Topic

Favorite Gear Blog


Forum Posting

A Membership is required to post in the forums. Login or become a member to post in the member forums!

Home Forums Gear Forums Gear (General) Favorite Gear Blog

  • This topic is empty.
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #1302090
    Edward Jursek
    BPL Member

    @nedjursekgmail-com

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    Any threads out there that have collected BPLers favorite gear blogs? There is something about UL and blogging that go together. I like Hikelighter. Where are you going for UL information, tips, tricks, reviews? Thanks,

    #1979727
    Steve K
    BPL Member

    @skomae

    Locale: northeastern US

    Hiking in Finland is one of my very favorites, and I also like SectionHiker.

    #1979769
    Clint Lum
    Member

    @clintlum91

    I like sticksblog a lot. Also Hiking in Finland as well etc.

    #1979772
    Jason G
    BPL Member

    @jasong

    Locale: iceberg lake

    I'm not a fan of all the blogs.. I feel like most of em just like to play with gear in their backyard and not actually trail test it.. or just like to brag about how much they claim they've hiked.

    #1979782
    Johan Engberg
    Member

    @luffarjohan

    Locale: Wrong place at the right rime

    "Where are you going for UL information, tips, tricks, reviews?"

    I like to be a little bit unorthodox so I go to BPL…

    Joke aside, I find most outdoor blogs so called reviews completely worthless.
    "look at what I've got from brand x, it's awesome. I don't dare saying anything else or I might loose my sponsorship".

    #1979790
    Andrew Martin
    BPL Member

    @am1982

    Locale: PacNW

    I like reading Andrew Skurka's blog (updated a few times a month). He covers a lot of ground not just gear although his Costco gear articles are great: I also find Hike It Like It to be a great source of reviews that aren't press release copy/paste jobs.

    BPL is of course the best place for gear info :)

    #1979802
    Dustin Short
    BPL Member

    @upalachango

    I'm with Jason. A lot of the blogs seem like trumpet blowing more than anything else. There are a number of guys out there boasting about how small their spreadsheets have gotten. I mainly read them because they have more money (or conned themselves into pro deals) than I do so they get to put hands on gear and provide some subtle unboxing nuances between different items. I take most of their "trail" reviews with a grain of salt.

    Maybe it's just my style, but I find when I'm hiking that my gear pretty much fades into the background. It's all fairly simple gear at this point anyway.

    One area I do focus on though is clothing, especially for cold weather. For that I find Dane over at coldthistle to be a great source. The dude does a lot of cold weather activities (primarily climbing oriented) and has been for decades. So he knows what works and what doesn't in inclement weather. I live in the desert so I don't get as much time to practice cold weather sports…so I've gotta learn from those who do.

    #1979810
    Nico .
    BPL Member

    @nickb

    Locale: Los Padres National Forest

    I tend to come here to BPL for most of my "gear" needs; the articles published by BPL tend to be high quality, if a bit infrequent and there's usually more than enough good info available in the forums on any gear item I can think of. I'll admit to looking over some of the other sites like Hiking in Finland, Hikelighter, SectionHiker, Hike it Like it, but I rarely do more than skim them.

    I prefer checking blogs for trip reports, technique pieces, "philosophy" pieces, etc. I find these topics more inspiring and interesting. The gear is just a means to an end; I'm more interested in how and where the gear gets used.

    #1979820
    Slaton Whatley
    Member

    @alpinistooutdoors

    Locale: Catalinas, Saguaro, Grand Canyon

    I tend to enjoy Stick's Blog, Hiking in Finland, and occasionally Section Hiker. Have most of them on Facebook so when I see something interesting pop up I take a look. I think there is value in them, as someone who enjoys gear reviews. But totally understand the above comments on why you may not like them. BPL is the first thing I look at just about every morning though :)

    One thing I would really like to see are more reviews and blogs popping up in the Southwest. It's one thing to set up a tarp that needs 94 stakes in nice soft ground but what about us down here in the land of hard ground? Would be cool to see some of this stuff reviewed in the desert!

    #1979866
    Stephen M
    BPL Member

    @stephen-m

    Locale: Way up North

    Sectionhikers blog is the only one I specifically enter the address for as some of his winter articles are very good, I do read other blogs but that's only when I come across them when googling various bits of kit.

    #1979883
    Edward Jursek
    BPL Member

    @nedjursekgmail-com

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    I find the comments about sponsorship interesting and I have been looking at several bloggers I like pick them up. The bloggers disclose this information, but I agree, it colors every review they make going forward.

    #1979886
    W I S N E R !
    Spectator

    @xnomanx

    Not too interested in gear blogs. It's very rare that I don't skip right over gear posts in search of something else.

    I like blogs simply about experience and storytelling far more. With good photos.

    Two of my outdoor favorites at the moment:
    Joe Grant: Alpine Works

    Brendan Swihart: Out. Living.

    Both are heavy on great photos that always inspire me to get out, not too heavy on text, and best yet, zero pretentiousness. A very straightforward shared experience.

    Joe Grant really kicks my ass. I can't seem to look at anything he posts without feeling like I should be out there, right now.

    #1979942
    Eugene Smith
    BPL Member

    @eugeneius

    Locale: Nuevo Mexico

    Hike it. Like it. is THE only blog that I will check up on specifically for gear reviews, due mostly to the well crafted presentation Jacob D. puts forth with every post.

    Bedrock and Paradox is always entertaining. If you're familiar with Dave C., then you know by now that he will chop the hell out whatever piece of gear comes into his possession until it yields to his every command.

    #1979962
    Serge Giachetti
    Spectator

    @sgiachetti

    Locale: Boulder, CO

    I like outdoorsmagic.com for a strait shot of techy gear nerdery. They seem to have a good understanding of clothing systems, they cover the euro brands like rab, and the writing can actually be pretty fun.

    It might irk Dave to have bedrockandparadox.com brought up in this context, but certainly his blog has plenty of useful and interesting gear-related insights. I like his emphasis on 'using' rather than 'having' gear, and how his reviews are often integrated with a broader outdoors philosophy. Bedrockandparadox.com also helped get me psyched on other stuff than just walking with a backpack ;)

    coldthistle.com
    Is a gear blog for alpinists, but I can think of no better proponent for the importance of good gear than Dane. Returning to ice climbing and skiing after I think about a decade (?) off, Dane brings the perspective of an alpinist who just hopped out of a time machine to discover he's climbing harder, faster and safer, and he knows its not just him, its the gear. For sure, you can happily wear a wool sweater backpacking, but tech bindings, skimo boots, and modern ice tools/screws fundamentally change whats possible in the mountains.

    Thanks eugene for the hikeitlikeit.com recommendation. I hadn't seen that till now. I like the photos and the 'about' was enough to have me add it to the rss (I will miss google reader when its gone!)

    #1979990
    Stephen M
    BPL Member

    @stephen-m

    Locale: Way up North

    Hi Serge,

    Just so folks know outdoorsmagic is more similar to bpl and us free to post.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Forum Posting

A Membership is required to post in the forums. Login or become a member to post in the member forums!

Get the Newsletter

Get our free Handbook and Receive our weekly newsletter to see what's new at Backpacking Light!

Gear Research & Discovery Tools


Loading...