Gear

I have something very painful to admit, but this time it doesn't require penicillin. Brace yourself: I used to wear moon boots. To those of you who don't know what those are, I have one thing to say: get off... Gearflogger

There are few things better than strapping on Power Stretch. A Power Stretch suit would be one of those few things. Outdoor Research hooks us up with the Saturn suit for men, a Farmer John style one-piece suit that makes... Gearflogger

Sequoia Winter Mountaineering Clinic

The Sequoia Winter Mountaineering Clinic, which is offered by REI Adventures throughout the winter each year, combines a serious three-day adventure with onsite instruction on snow camping, mountaineering, and winter backcountry travel skills. Navigation and route-finding, medicine for mountaineering, ice ax self-arrest, crampon use, and basic rope team travel are additional highlighted items on the syllabus for the trip.

Keep Reading...

Coghlan’s Survival Kit-in-a-Can is a quirky product. It is a fun gift, a tin of trinkets and outdoors doodads that pour forth out of a type of vessel most often associated with sardines. Inside, there are “38 essential items for warmth, shelter, and energy in life-threatening situations.”

Indeed, in the tight space of the can you find a tiny compass, fire starters, utility wire, waterproof matches, fishing line, hooks, a needle, duct tape, a signal mirror, a whistle, and other items to help keep you safe in a worst-case wilderness scenario. Strangely, there’s also chewing gum and a single piece of hard candy.

Keep Reading...

It was a bright day in south Florida, Miami’s glass skyline rippling in heat over turquoise water, when the film crew from Minnesota walked onto the beach. Speedboats tore through water offshore. A wakeboarder gripped a towline, carving a turn and popping to take air off an ocean wave. “It was all a bit surreal,” said Noah Ferche, who at the time was a college junior.

The venue, a sports festival last April called BoardUp Miami, had hired Ferche and three friends, all amateur video producers and wakeboarding enthusiasts, to oversee filming for the weekend’s action-sports lineup. With little more than a MySpace page, the group had caught enough attention to be contracted and flown south for the gig. “BoardUp set us thinking that maybe we can make a career out of this after all,” said Ferche, 22, whose hobby as a videographer stretches back to junior high school.

Keep Reading...

Just in time for Valentine's Day and Spring skiing: nothing says I love you like a new rack! A roof rack, you gutter snipes. And what's better than a new rack? A rack that locks! Thule knows racks like a... Gearflogger

Balancing downhill power and performance with acceptable cross-country capability has long been a battle for backcountry-skiing connoisseurs. You need speed on the flats and control when you’re going down, a free heel to stride, and power to turn and stop where the mountains tip steep.

All these requirements do not add up to any whole. Despite decades of tweaking and the development of hundreds of products, a single system for all snowy terrain has never come to light.

Keep Reading...

Arc'Teryx makes a mean soft shell, no doubt. They pay extra attention to details like stitch counts and anatomically correct articulation to ensure that fit and finish are at the head of the pack. The Gamma SV Hoody is their... Gearflogger

Go to the full review here: http://thegearjunkie.com/gear-review-recrepair-emergency-patch-kit

Rec’Repair Emergency Patch Kit

Keep Reading...

O.K., not Gear Junkie, actually. But my article from November in the New York Times on Bonneville Seabase aquatic center made The Week’s list of aggregated media mentions, titled
“Utah’s deep-sea diving”.

Keep Reading...

I don't know what it is about these Swedes, but they seem to be spawning outdoor gear like rabid teenage reindeer. Case in point: Lundhags, based in Jarpen (drive north from Stockholm until you hit Hudiksvall...) has a full line... Gearflogger

A great nylon sheet is flapping on the ice, stirring in the wind and threatening to rise. I am standing in skis on a frozen lake, my hands fumbling with parachute lines strewn ahead on the snow. “Get that bar spun over,” shouts Tighe Belden, my instructor for the day. “Here it goes!”

The kite rockets skyward, a tremendous whoophff! of force as nylon billows and bursts to a half-moon shape 100 feet in the air. Lines stretch and come taut, yanking my tethered body away from Belden, alone for a ride eastbound across the ice.

Keep Reading...

As we come up on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (and Abe Lincoln, coincidentally), what more fitting tribute can we make than to crassly commercialize it? Hence, the Marmot Evolution glove! The Evolution is a speedy... Gearflogger

Thus starts my story in today’s (Friday, Feb.6) New York Times — “Working Away in Crested Butte” — which looks not at the resort’s extreme skiing but at a group of professionals who have eluded the traditional constraints of geography to foster white-collar careers essentially based in the wilderness.

Keep Reading...

Regular Gear Junkie readers know of my unabashed affinity toward the Buff, a hard-to-categorize hat that looks like a do-rag created for outdoorsy types. Made of a thin, stretchy, seamless fabric, a Buff hugs your head to wick sweat or keep the sun and wind at bay. It provides warmth in the winter and can be used to layer under a fleece hat to seal off your head while skiing, running or climbing.

I wear a Buff year-round, including in the coldest months in a balaclava configuration and in summer folded on my forehead as a sweat band. Indeed, the Buff has become one of those indispensable objects I rarely leave home without.

Keep Reading...

Thanks to headline sponsor Wigwam socks and all the companies that donated prizes. Thanks to the thousands of readers who signed up. Be sure to check back later this week to see the full list of winners!

Keep Reading...

Winter is a fantastic time for photography. The crowds are thin, the air is clear and the sun is low in the sky, making the good light better for longer. Here are a few tips I’ve gathered from years of shooting in the wintery Rocky Mountains.

1. Keep Your Camera Cold
It may be tempting to warm the camera’s batteries by putting the entire camera inside your jacket. Don’t. The warmth of the jacket combined with the humidity inside will fog your lenses and viewfinder as soon as they are again exposed to the cold. The same holds true for entering a ski lodge, warm tent or toasty car. If you keep your camera cold, the lens will stay fog-free and ready to use.

Keep Reading...

Once again, you all know how I feel about running. And about treadmills. And yet, having tested my heart rate with the Garmin Forerunner I have, to my great disappointment, hard data showing that running delivers the most consistent high-heart-rate... Gearflogger

The mercury dredged to minus-26 degrees last week here in Minnesota. But I was not worried. A shipment had arrived from Canada Goose, the Toronto-based outerwear maker that still deals in beaver-fur trim, hoods with coyote fur, and buckets of its eponymous goose-down insulation.

The company, which has serviced polar expeditions and Mount Everest climbs for decades, touts its catalog as containing the “best extreme cold weather outerwear in the world.”

Keep Reading...

REI Shells add RECCO — REI introduced updated versions of its Kulshan and Shuksan jackets and pants, which are streamlined eVent-fabric-based shells made for climbing, backcountry skiing, and other winter pursuits. The upgrade includes new colors and, more significantly, the addition of RECCO reflectors integrated into the jacket and pants, which are non-powered devices made to increase a person’s chance of rescue in an avalanche. RECCO reflectors do not replace an avalanche receiver, and not all search-and-rescue teams are equipped to detect a signal from a RECCO reflector. But the device — which is a small electronic transponder with a copper aerial and a diode surrounded by protective weatherproof plastic — serves as an additional safety piece for added insurance. REI’s Kulshan and Shuksan products will be available in fall 2009. (Note: Image is 2008 Shuksan jacket.)

Keep Reading...