Help shopping for my petite wife

Prioritize a good fitting pack and good fitting footwear.

Pack: the ULA Circuit comes in "kids" version with an adjustable torso length — and from the order form it looks like you can order that with whatever sized hip belts. Ask Chris as ULA if that would be appropriate.

Footwear: Where are you located? Maybe locals can chime in with store suggestions. Are you/she thinking trail runners? With wide sizes not always in-stock, maybe you want to do purchase/returns from http://www.runningwarehouse.com
So personal a fit — no one online can say for sure what will work for her.

I find I can often do OK ordering upper-body clothing online. See what she likes at say Backcountry.com or Sierra Trading Post, then skim the reviews for things like "I have XYZ body type this fit me great" (or the opposite).

Pants I need to try on. Find a pair that fits the waist/hips well, and just get them hemmed as needed. (with shorts it's easier, obviously)

Rainwear, driducks probably fits anyone. If you want to use the pants, just make sure to get the waist size right. (Medium was much to big for me in the pant, but functions fine for the jacket — the sleeves are too long, but roll up easily.

If your looking for Patagonia quality/budget, I think of Arc Tyrex in as being an alternative in the same tier (i had a pair of pant from them that I loved).

Women's bodies have so many variables in fit that, other than sleeves/legs being too long, really hard to categorize fit-types.

Good luck and Happy Birthday!

If you want her to be happy, make sure her sleeping bag is super warm.

Altra makes fairly wide trail running shoes. I get the mens Lone Peaks to fit my flippers.

I've had decent luck wearing men's clothing. Not many men buy size 30 or less anymore so I can usually find a size to fit me on the sale rack. If money is an issue you can always do Mags' trick and get a mens dress shirt from the thrift store. They make for a surprisingly comfortable hiking shirt–quick dry cotton-poly. Just roll up the sleeves.

With my wife we found that getting her a warm jacket for the breaks, and keeping her hands and feet warm and dry done all the difference between loving the outdoors to hating it.

Depends on where you are and what conditions you expect, I'd say keep you wife's feet dry at all cost.

You mentioned your wife is naturally athletic, does that mean she partakes in regular training? In that case just use the gear she has (baselayers, a fleece etc). Anything that can be used from what you have (and not bought) means better investing in the handful of things that need to make it work.

Enjoy together and happy birthday.

Firstly, a tailor is going to help a lot here.

For clothing, have her buy anything that fits in width, with the right cut for her curves, and don't worry about pant/sleeve length. Take the clothes to a tailor/dressmaker, and have them hemmed to her exact needs. It's quite inexpensive, but makes a huge difference.

I agree with Katherine about the kid's Circuit. That would be an excellent choice if her torso is shorter than 15" (you'd have to measure her — torso length doesn't always match height!).

For sleeping bags, Feathered Friends makes a 5'3" size in women's bags. They're very expensive, but very high quality, and would last a lifetime. REI-brand women's bags may come in a "short" as well, if I remember correctly. (If you're staying in AMC huts, disregard the sleeping bag advice.)

Several brands of footwear make women's sizes in "wide", including New Balance, and Lowa, and as Piper said, Altras are very wide.

The NH Whites are wonderful. Have a great birthday trip!

Thank you all very much — these are helpful comments.

We will take a look at the Altra and New Balance trail runners especially. The idea about going to a tailor for post-shopping refitting is a good one.

We will be staying in huts along the way, and will bring some sheets or sleeping sacks with us for that.

For raingear I highly reccomend the Marmot Precip Full Zip Rain Pants- the Womens Short size. Sometimes REI has the short size in the store. She can always try on the regular length to figure out what size she is and then order the short length. I used my original pair with a Marmot Precip jacket for 15 years backpacking, hiking and around town until it finally wore out.

For Backpacks check out the Osprey Kids packs or any kid sized pack at REI.
Granite Gear and Gregory make an Xtra Small backpack that should fit her.

I am a petite female 5'1"

I use the marmot raingear with the short sized pants.
My daypack is a kid sized Osprey.
One of my Backpacks is an XS Granite Gear.
My XS Gregory was borrowed/stolen by a 4'11" friend :)

For Hiking Shoes go to a running shoe store..most of them sell excellent trail shoes and have them for wide and narrow feet.

My girlfriend who is short and large breasted found that (after trying on almost every pack in MEC) the Deuter Futura 28 was the only pack that she found comfortable, fortunately I had an older one kicking around (yay old gear stockpile). Of course she wasn't trying on specialty cottage industry packs, but then for the three or four weekend trips she does one of those seems like a bit of overkill.

It is limited capacity and at 2.6 lb it's not ultralight, but she's found it comfortable for the two night trips she's taken with me and she was able to carry everything she really needed in it.

She finds that it's hard to find gear for people who are not the physical ideal, one of the important things is to test fit anything you're planning on carrying while at the store.

I'm 5'2", not stocky just average.

REI does have some of their branded hiking pants in petite sizes, but you may need to order online. I like the Endeavours.

I have a pair of ExOfficio hiking pants, also in petite, with zip-off legs (ExOfficio BugsAway Ziwa Convertible Pants). REI carries them.

You can always order items from REI & have them delivered to the store; then your wife can try them on there and you can return anything that doesn't fit.

Some people like hiking in tights and/or running shorts, so if your wife already has those, she might not need hiking pants (although I prefer the latter for pockets).

For jackets, look for something with a boxier, less fitted fit; I don't worry about sleeve length since it's often nice to be able to tuck hands up into the sleeves for warmth, even with gloves. You might try your local Goodwill, thrift stores — I often see decent gear brands there. And as another BPLer pointed out, tailoring is an option.

For packs, try the Gregory Jade in an extra small (fits torsos 14-16"). I've got one in size small (my torso is 17") and despite the fact that it is a bit heavier than what is considered ultralight, it carries extremely well and is one of my most comfortable packs. You can find them used for under $100 (I bought mine here on Gear Swap; a friend of mine liked it so much she picked up one on ebay for about $70).

For shoes, in addition to runningwarehouse, Amazon often offers free shipping both ways, which makes it easy to try new shoes.