America’s Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures
By Michael Lanza
Hiking down the snow- and ice-covered Grandview Trail into the world’s most famous canyon, I’m thinking about time. It’s not such an odd thing to think about when you’re walking on rock that’s 270 million years old, while looking out at geologic layers that make the stone under your feet seem adolescent. But I’m thinking about a much, much shorter period of time: 11 years, actually.
By Michael Lanza
We march upward through innumerable switchbacks on the steep and dusty last mile of trail to the Torres del Paine. Small stands of Patagonia’s ubiquitous, twisted lenga trees cling to an otherwise barren mountainside of dirt and rock, earth overturned by glaciers and continually rubbed raw by the abrasive wind.
Backpacking Tent
Exped Mira II
$379, 3 lbs. 14 oz.
exped.com
Rain, hail, snow squalls, strong winds, temps below freezing, as well as dry, calm nights in the 40s and low 50s—I saw it all in this tent, from Washington’s stormy Olympic Mountains to Idaho’s City of Rocks and Smoky Mountains.
Ultralight Rain Shell
MontBell Torrent Flier Jacket
$249, 8 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: Unisex S-XL
montbell.us
When a violent thunderstorm caught me on the 9,595-foot summit of Eagle Cap Peak in Oregon, and the skies opened up with booming thunder, lightning, and pounding rain and hail, I was certainly glad to have this shell handy. It fended off strong winds and kept me dry through that tempest, as it did in extended, wind-driven rains in Norway’s Jotunheimen National Park, and when I got caught in a sudden June snow squall a pitch off the ground while rock climbing at Idaho’s City of Rocks.
Camp Kitchen
Jetboil Sumo Titanium Group Cooking System
$190, 12 oz. (weight not including the measuring cup or the pot support)
$130, 16 oz. (for the aluminum version)
Jetboil Sumo Companion Bowl Set
$20, 6 oz.
Set includes two 23-oz. (675 ml) bowls and one 15-oz. (450 ml) bowl
jetboil.com
From boiling water in near-freezing temperatures, wind, and drizzle with two friends in the Olympic Mountains in September, to family backpacking trips in Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness in August and Capitol Reef National Park in March, this cooking system delivered everything I want in a backcountry kitchen for a small group: fast, efficient cooking even in inclement weather, and low weight and bulk in my pack.