Hiking Gear Reviews

The Rab Mythic Alpine Down Jacket.

Review: Rab Mythic Alpine Down Jacket

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Water-Resistant Down Jacket
Rab Mythic Alpine Down Jacket
$425, 11 oz./313g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
backcountry.com

Two separate, six- to seven-day, September backpacking trips in Glacier National Park and the Wind River Range presented a quandary: Starting out with the weight of a week’s food gave me added incentive to trim all superfluous weight from my pack; yet the possibility of temperatures dropping near or even below freezing made bringing adequately warm layers essential. The Rab Mythic Alpine Down Jacket achieved both goals, keeping me warm on mornings around freezing while weighing less than most comparably warm puffy jackets.

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Oboz Katabatic Mid Waterproof boots.

Review: Oboz Katabatic Mid Waterproof Boots

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Hiking and Backpacking Boots
Oboz Katabatic Mid Waterproof
$240, 1 lb. 13 oz./822g (US men’s size 9)
Sizes: US men’s 7-15, women’s 5-12
backcountry.com

Designers of backpacking boots—driven by consumer demand—have brought that category through an evolution of sorts to where many popular models look very similar: reasonably lightweight, waterproof-breathable, increasingly flexible and comfortable while maintaining good stability and support, and moderately priced. But as I found while wearing them on a pair of three-day backpacking trips and dayhikes in the Canadian Rockies and a four-day backpacking trip in the Wind River Range, the Oboz Katabatic Mid Waterproof achieve all of those qualities while weighing significantly less than many boots in this category.

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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 Mystery Ranch Coulee 30.

Review: Mystery Ranch Coulee 30 Daypack

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Daypack
Mystery Ranch Coulee 30
$189, 29L/1,770 c.i., 2 lbs. 9 oz./1.2kg (men’s S/M)
Sizes: men’s S/M and L/XL, women’s XS/X and M/L
backcountry.com

Let’s face it, we sometimes tend to act like unreasonable relationship partners in our expectations for our gear, including hiking daypacks: We want everything to be perfect all the time. And with gear, we can obsess a bit over weight. But as I discovered carrying the Mystery Ranch Coulee 30 on hikes from the trails of southern Idaho and Utah’s Wasatch to the Canadian Rockies, its reasonable weight is more than validated by a design, comfort, capacity, and durability that make it one of today’s best daypacks.

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The Arc’teryx Norvan Windshell Jacket.

Review: Arc’teryx Norvan Windshell Jacket

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Ultralight Wind Shell
Arc’teryx Norvan Windshell Jacket
$130, 3.2 oz./91g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XXS-XXL
Men’s: arcteryx.com
Women’s: arcteryx.com

On winter and spring trail runs in my local foothills in every combination of cool to cold wind or calm air and overcast to sunny skies, and on a hike-scramble of 11,330-foot Twin Peaks in Utah’s Wasatch Range—nearly nine miles with 6,200 vertical feet of up and down—on a sunny October day with temps ranging from the 40s to the 50s Fahrenheit and cool wind at times, the Arc’teryx Norvan Windshell Jacket demonstrated its strengths and minor shortcomings as one of the very lightest of the many ultralight wind shells you’ll find today.

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