Gear Reviews

The Flylow Baker Bib.

Review: Flylow Baker Bib

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Skiing and Riding Bib
Flylow Baker Bib
$440, 2 lbs. 2 oz./952g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, with tall and short sizes
backcountry.com

Skiing in Utah’s Wasatch mountains virtually every single time it snows exposes me to a wide range of inclement weather conditions: from subzero temperatures and cold smoke to warm, humid clouds dumping wet snow that can soak outerwear in minutes. Moreover, skiing as often and hard as I do exposes my clothing to a serious amount of wear. For these reasons, I went on a quest for a bib that would keep me dry through wet, seven-plus-hour days of skiing and have the durability to last hundreds of ski days. That search that led me to the Flylow Baker, which I’ve found ideal for resort skiing and colder, wetter days in the backcountry.

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The Gregory Kiro 24L.

Review: Gregory Kiro 24L Daypack

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Daypack
Gregory Kiro 24L
$120, 24L/1,465 c.i., 1 lb. 12 oz./793.8g
One non-adjustable unisex size
backcountry.com

I can say this about Gregory’s Kiro 24L: I made a genuine effort to hike too far for its comfort limits, but I failed. From a 12-mile (19.3-kilometer), 4,400-foot (1,340-meter) dayhike in New Hampshire’s Southern Presidential Range in late May to a nine-mile (14.5-kilometer), more than 5,200-foot (1,600-meter) dayhike of 12,662-foot Borah Peak, Idaho’s highest, in July, and a roughly 19-mile (30.6-kilometer), 4,500-foot (1,370-meter) October dayhike and off-trail scramble up and down 10,716-foot Mount Cramer, the second-highest peak in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, the Kiro 24 had the capacity and all-day comfort for it all.

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The Mystery Ranch Radix 57 on New Zealand's Routeburn Track.

Review: Mystery Ranch Radix 57 Backpack

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Backpack
Mystery Ranch Radix 57
$299, 57L/3,635 c.i., 3 lbs. 11 oz./1.67kg (men’s small)
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-L
backcountry.com

With the Radix 57 backpack, Mystery Ranch challenges backpackers with this thought experiment: How light is just right? I had plenty of time to ponder that question, carrying the Radix 57 on backpacking trips in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains and southern Utah’s Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon, plus two classic New Zealand hut treks, the Routeburn and Milford tracks. While I confess a bias toward ultralight backpacks (and I’ve used many), I found criticisms as well as much to recommend about the Radix 57.

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The Biolite Firepit+

Review: BioLite Firepit+ Portable Backyard Fire Pit and Grill

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Portable Backyard/Camping Firepit and Grill
BioLite Firepit+
$400, 20 lbs./9kg
backcountry.com

Many of us learned a lot about what we liked during the pandemic and many of those newly discovered or rediscovered likes have stayed with us—like sitting out in the back yard to eat and socialize. We realized (or were reminded): Hey, it’s nice sitting out here! That included evenings when cool temperatures might have previously driven us indoors. So we sought ways to heat our domestic outdoor spaces. Enter the BioLite Firepit+, a more civilized and controllable evolution of the old stone-ringed (sometimes smoky and not very heat-efficient), backyard fire pit.

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Leki Makalu FX Carbon trekking poles.

Review: Leki Makalu FX Carbon Folding Trekking Poles

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Trekking Poles
Leki Makalu FX Carbon Poles
$230, 1 lb. 1.9 oz./508g (per pair)
One size, adjustable 110-130cm/43.3-51.2 ins.
backcountry.com

What qualities are you looking for in trekking poles? How about good adjustability, packability, durability, comfort, reliability, and especially versatility? Those adjectives all describe the Leki Makalu FX Carbon folding poles—which I increasingly found myself reaching for when choosing poles for backpacking trips in places as rugged as the Wind River Range, High Sierra, Canadian Rockies, High Uintas, and more. In fact, I can point to just one drawback to them—although in this case, I question whether it can even be called that.

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