May Maps Issue Now Online!
Check out our blowout May MAps issue, now online and free.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
Alright, cheapskates—it’s your favorite day of the year, when BACKPACKER’s newsstand issue goes live. This month’s is a doozy: Our May Maps Issue featured groundbreaking maps, amazing life-list trips, and navigational skills out the wazoo. A sampling:
Grand Canyon
Learn where solitude reigns–and why. Plus: Tackle the hardest Big Ditch route we’ve ever published in this interactive map.
Ultimate Weekends
Climb Rainier or paddle the Everglades? Fastpack the Long Trail or savor Lost Coast sunsets? With 18 sweet trips to choose from–complete with tracklogs and detailed maps–your perfect adventure awaits.
Navigate Like a Pro
Get started with our basic map-and-compass primer. Then graduate to advanced skills for negotiating whiteouts, peaks, deserts, forests, and lakes. Plus: Our testers pick the best compasses, GPS units, and map tools.
Utterly, Hopelessly, Truly LOST
Not lawyer-approved: We blindfolded navigation novice Jim Thornton and dropped him by bushplane in the middle of Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. Then it started snowing. Would you survive?
Can you dig it? I think you can. Start planning your summer with our May Maps Issue now.
—Ted Alvarez