There are few things better than coming out of your tent on a cold morning, firing up the camp stove, and making yourself a fresh cup of coffee. We’ve come a long way since cowboy coffee. No longer do you have to struggle through a cup of sludge or submit yourself to the coffee sacrilege of instant. Read More …
Gear Articles tagged ‘backpacking’
Backcountry Coffee Roundup
By: Justin Mool | April 30th, 2010Improvised Splints – Part II: Wrist, Hand, and Forearm
By: Patrick Kailey | April 28th, 2010
In today’s installment of Improvised Splints, we’ll go over how to make an impromptu brace for wrist, hand, and forearm injuries.
This is the second article of a three-part series. Check out Improvised Splints – Part I: Basic Principles. Read More …
Improvised Splints – Part I: Basic Principles
By: Patrick Kailey | April 27th, 2010
You’re halfway into a backpacking trip in Wyoming’s Wind River Range when a hiking partner slips on a wet scree slope, injuring her knee. She can bear weight but needs some support to hike out. She also injured her wrist as she tried to catch herself. Now what?
We’ve put together a three-part series of guidelines and techniques for constructing improvised splints. Today, we cover the principles, which apply to any improvised splint. Later, we’ll provide specific details on creating upper- and lower-limb splints. Read More …
Budget Travel: Backpacking on the Hostel Route
By: Jeb Admire | April 20th, 2010
Fushimi Inari-taisha, Kyoto, Japan
Summer is right around the corner, which means the hostel circuit will soon be teeming with world travelers searching for new experiences, friendships, and exotic ways to seduce the senses. We’ve come up with some tips for packing and strategic traveling that will benefit you once you’re on the road. Read More …
Shoulder Dislocation Relocation DIY: How to fix yourself in the backcountry
By: JGW | April 6th, 2010
Ouch. Author researching the pay method of shoulder relocation.
As anyone who has had the wonderful experience of having his or her shoulder out-of-socket knows, once initially dislocated, your shoulder’s nasty habit of jumping ship will increase. Shoulder dislocation sucks at base—add a backcountry environment, minimal funds, being alone, or just being far away from medical help to the mix, and the need for a DIY solution becomes evident. Read More …
Set Up Your Outdoor Kitchen
By: Sam Lund | March 26th, 2010
With the mountains beginning to shed their cold, icy layers and wild flowers bursting through their green fuses, it’s time for urban-dwellers to start thinking about returning to their primitive roots. We’ve compiled a list of essentials to keep at the ready for a backcountry cookery, campground culinary regale, or local park feast. Read More …
Deciphering Sleeping-Bag Ratings
By: Genevieve Mount | March 16th, 2010
Sleeping bags and standardized tests. Hmmm … the thought of standardized tests conjures up bad memories of SATs and that time you accidentally answered question 2 on the question 3 line, and subsequently answered the next thousand questions on the wrong lines as well.
In some cases, though, a standardized test can really come in handy. Say your old sleeping bag bites the dust. You get a new bag with the same temperature rating but made by a different brand. Then you go camping and spend all night shivering in your tent. It wasn’t any colder out this time, so what’s with the goose-bumps?
Your old and new bags might both be rated at -15F, but since the companies didn’t use the same test to rate the bags, your new bag might comparatively be more of a 0-degree. WTF, right? Read More …
How to Layer Properly for the Cold
By: Adam Riser | February 8th, 2010
Sweat soaks your back on the approach, and it turns to ice as the howling wind steals your warmth. You’re so cold that can only talk in vowels. You’re wearing every stitch of clothing that you brought, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. You didn’t layer properly. Read More …
Trip of the Month: Big Bend National Park
By: Andy Anderson | October 19th, 2009
In a remote corner of southwest Texas, in a large crook formed by the meandering Rio Grande, the Chisos Mountains rise from the rolling desert scrub and soar to nearly 8,000 feet. Surrounded by vast and often unforgiving terrain that stretches endlessly into the horizon, the majority of this massive expanse (over 800,000 acres to be exact) forms Big Bend National Park, one of the least visited parks in the United States. Read More …
Trip of the Month: Teton Crest Trail
By: Andy Anderson | July 20th, 2009
For much of the road-tripping summer tourist crowd, the Tetons are but a bonus stop on the way to the geysers and wildlife traffic jams of Yellowstone—but for backcountry travelers in the know, the Teton Crest Trail trek up the spine of America’s youngest and craggiest range hosts some of the most epic alpine terrain and scenery this side of the Alps. Read More …
Wilderness Tracking: An Invitation to Self-Discovery in the Backcountry
By: Jeb Admire | July 20th, 2009
Reading the signs of a track in mud.
Years ago a childhood friend lent me his copy of The Tracker, by Tom Brown Jr., and I only had to read a few lines before knowing that Brown’s teachings would have a lasting impact on my life. While not compelled to start spending hours leaning over a track to learn what every ridge, trough, and pressure release had to teach me about animal behavior—Brown calls this dirt time—I did take the wider message of respect and wilderness awareness to heart. Read More …