Outdoor Gear

Mark Verber

My recommendations on the following pages originated with backpacking, but most of the observations are applicable to a variety of outdoor activities.  Related: Packing for the Camino (or other other hostel-2-hostel pilgramages) plus notes about packing light for travel. I also keep a list of my “gear for life“.

Ultralight Approach

Around 2000 I read Mark Twight’s Extreme Alpinism and came across materials by Ray Jardine and realized that I didn’t have to pack like a Boy Scout. I joined the backpackinglight Yahoo! mailing list that was moderated by Don Ladigin who later wrote the marvelous book Lightening Up… and started on a journey to drop my pack weight. I benefitted greatly from correspondence with Glen Van Peski, Ryan Jordan and the BPL community. While I don’t always go as light as some of these folks, I have found that my approach (3 season gear list) keeps me as safe and comfortable as my heavy-weight friends in camp, and is significantly more comfortable when I am moving.

Historically “ultralight backpacking” was defined as <10lbs base weight. I don’t think this is a particularly useful definition these days. First, if you have enough money, it’s possible to purchase gear that gets you to an ultralight base weight (<10lb), even though you are approaching an activity like a classic “heavy-weight” practitioner carrying many items which aren’t actually needed. Second, conditions and trip duration might require more weight given the conditions that will be faced / the duration between resupply. The main reason I am not fond of using merely the a weight to define an ultralight approach is that it misses the spirit of ultralight:

The key to ultralight is to use your head… having enough experience to know how to deal with various situations, and to carefully think about what is needed (or more likely not needed).

An effective ultralight approach uses experience and skills to develop a system of gear and practices which allow you to face a wide variety of circumstances with less gear than most people. In its optimal form you are carrying and simpler, smaller, lighter load and camp life has a number of simple rhythms allowing you to focus on your experience.

Warning… don’t let your quest for the right gear to lead to gearaholism.

Other People’s Recommendations

I am not following outdoor gear as closely as I used to. As a result, some of my recommendations might become dated. There are several sites that I use when I want to see a list of current products that are likely to have category leading performance:

  • Ryan Jordan’s personal selection deep experience, thoughtful analysis, engineers / scientists approach. I rarely disagree with Ryan’s recommendations. If I need to purchase something my first stop is to see what Ryan is using these days
  • Adventure Alan does a good job covering ultralight equipment. I  appreciated Alan’s articles in the early days of backpackinglight.com.
  • Frank Revelo has a pragmatic, moderate cost, often DIY approach to gear which is refreshing
  • Cleverhiker Most aware of current market than me, and seems to come pretty close to my personal taste in equipment. While I don’t stack rank items exactly the same as they do, I never find myself saying “Why did they include XYZ in their listing?”
  • Greenbelly Backpacking Guide has a recommended gear section (need to scroll down) which I find is very readable. I tend to agree with Cleverhiker in actual picks, but Greenbelly’s pages are often more complete. 
  • Outdoor Gearlab covers a wide variety of gear types, but I never agree with their stack ranking. Sometimes items are in their list which I find myself saying “Really? You liked it?”. Most of the time items I think are the best appear in their lists, just not top rated by them. Fail to include the smaller, class leading cottage companies. I often wonder are they a shill for big name outdoor gear companies, but people who know them say they are not in the pockets of the big gear manufacturers.
  • Gear Junkie for outdoor industry news and reviews.
  • roadtrailrun.com – running focus
  • dcrainmaker site for any gear which is related to triathlons, especially technology / instruments. I no longer will purchase any technology for these sports if Ray hasn’t given it a positive review. If he hasn’t reviewed it, it’s like junk.

Additional Notes

Other information you might find useful include:

My Notes

Surveys

History

Buying Stuff

Manufacturers

Stores

The following stores have a good online presence and typically a lot of physical stores as well

  • Garage Grown Gear: Saint Paul, MN: Mostly online, but you can schedule a visit. Stock a lot of cottage gear products.
  • REI: A goto retailer in the US. I remember when they had a store in Seattle, and were mostly mail order. They have stores may place. Cover a wide range of products and a good return policy (used to be amazing but people abused it). Mostly main stream manufacturers, so don’t typically have the very best in class products. There in-house brand used to be “ok” and now seems pretty good.
  • Decathlon: Different website in every country, and physical stores across the world (but a poor presence in US). I think of them as the Ikea of outdoor gear. Decent gear that is inexpensive. There best items are never class leading in materials, design, or manufacture quality. The lower end tends to be made with lower quality materials and manufacturing than typical main stream products. On the other hand their products tend to be very good values because they tend to be significantly cheaper.

The following are amazing stores which have a great selection of gear.

  • Mountain Shop: Portland, OR. Gossamer Gear, Six Moon Designs, Rab, Montbell, and a number of others. Have gear for backpacking, skiing, and climbing.
  • no/W: Taipei, TW. Really great curation… I could re-buy most of my current kit at the store. Has nearly all Gossamer Gear products (several not sold in the US), Durston Gear, Cumulus, Rab, Montbell products, minimalist sandals, XoSkin toe socks, Trail Designs stove, and NiteCore headlamps / USB battery packs.
  • samplus: Taipei, TW. A number of cottage gear: SMD, HMG, Enlightened Gear, Yamatomichi, and several other companies from US, Japan, and TW.
  • Hiker’s Depot, Tokyo, JP. Lots of cottage gear.
  • Pod 7 kilo, Prague, CZ. Well curated collect of ultralight gear including some cottage manufacturers.
  • BackpackingLight: UK. Great selection of a wide range of gear. Have to schedule a visit
  • Outdoor Gear Retailers (dated): sf bay area, select locations, web

Useful References / Tidbits

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *