Hiking Gear Reviews

The Black Diamond Spot 400.

Review: Black Diamond Spot 400 Headlamp

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Ultralight Headlamp
Black Diamond Spot 400
$50, 2.5 oz./70.9g
blackdiamondequipment.com

How do you choose a headlamp for the backcountry? If you’re looking for a range of modes that’s both basic and versatile, good brightness and dimming capability, and smart features that make it more useful while maintaining a design simplicity that doesn’t require an advanced science degree to operate it, Black Diamond’s Spot 400 is hard to beat. On evenings in camp on a five-day, late-summer hike in the Wind River Range, I found this latest update sustains and improves on the legacy of BD’s popular Spot line as an excellent value in an ultralight headlamp.

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Featured Friends Eos Down Jacket.

Review: Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket

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Down Jacket
Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket
$409, 11 oz./312g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XL
featheredfriends.com

When you have something that works, the worst thing you can do is change it much. Feathered Friends stuck with a winning formula when updating its popular Eos Down Jacket, making just two minor improvements. Testing the updated Eos on adventures ranging from a windy and chilly June camping and climbing trip in Idaho’s City of Rocks National Reserve to nine days backpacking through the High Sierra in August, I found it just as warm and comfortable as I have found the previous iteration of this poofy puffy in the backcountry of Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, Glacier National Park, and countless other wild places.

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Black Diamond Spot 400-R headlamp.

Review: Black Diamond Spot 400-R Headlamp

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Rechargeable Ultralight Headlamp
Black Diamond Spot 400-R
$65, 2.6 oz./73.7g
blackdiamondequipment.com

Using Black Diamond’s Spot 400-R on various outings, from nights in camp in Montana’s Beartooth Mountains, southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, and on a nine-day hike of nearly 130 miles through the High Sierra in August, mostly on the John Muir Trail, and pre-dawn starts on a seven-day, nearly 70-mile walk in September in Glacier National Park and a six-day hike on the Grand Canyon’s Gems Route in April, to dawn patrol backcountry skiing in Idaho’s Boulder Mountains, backpacking on a section of the Arizona Trail along the Gila River in the first days of April, and trekking hut-to-hut on New Zealand’s Routeburn and Milford tracks in late spring, I found this latest update continues the legacy of functionality and versatility that has made BD’s long-popular Spot line arguably the best value in an ultralight headlamp—while also demonstrating the strong value proposition of choosing this rechargeable model over a battery-powered headlamp.

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Black Diamond Technician hiking-approach shoes.

Review: Black Diamond Technician Hiking-Approach Shoes

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Hiking/Approach Shoes
Black Diamond Technician
$135, 1 lb. 4 oz. (US men’s 10/Euro 43)
Sizes: US men’s 6-14, women’s 5.5-11
backcountry.com

My summer goal was to bag all the 11ers in my home range, Utah’s Wasatch, and the Technicians accompanied me on almost every summit—including technical climbing up the North Ridge of the Pfeifferhorn, a mixed day of scrambling and hiking over 17 miles and 7,000 feet of vertical on the Thunder Traverse, and various moderate rock climbs at the crag (up to 5.10a). In these situations, the Technicians performed exceptionally on rock, but left some things to be desired on long days of hiking.

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Oboz Sawtooth X Mid Waterproof boots.

Review: Oboz Sawtooth X Mid Waterproof Boots

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Hiking and Backpacking Boots
Oboz Sawtooth X Mid Waterproof
$175, 2 lbs. 7 oz. (US men’s size 9)
Sizes: men’s 7-15, women’s 5-12
moosejaw.com

Between the days of backpacking 11 to 12 miles with up to about 7,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain and loss, the seven miles of steep and loose off-trail hiking, the need to carry eight pounds or more of water weight at times, and of course, the heat, one might speculate that our six-day backpacking trip to Utah Flats and Clear Creek in the Grand Canyon was no more than an elaborate ruse to put hiking boots to a severe test. (Some of my companions went so far as to suggest a plot to inflict physical suffering on them. Yea, whatever.) But after all was said and done, the Oboz Sawtooth X Mid Waterproof shined through all the canyon (and I) hurled at them. Here’s why.

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