This article features lightweight down parkas (usually, full-zip jackets with hoods, a longer hem, and box-baffled construction) appropriate for winter backpacking, snowshoeing, backcountry skiing, mountaineering, and other cold-temperature activities.
Synthetic Insulated Jacket Review & State of the Market Report
This comprehensive State of the Market Report presents more than a dozen synthetic insulated jacket reviews and performance comparison to evaluate their durability, warmth, weather resistance, breathability, and features.
Rab Nimbus Review
This Rab Nimbus review summarizes the jacket’s performance and compares it to others in its class while using it on a number of mountaineering and trekking expeditions in Alaska and other parts of North America.
Rab Xenon X Review
The Rab Xenon X used to be the best all-purpose lightweight synthetic insulated jacket on the market. Over the last seven years, the author has used the Xenon and Xenon X for some fantastic outdoor adventures: a 35-day traverse of Alaska’s Brooks Range, climbing Denali, Half Dome, and El Cap, and other things. Though the Xenon X performs above average in our tests, a variety of other jackets now offer superior performance.
The Unconventional Sleep Systems Manifesto
A Comprehensive Primer and Market Analysis of Top Bags, Quilts, and Wearable Systems
Revisiting Wind Shirts
Revisiting Wind Shirts: Breaking the 3 oz Barrier When we last reviewed wind shirts in “Windshirt Wars”, the lightest fabrics were 1.4 to 1.1 oz/sq.yd. nylons and the lightest hoodless wind shirts weighed between 3.2 and 4.0 oz. Hooded wind shirts weighed around 8 oz. Since then, more manufacturers have entered the game with even […]
Clothing and Sleep Systems for Mountain Hiking, 1st Edition (August 2002)
Clothing and Sleep Systems for Mountain Hiking, 1st Edition (August 2002)
Nunatak Arc Alpinist
Nunatak Arc Alpinist
Elite Top Bag by Rab Carrington
Elite Top Bag by Rab Carrington
The Arc Bag Concept: Saving Weight with Variable Girth Sleeping Bags Having an “Arc” Shaped Cross Section
Editor’s Introduction As we prepare to release BackpackingLight.com, it is probably appropriate to introduce a teaser about what we intend to spend a great deal of time with this year: clothing and sleep systems for ultralight hiking. This editorial provides some insight into the concept of the ARC BAG: a variable girth sleeping bag having […]