Gear Review: La Sportiva Core High GTX Boots

by
La Sportiva Core High GTX
La Sportiva Core High GTX

Lightweight Hiking Boots
La Sportiva Core High GTX
$200, 1 lb. 13 oz. (men’s Euro 42/US 9)
Sizes: Euro men’s 38-47.5, women’s 36-43
sportiva.com

Whenever a new boot comes along that’s mid-cut and under two pounds per pair, I want to try it out—that’s my preferred type of footwear for many hikes, from dayhikes of any distance, including ultra-hiking, to light backpacking. So I took Sportiva’s new Core High GTX on a very rugged, 20-mile dayhike in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and backpacking for three days in Idaho’s Sawtooths, and found them ideal for light hiking and super breathable.

Read on

Above the Great Gulf Wilderness, Presidential Range, N.H.

Ask Me: Tips On Gear For an Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike

by

Hi Mike,

I am 63 and retired. I have done multiple bicycle tours up to 600 miles around Lake Ontario. Now this boy in and old man’s body wants to hike the Appalachian Trail in the spring of 2016, at 64. Your articles on light backpacking have been valuable in making smart equipment choices. I can use some of my bike gear but the MSR Hubba Hubba tent and MSR WhisperLite stove have to go. I have some questions for you about gear.

Read on

Gear Review: MSR FlyLite Tent

by
MRS FlyLite
MRS FlyLite

Ultralight Tent
MSR FlyLite
$350, 1 lb. 9 oz. (not including stakes)
moosejaw.com

More backpackers are realizing what tent makers have known for years: The smartest way to reduce pack weight is by trimming the single heaviest item in your backpack—your tent. And you achieve the greatest weight savings there by eliminating or at least greatly reducing the poles and rainfly. The MSR FlyLite does both. On a five-day, late-March backpacking trip with my family in Paria Canyon, in Utah and Arizona, the FlyLite shined for having an outstanding space-to-weight ratio while proving itself stable in strong gusts, and not very susceptible to the bane of most single-wall tents: condensation.

Read on

Hike it Baby

Hike It Baby Gets Families Hiking, One City at a Time

by

By Michael Lanza

Shanti and Mark Hodges took their son, Mason, on his first hike when he was nine days old, walking a flat, quarter-mile trail at Oswald State Park on the Oregon coast. That was in July 2013. Then Mark, 35, an avid hiker, started carrying Mason on regular walks in the woods—just the two of them. Shanti worried about that.

Read on

Gear Review: Asolo Triumph Gv GTX and Tacoma Gv Boots

by
Asolo Triumph Gv GTX
Asolo Triumph Gv GTX

Boots
Asolo Triumph Gv GTX and Tacoma Gv
$230, 2 lbs. 6 oz. (men’s Euro 42/US 9)
Sizes: men’s Euro 39-47/US 6.5-13, women’s Euro 36-43/US 5-11
backcountry.com

You want to test boots, take them on a trek in New Zealand. You want to really test boots, take them on the Dusky Track in New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park, quite possibly the wettest, muddiest, most arduous footpath in a country known for its wet, rugged mountain tracks. I wore the Triumph Gv GTX in March on a four-day, hut-to-hut hike on the Dusky, from Lake Roe to Wilmot Pass Road, in a typical mix of Fiordland conditions—rain, wind, impressively deep mud, and occasional, brief flirtations with sunshine—and the boots shined much more brightly than the meteorological conditions.

Read on