pat and four-year-old daughter Mei-Ling, smiling before the mosquitoes ate us alive in Yosemite’s Tenaya Creek during the month of June.

On other family trips to places like Tenaya Creek in Yosemite, I made progress on getting lighter.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 6
Down to “just” fifty-five pounds to Lake Vernon!

For a four-day trip to Lake Vernon, I pared my pack down to fifty-five pounds.

Finding a New Book

In October of 2006, my friend Bill and I decided to hike the Ohlone Trail – a twenty-mile overnighter in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bill’s friend, Jeremy, joined us. I carried only thirty-five pounds on this trip, my lightest yet. My 5300-cubic-inch Gregory Palisade pack alone accounted for seven of those pounds.

As the day progressed, Bill and I plodded along the trail and did our best to keep up with Jeremy. At the top of the steep hills, he patiently waited for us to catch up. Winded from our climb, we took time to catch our breath, while Jeremy cheerfully marched on ahead of us.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 7
Jeremy’s Granite Gear Vapor Trail, taunting me while showing me the errors of my heavyweight ways.

To my shock and disbelief, Jeremy was only carrying a nineteen-pound pack! When we made camp that night, I was dumbfounded. Jeremy had a freestanding tent. He ate hot food and slept warm and comfortably that night. No suffering, no deprivation, no holes drilled into his spoon. How had he done this?

Days after the trip, I struggled to figure out how Jeremy had managed to carry a pack half the weight of mine without sacrificing on comfort in camp. I bombarded him with emails, grilling him about the gear he carried. Eventually Jeremy told me about the book Lightweight Backpacking & Camping. Then he remarked, “Now you know everything that I do.”

I read this book over and over to glean its secrets. Thus began my maddening quest to further reduce the weight of my backpack.

Obsessing Over Gear

I downloaded a gear calculator program and weighed all of my clothing and gear on a postal scale down to the ounce.

I soon realized how changes in my gear choices could make pounds of difference. Switching from a white gas stove to a canister stove shaved off a pound. Exchanging my synthetic sleeping bag for a down one saved me a pound and a half. Trading my seven-pound, three-person tent for a tarptent saved me five-and-a-half pounds.

I embarked on hours of research, posted questions on the Backpacking Light forums, and experimented endlessly with an assortment of gear. I was in pursuit of the perfect kit. There were many trials and a number of errors along the way.

On a trip to Santa Cruz Mountains, I pitched my tarptent on top of an exposed ridge while a rain storm rolled in. As I huddled inside the shelter, howling winds ripped a stake out of the soggy ground. The tarptent collapsed on me, and more than an inch of muddy water rushed inside. Unable to get out of the tent for fear that the wind would blow it away, I cinched the top of my sleeping bag and curled up on my side, hoping for the best. I awoke the next morning looking like Han Solo encased in carbonite beneath the drenched collapsed tent. The exterior of my sleeping bag and sleeping pad were completely soaked. Thankfully, in my seam-sealed Marmot Helium EQ bag, I had somehow remained completely warm and dry through the night.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 8
Learning by screwing up. The consequences of failing to practice properly pitching my tarptent and poor site selection resulted in sleeping in a mud puddle under a collapsed tent.

Fortunately, there were more successes than errors.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 9
Below Yosemite’s Red Peak Pass (11,075 feet) descending to Triple Peak Fork.

Jeremy and I took a number of trips together, each one giving us confidence to push harder, travel longer distances – and to go lighter and lighter. Our first major trip together was a fifty-mile, four-day loop in Yosemite from Glacier Point to Red Peak Pass. Though we traveled quickly and light, we suffered huge blisters on our heels and learned the importance of foot care and wearing the right shoes and socks.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 10
Starting out on the High Sierra Trail from Sequoia National Park from Crescent Meadow with Castle Rocks in the background sporting a Gregory Z55 pack, amazingly comfortable at 3 lbs, 3 oz.

Two months later, we set out to conquer the seventy-mile High Sierra Trail from Sequoia National Park to the top of Mt. Whitney. I carried thirty-six pounds. The trip we had planned to complete in seven days took only four days. We were thrilled with the knowledge we could comfortably do fifteen miles per day, which hinted at the possibility of even longer trips.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 11
A slice of Heaven with the perfect swimming hole. Fraser Lakes, 9201 feet above Emigrant Lake in the Stanislaus National Forest, which lies on northern border of Yosemite.

This year Jeremy and I made the leap of faith into the world of poncho tarps, bivy bags, and frameless packs. I carried twenty-six pounds into the Emigrant Wilderness on a four-day, forty-mile trip. We experienced the full range of Mother Nature’s moods, including hail and rain. There were injuries, pain, and perseverance. There were places of beauty that took my breath away and put a silly grin of pure happiness upon my face.

I recently took my first solo backpacking trip at Big Basin in the California Redwoods State Park. The trip put all the things I had read and learned into a test of endurance. For two days and one night, I carried seventeen pounds and travelled fifty-nine miles.

Explaining My Sickness

On a snow-camping trip with the Sierra Club this past February in Yosemite, other hikers struggled under the weight of fifty-pound packs. I carried thirty-six pounds and remained comfortable and warm. During the trip, a puzzled instructor asked why in the world would I want to hike fifteen to twenty miles in a day? In essence, why go light?

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 12
Yosemite’s Dewy Point (7385 feet) provides a stunning view that overlooks Yosemite Valley and is located about four miles north of Badger Pass Ski area. Taken during the Sierra Club’s snow camping class. There is something wrong when you are marched in the middle of nowhere, are made to dig your own grave in the snow, toss a tarp over the top of it, and then are told to sleep in it for two nights.

I explained to the instructor that going light has not been about deprivation and suffering. Going light has enabled me to be more engaged in my outdoor pursuits. It has demanded the best of me physically and has challenged me to thoughtfully consider what I need to carry, where I will go – and how to get there safely.

It is not about the number of miles I travel. It is about the spectacular things I witness in nature, sights that humble me with their raw power and beauty. It’s about time on the trail with friends and family, learning about each other and ourselves – and sharing experiences that inspire new journeys to be taken in the future.

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 13
Sharing the adventure: Jeremy & Tony at Deer Lake in the Emigrant Wilderness

A Passion Found, Lost, and Rediscovered - 14
Tony, Pat, and five-year-old Mei-Ling backpacking together at Point Reyes, California. North of San Francisco. Despite going light, see how nothing changes: Mei is still bumming a free ride.

I no longer view mysterious, distant places as only within the reach of a few extreme adventurers I read about in magazines, but as something that we can all aspire to reach. I am thirty-nine years old, wiser, still fit, and no longer in pain.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Reminisce about the warm colors of the fall with Chris Townsend’s evocative photography.

Click a thumbnail to view the image gallery.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 1
Looking south over Strathspey to distant cloud-shrouded hills. In the foreground rough moorland grasses are turning yellow and brown. Beyond them birches shine gold in the sunlight.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 2
Downy and silver birches (Betula pubescens and Betula pendula) are the most common native trees in Scotland. The great swathes of yellow and gold seen throughout the Highlands in autumn are birches. These trees don’t all change color at the same time, which extends the season of autumn glory. Here some downy birches are already golden, whilst others are still mostly green.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 3
The native woodland of the Cairngorms is a mix of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and birch, the remains of the Caledonian Forest that was once much more extensive. Scots pine retains its dark green needles year round, but the reddish bark glows in sunlight.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 4
Strathspey is a glaciated landscape. Here, Scots pines cloak a knoll of hard ice-resistant rock above a flat marshy area dotted with birches. Crossing this innocuous looking terrain requires waterproof footwear and careful route finding to keep your feet dry. Soft ground, tiny pools, and little streams are everywhere.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 5
Birches are quite short-lived for trees, most only living 60 to 90 years, though some reach 150. They are pioneer species, rapidly colonizing open ground. Here a fallen dead birch lies on open grassland before scattered downy birch and, on the left, aspen (Populus tremula), a native tree whose leaves turn bright yellow in autumn. Aspen are found throughout the Highlands, but are far less common than birch.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 6
Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) is a small native tree found all over the Highlands, sometimes as high as 3,000 feet, far above other trees. In autumn the leaves turn red, but are often quickly stripped off by frost and wind. The brilliant red berries (rowan is in the rose family) last longer, until eaten by birds. I found this solitary leafless rowan on a rise amongst bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), a fern that turns a rusty orange in autumn, in front of a birch wood.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 7
View over Strathspey to the Cromdale Hills with bracken and rough pasture in the foreground, birch woodland in the middle ground and cultivated fields (used for growing hay for winter feed for livestock) and conifer plantations in the background. The golden trees in the conifer forest are mostly larch.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 8
Rain clouds sweep over the Strathspey woods. This hike took place in fast changing weather with bursts of sunshine and heavy showers.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 9
Gnarled old Scots pine frame a view over the fields and woods of Strathspey to the Cromdale Hills, painted with the first snows of winter. The line of trees in the centre of the picture below the hills is a strip of European larch (Larix decidua) and beech (Fagus sylvatica), neither native to the Highlands but both beautiful in autumn.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 10
Wisps of windblown cloud streak the sky above the snow-covered Cromdale Hills. In the foreground, faded yellow grasses stretch out to birches, still holding onto some leaves despite the cold and windy weather, and to dark Scots pines.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 11
Larches are always colorful in autumn, but in 2008 the colors were exceptionally intense and vivid, glowing gold and orange. This is an old larch wood planted on the crest of a gentle hill and only some twenty feet wide, though several hundred yards long. It lies in the former grounds of Castle Grant, a Victorian mansion, and was probably planted to break the skyline view as part of the landscaping of the estate.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 12
The larches rise some 100+ feet above a tangle of boulders and fallen branches. European larch is native to the mountains of central Europe and was introduced into Scotland in the 1600s. Larch has been extensively planted since and has also self-seeded in some areas.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 13
The low afternoon sun lights up the line of larches (sunset is not long after 4:00 p.m. at this time of year). The long shadows are from the raised strips of stubble in front of them, this being the edge of a field used for growing hay, which was harvested many weeks earlier when the larches were still green.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 14
In a narrow cold marshy ravine that sees little sun, outside of summer, patches of the first winter snowfall linger amongst the reeds. Most of the trees have lost their leaves, but one birch still shines gold. In the distance the purple sheen is from the reddish bark of the twigs and the last summer’s new growth on the birches.

Autumn in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland - 15
An autumn sunset in Strathspey, looking over the darkening woods and fields to the snow-capped Cairngorm mountains, where winter has already taken hold.

Strathspey is a wide valley (which is what strath means) lying in the north of the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. The strath is a mixture of conifer plantations, remnants of natural woodland, marsh, low moorland, rough pasture, and farmed fields, through which the river Spey winds its way and above which rise the high Cairngorms. In autumn the woods of Strathspey are spectacular as the birches, aspens, larches, and rowans turn gold and red. In 2008 the colors were even more impressive than usual, the trees glowing with light and brightness. On several day hikes near my home in the strath, I took these photos of that wonderful autumn.

Dana Parnello on Controlled Product Testing at REI

Dana shares his thoughts on lightweight trends, gear testing, breakthrough products and assorted other topics.

Backpacking Light is kicking off a new series of profiles with outdoor industry professionals, long distance hikers, adventure trekkers, land managers, conservationists, and others who will be of interest to lightweight backpackers. We’ll talk with them about their vocations, their passions, and their outlook on topics of interest to the lightweight backpacking community. In this installment, we talk with Dana Parnello, Manager of Product Research and Testing at REI. Dana shares his thoughts on lightweight trends, gear testing, breakthrough products and assorted other topics.

BPL Profile: Dana Parnello, Manager of Product Research and Testing at REI - 1
Dana Parnello on a backpacking trip near Redfish Lake, Idaho.

BPL: Tell us about your role at REI.

Dana: That’s a big and broad opening question. Really, I wear (at least) two hats; one for the REI the Co-op, and another for REI Gear & Apparel and Novara branded products. My team includes Testing (Lab and Field) and Engineering. While we focus a lot of our energy on our REI Gear & Apparel and Novara brands, we also conduct testing for our buyers, marketing, product information and product compliance groups’ use. Also, we spend quite a lot of time working industry standards groups like the ASTM, AATCC, and UIAA.

BPL: What are the goals of the testing lab or the principles behind your testing?

Dana: I am fond of saying that the Magnusson* Laboratory helps Co-op members/customers make informed decisions. This is done in partnership with our vendors and suppliers and typically helps us all learn how to better serve our members/customers.

As BPL is well aware, many products (e.g., stoves and lights, which we always test in-house) are tested using a manufacturer’s in-house methods. These are all generally sound methods. Of course, since they don’t measure things the same way, the results can’t really be compared to each other. So, we attempt to minimize variables where possible and provide meaningful comparisons. For example, our stove test station always starts with water at the same temperature, maintains constant fuel pressure, always uses the same pot (yes, stove/pot systems are starting to complicate that aspect) and uses the same surface (to minimize variability in convection) for every test. We also use proprietary methods for stove and pot stability ratings.

We do similar testing on a wide variety of products you can find at REI. This information is used by our buyers and by our product information teams to populate of lot of the fields you’ll find in our Product Information Guides (PIGs) and at www.rei.com.

For REI Gear & Apparel and Novara, the Magnusson Lab is used in a variety of capacities, and is a strong ally with our Design and Engineering and Development teams. We conduct development testing on everything from textiles and sleeping bag temp ratings to trekking pole three-point bend, twist-testing (torque), and metal hardness. This testing is done on individual materials, sub-assemblies, and/or whole products, depending upon what we want to learn.

BPL Profile: Dana Parnello, Manager of Product Research and Testing at REI - 2
Dana in full traditional mountaineering garb at the German Alpine Club, Munich Germany.

BPL: Doing controlled testing of outdoor gear is a challenge. Does the lab use both standardized and proprietary tests?

Dana: When we are confident that standardized tests produce accurate and comparable results, we will authorize third party labs to test on our behalf. We have developed really helpful relationships with test facilities in Europe, Asia and the U.S. Also, as we develop proprietary test methods, we have been known to train third party labs, or our suppliers, to do this testing further upstream in the development cycle.

For instance, I recently returned from a trip where I set up two mills in Japan to conduct our proprietary textile breathability method and spent time in China with a supplier and third party test lab conducting testing on a new line of camp furniture that is hitting our stores now.

That said, some test equipment is just too costly to bring in-house. For example, we have tested our tents in a number of different wind tunnels. With respect to in-house testing, the Magnusson Lab* has a climate controlled room and quite a variety of test equipment (tensile tester, hardness, button impact, tear strength, crocking, pilling, burst, multiple freezers, light testing stations, etc). More importantly, in the absence of standardized methods, our lab and engineering staff develop test methods that help us learn what we need.

Also noteworthy, with all the testing our lab conducts, we have a healthy data set from which to develop product standards. Where we feel we have something worth sharing, we feel a responsibility to participate in standards development. Steve Nagode (REI R&D Engineer) was the ASTM F08 Camping Soft goods (packs, bags, etc) sub-committee chair for several years. He and I have been actively participating in the UIAA Climbing and Mountaineering standards meetings and we are active corporate members of the AATCC. None of these roles could be filled without the great work our lab has done over many years.

BPL: How about field testing? That’s a focus at BPL; do you do a lot of field testing?

Dana: Perhaps the most important thing our lab does is qualify products for field testing. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will ensure product performance and end-user satisfaction like getting the product in the intended use by a group of folks who closely approximate the intended end-user; be they experts or novices.

To that end, our lab staff is complimented by equally talented field test analysts. They are tasked with the development of test plans, recruitment of testers, distribution of samples, collection and analysis of formal tester reports and, of course, the publication of the information.

BPL: Can you tell us about any recent tests of lightweight gear that our readers might enjoy?

Dana: Sure. I’ll have to be a little cryptic though; some of these items are still in development.

We had some interesting field tester comments on a proposed ultralight (UL) pack. Testers indicated the frame design could use some tweaking. I can’t share the specifics, but I will tell you that our designer has come up with some really creative alterations in stay placement and panel cut out patterns. Stay tuned…

For another (admittedly vague) example, our lab helped us measure the strength of some proposed UL gear manufacturing techniques. Our designer is incorporating what he learned in testing to evolve the design to take advantage of the new techniques, while maintaining overall performance and durability.

Finally, field testing recently validated some upcoming sleeping pad design modifications. Lighter and thinner is great. The challenge is to achieve this while maintaining the cushion and insulation expected; and those are tough things to lab test.

BPL: Hmm, mysterious. So, can you tell us if these new pads will be both lighter and thinner?

Dana: Yes (insert grin here).

BPL: What new products or materials do you see breaking new ground in lightweight gear?

Dana: The most amazing and rapid evolution I have seen in many years has to be what is happening in the lighting arena. Lights (largely driven by LED technology and battery improvements) are getting smaller, more durable (impact resistant), and showing extraordinary run-time and brightness gains.

BPL Profile: Dana Parnello, Manager of Product Research and Testing at REI - 3
Some of the testing team from REI’s Magnusson Laboratory. Left to right: Scott Smith, Tifani Andre, Dana Parnello, Adam Hockey, Steve Nagode, and Jim Hollenbeck.

BPL: REI seems to have an increased focus on producing lightweight products. Does REI see the market for lightweight products growing?

Dana: My personal opinion is that lightweight doesn’t just satisfy the niche market of "light and fast." I like lighter gear, as it enables my wife and I to take my seven- and ten-year-old daughters further into the backcountry. In that regard, I hope it grows. The challenge is to do so without making things that are disposable.

BPL: Yes, lighter gear has opened up new possibilities for many people, kids and otherwise. REI is a large retailer with many customers who might not be used to treating lightweight gear very carefully. How do you strike a balance between durability and light weight?

Dana: In addition to valuing other performance aspects, REI’s customers expect durability. The reality is, we offer a lifetime satisfaction guarantee. When we fear that durability will not meet their expectations, then we make changes (to materials or design, etc.) to ensure we can keep them happy in the outdoor playground as long as they want.

BPL: Another notable trend in the industry is an increased focus on "green" products. Is REI taking steps to produce products that have reduced environmental impact?

(Here, Kevin Myette joined the conversation; Kevin is the Director of Product Integrity at REI.)

Kevin: Truthfully, we don’t exactly call them "green," but we understand your meaning. We address product stewardship on many fronts-from environmental to social. From an environmental perspective, we continue to work to reduce the impact of our products. We realize one of the most significant ways we can do this is to choose better materials-rapidly renewable, recycled, and/or grown with organic farming processes.

Truth is, however, since performance remains high on our list of considerations, the material choice is often dictated by the activity. So-choosing wisely from appropriate materials keeps our Materials R&D team very busy. We also have a restricted substance list and process to ensure that chemicals which we’d rather not see are kept out of our products.

This is what we do for our own brands (REI and Novara), but since the bulk of what we sell is not our own brand, that is where we realize our best tactic is to engage the rest of the industry in developing common criteria for measuring, reporting and improving the environmental footprint of products. It is our belief that with common methods the whole industry will benefit. To this end we have been instrumental in the establishment and promotion of the growing effort (forty brands or so currently involved). We have been a leader in working with the rest of the industry in a collaborative effort known as the OIA-Eco Working Group.

BPL: Dana, what type of trips/outdoor sports do you personally enjoy?

Dana: My wife, two young daughters, and I enjoy backpacking, XC skiing (classic and skate), cycling, running, swimming (yes, even tri’s) some summer canoeing, playing with the dog and anything that happens on an island or beach. Personally, I am a rabid cyclist; enjoying road, mountain, ‘cross, night-riding, touring. Turn me loose with my family and/or friends with loaded bikes on an island tour, and I am in my happy place. I’ve done a little climbing, but really only enough to appreciate the importance of sound testing and standards.

BPL: Thanks Dana, it’s been a pleasure.

*The REI Magnusson Laboratory is named after Cal Magnusson. Cal, a former Boeing SST project engineer, is fondly remembered as the founding father of formalized Product Testing at REI.

Reflection on the Wild Coast: A Photo Essay

Adventurers Erin McKittrick and Bretwood Higman summarize their 4000-mile trek in photos and prose.

Click a thumbnail to view the image gallery.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 1
Tolt Reservoir Trail
June 11, 2007. Hig walked the Tolt River trail on our third day out of Seattle. After a year of planning and months of frantic preparation, we had finally begun. With out-of-shape bodies and brand new gear, we turned east towards the mountains, leaving Seattle’s urban corridor behind.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 2
Stump on a Stump
July 18, 2007. Erin posed next to a giant old red cedar stump, which sported a recently-cut hemlock stump on its crown. We had been eagerly looking forward to the British Columbia coast. The map showed us promising curves of green islands, winding blue channels, and craggy white peaks. Somehow, the twisting lines of logging roads were missing from the maps. While southern B.C. was scenic from the waters frequented by yachting tourists, on land we found nothing but ridgelines too steep to walk, bordering valleys razed and re-razed by the loggers.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 3
Princess Royal Island
August 13, 2007. The summer’s glorious sun and its less glorious swarm of insects brought us to the paradise of Princess Royal Island in northern coastal B.C. The island’s rare pure white black bears remained stubbornly hidden while we explored the thick rainforests and steep granite slopes. Carved into smooth granite, the alpine lakes held the clearest water I’ve ever seen. Waterfalls cascaded down a stepped slope of cliffs and flats. Weaving our way along long terraces, searching for a way down between the cliffs, five downhill miles made a full day’s travel.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 4
Misty River in the Misty Fjords
September 11, 2007. Mist hung over the Chickamin River in southeast Alaska’s Misty Fjords. The dramatic ocean fjords are well-explored by tour boats and kayakers, but few people beyond the Fish and Game salmon counters venture inland. But the steep terrain and lush undergrowth of the temperate rainforest made boat travel by far the most practical way. At this point in the trip, we’d done over half of our distance by packraft in ocean, lakes, and rivers.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 5
Rainbow Season
October 1, 2007. Fall in southeast Alaska’s rainforest is rainbow season. Between bouts of drizzle and relentlessly grey skies, the sun would appear, hanging low in the autumn sky, glinting gold on the mossy trees, and creating sparkling rainbows in the perpetually moist air.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 6
Start of the Storms
October 5, 2007. We had been waiting for a storm. Wind rushed up Seymour Canal on southeast Alaska’s Admiralty Island, doubling over the bushes and whipping the water into a frenzy of whitecaps. As packrafters, we were happy to thumb our noses at it, appreciating the storm from the sheltered paths of bear trails while fishing boats sloshed and swayed in the waves.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 7
Crashing Surf
November 14, 2007. Hig’s tiny form gave a sense of scale to the giant waves crashing on the Gulf of Alaska coast. Driven by the most recent storm, the ocean swells crashed huge and white on the bouldered coast.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 8
Icy Bay
November 19, 2007. Hig stared out across the jagged white expanse of icebergs at the head of Icy Bay. The previous evening’s crossing attempt had landed us up against a wall of grinding and shifting bergs, and it had taken us three hours of hard paddling in the dark, wind, and rain to return to the east side of the bay. Between the frequent storms and copious ice, it seemed unlikely that we would ever get across.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 9
Extra Insulation
December 5, 2007. Low tide left icebergs scattered on the shallow mud flats at Controller Bay. The obstacles of the Lost Coast had pushed our schedule weeks behind our plan. Winter arrived before we were ready for it. With warm clothes winging their way through the postal system two towns ahead of us, Hig stuffed his backpack with grass for a bit of extra insulation in the packraft, in our mittens, and around our bed.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 10
Black Spruce Snow Shwack
January 11, 2008. In the darkest days of January, in the shadow of a mountain range where the sun rarely peeked, winter proved itself slow. In the imaginations of inexperienced winter travelers, snow would allow us to fly across the landscape, everything transformed into a smooth white sheet for our convenience. As we pushed our feet through a six-inch base of fluffy powder in a thick forest of black spruce, we started to realize that the journey wasn’t going to take nine months after all. This would be a year-long expedition.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 11
Spotlight on Moose Ridge
February 26, 2008. A low hanging sun behind a haze of clouds spotlights Hig on a snowy ridge. Winter was finally starting to turn around for us. As we left the peopled surroundings of Anchorage behind, we started to hit the first good snow and open skiing terrain we’d seen all winter. River otter belly tracks crisscrossed the hills – our fellows in enjoying the snow.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 12
Pizza from the Sky
February 29, 2008. Rarely visited on foot, Lake Clark Pass is a corridor for the small airplanes that connect the small villages of Lake Clark and Lake Iliamna to the rest of the world. The small beige plane wiggled its wings at us – swooping down and waving with each twice daily pass overhead. One morning, we looked up to find a yellow-streamered blessing from the sky. The pilot had dropped us a pizza from the Moose’s Tooth restaurant in Anchorage. It might have frozen in the ten degree weather, so we devoured it immediately.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 13
Over a Windy Pass
March 23, 2008. Following a possible road route from the proposed Pebble Mine, we crossed a steep pass between Lake Iliamna and the ocean. Wind funneled through the narrow notch in the mountains between the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean weather zones, grabbing at the skis strapped to our packs and sending rivers of snow swirling in the air.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 14
Buried by Snow
April 5, 2008. This is not what our pyramid shelter is supposed to look like. Come nighttime, a sudden wind left us in a high snowbound pass with only a few scattered boulders to hide behind. We spent an hour carefully building a six-foot-high wall of snowblocks, cut with our paddles. Then we spent a night being buried in the drift behind the wall, squeezing into a smaller and smaller space as the shelter threatened to collapse over our faces with the weight of the snow.

Journey on the Wild Coast - 15
Encounters with Bears
May 5, 2008. Our first spring grizzly bear left a platter-sized track on the early May snow. According to the bear hunters’ calculations, he might have stood eleven and a half feet standing on his hind legs. According to our observations, he was a skinny and hungry eleven and a half feet, even more put out by the late cold spring than we were. Hig videoed the bear’s circling investigation while I stood by with the pepper spray ready. We were happy not to end up as lunch in one of the tensest bear encounters we’ve ever had (out of hundreds).

Journey on the Wild Coast - 16
Packraft along Unimak Cliffs
June 17, 2008. We paddled around the fog-shrouded cliffs of Unimak Island, watching bears napping on ledges, making slow progress through a landscape with far too many things to photograph. I fixed my eyes on land to keep from becoming seasick in the small swells.

“So, how was your trip?”

“Awesome!” I reply unrevealingly. Or, “It was everything.” Or, “It was a year…,” my voice trailing off in the hopelessness of answering.

We get this question from everyone. As if we could sum up a year-long expedition in the same few words one might use to describe a week on a Caribbean cruise.

Images pop into my head. Swatting a seemingly infinite stream of mosquitoes beneath a baking July sun while climbing through a steep forest of yellow cedar… Nudging our packrafts through a maze of shifting ice floes while trying to find a way across the nearly-solid Knik Arm… Hunkering down in a thicket of alders which were shaking and roaring in a late May snowstorm…

Tracing the line of the journey back, I can picture each of the events that came between, connecting these disparate images. But I have a hard time believing that they were part of the same trip.

We journeyed from the middle of Seattle to the first Aleutian Island. We traveled 4,000 miles – about 1,000 by packraft, 1,000 by skis, and the remaining 2,000 on foot. We finished on day 385 – a year and two weeks from the journey’s beginning. In over a year, we didn’t step into a car, skiff, airplane, or any other form of motorized transport. Temperatures ranged from 90F to -30F. I can’t even guess at the speed of the wind or the number of storms.

“The weather was awesome.”

Soon after we returned, we gave an interview to an NPR’s Weekend America. “I asked you about what you learned, and you keep telling me about the weather!” the host exclaimed.

When we attempt to add flesh to the skeleton description of our journey, we find our words inevitably circling in the pattern of seasons and storms. Long before we decided on this particular trip, I was enchanted by the idea of an expedition that spanned the seasons. Summer would be warm. Winter would be cold. We would need to change our gear and mode of transport with the seasons. We would see everything.

Only the last of those expectations began to approach the true experience of a year spent entirely outdoors. Snow melted, bugs came out, berries ripened, day breezes broke the uncomfortable heat, we wore shorts and silly sun hats, leaves turned yellow and brown, mushrooms popped up, leaves blew off the bushes, we wore fleece most of the time, we were moistened by a seemingly endless gray drizzle, mushrooms froze, the days grew darker, waves whipped the ocean’s surface, storms howled along the coast, bears denned up, snow flew, thin ice crept across the water, we stuffed grass in our too-thin mittens, snow piled on our coats and packrafts, we added a down quilt to our gear, we stepped into skis, zero degree weather started feeling warm, we skied firmly-frozen rivers and lakes, the sun returned, wind blew, snow fell, we left forests behind, blowing rain ended the cold snaps, the sun rose high and blazing, thundering booms went off beneath the slowly-thawing lake ice, snow melted, wind blew, skis were abandoned, sea ice cracked up, snow fell, lakes began to thaw, wind howled, snow fell, bears woke up, wind screamed, the first green sprouts poked above the red-brown tundra, snow fell, wind roared, we floated full spring rivers, wild greens graced all our meals, rain blew sideways, flowers bloomed, and the wind shook the earth.

Our moods were shackled to the weather. The first storms were an exhilarating rush of wind. Later gales left us feeling weary and battered. Even now in a calmer world, a strong gust of wind subconsciously triggers excitement and apprehension – for a gale that never comes. The persistent drizzles of fall soaked into our psyches, and it sometimes felt as if my brain itself would dissolve. The call of a new bird returning north could turn any day wondrous. Flashes of sun made us ecstatic. Waiting for spring was a months-long state of being that penetrated every corner of our minds. With only a few sheets of lightweight fabric between us and the outside world, through regions with some of the most extreme weather in the world, our moods followed the swirls of the air.

“The terrain was amazing.”

“I’ve flown over all that country,” the pilot said, shaking his head in incredulity. “And I can’t even begin to imagine how you would do it!”

There’s a reason that when people set out to walk around the world, they go nowhere near this coast, preferring to pass through Alaska in the more open, less-rugged arctic. The arc of the north Pacific is a line that seems simple only when viewed from a long way up in space.

We fought our way through thickets of logging slash, salal, devils’ club, willow, and blueberry. We struggled over steep bouldery scrambles and treacherous snow slopes. We walked the open expanses of gravel roads, sandy beaches, granite ridgetops, mossy meadows, crumbling blufftops, frozen lakes, windblown tundra, wind-packed snow, and fields of lava. We paddled bouldery creeks, giant rivers, calm inlets, swirling tidal rapids, crystal clear lakes, white-capping channels, and iceberg-choked bays. We skied on rutted snowmachine trails, through fluffy snow on frozen creeks and in thick black spruce forest, across frozen estuaries, on glare ice in six inches of water, over the wind-packed snow on lakes, valleys, and ridges, and on the half exposed cranberry plants where there was hardly any snow left at all.

It was a purposeful inconsistency. We’ve never been attracted to polar expeditions, long desert crossings, or journeys across the ocean. We’re impatient. Both Hig and I have a mindset perfect for a packrafter – someone who’s not content to travel in the same way or through the same sort terrain for any appreciable chunk of time.

You might think that after seeing so much wild terrain, one would become jaded – that each piece of new country would be a little less interesting than the last. But even at the end of the journey, battered by blowing rain, out of food, and with nearly every piece of our gear rent by bushes, stones, and one particularly unwelcoming bear, we never stopped planning for future expeditions.

“Nothing will ever be the same.”

It’s a tired clichĂ© that a long journey will change your life. Even for two experienced people who thought we’d gone through all the metamorphosis the wilderness had to offer long ago. Even for people who weren’t looking for change. There’s something inexplicably powerful about stepping out beyond the realm of anything you’ve ever done before.

Maybe we’ll even do the same trip again, in another 25 years or so to see how the world has changed. But next time, we’ll pick a warmer year.

The Journey’s End: Summarizing 4000 Miles Along the Wild Coast (Podcast)

A few weeks after completing their 4000-mile journey by foot, ski and packraft from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands, Erin and Hig share a tale of a destructive bear encounter, their favorite gear, future plans, and why being good at transitions was a vital ingredient to the trip’s success.

Journey on the Wild Coast - Journeys End - 1
Snapshot of a marathon sewing session to repair 24 inches of bear-slashed gashes in the shelter.

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Overview

Hig Higman and Erin McKittrick left their apartment in Seattle, Washington on June 9, 2007. They completed their journey on Unimak Island on June 27, 2008. Two days later they were aboard their first motorized transport in over a year – the ferry to Seldovia, Alaska. At the time of this interview, they have spent the last few weeks in Seldovia visiting family and friends. I called them at Hig’s mother’s home so they could share some final thoughts on their epic journey.

Erin and Hig begin by recounting their only destructive bear encounter, which ironically happened on the very final leg of their long journey. A brown bear on Unimak Island found their Therm-a-Rests, tent, and packraft tasty – without paying much attention to their food. Hig gives a detailed account of repairing the two-foot bear tear in his packraft. His method is different than depicted in the famous Sheri Tingey video (where she simulates a field repair on a bear shredded packraft). Hig uses only dental floss and Aqua Seal and is proud to say his repair holds air the first time (which he tests with his tongue) and is trustworthy enough for a few miles of ocean paddling.

Hig and Erin go on to list their favorite gear and talk about the top option for their next big adventure. They hope to “follow the coal” by visiting the northwest Arctic – site of huge coal deposits – then visiting coal-fired power plants in China (likely the biggest customer for Arctic coal), and following the plants’ carbon dioxide emissions to the Gulf of Alaska where they will closely examine any existing evidence of climate change.

Finally, they talk about what it is like to be back in semi-civilization in Seldovia after a year-long trek. Surprisingly, they have made the transition with ease. They are full of plans for future joint adventures, and Erin is eagerly beginning a book about their Wild Coast journey. Both realize that they have a gift for transitioning, having done it repeatedly on the Wild Coast – they estimate they stayed with thirty families on their journey. They laughingly describe the advantages of their next home. They plan to erect a yurt or maybe a ten-foot-square garbage shed on Hig’s Mom’s property in Seldovia. They muse that it’ll be roomier than their pyramid tarp, since the sides are vertical, and they are happy they won’t have to set it up over and over again night after night.

The sense of humor that seems to have helped them withstand months of physical and mental challenges with relative ease is still obviously intact. Their sense of adventure is undaunted. There is no doubt they will be off on another adventure soon enough.

2008 Backpacking Light Staff Picks

Backpacking Light staff pick their favorite gear of 2008.

Previous Years

2004 Backpacking Light Staff Picks

2005 Backpacking Light Staff Picks

2006 Backpacking Light Staff Picks

2007 Backpacking Light Staff Picks

Another year has gone by and it is time once again for the BackpackingLight staff to come up with their lists of favorite pieces of gear. Some have commented that it is getting noticeably tougher to come up with three pieces of gear that have become most favored and most depended upon over the past year. But in due time the staff came up with their lists and this is the result.

This isn’t an “Editor’s Choice” or formal endorsement, just a list of gear we like.

Enjoy – and don’t forget to add your own 2008 favorites in the forum below. –Your BPL Eds

2008 Staff Picks of Favorite Gear
Backpacking Light Staff Member Favorite Pieces of Gear
Ryan Jordan Alpacka Packraft Titanium Goat Vertex 8+ and Titanium Stove Beartooth Merino Hoody
Chris Townsend Inov-8 Terroc shoes Caldera Ti-Tri Jack Wolfskin Gecko
Roger Caffin Silnylon & Carbon Fibre Two-Man Double-Skin Winter Tent Coleman Xtreme Canon A95
Mike Martin Nunatak Skaha Plus Down Sweater, Front Pocket Version SMC Snow Saw Arcteryx Alpha SL Pants
Will Rietveld Trail Designs/AntiGravityGear Caldera Keg Keen Ridgeline Trail Running Shoe Sea To Summit Mullet Cap
Mike Clelland! The FireLite SUL Short Handled Titanium Spoon Hefty Trash Compactor Bags FlexAir Dual Compartment Ultralight Pillow
Carol Crooker GoLite Footwear Sun Dragon Shoes Big Agnes Clearview Air Pad Big Agnes Cyclone SL Chair Kit
Kevin Sawchuk ULA Conduit Bushbuddy Custom Nunatak Arc Specialist (w/ 2oz overfill/custom sizing)
Sam Haraldson Google Earth and gpsvisualizer.com Software Packages FireLite Mini Firestarting Kits Ultralight Adventure Equipment Amp Backpack
Don Wilson Arc’Teryx Squamish Windshell Canon 40D Camera Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke
Alan Dixon Olympus E-520 Digital SLR Camera with Zuiko 12-60 mm Lens Anti Gravity Gear Caldera Kitchen (for AGG 3-cup Pot) Bozeman Mountain Works Stealth 1 Nano Tarp
Doug Johnson Trail Designs Caldera Keg Six Moon Designs Refuge X Hilleberg Kaitum 2
Rick Dreher Hennessy Hammock Hyperlite Asymmetrical BPL FireLite Ti Trappers Mug Pacific Outdoor Equipment Insulated Airmat (Thermo 6)
Ben Klocek Golite Jam2 Canon PowerShot SD630 Camera Patagonia Wool 2
Janet Reichl Teva Aniso eVENT Shoe Petzl E+Lite Headlamp Granite Gear Air Space Bag
Alison Simon REI Sahara Convertible Pants REI Stoke 19 Day Pack (DIAD pack) Pro Bars (new Savory flavors)

Ryan Jordan, Publisher and Editorial Director – Bozeman, Montana

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 1

 Alpacka Packraft
www.alpackaraft.com		 It’s taken me four years to put the packraft on my picks list, but now I’m ready. The deal was sealed this year as I shared my other boats on some great trips with friends and family. It’s one thing enjoying a ride in a packraft, it’s quite another watching somebody else do the same. My model of choice: the little Alpacka, with a spray deck (90 oz in blue) and Sawyer Packraft Paddle (28 oz). Photo: Pacific Creek, Teton Wilderness, July 2008.

Weight: 118 oz in specified setup
MSRP: $1100

2008 Staff Favorites - 2

 Titanium Goat Vertex 8+ and Titanium Stove
www.titaniumgoat.com		 OK, so it’s not my first choice for long distance hiking or SUL. But there is something to be said about the benefits (social, practical, and emotional) of having fire crackling in a wood stove inside your tent. Who said car camping and backcountry base camping can’t also enjoy ultralight style? The tent with a carbon pole weighs about 5.5 lbs, and the small titanium box stove will only set you back 2.5 lbs. Add 10 lbs of gear and 10 lbs of food, and you’re still tipping the scales sub-30 lbs with potential for extreme comfort and high class wilderness living.

Weight: 8 lbs for both
MSRP: $1300

2008 Staff Favorites - 3

 Beartooth Merino Hoody
www.backpackinglight.com		 While you’ve been waiting for this product to come to market, I’ve had the privilege of wearing it all year. This is my absolute favorite piece of clothing, period, if there is any possibility of temperatures less than 50 degrees.

Weight: 8 oz (size medium)
MSRP: $110

Chris Townsend, Senior Gear Editor – Grantown-on-Spey, Scotland

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 4

 Inov-8 Terroc shoes
www.inov-8.com		 When I first changed from boots to shoes many years ago, I couldn’t imagine hiking footwear as light as Inov-8s. I’ve tried several of the range, and the Terrocs are the ones that fit my wide feet best. After several years of wearing Terrocs on every type of terrain, they have become firm favorites. I find them supportive and stable on rough terrain, and the grip is excellent. They’re surprisingly durable for such ultralight shoes too. I’ve worn them on two twelve-day high level crossings of the Scottish Highlands on the TGO Challenge, and they’re still in good condition, with just a dab of superglue needed on a couple of seams.

Weight: 330 g (11.6 oz)
MSRP: $85

2008 Staff Favorites - 5

 Caldera Ti-Tri
www.titaniumgoat.com
www.traildesigns.com		 When the Caldera Cone appeared, I was excited and impressed. An ultralight alcohol stove system with the same protection as the full weight Trangia was a wonderful breakthrough in design. It was the first ultralight alcohol stove I used regularly. The Ti-Tri system is even better as it can be used as a wood burner with alcohol as a back-up on trips where wood won’t be available all the time, or for stormy weather where I want to cook under cover. The latest version of the Ti-Tri even has a lightweight grate that fits inside the cone. The Ti-Tri is the result of collaboration between two innovative ultralight gear companies, Titanium Goat and Trail Designs. It’s great to see such companies working together to produce such an excellent product.

Weight: 7 oz for 550 ml size
MSRP: $110

2008 Staff Favorites - 6

 Jack Wolfskin Gecko
www.jack-wolfskin.com		 Simple lightweight fleece tops are often overlooked in favor of more hi-tech softshell and synthetic insulated garments. However, when I look at the warm top I use more than any other, the one that finds its way into my pack year round, it turns out it’s the Gecko, a fleece sweater with no features other than a short neck zip and a stand-up collar. In summer this is often the only warm top I carry. In winter I may wear it all day as a mid layer. Durability is excellent – my Gecko is in good condition despite being used hundreds of times during the last eight years. And at a weight of just 8 oz, it’s the lightest fleece sweater I know.

Weight: 8 oz
MSRP: $68

Roger Caffin, Senior Editor – Berrilee, NSW, Australia

A bit of a mix this year – one MYOG tent, one faithful canister stove and a faithful camera.

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 7

 Silnylon & Carbon Fibre Two-Man Double-Skin Winter Tent This is the tent my wife and I had in our epic trip featured in When Things Go Wrong. Despite being pitched on a saddle right in the path of an extreme storm (a very silly place, really), it and we survived the night in relative comfort. It just goes to show what an MYOG project can produce. This tent has generous space for my wife and me, with a groundsheet space of 2.2 x 1.2 m (7.2 x 3.9 ft) and an internal height of a bit under 1.0 m (39 in). The bathtub groundsheet and the inner tent kept the spindrift out all night – and would keep insects out too. It has good ventilation when we need it, with roof-height vents at both ends, as well as optional ground-level clearance all around if the sod cloths are raised. There is a large vestibule at the front end, big enough for disrobing, storing our packs, and cooking dinner.

Weight: 1.77 kg (62 oz)
MSRP: Make it yourself!

2008 Staff Favorites - 8

 Coleman Xtreme
www.coleman.com		 This is the gold standard for winter stoves. The weight quoted includes a full 300 g fuel canister. Some liquid fuel stoves weigh this much with an empty fuel canister! I have used this stove for many years, and it has been wonderfully reliable. I know that when I fire it up, we are going to have a hot dinner in short order. It does not flare up even when starting (unlike many liquid fuel stoves!) and can be operated quite safely inside my tent while the storm rages outside. It can simmer gently or melt snow.

Weight: 726 g (25.6 oz)
MSRP: About $65, if you can find one

2008 Staff Favorites - 9

 Canon A95
www.usa.canon.com		 It may be getting old these days, and it may be only five megapixels and lack image stabilisation, but this camera has served me for many years now with great faithfulness. I trust and rely on it. I can use it freehand, on a tripod, or hooked up to my computer. How did I get this photo of it? I used a mirror!

Weight: 303 g (10.7 oz) – including 4 AA lithium batteries
MSRP: discontinued model

Mike Martin, Senior Techniques Editor – Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 10

 Nunatak Skaha Plus Down Sweater, Front Pocket Version
www.nunatakusa.com		 This jacket is unbelievably warm for its weight. The 800+ fill-power down, Pertex Quantum shell fabric, and half-zip cut weight, while the hood, handwarmer pocket, and fully-baffled construction add warmth. This is my “go to” parka for temperatures ranging from 0F to 45F. I use it in my daypack for backcountry skiing and as part of my sleep system with a quilt. The Skaha Plus has no unnecessary features that add bulk or weight, while the pass-thru pocket is almost worth the 13.7-ounce weight alone as a handwarmer for my chronically cold fingers. Nunatak is a semi-custom shop, so I ordered my jacket with overfill to further improve its warmth per weight ratio and allow me to take it into colder conditions. If I could change one thing, it would be to use a slightly heavier, but sturdier and less snag-prone zipper.

Weight: 13.7 oz (size large with 1.5 oz overfill)
MSRP: $390

2008 Staff Favorites - 11

 SMC Snow Saw
www.smc-gear.com		 Are you looking for the lightest possible winter shelter? Bring a tool instead of a tent and build your own! The SMC Snow saw is one of the lightest commercially available snow saws at 3.4 ounces. It is beautifully made from a single piece of anodized aluminum. And, it cuts through snow like butter. Adding a snow saw to your winter kit allows you to make much more precise shapes out of snow than a you could with a shovel alone. Let your inner snow sculptor free and build lavish kitchens, snow walls, doghouses, or even an igloo. Ever play with Lego blocks as a kid? A saw gives you ability to make life-size blocks. All you need is the right snow, enough time, and your imagination. The only modification I’ve made to mine after a year of use is to wrap the grip in bicycle handlebar tape to make it warmer and more comfortable to hold.

Weight: 3.4 oz
MSRP: $34

2008 Staff Favorites - 12

 Arcteryx Alpha SL Pants
www.arcteryx.com		 After slogging through wet snow for four days at 9,000 feet elevation on Backpacking Light’s Wilderness Trekking Course III in the Fall of 2007 wearing lycra tights and a pair of non-waterproof wind pants, I began a search for a better leg layering system for cold, wet, snowy conditions. I wanted a waterproof/breathable shell to protect against possible rain that I could put on easily while wearing snowshoes, or alternatively, a shell that was breathable and well-ventilated enough that I could leave it on continuously over a wide range of conditions. The Arcteryx Alpha SL pants fit the latter criteria perfectly. The 2-layer Goretx Paclite pants have “hip zips” that run from the cuffs to the hipbone area. This obviously doesn’t allow fully separating the zippers to put the pants on over boots or snowshoes, but by stopping the zip below the waist, the design minimizes bulk under a pack’s waistbelt, and relieves stress on the top of the zipper. The zips are still long enough to provide amazing ventilation – so much so that I’ve found the pants can simply be left on constantly, eliminating layering changes. For the past year, my snowshoeing leg layer system has consisted of the SL Pants, long johns of appropriate thickness for the expected temperature range, and shortie gaiters. I’ve found the combination to be extremely dry and comfortable over a wide range of temperatures, precipitation types, and wind conditions.

Weight: 9.3 oz (size medium-tall)
MSRP: $199 (estimated)

Will Rietveld, Associate Editor – Durango, Colorado

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 13

 Trail Designs/AntiGravityGear Caldera Keg
www.traildesigns.com
www.antigravitygear.com		 I can’t imagine a lighter complete cooking system than this. The minimal essentials consisting of a pot and lid, Caldera cone, and alcohol stove weigh just 2.7 ounces, and the complete kit with lip guard, insulator sleeve, fuel bottle, measuring cup, and carrying tube (which doubles as a bowl and cup) adds another 3.6 ounces. An expanded kit called the Caldera Caddy Sack (US$15) from AntiGravityGear adds a pot cozy and stuff sack. The pot in this system is a recycled Heineken 25.4 ounce beer can, which is easily damaged. But the beauty of the complete kit is that everything fits inside a thin plastic tube with a screw cap, which protects the contents and makes the system very compact for packing. In use, I preferred to use the beer can pot for just boiling water, and the plastic bowl, cup, and cozy for hydrating food and eating/drinking. The latter are easier to eat out of and clean.

Weight: 6.3 oz
MSRP: $60

2008 Staff Favorites - 14

 Keen Ridgeline Trail Running Shoe
www.keenfootwear.com		 I have wide feet, so it’s hard to find lightweight footwear that fits me well. I found the Keen Ridgeline to be comfortable right out of the box, and it continues to be comfortable after many miles of on- and off-trail hiking. They are quite light, but still provide plenty of cushioning and support. I like a low cut trail runner that has a good midsole TPU plate for rock protection and support, plus a grippy outsole, and a breathable mesh upper that doesn’t let a lot of dust and sand to come through. And (for me) the toebox needs to be really wide. Fit and comfort are probably the most important attributes when choosing a trail shoe, and the Keen Ridgeline is one that really comes through for me.

Weight: 13.4 oz/shoe (men’s 9)
MSRP: $90

2008 Staff Favorites - 15

 Sea To Summit Mullet Cap
www.seatosummit.com		 I personally prefer a hiking cap with a removable skirt that can be easily added when it’s needed for sun and wind protection. The Sea to Summit Mullet Cap is the best I have found. The cap is constructed of seven pieces, so it really fits well, and its H2Off fabric is very durable as well as UV and water resistant. The skirt attaches to four Velcro patches on the cap, so it’s very easy to add or remove. To hold it in place in the wind the cap has an elastic cord and cordlock in back and a snap on the skirt under the chin. I have been wearing the Mullet Cap year-around on numerous trips for three years now and it just keeps going and going. When it gets dirty, it cleans up well in the wash machine, and there are very few signs of wear. I like to wear a billed cap like the Mullet when wearing a hooded jacket, to keep the hood from blocking my vision and to keep my eyeglasses dry in the rain. This type of cap is also called a Havelock, named after an English general (Major General Sir Henry Havelock) who popularized it during campaigns in India in the mid 1800s.

Weight: 2.7 oz
MSRP: $30

Mike Clelland!, Contributor – Driggs Idaho

These are tight times. There is a collective belt tightening going on all around us, and I worry people equate lightweight camping with spending big bucks. Not true. These Spartan picks reflect my Scottish heritage. Each item is under $10.

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 16

 The FireLite SUL Short Handled Titanium Spoon
www.backpackinglight.com		 Spoons have been around for a long time, right? Way back – when one of our creative ancestors might have carved the very first spoon out of a mastodon bone. In the intervening years, you think we would have perfected it. Well, it happened – finally! The FireLite SUL Short Handled Titanium Spoon is a monument of simplicity and functionality. There is a subtle little flat area right along the tip, and that simple detail makes it delightfully easy to clean out the inside of a mug or the cook pot. It doesn’t stop there: the handle on the spoon is stiff and straight, the perfect tool to clean the inside of a smooth walled pot. Gloppy caked on crud is effortlessly shaved off with this fine spoon. Plus, you can even eat dinner with it!

This little spoon is flawless.

Weight: 0.25 oz
MSRP: $7

2008 Staff Favorites - 17

 Hefty Trash Compactor Bags I do NOT use a pack cover. I line my backpack with ONE plastic bag. I have no redundancy. These bags are plenty big to line my lightweight backpack with enough extra to wrap over at the top for absolute waterproofing. These are highly specialized, heavy gage (2.5 mil) white plastic, designed for those electric kitchen trash compactors, and easily found in the grocery store. I have yet to find anything better or lighter. These are sturdy enough to last for multiple trips; I used one for all of last summer, and I plan on getting another year out of it. Plus, they’re white, so it’s easy to find stuff in the bag. If the tarp is wet in the morning, I stuff it in the bottom of my backpack first, then put the compactor bag on top. Everything inside the compactor bag stays dry. I put my rain gear on top, outside the bag, because if it rains, I’ll end up wearing it. Simple!

Weight: 2.2 oz
MSRP: $6 for 5

2008 Staff Favorites - 18

 FlexAir Dual Compartment Ultralight Pillow
www.backpackinglight.com		 I need a BIG pillow when I sleep. A traditional camper will simply roll up his pile jacket and extra down vest, jam it in a stuff sack, and get a wonderful support for his noggin. Not so for the UL camper. When I go into the mountains, I plan on sleeping in all my clothes, leaving nothing for my head. Now, I’ve tried the other FlexAir pillows, and the slightly heavier Dual Compartment version is the only choice for true head cradling. Just don’t blow it up too much, or it feels like you are trying to balance your skull on a beach ball. Also, the straw is a wonderful addition to you arsenal of tools. I used my humble straw to fill a water bottle in the high country of the Gallatin Range in August. We could hear water trickling inside some rocks, but there was no way to get at it. My team mates were dejected, but I whipped out my little pillow straw and eased it into a crack, concocting a nice little faucet. My pillow system saved us!

Weight: 0.98 oz
MSRP: $9 for 3

Carol Crooker, Associate Editor – Mesa, Arizona

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 19

 GoLite Footwear Sun Dragon Shoes
www.golite-footwear.com		 The Sun Dragons are kind to my feet. Their “Soft Against the Ground” technology keeps my feet fresher during long days of hiking on rocky trails than any other shoes I’ve worn. The wide toe box is another boon. I don’t need to go up half a size – and risk tripping over the excess – to get toe space. I’ve been wearing the 2007 models of these shoes. They wear out quickly, but the 2008 versions are reported to be more durable (both the 2007 and 2008 models are available from online retailers). Although branded by GoLite, the shoes were developed by the Timberland Invention Factory. Doug Clark, formerly of the Invention Factory, bought the shoe design and started a new company to continue manufacturing this line of GoLite shoes. The new line will be delivered to retailers by mid-February but the Sun Dragon is not being carried forward. The new Force model has the same outsole but is heavier (14-15 oz, MSRP $110). The Fire and the Comp are the remaining 2009 trail runner models. Both are lighter weight race shoes with a new lower profile outsole.

Weight: 11.8 oz (335 g) 2007 model
MSRP: available at steep discounts online

2008 Staff Favorites - 20

 Big Agnes Clearview Air Pad
www.bigagnes.com		 I’ve been getting my best nights of sleep ever in the backcountry on the Clearview pad, a simple air mattress. The secret is the soft polyurethane shell that has more give than the tougher (and heavier) shells of the Big Agnes Air Core and Pacific Outdoor Equipment Ether Thermo pads. The Clearview has no insulation, but I’ve found it just as comfortable with a thin closed cell foam pad on top for warmth. I like to add a 1/16-inch foam pad when it’s 35 F to 45 F, and I’ve slept comfortably with a 3/8-inch pad down to low 20s F.

Weight: 11 oz (312 g) for 20 x 60 x 2.5 inch mummy
MSRP: $35

2008 Staff Favorites - 21

 Big Agnes Cyclone SL Chair Kit
www.bigagnes.com		 A chair kit is my backpacking luxury item. I find it very relaxing to lounge back in a chair when I’m cooking meals. There is something about being able to tilt back slightly that puts my back at ease better than any rock or tree I’ve leaned against. The Cyclone is the lightest chair kit out there, and carrying an extra 6 oz for the added comfort is definitely worth it for me!

Weight: 6 oz (170 g)
MSRP: $40

Kevin Sawchuk, Ultralight Ambassador – Alamo, California

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 22

 ULA Conduit
www.ula-equipment.com		 The ULA Conduit is my favorite pack. Its light weight, simple design, and durable materials set it apart from most other packs of its size. Add generous waistbelt pockets, several usable water carrying options, and a large mesh outer pocket, and there’s no other pack with such practical features. Its smaller and bigger brothers are my other favorites when less or more capacity is needed.

Weight: 20 oz
MSRP: $125

2008 Staff Favorites - 23

 Bushbuddy Custom
www.bushbuddy.ca/		 There’s currently only one of these in existence but it takes the Bushbuddy concept and makes it applicable to larger groups and winter travel. Its larger size makes it about three times easier to use than the regular Bushbuddy, so melting snow and cooking for three to four people is feasible. Keep talking to Fritz, and he may make this commercial. Shown with a one-gallon pot.

Weight: 10.5 oz
MSRP: A confession might result in divorce, but it cost more per oz than the standard Bushbuddy… a lot more.

2008 Staff Favorites - 24

 Nunatak Arc Specialist (w/ 2oz overfill/custom sizing)
www.nunatakusa.com/		 Tom Halpin makes a mean sleeping bag. I’ve had several of his bags over the years, from a thirteen-ounce super fast-packing lightweight to a twenty-four-ounce version that kept me warm at 5 F without insulated clothing. Tom’s top notch service, workmanship, material choices, and bag options make these my favorite bags.

Weight: 18 oz
MSRP: $400

Sam Haraldson, Marketing Director – Bozeman, Montana

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 25

 Google Earth and gpsvisualizer.com Software Packages
www.earth.google.com/
www.gpsvisualizer.com		 For those looking into free digital solutions to research, plan, and map routes for their upcoming excursions, a collection of online applications are available to do this easily. First, using the Google Earth software, draw a path that coincides with the route you are planning. There are layers available for the Google Earth application that allow you to view USGS topographic maps overlaid on the surface of the earth, which make finding your route easier if you plan to walk trails. Once you’ve dialed in your path, export the file and visit gpsvisualizer.com. You can upload the exported file and use the various sections of the website to create elevation and distance profiles, convert your data into various formats, print maps, and more. We can talk about gear in online forums until our keyboarding fingers bleed, but it’s not worth anything unless you plan some quality trips to take it on. The Google Earth and GPS Visualizer software broadens your ability to visualize a trip beforehand, helps you to remember it after, and does a fine job of it.

Weight: 0.0 oz
MSRP: Donation requested

2008 Staff Favorites - 26

 FireLite Mini Firestarting Kits
www.backpackinglight.com		 There is a feeling of self-sufficiency I get from starting a fire in my camp stove using the FireLite Mini Firestarting Kit. Although I still carry a lighter and some waterproof matches in a watertight emergency backup kit, I enjoy a small wood fire for a number of reasons. Being able to leave the chemical fuels at home and burn a fuel sustainable to the environment I’m in, as well as not having to plan a fuel resupply strategy nor carry its weight on my back are all great reasons to pack this product.

Weight: 0.81 oz. (23 g)
MSRP: $12

2008 Staff Favorites - 27

 Ultralight Adventure Equipment Amp Backpack
www.ula-equipment.com		 Bridging the gap between super-ultralight and super-durable, the Amp is the perfect pack for weekend-plus backpacking trips. With an ideal volume for gear and consumables needed for a weekend or more, and the carrying comfort to match, the ULA Amp went with me on all of my short backpacking excursions in 2008. In the dead of summer, its volume was just right for a couple of liters of water, my tarp, UL 60 Quilt, and a Caldera Cone cook kit. The Amp’s design is such that it stays below your neck and between your shoulders. This, paired with its durable construction, make it excellent for off-trail pursuits, and I carried it on numerous summit bids this year. The ULA Amp hits home for its size, durability, and perfection in filling a niche.

Weight: 10.6 oz. (300 g)
MSRP: $89

Don Wilson, Editorial Correspondent – Tucson, Arizona

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 28

 Arc’Teryx Squamish Windshell
www.arcteryx.com/		 This windshell has become my shell of choice over the past year. At about 5 ounces, it is not the lightest shell out there, but it has a very good feature set, very high quality production, and the nicest windshell fabric I’ve used. For my use, which includes some climbing, the fabric is a very good balance of comfort, breathability and durability which I have not found equaled in other windshells. I’ve taken it on many trips this year, from warm desert hikes to cold, high altitude climbs, and it has remained a favorite for the full breadth of my hikes. It also looks great. Everyone who sees it asks me about it. It will be with me for some time to come. Its biggest drawback is the price – MSRP is $139.

Weight: 5 oz
MSRP: $139

2008 Staff Favorites - 29

 Canon 40D Camera
www.usa.canon.com		 OK, this baby is HEAVY. It is a full DSLR weighing in at 2 or 3 pounds, depending on what lenses and other gear I carry. It has refreshed my interest in photography, dramatically improved my images, and generally added enjoyment to my trips, both during and after each hike. If that banishes me from the lightweight brotherhood, so be it. I rationalize it by convincing myself that if my other gear is light, I can carry this beauty. Best of all, there have been innumerable new opportunities to look with new eyes upon trees, and leaves, and snow, and flowing water. My hiking companions may get annoyed at times, but when we can all share a sunset in order to take a few pics, then it is all worthwhile. While I enjoy this specific camera, it is really the process of photography and awareness that has been the payoff. Street price about $800.

Weight: 2 to 3 lbs
MSRP: $800

2008 Staff Favorites - 30

 Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke This is another unconventional gear choice, but that’s my mission. I carried this slim volume when I hiked the John Muir Trail with my wife a few years back. We read to each other at night, and discussed our reading while we hiked. This fine series of letters discusses the challenges of following your passion, and struggling to find your way through life. The enjoyment and memories of our ten day hike were perhaps more impacted by this small volume than any other gear choice we made. Hiking with your best friend, through beautiful and difficult terrain, all the while sparked by great conversation – that’s about as good as it gets. MSRP $9, weight about 2 ounces.

Weight: 2 oz
MSRP: $9

Alan Dixon, Editorial Correspondent – Washington, D.C.

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 31

 Olympus E-520 Digital SLR Camera with Zuiko 12-60 mm Lens
www.olympusamerica.com		 A six-ounce point and shoot camera won’t do if I want sharp 16×20 inch or larger prints with rich, accurate color (or even smaller sizes, for that matter). So in the last few years, I have been taking a light digital SLR on more and more backpacking trips. I find that the Olympus E-520 hits the sweet spot of performance to weight for a backpacking camera. While I love the outstanding photographic results from cameras like the Nikon D300 with a 18-200 mm VR lens, or the Canon 5D Mk II with a 24-105 mm IS lens, they weigh around 3.5 pounds! True, the E-520’s smaller 4/3 sensor gives up a bit in dynamic range, resolution, and ISO performance to the larger and much more expensive D300 or 5D. But the smaller and lighter E-520 performs admirably in most lighting situations (and with a bit of skill, in many difficult lighting situations as well). I prefer the E-520 over the slightly lighter E-420, for its built-in image stabilization and greater dynamic range. The Zuiko 12-60 mm (24-120 mm, 35 equiv) is a superb lens – one of the very best digital zooms on the market. Best of all, I get beautiful photographs from the E-520 and 12-60 lens combo.

Note: This may all change if Olympus’ entry into the new Micro 4/3 Format camera comes in around 10 oz for the body. If so, with a fixed normal lens, one might get DSLR results from a 13-14 oz camera and lens combo. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Olympus E-520 SLR Digital Camera (body only)
Weight: 19 oz (with battery)
MSRP: $649
Olympus 12-60mm f/2.8-4 ED SWD Zuiko Zoom Lens
Weight: 18 oz
MSRP: $749

2008 Staff Favorites - 32

 Anti Gravity Gear Caldera Kitchen (for AGG 3-cup Pot)
www.antigravitygear.com		 The AGG Caldera Kitchen is the ideal couple’s ultralight cooking system, and my wife and I take it on every trip. The original Trail Designs Caldera made it on my list two years ago. In 2007, packaging genius George “Tin Man” Andrews introduced the AGG Caldera Kitchen. It added so many refinements in functionality and creature comforts to the Caldera system that I am including it again. The AGG 3-cup pot is consistently the most fuel-efficient pot for the TD Caldera system. This adds up to a lot fuel savings on long trips with two people. The 3-cup pot and cozy are a boon in sub-freezing weather. The stove works flawlessly in the 20’s F. Our tea brews properly and stays hot. Our meals actually hydrate and are warm when we eat them. I like a small pack, and the AGG Caldera Kitchen is one of the most compact and abuse resistant two-person alcohol cook sets I’ve used. (When I solo I take a 2.5 oz Trail Designs Caldera Keg.)

The AGG Caldera Kitchen is an ultralight bargain. It includes a full mess kit for two, measuring cup, stove, windscreen, pot cozies, potholder, and stuff sack. A titanium pot alone can approach the cost of the full Caldera Kitchen. The Caldera Kitchen is quite green by backpacking standards, using only small amounts of natural alcohol fuel (vs. open fires, canister stoves etc.) Just say, “I will not use a canister stove again!”

Weight: 11 oz for full kit – (7 to 9 oz in our usual configurations)
MSRP: $80

2008 Staff Favorites - 33

 Bozeman Mountain Works Stealth 1 Nano Tarp
www.bozemanmountainworks.com		 I like the simplicity and ease of pitching a tarp. At less than 4 oz for a full-coverage tarp, the Cuben fiber Nano is my favorite solo shelter. The Stealth 1 Nano is big enough for two people in a pinch, and my wife and I have used it that way! (Oware calls the same size a 1.5-person tarp.) The large coverage has another weight savings. When I solo, it allows me to use a down bag without a bivy to protect it from rain that might blow under a smaller tarp. In most inclement weather, the Nano keeps me dry with room to store gear and cook. And as always, it provides views and ventilation that a tent simply can’t match. The Nano, while expensive for a tarp, is still inexpensive compared to most UL tents, and you get what you pay for. A tarp or shelter with the same coverage in Spinnaker fabric is almost double the weight.

Weight: 3.9 oz
MSRP: $189, if you can find one

Doug Johnson, Associate Editor – Redmond, Washington

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 34

 Trail Designs Caldera Keg
www.traildesigns.com		 This is one incredible system. For $60, you get a 6.3 oz system that includes a custom Heineken pot with lid, stove with priming lip, Caldera Cone, a protective caddy that works as a mug or a bowl, insulation cozies for the pot, mug, and bowl, a measuring cup, a fuel bottle, and a silnylon storage bag. It boils water quickly, even in a breeze, and is extremely simple to use. It packs into a small package that protects all of the items. It may not be the lightest option but it’s close, and it’s become my go-to stove for most trips. The Caldera Keg is simply genius.

Weight: 6.3 oz
MSRP: $60

2008 Staff Favorites - 35

 Six Moon Designs Refuge X
www.sixmoondesigns.com		 At just 16 oz, this is the lightest two-person floored tent in existence. Sure, it doesn’t have a bathtub floor, and it’s not the best shelter in high winds, and it’s expensive… but it’s big enough for two to sit up, has great ventilation, does well in hard rains or moderate winds, and weighs only one pound! This is truly a breakthrough shelter.

Weight: 16 oz
MSRP: $400

2008 Staff Favorites - 36

 Hilleberg Kaitum 2
www.hilleberg.com		 At under 6 lbs, the Hilleberg Kaitum is not an ultralight summer tent. However, the harder I push this shelter in winter and mountaineering settings, the more I love it. It is spacious for two with easily usable space and dual vestibules that give plenty of room for storage, cooking, and two climbers gearing up in the morning. Best of all, it’s totally bomber; I’ve had this tent in treacherous conditions and laid in my bag smiling while the tent gets absolutely pounded. There are few tents that can claim this combination of usable space, moderate weight, and stormworthiness. The Kaitum is a winner in my book and will be with me on many more adventures.

Weight: 5 lbs, 8 oz
MSRP: $675

Rick Dreher, Photo Editor – Sacramento, California

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 37

 Hennessy Hammock Hyperlite Asymmetrical
www.hennessyhammock.com		 The Hyperlite is the latest iteration of Hennessy’s lightweight hammock series. Thin, light fabrics and miniscule lines have reduced weight to 26 ounces while retaining the utility of heavier models. NOTHING is more comfortable to sleep in than a correctly set up hammock and the Hyperlite delivered throughout last season. The often overlooked advantage to hammocking is it opens up campsites where ground-dwellers need not apply, especially valued in popular areas on busy weekends, where a hammock provides solitude otherwise unavailable. The only thing they went too far with was the Tree Hugger straps, which are far too short in this model.

Now will somebody please develop under-insulation that’s compact, affordable and easy to use?

Weight: 26 oz
MSRP: $230

2008 Staff Favorites - 38

 BPL FireLite Ti Trappers Mug
www.backpackinglight.com		 Holding a pint at a scant 37 grams, the Trappers Mug is an impressive achievement. The incredibly thin material, strengthened by the rolled lip, is strong enough for the task and titanium’s low heat transfer rate helps prevent scorched lips. The cup will deform in the pack if not stowed carefully, but can be bent back into shape easily.

I used my own hard-earned shekels on the Trappers Mug so this isn’t a paid endorsement. (I will happily accept honoraria ex post facto.) You want titanium cookware because it is light, strong, doesn’t absorb taste or odors and is practically indestructible, and the FireLite series has pared the weight down to the minimum conceivable using this material. Watch this space for the beryllium series.

Weight: 1.3 oz (37 g)
MSRP: $30

2008 Staff Favorites - 39

 Pacific Outdoor Equipment Insulated Airmat (Thermo 6)
www.pacoutdoor.com		 When sleeping ground-bound, the POE insulated air mattress (16.6 ounces) is the most comfortable option I’ve found. Unfolding from its submarine sandwich-sized sack, my three-quarter length mattress is my favorite three-season pad option. It’s more comfortable than self-inflators, infinitely more comfortable than a closed-cell foam pad, packs smaller than either and is clearly warmer than a plain air mattress. The main trick is finding the correct inflation (sufficient give without touching the ground).

It’s slipperier than most pads when on silnylon tent floors and not as warm as thicker self-inflators, but in balance it’s the best three-season pad I’ve used. I can imagine only a down-filled mattress as being a step up from this for overall comfort. Little wonder MSR is entering the fray next year.

Weight: 16.6 oz
MSRP: $65

Ben Klocek, Production Editor – Sebastopol, California

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 40

 Golite Jam2
www.golite.com		 I love this simple pack that expands and contracts to fit my gear. With a little tightening of the compression straps, I don’t even need to “MYOG” support using my sleeping pad. The roomy front pocket keeps all my essentials handy, and while the shoulder straps are a little on the wimpy side, this encourages me to keep my load light. I usually don’t use the waist strap, as I love the freedom and the feel of the wind blowing up my shirt without it, but buckle that baby up and the load capacity increases by 10 lbs. My base weight hovers around 8.5 lbs, and with a weekender trailhead weight of 15 lbs, this pack is golden.

Weight: 1 lb, 5 oz
MSRP: $75

2008 Staff Favorites - 41

 Canon PowerShot SD630 Camera
www.usa.canon.com		 This is a simple, fast, high quality camera with a great macro and plenty of advanced options that can take a beating. When this camera finally died, I replaced it with another just like it. I carry it in my pocket on all trips and hardly notice it’s there until I need it. Then, with a few button presses, I’ve got the right settings for the shot and – click – a perfect shot every time. The huge view finder is great, and I don’t ever miss the “hold-it-to-your-eye” view finder that other cameras have. I love being able to hold it over my head or down near the ground without needing to get there myself and still getting great photos.

Weight: 5 oz
MSRP: $600

2008 Staff Favorites - 42

 Patagonia Wool 2
www.patagonia.com		 Can you say soft? This shirt is like snuggling with my honey! I’d wear it all the time if I could afford more of them. The only downside is the price, so if you can find one on sale, get it. For a simple base layer that wicks away the sweat, stays smelling rosy fresh, and feels great on your skin, the Wool 2 is perfect. It’s a lightweight fabric, so it can’t take much abuse, but I use it as a base layer that is not subjected to much bushwhacking and rock. It’s got a great slim cut, which looks great for town when worn over a t-shirt.

Weight: 5.9 oz
MSRP: $70

Janet Reichl, Editorial Correspondent – Durango, Colorado

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 43

 Teva Aniso eVENT Shoe
www.teva.com		 The Teva Aniso has a softshell outer fabric and an eVENT waterproof-breathable lining. It fits well, breathes well, is quite light weight, and very supportive. I started out wearing them only when I was expecting some wet conditions, but since they breathe so well I now also wear them in dry conditions. I find them comfortable for desert hiking in cooler weather, and in particular I like that the softshell fabric doesn’t allow sand to pass through like mesh uppers do. These shoes have a wider toebox, and though my feet are not necessarily wide, I find them very comfortable both on and off-trail. The OrthoLite midsole provides good cushioning and the aggressive outsole provides very good traction. The uppers have TPU reinforcements bonded to the softshell fabric for protection and extra support. The Aniso has held up well to off-trail hiking.

Weight: 11 oz/shoe (women’s 7)
MSRP: $100

2008 Staff Favorites - 44

 Petzl E+Lite Headlamp
www.petzl.com		 On backpacking trips when I plan to do some reading or crossword puzzles in the evenings, I like to take the Petzl E+Lite instead of a pinch light. It’s one of the lightest headlamps around, and frees my hands to do other things. It uses two CR2032 Lithium batteries, which are the flat ones that are commonly used in sport watches. The batteries are inexpensive and last a surprisingly long time. The light has low and high settings, plus a flash, is easy to turn on and off with light gloves and its ball joint pivot makes it easy to point to the desired angle.

Weight: 0.95 oz
MSRP: $30

2008 Staff Favorites - 45

 Granite Gear Air Space Bag
www.granitegear.com		 The Granite Gear Air Space zippered stuff sack is a wonderful multipurpose item. The size small that I use is perfect to stuff my sleeping bag or insulated clothing. When in camp, it becomes a place to contain smaller items. At night I put any extra clothing in it and use it as a pillow. Its rectangular shape makes it easier to pack in a backpack and for it to stay in place when used as a pillow. The large opening provided by the long, waterproof zipper makes it easy to find things inside. On each end there is a grosgrain handle that provides counter force for zipping or to help pull the sack out of my pack. Made of silnylon, the sack slides easily out of a pack and is especially handy for wet weather or winter camping, when I can lay it down on the wet ground or snow and the things inside do not get wet.

Weight: 1.5 oz (size S)
MSRP: $18

Alison Simon, Editorial Correspondent – Washington, D.C.

Selections focused on economical purchase.

 

2008 Staff Favorites - 46

 REI Sahara Convertible Pants
www.rei.com		 When I first started backpacking, I wore a set of convertible nylon trail pants. I can’t remember who made them or what they weighed. All I knew was that they were the perfect set of trail pants. Five years ago, when I started lightweight backpacking, I “upgraded” to a pair of softshell pants with an inner nap that provided more warmth. Two years ago, I saw those convertible pants on the trail again and felt a longing to get them back on. Today, they are the only pants I wear, and I have not looked back. The reality is that I don’t need that much warmth on my legs, and the softshell pants were slow to dry. The Sahara pants have a light, durable, and quick drying fabric (I’m big on washing clothes on the trail – everything I wear has to dry quickly, preferably during my washing up at the mid-day lunch break). The pockets on the Saharas (up to eight, depending on the pair) are great for storing the little stuff I use all day long (lip balm, sunscreen, mints, camera, dried fruit, etc.). The Saharas have a relaxed fit that is comfortably snug around my waist, yet has plenty of fabric at the knees and crotch to allow for full movement, including climbing. The twelve-inch zippered cuffs slide easily over my shoes, and the Velcro closures fit the cuffs perfectly around my ankle. In the two years that I have worn these pants, I have only taken off the pant legs once. But the ability to do so continues to send me back to these pants over a pair that doesn’t have the versatility, for “just in case.”

Weight: 12 oz
MSRP: $55 (although they go on sale for as little as $20)

2008 Staff Favorites - 47

 REI Stoke 19 Day Pack (DIAD pack)
www.rei.com		 Although it looks like I am getting a kickback from REI, it just happens that they have my favorite and most economical products this year. I discovered this gem of a technical, done-in-a-day (DIAD) pack this summer while looking for something to bring on a hill walking trip to Scotland. I needed a durable pack that I could climb in and that could withstand wind, rain, sleet, and whatever else Scotland wanted to throw in my direction. At 20 oz, the Stoke is about half the weight of similar hydration packs from well known hydration pack manufacturers. It holds just over 1100 cubic inches, which is enough for all my warm weather clothes, rain gear, lunch, and everything I needed for the day of hiking and climbing in the cold and wet weather of the Northwestern Scottish Highlands. Two compartments allow me to separate food from clothing, and the two mesh side pockets are available for smaller items. The Stoke withstood climbing abuse and the Scotland elements well (although I added a silnylon liner sack to keep clothing from getting wet on a very rainy day atop a Cullin). There is a small compression system atop the pack and a hand carry strap at the top. My favorite parts are the padded hip belt (with pockets) and padded shoulder straps, and, of course, the righteous orange color.

Weight: 20 oz
MSRP: $60

2008 Staff Favorites - 48

 Pro Bars (new Savory flavors)
www.theprobar.com		 The original flavor Pro Bars have been around since the 1990s. In 2004 I stopped eating them because I need variety in my diet. There is only so much of one thing I can eat. In 2006, the company expanded their offering of bars to include four new flavors, Nutty Banana Boom, Apple Cinnamon Crunch, Cran-Lemon Twister, and Koka Moka. It was an improvement, but the new bars seemed to be based on the original Pro Bar formula, and therefore had a telltale taste similarity. Then came the magical year of 2008. Enter savory Pro Bars — Kettle Corn, Maple Pecan, Cocoa Pistachio, Cherry Pretzel, Sesame Goji (and of course, Superfood Slam, not a savory flavor, but still outstanding). Now there is a line-up of Pro Bars worthy of the major leagues for gourmet trail snacks. They taste great, and I love that there is a large variety to choose from. This summer I took some women out on a backpacking trip (their first ever) and by unanimous opinion the variety of pro bars were the favorite food item (the girls particularly loved Superfood Slam, while my personal favorite is Cherry Pretzel). I love that they average about 120 calories per ounce and have great organic, unprocessed nutrition. We now buy them in bulk, and I keep a stock on hand at all times. All I’ve got to say is “keep those flavors coming!”

Weight: 3 oz per bar
MSRP: $3.29 per bar or $35.00 per dozen

Exposure Lights – Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review

The Exposure Lights Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx are rechargeable lights with excellent versatility for multi-sport pursuits. They can go from the bicycle to the backpack very easily, offering exceptional brightness, light weight, and a weatherproof design.

Overview

The Exposure Lights Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx are rechargeable lights with excellent versatility for multi-sport pursuits. Used when cycling, the combination is bright enough for high speed technical mountain bike night riding, matching the output of many bicycle HID light systems.

On its own, the Joystick MaXx is a very powerful flashlight for backpacking or mountaineering trips up to a week. In addition, it is a versatile light that performs equally well for bike commuting or when used as a helmet light for multi-light night mountain biking.

Exposure Lights - Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review - 1
The Exposure Lights Joystick MaXx securely snaps into a helmet mount that screws into a helmet vent and is easily removable for non-cycling needs.

Exposure Lights - Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review - 2
The Exposure Lights Joystick MaXx weighs only 2.8 ounces, is water-resistant, and very durable.

Typically when backpacking, I’ve only considered flashlights that use replaceable batteries, but the Exposure Joystick MaXx has changed my mind about rechargeable lights in the backcountry. When compared to my favorite bright headlamp, the Princeton Tec Eos, the Exposure light weighs less, has a longer lasting battery, is rechargeable, and is insanely brighter; for comparison, the stock Princeton Tec EOS is 25 lumens on high while the Joystick MaXx has a whopping 240 lumens on the MaXx setting – that’s nearly ten times brighter!

In the field, I typically used the Joystick MaXx on the lowest setting most of the time, giving me about 25 hours of consistent light. This is plenty for week-long trips and when used sparingly would last for an even longer trip. When some extra power is needed, the 240 lumens is extremely bright and helped several times when night hiking. A downside, however, is that there isn’t a brightness low enough for low-light tasks, such as reading – I recommend carrying a smaller LED light for tasks such as this. The brightness of the Joystick MaXx is best when used for navigation or hiking at night.

Exposure Lights - Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review - 3
The one-ounce headstrap makes the Joystick MaXx a functional headlamp and is adjustable with Velcro.

A one-ounce headstrap turns the Joystick MaXx into a functional headlamp. It is a two-inch wide stretchy band with Velcro adjustability, and it holds the light securely at a usable angle. The angle is easily adjustable by repositioning the headstrap on your head. It also has a reflective rear logo for extra safety when walking or running near cars. While the headstrap adds a great deal of versatility to the light, it is overbuilt compared to other headlamp straps; I think it’s easily possible to lighten up this piece.

Exposure Lights - Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review - 4
Comparison: a modified Princeton Tec Eos (left- using a much brighter than stock Seoul LED) casts a very weak beam when compared to the Joystick MaXx (right).

For bicycle use, Joystick MaXx comes with mounts for both the handlebars and the helmet. Both attach very easily and the tiny light clips in securely. Even when taking hard crashes, the Joystick never came out of the helmet mount. For those that enjoy both cycling and backpacking, the Joystick MaXx can easily cross between both worlds – especially useful when bicycle touring or adventure racing.

Exposure Lights - Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review - 5
Both Exposure Lights have three output settings – MaXx (left), Ride (middle), and Low (right) in addition to a flashing setting.

Both Exposure Lights have three output settings as well as a flashing setting. I found the manufacturer claim of three hours (MaXx setting), ten hours (Ride setting), and twenty-four hours (Low setting) to be a bit conservative; I managed to get between thirty and sixty minutes more in the MaXx setting and one to two hours more in the Low setting. Both lights are regulated and have a "reserve fuel tank" feature that automatically turns the lights to Low when the battery has only 5% remaining. At this point the light will dim gradually over a three-hour period, giving you an extra chance to get home or set up camp. I found it comforting to know that if I pushed the light too far, that there was always a bit extra to get me to camp or the car.

Exposure Lights - Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review - 6
The Enduro MaXx has exactly three times the brightness of the Joystick MaXx but almost identical battery life, making the two an excellent pair for cycling.

While not my first choice for backpacking, the Enduro MaXx is a fantastic partner to the Joystick MaXx for technical night mountain biking. With the Joystick MaXx on the helmet and the Enduro MaXx on the handlebars, you have a veritable flood of light from the bar and additional lighting that goes wherever your eyes go. The combination is incredible when riding through dense woods, enabling speeds that nearly reach a daytime pace. The Enduro MaXx attaches to the bike handlebar with a quick release that is quite secure, but allows the light to be removed with a quick pull of the red release knob.

Exposure Lights - Joystick MaXx and Enduro MaXx Review - 7
Combined, the Exposure MaXx and Joystick MaXx make create a lightweight, no-cable system that is excellent for night cycling.

While most lights with similar brightness require cables that connect to batteries attached elsewhere on the bike, all Exposure Lights have the batteries fully contained in the light. The result is not only simple, but extremely lightweight – 11.2 ounces for the whole package.

Specifications

Year/Model 2008 Exposure Lights Joystick MaXx
Features CNC machined alloy weatherproof case, cable-free design, single Seoul LED emitter with collimated lens, "Dual Beam Optics" combination flood/spot pattern, light level indicator, "fuel gauge" battery life indicator, "reserve fuel tank"
Included Light with integrated Lithium Ion battery, smart charger, helmet mount
Modes Three brightness levels, one flash mode
Run Time 3.5 to 25 hrs measured (3 to 24 hrs claimed)
Output 240 lumens on highest MaXx setting
Dimensions Cylinder is 1. in (25mm) wide, 4.1 in (104mm) long
Weight 2.8 oz (78 g), headstrap 1.0 oz (27 g), handlebar mount: 0.2 oz (7 g), helmet mount: 0.7 oz (21 g)
MSRP $249.99
Options – Headstrap $25 ($20 when purchased with a light), Piggyback batteries available- 1 cell: $69.99, 3 cell: $139.99
MaXx car charger: $34.99
Year/Model 2008 Exposure Lights Enduro MaXx
Features CNC machined alloy weatherproof case, cable free design, three Seoul LED emitters with collimated lenses, "Dual Beam Optics" combination flood/spot pattern, light level indicator, "fuel gauge" battery life indicator, "reserve fuel tank"
Modes Three brightness levels, one flash mode
Run Time 4 to 27 hrs measured (3 to 24 hrs claimed)
Included Light with integrated Lithium Ion battery, smart charger, Exposure universal handlebar quick release bracket
Output 720 lumens on highest MaXx setting
Dimensions Cylinder is 1.8 in (46mm) wide, 4.2 in (106mm) long
Weight-light 8.4 oz (237 g), quick release handlebar mount: 0.8 oz (23 g)
MSRP $449.99
Options Piggyback batteries available, 1 cell: $69.99, 3 cell: $139.99
MaXx car charger: $34.99