Gear Reviews

Review: Arc’teryx Zeta LT Rain Jacket

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Arc’teryx Zeta LT Jacket
Arc’teryx Zeta LT Jacket

Rain Jacket
Arc’teryx Zeta LT Jacket
$475, 12 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
backcountry.com

Pulling the trigger on buying a high-end piece of outdoor apparel like a rain jacket can be a tough decision, but it really comes down to a very basic question: Why do you need it? Beyond personal issues regarding budget and priorities, and certainly comparing similar products based on performance and price, consider whether you will use the jacket in ways that take advantage of those aspects of the jacket that justify its price. The Zeta LT seemed like a good example to use to demonstrate how to evaluate those questions, so I took it out hiking and backpacking in wet weather from Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains to Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rockies, to contemplate the value of a rain shell. And it more than demonstrated its value.

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Review: Patagonia Nano-Air Vest

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Patagonia Nano-Air Vest
Patagonia Nano-Air Vest

Breathable Insulated Vest
Patagonia Nano-Air Vest
$199, 8 oz./227g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XL
backcountry.com

If I had a buck for every day I’ve worn a vest outdoors over the years, well, I might not have to rely on a blog as the source of my wealth. But with the recent advent of breathable insulation, the classic vest, in its various iterations, faces serious competition. Curious to see whether a new-tech vest with breathable insulation could still measure up among today’s diverse array of versatile insulation pieces, I wore the Nano-Air Vest on Idaho adventures from July through October, including dayhikes and backpacking trips in the Sawtooth and White Cloud mountains and a five-day whitewater rafting and kayaking trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. It may speak volumes about this vest to say that I wore it a lot.

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Gear Review: Marmot Scandium Sleeping Bag

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Marmot Scandium sleeping bag.
Marmot Scandium

Three-Season Sleeping Bag
Marmot Scandium (20° F)
$199, 2 lbs. 14 oz. (regular)
Sizes: regular and long ($219)
marmot.com

A backpacking truth: You can say what you want about the details of a bag’s construction, but the real measure of its value comes on nights when you need it to accomplish just one function—keep you warm. Beside Quiet Lake at over 9,200 feet in Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains in early October, I awoke to find frost coating much of our gear that we’d left outside the tent; the overnight low had dropped nearly to freezing. And I had not even noticed the cold, snoozing comfortably all night in the Scandium.

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Gear Review: Salewa Alp Flow Mid GTX Boots

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Salewa Alp Flow Mid GTX
Salewa Alp Flow Mid GTX

Backpacking Boots
Salewa Alp Flow Mid GTX
$239, 2 lbs. 9 oz. (US men’s 9)
Sizes: US men’s 7-13, women’s 5-11
backcountry.com

In a continuing quest to find boots that handle any kind of terrain and conditions without baking my feet, I took the Alp Flow Mid GTX—which sport Gore’s newest, most-breathable technology, Surround—on a pair of hikes that push footwear to extremes: a mostly off-trail, two-day backpacking trip in early October in Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains, and a late-May dayhike up Garnet Canyon in Grand Teton National Park, slogging through a lot of soft, wet snow.

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Gear Review: Exped Mira II Hyperlite Tent

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Exped Mira II HL tent.
Exped Mira II HL tent.

Ultralight Tent
Exped Mira II Hyperlite
$429, 2 lbs. 14 oz. (without the included stuff sack and eight sturdy stakes, at least six of which are needed to pitch the tent)
moosejaw.com

On the first of two nights backpacking with my 15-year-old son in Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains, I got an immediate sense of what I liked about Exped’s sub-three-pound Mira II HL (besides its low weight): With darkness and rain rapidly approaching, we pitched the tent easily in a couple of minutes. We lived and slept comfortably inside, thanks to a design that maximizes space while minimizing weight. And when it rained through the night, we stayed dry despite keeping one vestibule door wide open to help ventilate the interior.

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