Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Asolo Triumph Gv GTX and Tacoma Gv Boots

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Asolo Triumph Gv GTX
Asolo Triumph Gv GTX

Boots
Asolo Triumph Gv GTX and Tacoma Gv
$230, 2 lbs. 6 oz. (men’s Euro 42/US 9)
Sizes: men’s Euro 39-47/US 6.5-13, women’s Euro 36-43/US 5-11
backcountry.com

You want to test boots, take them on a trek in New Zealand. You want to really test boots, take them on the Dusky Track in New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park, quite possibly the wettest, muddiest, most arduous footpath in a country known for its wet, rugged mountain tracks. I wore the Triumph Gv GTX in March on a four-day, hut-to-hut hike on the Dusky, from Lake Roe to Wilmot Pass Road, in a typical mix of Fiordland conditions—rain, wind, impressively deep mud, and occasional, brief flirtations with sunshine—and the boots shined much more brightly than the meteorological conditions.

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Gear Review: Jetboil Joule Group Cooking System

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Jetboil Joule Group Cooking System
Jetboil Joule Group Cooking System

Camp Cooking System
Jetboil Joule Group Cooking System
$200, 1 lb. 12 oz. (not including soft stuff sack for storing burner unit inside the pot)
moosejaw.com

When I’m backpacking with my family, I look for several important qualities in my backcountry stove: speed, versatility, simplicity, fuel efficiency (so I carry less, not to mention burning less carbon), and modest weight and bulk. Too much to ask? I don’t think so, and apparently Jetboil agrees with me. My family used the Joule GCS to boil water for our breakfasts and cook our dinners on a five-day backpacking trip down Paria Canyon in Utah and Arizona in late March, and the Joule met all of my demands.

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Review: Montane Featherlite Shell Jacket

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Montane Featherlite Shell Jacket
Montane Featherlite Shell Jacket

Rain Jacket
Montane Featherlite Shell Jacket
$399, 11 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL
moosejaw.com

Not many corners of the globe receive more rain than southern New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park, which sees anywhere from seven to 10 meters of precipitation annually—that’s anywhere from 275 to almost 400 inches of water falling from the sky, upwards of 10 times as much as received by famously gloomy Seattle. That makes it a pretty good place to test a rain jacket. The new Featherlite kept me dry and comfortable—sometimes for many hours of hiking in steady rain or wet snow—on Fiordland’s Kepler and Dusky tracks earlier this month.

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Gear Review: Scarpa Zen Pro Mid GTX Boots

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Scarpa Zen Pro Mid GTX
Scarpa Zen Pro Mid GTX

Hiking/Scrambling Boots
Scarpa Zen Pro Mid GTX
$199, 2 lb. 4 oz. (men’s Euro 42/US 9)
Sizes: men’s Euro 40-47, 48, women’s 36-42
backcountry.com

On an October hike and scramble up 9,860-foot McGown Peak in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, involving about 3,500 vertical feet and 11 miles round-trip, about half of it off-trail, I put these new boots through every test from scrambling third-class rock to hiking at a fast pace on forest trails. And the Zen Pro Mid GTX passed with flying colors, proving itself an outstanding, all-mountain boot.

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Gear Review: Katadyn Base Camp Pro 10L Gravity Filter

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Katadyn Base Camp Pro 10L Gravity Filter
Katadyn Base Camp Pro 10L Gravity Filter

Water Filter
Katadyn Base Camp Pro 10L Gravity Filter
$100, 12 oz.
Moosejaw.com

Treating water in the backcountry is usually a time-consuming chore—unless you use a gravity filter, which, once assembled, does most of the work for you. On a four-day, 86-mile, ultralight backpacking trip in northern Yosemite National Park in early September, a friend and I found the Katadyn Base Camp Pro 10L gravity filter simple to use and speedy, and it has the capacity to quickly treat water for a larger group or a family.

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