America’s Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures
By Michael Lanza
The choices in tents for backpacking seem to get better every year, with lightweight models continually getting lighter and other advances that make tents sturdier and more livable without adding weight. But with all the options out there, how do you choose? The answer is simpler than you might think: It comes down to understanding the key differences that distinguish tents from one another—which will help you understand what you need.
By Michael Lanza
If you’ve been thinking you need—or want—a new backpack, tent, boots, sleeping bag, rain shell, down jacket, or some other piece of hiking or backpacking gear or apparel, right now is one of the two or three best times of year to grab excellent deals. Most online and brick-and-mortar retailers are holding major sales, offering deeply discounted prices on new and recently new gear. If you want to save yourself serious cash (and who doesn’t?), read on for my recommendations for favorite models of packs, tents, jackets, and other gear, and links to the best sales taking place right now.
Trail Running/Hiking Shoes
Hoka One One Speedgoat 6
$155, 1 lb. 3 oz./539g (US men’s 9)
Sizes: US men’s 7-15, women’s 5-12
backcountry.com
Hoka’s popular trail-running shoe, the Speedgoat, has passed through several updates since it first emerged on the scene in 2015, named for the American phenom ultrarunner Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer. The latest, the Speedgoat 6, builds upon that legacy again, with a more durable, breathable woven upper, a more responsive midsole, and even better traction—maintaining the Speedgoat’s standing amid an expanding field of copycats and its stature as a solid performer for trail ultra-runs and ultra-hikes, lightweight dayhiking, and ultralight backpacking.
Ultralight Sleeping Bag
Sea to Summit Spark Pro -9C/15F Bag
$649, 1 lb. 11 oz./765.4g (regular)
Sizes: unisex regular and long ($689)
seatosummit.com
We woke up from our first night in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains in mid-September, at well over 10,000 feet beside a creek that sang soft lullabys to us all night, to find ice crystals in our water bottles and one full water bladder that had been left outside the tent partly frozen. But the overnight temperature dropping to below freezing had hardly registered with me as I slumbered soundly zipped up inside my Sea to Summit Spark Pro -9C/15F sleeping bag—one of the warmest for its weight, most packable, and well constructed ultralight sleeping bags you’ll find.
Ultralight Rain Jacket
Rab Downpour Light Waterproof Jacket
$165, 7.7 oz./219g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL (8-16)
backcountry.com
Two startingly loud, sharp, and sustained crackles of thunder and a flash of lightning gave us about a two-minute warning before the skies opened up while we hiked at well over 11,000 feet on the Continental Divide Trail in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains in mid-September. I got Rab’s Downpour Light Waterproof Jacket on and zipped up moments before the thunderhead began bombarding us with wind-driven rain and hail. And this ultralight rain shell kept me dry hiking through that storm and setting up our tent in steady rain and wind once we found a campsite.