A backpacker at a small tarn in the upper valley of Middle Fork Lake on the Wind River High Route, Wyoming.

Adventure and Adversity on the Wind River High Route

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By Michael Lanza In the West Gully of 13,192-foot Wind River Peak, a steep bowling alley of loose scree and boulders that look poised to roll into someone’s femur and crack it like a peanut shell, four of us move cautiously downhill, searching for the safest path through one of the most hazardous stretches of the 96-mile Wind River High …

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Rock Slide Lake in Idaho's southern Sawtooth Mountains.

Going After Goals: Backpacking In Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains

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By Michael Lanza We reach an unnamed pass at 8,450 feet early on a September evening that could hardly be nicer, with temperatures in the low 60s and a soft whisper of breeze in the air. I’m hardly breaking a sweat; I love hiking at this time of day. Below us, the green valley of Johnson Creek falls away into …

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Mystery Ranch Coulee 25 daypack.

Review: Mystery Ranch Coulee 25 Daypack

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Daypack
Mystery Ranch Coulee 25
$189, 25L/1,525 c.i., 2 lbs. 11 oz. (men’s S/M)
Sizes: men’s S/M and L/XL, women’s XS/X and M/L
backcountry.com

NOTE: See my new review of the update to the Coulee 25, the Mystery Ranch Coulee 30.

The long arc toward lighter gear in the outdoor industry has undeniably brought many benefits to those of us who love going into the backcountry. But the flip side of that trend sometimes manifests in compromises in comfort, features, and durability. The Mystery Ranch Coulee 25 represents a very impressive balance between achieving all of those laudable traits while keeping the weight modest—making it one of the best daypacks on the market today.

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A backpacker above Crack-in-the-Wall, Coyote Gulch, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah.

Playing the Memory Game in Escalante, Capitol Reef, and Bryce Canyon

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By Michael Lanza

Below a deep gash in a 50-foot-tall cliff of golden sandstone, shaded from the low, late-afternoon sun of early spring, I scramble up a steep slab using in-cut holds carved into the soft rock. Ten or 12 feet off the ground, I pull myself over the lip of a ledge to peer into a narrow cut in the earth, a hidden geologic oddity that lures in a certain type of hiker for one reason: because it’s barely wide enough for humans to squeeze through. And I have to smile.

I’m grinning first of all because I’ve found just what we had hoped to see. Water sometimes pools in a couple of potholes near the mouth of this slot canyon, and the air temperature today feels a little too cool to soak ourselves in cold water. Today, though, the sandy-bottomed, giant stone teacups are dry. But secondly, touching me on a more personal level, this canyon’s entrance looks much as I remember it from the first time I hiked through here, 16 years ago this month.

In less than two hours, my impression of this place will be almost completely remade.

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The 10 Best Backpacking Packs

Review: Osprey Atmos AG 65 and Aura AG 65 Backpacks

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BackpackOsprey Atmos AG 65 and Aura AG 65$340, 65L/3,967 c.i., 4 lbs. 11 oz./2.1kg (men’s medium)Sizes: men’s S-L, women’s XS-MAtmos AG 65: ospreypacks.comAura AG 65: ospreypacks.com A backpack is a little like a relationship: It’s hard to tell what it’s going to be like when you first meet, and then you get to know each other much better over time. …

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