Daypack Black Diamond Pursuit 15 $150, 15L/915 c.i., 1 lb. 7 oz./652g (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s and women’s S-L blackdiamondequipment.com From dayhikes up to 16 miles with spurts of running on trails in my local foothills to dayhiking the 13-mile, 3,500-foot Burgess Pass Loop in Yoho National Park, in the Canadian Rockies—cranking up a steep 3,000 vertical feet in 4.5 miles to Burgess Pass and then trotting a fast-paced descent on the rocky and wet Yoho Pass Trail—the Pursuit 15 struck an unusually effective balance between traditional hiking daypacks and running vests that’s most useful to ..read more

Sleeping Bag Nemo Riff 30 Endless Promise $360, 1 lb. 15 oz./879g (men’s regular) Sizes: men’s and women’s regular and long nemoequipment.com Nemo’s Riff down sleeping bags have long carved out a unique space among high-end backpacking bags with their spoon shape and comfortable dimensions, as well as the zippered “thermo gills” on the chest area for adjusting the bag’s degree of warmth to vent on mild nights or batten down the hatches on chilly nights. Spending eight nights in the 2024 update, the Riff 30 Endless Promise, in Glacier National Park in September and in southern Utah in early Oct ..read more

Two-Way Radio Rocky Talkie Mountain Radio $110 each/$220 per pair 6.1 oz./172.9g (one radio only), 7.9 oz./224g (including carabiners and leash) rockytalkie.com Over more than 30 years of climbing and skiing in the backcountry, I’ve had a few close calls, some directly due to the inability of my partner and I to hear or see one another. One of my most trusted partners—a longtime friend who once saved me from a potentially long lead-climbing fall by leaping down a steep hill at the route’s base to reel in many feet of rope—also once took me off belay before I reached the top of a pitch and anch ..read more

Rechargeable Ultra-Bright Headlamp Black Diamond Distance 1500 $200, 7.5 oz./213g blackdiamondequipment.com Comparing any hiking-oriented headlamps I’ve used to the Black Diamond Distance 1500 headlamp feels rather like comparing a Honda Civic to a Bradley armored fighting vehicle. At 7.5 ounces/213 grams, and putting out a supernova-like 1500 lumens at max power, the Distance 1500 is at least twice the price of all of today’s best headlamps for the backcountry and more than doubles most of them in weight and power. Over six months of testing this beast hiking, climbing, mountain and road biki ..read more

Backpacking and Trekking Boots Salewa Alp Trainer 2 Mid GTX $230, 2 lbs. 5 oz./1.05 kg (men’s US 9/Euro 42) Sizes: US men’s 7-14, women’s 6-10.5 backcountry.com Eight days of hiking in Iceland, including two dayhikes totaling nearly 10 miles of the peaks Blahnukur and Brennisteinsalda in the Fjallabak Nature Preserve and six days trekking nearly 49 miles on the world-class Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls trails, presented the full range of conditions that will test any boots: rain falling at times on most days, temperatures from the 30s to 50s Fahrenheit, and hiking on often-wet dirt, pebbles, ro ..read more

Hooded Fleece Jacket Beyond Clothing Alpha Aura Jacket $180, 12 oz./340g (men’s medium) beyondclothing.com On days of resort and backcountry skiing ranging from relatively mild winter temperatures just below freezing to a frigid day ski touring that dropped to 10° F by the time I finished, Beyond Clothing’s hooded Alpha Aura Jacket demonstrated its versatility as a supremely breathable middle and outer layer for cool- to cold-weather activities year-round, with unique design features that improve its weather protection and durability under a backpack. At 12 ounces/340 grams (for the men’s medi ..read more

Rock Climbing Crag Pack Mystery Ranch Tower 47 $325, 47L/2,870 c.i., 4 lbs., 7 oz./2 kg backcountry.com When it comes time to huck a heavy rack of gear to the crag, most climbers I know conscript a hiking or backpacking pack to the task. Invariably, their gear ends up in a massive, twisted pile of cooked spaghetti in that pack’s main compartment, and these climbers must then dump everything out to find what they need and repack each time they move to another route. With the Tower 47, Mystery Ranch solved this problem by designing a pack for cragging from the ground-up. With a high capacity, th ..read more

Rechargeable Ultralight Headlamp BioLite Headlamp 800 Pro $100, 5.3 oz./150g bioliteenergy.com From an 18-mile, 13-hour, four-summit, partly off-trail hike in Utah’s Wasatch Range in early October to many evenings biking city streets after dark, I’ve found that BioLite’s rechargeable Headlamp 800 Pro stands out for a rare combination of ultra-bright power, wide range of modes, modest weight for a backcountry headlamp that packs this much power and versatility. When you’re out well before dawn or after dark on a hiking, trail-running, climbing, ski touring, mountain biking, or other adventure w ..read more

Ski Touring Pack Black Diamond Dawn Patrol 32 $200, 30L/1,831 c.i., 2 lbs. 9 oz./1.2 kg (S/M) Sizes: S/M and M/L (32L/1,953 c.i.) blackdiamondequipment.com When ski touring or riding in the backcountry, besides our skis or board, our pack becomes the piece of gear we interact with the most—and we place competing demands on a ski touring pack: We want it light and comfortable for the up and the down but to also have easy, quick access and critical organization and features. On many days of backcountry ski touring, I found the Black Diamond Dawn Patrol 32balances those demands well and excels fo ..read more

Hooded Fleece Jacket Himali Limitless Grid Fleece Hoodie $160, 9.2 oz./261g (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s S-XXL himali.com The evolution of fleece has traced an arc toward efficiency and versatility that now seems to be reaching its apex in lightweight fleece hoodies, perfectly exemplified by Himali’s Limitless Grid Fleece Hoodie. The breadth of activities, conditions, and environments where I’ve worn it just this fall speak to my point, from a 13-hour, four-summit dayhike in Utah’s Wasatch Range to a short hike in southern New Hampshire, backpacking in southern Utah’s Escalante region, camping ..read more