If your next objective is a glaciated peak, a polar traverse, or a 10-day winter trip, the canister stove that got you through summer will fail you when temperatures drop below 20°F or you climb above 10,000 feet. We have spent the last three seasons running expedition stoves on Denali training climbs, Karakoram-style alpine routes, … Read more
I’ve been chasing backcountry trails for over a decade, and I still carry a dedicated handheld GPS alongside my phone on every serious trip. Phones are great until they aren’t – dead battery, cracked screen, no signal, frozen touchscreen in a cold rainstorm. That’s when the best handheld GPS units for hiking earn their place … Read more
Most climbers don’t realize that above 3000 meters, your body starts losing oxygen faster than your lungs can replace it. I’ve watched strong partners turn pale and confused on summit day because they ignored the early signs of altitude sickness. A reliable altimeter watch for mountaineering isn’t a gadget; it tracks your elevation gain, alerts … Read more
Choosing the best compass for orienteering can make the difference between nailing a checkpoint and wasting precious minutes backtracking. I’ve spent the last two months testing ten compasses across sprint courses, forest orienteering events, and backcountry navigation trips to figure out which ones actually perform when speed and accuracy matter most. Orienteering demands a specific … Read more
After three months of side-by-side testing on the trail and around camp, our team can confidently say the best headlamps for backpacking balance low weight, reliable USB-C or AAA battery life, and enough lumens (300-500) to navigate trail and camp after dark. We tested 10 models across wet Pacific Northwest forests, high-desert plateaus, and rainy … Read more
After 90 nights of camping and backpacking across four seasons, I keep coming back to the LHKNL Headlamp Flashlight as the best rechargeable headlamp for camping overall — its 1200-lumen output, motion sensor, USB-C charging, and a featherlight 1.87 oz frame handle everything from late-night tent setup to pre-dawn trail finding. Over the past three … Read more
Five thousand feet up a Sierra ridge, fog rolling in, my paper map getting damp in my pack — that is the moment I learned why the best hiking watches for navigation earn their wrist real estate. A phone dies, a handheld GPS feels like carrying a brick, but a good hiking watch keeps ticking, … Read more
I learned the hard way on a frozen summit that a regular down jacket just doesn’t cut it above 15,000 feet. The wind ripped through the sewn-through baffles, my fingers went numb, and I started to understand why serious mountaineers reach for expedition-grade down parkas instead of the ultralight puffy I had stuffed in my … Read more
If you only own one piece of wet-weather gear, make it one of the best rain jackets for hiking on this list. I’ve logged more than 600 trail miles across the Pacific Northwest, the Colorado Rockies, and the southern Appalachians testing shells in real storms, sideways drizzle, and humid summer downpours, and the truth is … Read more
The best softshell jacket for climbing is the FREE SOLDIER Men’s Hooded Waterproof Softshell Jacket. It nails the climbing trifecta: stretchy four-way mobility, real wind and water resistance from a bonded 10,000mm shell, and a fleece-lined backer that breathes on redpoints yet holds warmth on cold belays. We have been testing climbing softshells for years, … Read more