Michael Lanza

Review: L.L. Bean PrimaLoft Mountain Pro Hoodie

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L.L. Bean Primaloft Mountain Pro Hoodie
L.L. Bean Primaloft Mountain Pro Hoodie

Hybrid Insulated Jacket
L.L. Bean PrimaLoft Mountain Pro Hoodie
$129, 1 lb. 6 oz. (medium regular)
Sizes: men’s S-XL
llbean.com

Frigid blasts of wind hit us periodically as we climbed in hot alpine sunshine in a snow-filled couloir on the Mountaineers Route on 14,505-foot Mount Whitney, in California’s High Sierra in mid-April. Those are challenging conditions in which to stay warm without rapidly overheating—a common challenge in a variety of weather circumstances when you’re outside in winter or in the mountains in shoulder seasons. Fortunately for me, Bean’s hybrid-insulation PrimaLoft Mountain Pro Hoodie handles wide-ranging conditions with aplomb, so I never got cold or sweated much.

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Noland Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, N.C.

3-Minute Read: Backpacking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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By Michael Lanza

In the last couple hours of a recent 34-mile backpacking trip through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I was walking along Noland Creek when I saw yet another captivating scene of tumbling water, rocks, and fallen leaves. I stopped, set up my camera on my tripod, and captured the image above. I was hiking a loop on the North Carolina side that took me from lower elevations near Fontana Lake up to the park’s crest, traversing a stretch of the Appalachian Trail over 6,643-foot Clingmans Dome and the park’s highest bald, 5,920-foot Andrews Bald, where I enjoyed classic Great Smokies views of an ocean of blue ridges.

But well before I reached Noland Creek, I had already come to understand that these rounded, ancient mountains hold many of their best secrets below the treetops, in the cascade-rich streams that plunge energetically down through some of the most diverse forest found anywhere in America.

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The Wonderland of Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park.

Photo Gallery: Exploring Joshua Tree National Park

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By Michael Lanza

In the Southern California desert, where the Mojave and Colorado-Sonoran deserts overlap amid a sea of hundreds of granite monoliths, lies one of America’s most unusual outdoor playgrounds: Joshua Tree National Park. Long known as a mecca for rock climbers, with some 8,000 established climbing routes, the park also has miles of trails for hiking, running, and horseback riding, beautiful camping among rock formations where kids can scramble around, and a vast backcountry to explore within its nearly 800,000 acres, more than half of which is protected as wilderness.

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The LifeStraw Go Water Bottle With 2-Stage Filtration.

Review: LifeStraw Go Water Bottle With 2-Stage Filtration

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Water Filter Bottle
LifeStraw Go Water Bottle With 2-Stage Filtration
$45, 8 oz.
22 ounces/650ml bottle capacity
backcountry.com

On an 80-mile, five-day backpacking trip in the North Cascades National Park Complex in September, I stopped filling my pack’s bladder by the second day. I didn’t need it—I could just top off my LifeStraw Go bottle every time we passed one of the frequent creeks along our route, and continue hiking with hardly a pause. Rare is the piece of gear whose convenience and utility actually change the way I behave, but the LifeStraw Go does exactly that.

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Gear Review: Marmot Ion 20 Sleeping Bag

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Marmot Ion 20 sleeping bag.
Marmot Ion 20 sleeping bag.

Sleeping Bag
Marmot Ion 20
$419, 1 lb. 13 oz. (regular)
Sizes: regular and long ($439)
moosejaw.com

Heading into Washington’s North Cascades National Park for an 80-mile backpacking trip in the last week of September, I didn’t want to take a chance on gear and clothing that might not stand up to cold, wet weather, maybe even sub-freezing nights and snow in that notoriously soggy mountain range. The hybrid-insulation Ion 20 fit the specs for that mission, thanks to its blend of high-quality down feathers and synthetic insulation and super warmth for such a lightweight bag.

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