Searching for "Gear"

Gear Test: GoLite Sarek Travel Hoody

GoLite's new Adventure Travel series blends urban form and trail function

A great hoody is like a great pet: You'll never forget the ones you've loved and lost, but you'll always be on the lookout for another to fall in love with. (If you rely on hoodies as much as I do, you might turn into the apparel version of a cat lady, hoarding hoodies and insisting that you "wear them all" when your friends try to stage an intervention).

I think I've found man's best friend in the GoLite Sarek Travel Hoody. As part of their new Spring 2010 "Adventure Travel" series of clothes, the Sarek strives to meld GoLite's notorious ultralight outdoor clothing philosophy with urban- and style-friendly designs fit for use both in town and on the trail. Ideally, the Sarek should be able to handle the style demands of hanging out in a Barcelona bar as easily as the technical demands of a dayhike into the Pyrenees. In a perfect world, you shouldn't even have to change clothes. Read Full Story...

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009 in: Gear, Gear Test
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Gear Test: Patagonia Boaris Limited Edition!

We assess the (fairly crazy) performance claims of this skate-inspired boar hunting shoe (Part 1 of a two-part gear testing smack-down)

In Salt Lake City last July, at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, I met with the fun ladies of Patagonia Footwear to get a peek at their Fall 09 and Spring 10 lines. What caught my eye were the Drifter AC, a sturdy low-top light hiker with a meshy upper and the Nine Trails, a super-light trailrunner. I’ve been wearing both through the fall (the Drifter AC in particular is awesome—it’s my go-to dayhiker right now).

But that’s all pretty straight-edge compared to the story behind the Boaris, a shoe made from pigskin and designed for—no joke—hunting boars. Here’s the story, as told to me by said fun Patagonia ladies and then liberally paraphrased and embellished by me: Fletcher Chouinard, son of the much-ballyhooed Patagonia founder Yvon, stumbled into a shoe design meeting (likely fresh from catching tubes) and said, “Hey guys, I need a boar-hunting shoe! Yes! It needs to handle the rigors of hunting shirtless in the backcountry with a spear. I need to be able to get feces, blood, and urine on it, but to come home clean because I can’t be shuffling around Ventura with all that on my shoes, and there’s no way I’m changing shoes.” So...surfer shoe? No. Feral pig hunting shoe? Ah, yes.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009 in: Gear, Gear Test
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Green Gear: P3 International Kill A Watt EZ

A meter that calculates how much energy your electronics use each day

During the energy audit and renovations that I recently did at my home, I was trying to figure out how to drop my energy usage. Wash clothes and myself less, turn off lights, shower at night when the solar panels have heated my water and lay off the dishwasher were all obvious suggestions. But what I really wondered about was how much juice my computers, hard drives and related electronics were costing me and the planet. I'm good about slicking off the light switch. But those are the things that I often forget to turn off.


After chatting about this with my electrician, he showed up at my house one day with the Kill A Watt EZ, a consumer power meter. You plug any 110 volt device with a cord into the meter, and it actually tells you exactly how much energy any appliance you plug it into is using, as well as what it's costing you per year (it allows you to enter the rate your electric utility is charging you).

I followed the straightforward instructions to set up the unit (took less than a minute) and then plugged in my laptop (a MacBook Pro). It's costing me about $3 per month to run it. My all in one HP printer: cost $1.19/month. My desktop plus eight bay external hard drives are costing me $7.80 per month when they are on. Guess that's the power strip I really need to turn off.I am curious to note how much electricity they use when they are off.
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Monday, November 09, 2009 in: Environment and Green Living, Gear
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Oh, The Pain: Gear Testing in Switzerland

BACKPACKER editors put the year's best gear through its paces with the finest Swiss cheese, sausages, beer, and—oh yeah—hiking

Backpacking in Switzerland's Grindelwald region—probably boring.

Set your jealousy detectors to overload: Last week, BACKPACKER editors jumped the pond to test all the latest n' greatest gear you (and me) haven't even seen yet in the land of Alpinism's birth—Switzerland! Of course, Der Schweiz offers much more than chocolate, cheese, and neutrality. Miles and miles of skyscraping mountains, tumbling glaciers, and rugged trail in the Grindelwald region ensured a perfect testing ground for our crew to determine which pieces of gear will win next year's coveted Editors' Choice Awards.

All of which couldn't stop our fearless, globe-trotting editors from sampling the finest in said cheese and chocolate, plus buckets of beer, sausage, and pretty much every other gourmet pleasure you can imagine—they just packed it in with them. Herewith, impressions from our editors on the Swiss backpacking experience: Read Full Story...

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Thursday, November 05, 2009 in: Gear, Destinations
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Gear Test: Stoic Outdoor Wear

Backcountry.com launches in-house outdoor apparel brand

After years of hawking other people's gear online, Backcountry.com is stepping full-bore into the outdoor gear game: Today, they announced the launch of Stoic, their in-house brand of technical apparel built for harsh mountain conditions.

Backcountry first tested the waters with a limited run of hats, baselayers, and other items named after themselves. But with Stoic, they're going after the technical, fast-and-light alpine crowd with a clean selection of hard and soft shells, pants, and gloves. The collection is full of the regular stuff like baselayers, fleece hoodies, hats, and down sweaters, but five signature items sound most intriguing:


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Wednesday, November 04, 2009 in: Gear, Gear Test
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Gear Test: Gear Lab Boots

As our newest "Gear Lab: Boots" video debuts, we want to know how you'd trash top boots

Our latest edition of Gear Lab–where we trash top gear on camera—debuts today. For Gear Lab: Boots, we threw top-brand trail kickers into a cement mixer along with rocks, sticks, gravel, and even bricks, all in hopes of speeding up the wear and tear process on boots.

Check it out:



But this was by far one of our hardest tasks; it's difficult to apply direct damage to boots in a controlled situation. So we're asking you, the Daily Dirt faithful: How would you test boots in a future Gear Lab? Belt sanders? Drills? Flames? Read Full Story...

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009 in: Gear, Gear Test
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Gear Test: First Look—Mammut Trion Lite

Mammut's new waterproof pack gets a wet test run in Colorado's Sangres

Few pieces of gear annoy me more than the duck's back—a nylon cover necessary for keeping packs waterproof. Shouldn't packs already be waterproof? Some high-end brands (like Arc'Teryx) are solidly water-resistant, but if you buy a mid-priced pack, you'll likely get a below-drinking-age sales rep at your local outdoor store haggling you to buy a duck's back or "you'll be sorry." If you skip it, you won't be—until you get caught in a real mountain downpour and find your insulation layers wetter than a used dishrag.

After a wet summer spent under frosty downpours in Canada, the Tetons, New Mexico, and Glacier, I got my hands on Mammut's Trion Lite ($199.95), a lightweight, waterproof mountaineering pack set to debut in 2010. Besides being seam-sealed on the lid and at the base, the Trion has a removable waterproof liner; it's like zipping a dry bag inside your pack. (Mountaineers who want to go lighter and expect dry climes can unzip and ditch the liner if they choose.)

On a test outing up Blanca Peak in the Sangre De Cristo mountains of Colorado, the forecast called for sunny skies, so I thought I might escape rain for once (good for me, bad for pack testing). Of course, Mother Nature was toying with me: An overnight thunderstorm on my first night dumped hail, rain, and graupel on the Trion, which I'd left out in the open. My morning rummage revealed that extra socks, baselayers, and even paper notepads stayed bone-dry. Read Full Story...

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009 in: Gear, Gear Test
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Gear Test: Westcomb Advent

These flexible, all-weather pants handle tough conditions, from hot and sunny to cold and snowy

Now, I know some of my coworkers don't really like wearing pants, and I can't blame them: It's not exactly the most glamorous piece of outdoor wear. I mean, pants are pants, right?

Not exactly. It's tough to find pantaloons that are truly versatile over a wide range of conditions. The same shell and baselayer might be appropriate for rainy fall hikes and snowy winter schussing, but you'll likely have to swap out your bottoms. All of which makes the Westcomb Advent ($199, 16 oz.) such a breath of fresh air: Neither winter nor summer conditions seem able to stifle these all-weather wonders.

Usually "all-weather" means "handles everything OK but excels at nothing" (think "all-weather tires"). But the Advents are truly the closest thing I've found to an all-weather pant. Example: While hiking in the Gores in late spring, we encountered thigh-high drifts and couloirs still choked with snow. On the glissade down, all of my compatriots emerged with frozen, soaked butts. The Advents, however, kept my tail dry and warm even when the glissade track turned to polished ice, and melting water from the snow drifts beaded up and sloughed off when I punched through the snow layer into a hidden stream.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009 in: Gear
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Too Soon? Mallory-Inspired Jacket

British fashion designer uses famous mountaineers as inspiration

What is the deal with designers? The fashion world can't seem to get enough inspiration from outdoor/adventure peeps like us these days. Are we outdoorsy folks unexpectedly hot or something? (My early answer is an unqualified yes.)

The latest entrant into all this fashion/outdoor love comes from "more-English-than-the-English" designer Nigel Cabourn, who takes his meticulous design and styling cues from British mountaineering heroes of yesteryear. The Cameraman, above left, is supposedly a stitch-for-stitch recreation of a jacket worn by the photographer who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary's successful first ascent of Everest (nevermind that Hillary was a Kiwi). Read Full Story...

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Tuesday, October 06, 2009 in: Gear, Weird and Funny
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Robot Boots Heat Your Feet

Battery-powered Bugathermo boots from Columbia keep your toes warm, cybernetic

We're just a few steps from looking like Robocop when we go hiking. The latest evidence? Columbia's Bugathermo boots, which use rechargeable lithium polymer batteries to power heating elements located in the toe and under the footbed. An adjustable LED ankle button lets you control whether you set your feet for "warm" or "toasted."

Batteries supposedly last 4-8 hours on one charge, and the boots are apparently rated for temperatures as low as -25º F/-32º C. That's hardly long enough if you end up in a true survival situation, but then again, that's what your kinetic energy backpack is for. Read Full Story...

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Tuesday, October 06, 2009 in: Gear
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