Jason Stevenson

The most hardcore ultralighters spend years perfecting their packs—but you can slash your pack weight today with just a little effort.

We've made the mistakes so you don't have to.

Hiking where bears are present (that's more than 40 states) always requires precautions, like hanging food. But these three signals demand extra vigilance.

How to stay warm in your bag, keep your water bladder's tube from freezing, fuel your furnace, and more

Use this no-cost, do-anywhere training program to enhance hiking strength and speed this spring.

Broken, but not beaten, four backcountry travelers tap unexpected reserves to overcome horrific injuries.

Broken, but not beaten, four backcountry travelers tap unexpected reserves to overcome horrific injuries.

Broken, but not beaten, four backcountry travelers tap unexpected reserves to overcome horrific injuries.

Broken, but not beaten, four backcountry travelers tap unexpected reserves to overcome horrific injuries.

Murphy’s Law, meet your match. Our experts offer trip-saving fixes for 44 mishaps, from bug bites to bad partners to broken bones.

Name: Neil Perterson, 63 Predicament: Swept into a surge channel; stuck in a cave

Stay warm while hiking in the fall with these temperature-regulating tips.

Name: Ross Mason, 44 Predicament: Off-course and severely dehydrated Location: Gila Wilderness, New Mexico; November 2010

Learn how to pick the perfect campground and keep your food, and yourself, toasty in dipping temps.

Stay warm while hiking in the fall with these temperature-regulating tips.

How to predict the weather, plan for a warmer route, and coldproof your camp kitchen.

34 tips for ensuring comfort as you prep at home, hit the trail, and camp in the fall months.

The click, click, crap of a dead battery is about as welcome as the rattle of a diamondback in the latrine. Here's what to do.

Drowning is the #2 cause of outdoor deaths (falls are #1), so avoid wading waist-deep or too-fast rivers (a tossed, fist-size rock shouldn't move downstream before sinking), but if no choice exists:

"Hello, this is 911. Please state your emergency." If you're calling for backcountry help on your cell phone, what you say--or sob incoherently--next could determine when you get rescued.

Ounce for ounce, few items can improve your survival chances more than a humble trash bag.

Lost your hiking partner? Here's what to do to make sure you both come home in one piece.

Doing more (fresh-baked pizza and rumaki hors d'oeuvres) with less (a canister stove and a frying pan) is the essence of backcountry cooking. But when you're stuck without pots, pans, or utensils for more than a week, knowing how to cook and boil water with these four stand-in containers can be a vital, calorie-providing skill.

Few forms of hiking are more frustrating, exhausting, and potentially dead-ending than postholing (aka, flailing through thigh-deep snow). If a storm struck overnight or you forgot to pack snowshoes--but still have miles to go--save energy and stay drier by constructing your own Ojibwas.

Don't leave it in the car–mobile phones are the latest essential rescue gear.

Does your kid want to be an ice climber? How about a thru-hiker, or paddler? These cities have just what you need.

Which towns offer the ideal mix of accessible trails, inspiring teachers, and great recreational resources? We worked with The Outdoor Foundation to identify America's top 25 places to beat nature deficit disorder.

From Boulder to Juneau to Bozeman, see which cities made the cut for the best place to raise an outdoor kid, and why.

The stats and assumptions behind our grading system for the August 2009 story.

Which is the bigger backcountry threat, grizzlies or flash floods? Find out what should scare you–and how to survive it–with BACKPACKER's Terror Index.

Air travel advice from an FAA expert

Alaska is the last frontier, but energy development and climate change promise to change the face of our wildest state in your lifetime. Here's how.

Rising alpine temperatures and polluted snow are threatening snowpack–and the water it generates.

What to eat when you're one person spending one day on the trail and looking to travel light

There are plenty of pre-packaged first aid kits out there but, here are some good ingredients that should go in most kits for most types of hikes. Keep in mind that the longer the hike, or the larger the group, the more safety gear you should bring.

What you can do to thwart a panic attack in two common crisis situations