Marmot product reviews

A backpacker hiking the Highline Trail past Elbow Lake in Wyoming's Wind River Range.

25 Essential Backpacking Gear Accessories of 2024

By Michael Lanza

Sure, your backpack, boots, tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, and other backpacking gear matter a lot, and you should put serious thought into your choices when buying any of them. But little things matter, too. Various necessary accessories, convenience items, and small comforts accompany me on backcountry trips. Nearly three decades of field-testing gear—including the 10 years I spent as the lead gear reviewer for Backpacker magazine and even longer running this blog—has refined my sense of what I like on certain types of trips and what I will not do without anytime.

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A backcountry skier in Idaho's Boise Mountains.

The Best Gloves For Winter 2024

By Michael Lanza

Looking for winter gloves that keep your hands warm and dry and are made to last for years? As a professional gear reviewer who gets cold hands easily and spends many days outside in winter, from downhill, backcountry, and Nordic skiing to trail running, biking around town, and working outside, I’ve used many types of gloves and learned a lot over the years about how to select the right gloves for a variety of uses.

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Testing the Marmot Tungsten UL 2P in Wyoming's Wind River Range.

Review: Marmot Tungsten UL 2P Backpacking Tent

Three-Season Tent
Marmot Tungsten UL 2P
$379, 3 lbs. 4 oz./1474g
moosejaw.com

Is weight the most important consideration when buying a backpacking tent? If it’s one of the first specs you look at, I suggest you give equal consideration to its space—and especially its space-to-weight ratio. In the interest of finding a tent that offers comfortable living quarters for a friend who’s over six feet tall and I to share on a 39-mile backpacking trip in Wyoming’s Wind River Range—but still comes in at a reasonably low weight—I decided to try out Marmot’s well-priced Tungsten UL 2P. I found that it’s a solidly built and notably spacious shelter for its weight, at a price that’s hard to beat for this quality; but I found some nitpicks with it, too.

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Review: Marmot Mica Ultralight Rain Jacket

 

Marmot Mica Jacket
Marmot Mica Jacket

Ultralight Rain Jacket
Marmot Mica Jacket
$160, 7 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XL
backcountry.com

Ultralight rain jackets usually come at a heavyweight price. Given the relatively diminutive cost of the Mica, I decided to take it out in wet, windy weather from New Hampshire’s White Mountains to southern Utah’s Dirty Devil River canyon to see how it measures up to much pricier ultralight shells (such as Marmot’s Crux Jacket, which lists for over $100 more). What I discovered didn’t surprise me: Differences in price usually align with performance. Still, the Mica delivers what you expect from a basic rain shell—protection from rain and wind—raising a legitimate question of why you would spend a lot more money for a comparably lightweight jacket.

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Review: Marmot Boy’s and Girl’s Guides Down Hoody

Marmot Boy's Guides Down Hoody
Marmot Boy’s Guides Down Hoody

Kids Down Jacket
Marmot Boy’s and Girl’s Guides Down Hoody
$140, 1 lb. 6 oz. (XL)
Sizes: boys XS-XXL, girls XS-XL
moosejaw.com

When the long shadow of dusk fell and the temperature plummeted at our successive campsites at over 10,000 feet and at 12,000 feet during a four-day climb of the Mountaineers Route on California’s 14,505-foot Mount Whitney in April, my 15-year-old son zipped up his Boy’s Guides Down Hoody and stayed perfectly warm.

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