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Latest
Can backcountry fishing save carried food weight?
This article explores the benefits of backcountry fishing (especially tenkara), including the incorporation of fish in your diet and potential food weight savings.
How to Plan and Execute a Successful Backpacking Trip in Developing Nations
A few suggestions for your next out of the ordinary adventure.
How to Practice Leave No Trace Principles at Hot Springs
Camping near hot springs can be a magical experience for backpackers, but these unique natural features require special care to minimize human impact.
How to Use Gaia GPS Slope Angle Overlays & Satellite Imagery to Plan Off-Trail Routes
In this video, I walk through how I use slope angle overlays and satellite imagery to plan off-trail mountaineering routes, focusing on Gaia GPS as the digital mapping software.
Where Do I Put My Waterbottles When Backpacking?
What's the best way to store water bottles while backpacking? You've got some options, but the answer depends on what you want to achieve.
How to Use an Ursack
Ursacks are lighter alternatives to bear canisters for food storage but require the right knots and tying locations to protect your food.
Leave No Trace Winter Backpacking Best Practices
An overview of how Leave No Trace techniques can be applied to winter backpacking.
Why You Should Spend a Few Ounces of Pack Weight on Rainwear Ventilation Features
In this article, we make the case for spending some extra weight on rain jackets and rain pants that offer more ventilation features (and durability) than typical ultralight rainwear styles.
Backpacking First-Aid Philosophies
Two ibuprofen and a five-year-old Band-Aid ain't gonna cut it.
Keeping Gear Handy on the Trail with Multi-Use Accessory and Utility Pouches
Having accessible "pockets" on your pack is useful for keeping little bits of gear handy without taking off your pack. But consider a multi-use pouch that can also be worn as a standalone fanny-style pack.
Going the Distance: How to Maintain a Relationship While Backpacking
How is it possible to spend three-to-six months walking through the woods and still have a relationship left to come home to? In this article, I chat with a mental health expert and share some tips to help you maintain a strong relationship while backpacking.
Lightweight Backpacking Gear for Cold Winter Temperatures (Two-Layer Systems, Vapor Barriers, and Really Puffy Stuff)
Lightweight backpacking gear for winter temperatures: two-layer insulation systems, vapor barrier systems, and really puffy stuff.
How to Make Coffee in the Backcountry: Gear and Methods
This article provides an overview of coffee-making methods (how to make coffee in the backcountry) while backpacking, with a study of their complexity and weight.
Lightweight Sunscreen for Hiking and Backpacking
How to create a lightweight sunscreen strategy by using your backpacking apparel and supplies.
Maceration, Immersion Foot and Backpacking
A short, detailed discussion on immersion foot and maceration, how to deal with it in the backcountry and when not to.
Lightweight First Aid and Trauma Kits: Perspectives from a Mountain Rescue Medic
This article features an interview with a Canadian Mountain Rescue Medic, focusing on how to assemble lightweight first aid and trauma kits for backcountry travel.
How to choose backpacking footwear so you can keep hiking until you die
Most advice about minimalist footwear can be rejected outright. Often, the advice is given by hikers who haven't put in the time required to understand the complexity and depth of foot biomechanics and the long-term effects of overuse that is endured by walking for decades. Here are some guiding principles if you want to keep hiking into your sunset years, so you can delay the inevitable onset of overuse conditions like hallux rigidus.
Navigating Without a Compass, Map, or GPS
This article describes natural navigator techniques I’ve found helpful while bushwhacking - navigating without a compass, map, or GPS.
Wet, Cold Feet When Backpacking: How To Keep Your Feet Dry(er) and Warm(er) in Inclement Weather
Keep feet warm and dry by using a carefully designed system that involves different types of socks, shoes, and gaiters.
How to Keep Fuel Warm During Canister Stove Operation
Various techniques for keeping fuel warm during canister stove operation are described, in order to optimize fuel vaporization.
