Marmot gear reviews

Gear Review: Marmot Ion 20 Sleeping Bag

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Marmot Ion 20 sleeping bag.
Marmot Ion 20 sleeping bag.

Sleeping Bag
Marmot Ion 20
$419, 1 lb. 13 oz. (regular)
Sizes: regular and long ($439)
moosejaw.com

Heading into Washington’s North Cascades National Park for an 80-mile backpacking trip in the last week of September, I didn’t want to take a chance on gear and clothing that might not stand up to cold, wet weather, maybe even sub-freezing nights and snow in that notoriously soggy mountain range. The hybrid-insulation Ion 20 fit the specs for that mission, thanks to its blend of high-quality down feathers and synthetic insulation and super warmth for such a lightweight bag.

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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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Review: Marmot Boy’s and Girl’s PreCip Jacket

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Marmot Girl's PreCip Jacket
Marmot Girl’s PreCip Jacket

Kid’s Rain Jacket
Marmot Boy’s and Girl’s PreCip Jacket
$65, 9 oz. (girls large)
Sizes: boys and girls XS (4-5) to XL (13-15)
moosejaw.com

When the first thunderstorm dumped rain less than an hour into our eight-mile, family dayhike on the Iceline Trail in Yoho National Park, in the Canadian Rockies, we just pulled on our rain shells and kept on hiking uphill. The second thunderstorm rolled in later, while we were descending but still above treeline, fully exposed to the effects of the wind, steady rain, and temperatures in the 50s. My 12-year-old daughter has less body fat than a pika, but she stayed comfortable and dry through those tempests in her Girl’s PreCip Jacket.

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Gear Review: Marmot Aquifer 24 Daypack

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Marmot Aquifer 24
Marmot Aquifer 24

Daypack
Marmot Aquifer 24
$129, 24L/1,465 c.i., 1 lb. 11 oz. (without Hydrapak reservoir, included)
One size
marmot.com

Wear a daypack for enough hours and you will know—maybe better than you want to—whether you love it, like it, or might chuck it off a cliff. I hauled Marmot’s Aquifer 24 hydration pack on a couple of ultra-hikes on opposite ends of the country, in very different terrain and climates: a 17-mile, 6,800-foot, 15-hour, June dayhike over four summits in the Northern Presidential Range in New Hampshire, and a 25-mile, roughly 4,000-foot, 12-hour, late-May dayhike off the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, to take a full measure of the Aquifer’s comfort and functionality.

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Review: Marmot Crux Jacket Ultralight Rain Shell

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Marmot Crux Jacket
Marmot Crux Jacket

Ultralight Rain Jacket
Marmot Crux Jacket
$275, 7.5 oz, (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
moosejaw.com

Your relationship with your rain shell can feel a little dysfunctional at times: on again, off again. On numerous trips from early March through May, from backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Royal Arch Loop—including an unusual, full day of rain showers and wind—to dayhiking in the Tetons and Zion National Park, trekking the Kepler Track in New Zealand’s notoriously wet Fiordland National Park, and backpacking five days down Paria Canyon on the Utah-Arizona border, I found the ultralight Crux good for trips where you’re cycling between wearing it and carrying it.

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