backpacking gear reviews

The Nemo Hornet Osmo 1p ultralight backpacking tent.

Review: Nemo Hornet Osmo 1p Ultralight Tent

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Ultralight Solo Backpacking Tent
Nemo Hornet Osmo 1p
$460, 1 lb. 13 oz./822g
backcountry.com

The wind never cut us a break while backpacking in the Wind River Range in August. For hours a day on the trail, it literally knocked us off-balance at times. And then it pounded us every night. Finally, on our last evening, it blew in with a violent thunderstorm that generated gusts probably exceeding 40 mph/64 kph and perhaps reaching 50 mph/80 kph, accompanied by driving rain for several hours. Although a friend (in another tent) and I didn’t sleep a wink until that storm abated well after midnight, the Nemo Hornet Osmo 1p kept me dry and survived those tempests while demonstrating its strengths and nice design features.

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The Himali Accelerator Down Jacket.

Review: Himali Accelerator Down Jacket

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Down Jacket
Himali Accelerator Down Jacket
$345, 12.5 oz./354g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
himali.com

On cool mornings and windy evenings in the low 40s Fahrenheit (4-6° C) in campsites while backpacking the Skyline Trail in Jasper National Park and the Nigel, Cataract, and Cline Passes Route in the White Goat Wilderness in the Canadian Rockies in August, my Himali Accelerator Down Jacket kept me perfectly warm over just one or two base layers. By many measures, this midweight puffy hits the target for three-season mountain adventures in its balance of weight, packability, warmth, materials, water resistance, and features—all at a competitive price for a high-quality down jacket.

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The Black Diamond Astro 300 and Astro 300-R headlamps.

Review: Black Diamond Astro 300 and Astro 300-R Headlamps

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Rechargeable Ultralight Headlamps
Black Diamond Astro 300-R
$45, 2.6 oz./75g
blackdiamondequipment.com

Black Diamond Astro 300
$25, 2.6 oz./75g
blackdiamondequipment.com

How simple and inexpensive a headlamp do you want for the backcountry? Or to frame the question from a different angle: How complex a headlamp do you need? Using Black Diamond’s rechargeable Astro 300-R and the optionally rechargeable, battery-powered Astro 300 on a pair of backpacking trips in the Canadian Rockies—the Skyline Trail in Jasper National Park and the Nigel, Cataract, and Cline Passes Route in the White Goat Wilderness—as well as a four-day hike in the Wind River Range and camping at Idaho’s City of Rocks National Reserve, I became very acquainted with the strengths and shortcomings of two of today’s most affordable ultralight headlamps.

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The Granite Gear Blaze 60 in the Grand Canyon.

Review: Granite Gear Blaze 60 Backpack

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Backpack
Granite Gear Blaze 60
$300, 60L/3,660 c.i., 3 lbs. 4 oz./1.5kg (unisex regular)
Sizes: Unisex short, regular, and long, women’s short and regular
backcountry.com

How many pounds can a lightweight backpack carry comfortably? Granite Gear’s new Blaze 60 is pushing boundaries in that department. On a six-day, 74-mile backpacking trip through the Grand Canyon—including a hard, 15-mile, nearly 12-hour day hoofing most of the rugged Escalante Route—I carried the Blaze 60 with up to about 40 pounds inside. And that load, even in that terrain, felt clearly within this pack’s comfort zone. In fact, its low weight, superior compression, and versatile design make the Blaze 60 a legitimate short- and long-distance mule, elevating it into the realm of the best all-purpose backpacks on the market.

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The Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT air mattress.

Review: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT Air Mattress

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Insulated Air Mattress
Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT
$200, 11.5 oz./330g (size regular short, not including stuff sack or pump sack)
Sizes: four sizes from 20×66 inches/51x168cm to 25×77 inches/64x176cm
cascadedesigns.com

Choosing the absolute lightest air mattress you find doesn’t always go well: The hours of sleep lost to discomfort may exceed the weight savings in ounces. Put another way, the personal energy lost through a poor night of sleep may eclipse what you gain from shaving a few ounces of pack weight. The latest iteration of Therm-a-Rest’s ultralight NeoAir XLite air mats, the NXT, will flip that equation to the positive side of the energy ledger for many backpackers, as it did for me on several spring and summer backpacking trips.

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