Gear Reviews

Gear Review: La Sportiva Raptor Shoes

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La Sportiva Raptor

Lightweight Trail Shoes
La Sportiva Raptor
$120, 1 lb. 9 oz. (men’s Euro 42)
Sizes: Euro men’s 36-47.5, women’s 36-43
sportiva.com

Is this a running or hiking shoe? You decide. Rare is the shoe that excels at trail running and crosses over to perform among the best light hikers, but the Raptor does exactly that. After several trail runs, the longest a 25.5-mile, seven-hour run-hike (running perhaps three-quarters of the distance, walking the rest) in the Boise Foothills, I fell in love with these non-waterproof low-cuts.

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Gear Review: Ribz Front Pack

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Ribz Front Pack

Ribz Front Pack
$60, 12 oz. (small)
Sizes: Small (fits waists 26-36 inches), regular (fits waists 32-46 inches)
ribzwear.com

Backpacks are great. They’re an enormously efficient way to carry a lot of gear. The downside, of course, is that you cannot get at most of what’s inside a backpack without taking it off. For years, I’ve used a chest pack for my camera gear and tried other front carrier packs without really finding a system that I loved. The Ribz Front Pack has now solved one of my most enduring gear dilemmas by being everything I’ve sought: convenient, adequately roomy, comfortable, and entirely unobtrusive.

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Gear Review: Helinox Featherlite Trekking Poles

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Helinox Featherlite Trekking Poles

Trekking Poles
Helinox Featherlite
$120, 10 oz. (120 cm)
Sizes: 120 and 135 cm (adjustable)
bigagnes.com

There’s a new ultralight standard in adjustable trekking poles. At 10 oz. for a pair, these sticks weigh in at less than half of many competing models. On a 17-mile dayhike of New Hampshire’s Franconia Ridge in July, I had Appalachian Trail thru-hikers comparing these against their own poles and growing wide-eyed with envy.

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Gear Review: Marmot Plasma 30 Sleeping Bag

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Marmot Plasma 30

Sleeping Bag
Marmot Plasma 30
$419, 1 lb. 6 oz. (regular)
Sizes: regular (6’), long (6’6”)
marmot.com

I don’t have room in my life for a heavy, bulky sleeping bag. If I’m backpacking with my young kids, carrying most of our food and gear, or loaded down for a multi-day climbing trip, I need to cut ounces everywhere possible. If I’m backpacking without my family, I want to go as light as possible. The newest bag to raise the superlight bar—or lower it, if you will—is the Plasma 30. I used it recently for five nights on the Ptarmigan Traverse in Washington’s North Cascades, and earlier this summer camping at Idaho’s City of Rocks and rafting Oregon’s Grand Ronde River.

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Gear Review: Black Diamond Soloist Winter Glove

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Black Diamond Soloist

Winter Glove
Black Diamond Soloist
$110, 9 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XL, women’s XS-L
blackdiamondequipment.com

Routinely getting cold fingers is a real drag when you like to ski fresh backcountry powder. I’ve tried a lot of gloves over the years, looking for ones that will keep my fingers from turning white, not cost a fortune, and allow me reasonable dexterity. For most of last winter and my first days on snow this winter, skiing the backcountry and resorts from Idaho’s Boise Mountains to Oregon’s Wallowas, I’ve pulled on the Soloist for cold days and never suffered painful digits.

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