Gear

On this page I’m going to give some shoutouts to my favorite bits of gear. I’m not sponsored or supported or anything like that, I don’t get any kickbacks. I paid for all of this stuff out of pocket.

Montane Featherlite Smock. This is a British company that makes ultra-ultra-lite windshirts. A windshirt is simply a windproof shell, nothing more. It deletes the windchill factor and lets your warm layer stay warm, while being very breathable. It’s not waterproof. There are a lot of companies making windshirts, however most have pockets and hoods and zippers and waterproof/breathable membranes and all kinds of features that make them heavy and expensive like a jacket. This Featherlite Smock has no features at all, weighs three ounces, and stuffs in your pocket (it comes with a comical little stuffsack the size of a golf ball), and it’s not even expensive. Maybe you’ve heard of “softshell” jackets – that’s basically a windproof, breathable fleece jacket. I prefer a plain fleece plus this windshirt. Or I’ll use this over a down vest, or over a thermal jersey. Much more flexible. Absolutely essential and I rarely go on a hike without it. Downsides: like all ultralight clothing, it’s not for bushwhacking. Relatively thin, fragile fabric.

Wool baselayers. I absolutely live in my lightweight smartwool top. Advantages of wool: stays warm when damp, doesn’t develop the sick stench of synthetics. The modern ones use a very soft, non-itchy blend with just the right amount of spandex, and are easy to wash (no special care). Combined with a windshirt, a lightweight wool top makes a wonderful ultra-light baselayer for peak bagging. Smartwool and Ibex are two awesome brands. Disadvantage: cost.

Trail running shoes. I hate boots with a passion. Too heavy, too stiff, too sweaty despite whatever the salesguy told you about the high-tech goretex membrane. I hate sweaty feet, they just lead to blisters. I hate having things clamped around my ankles, just leads to ankle pain for me. Heavy boots make me tired, light shoes preserve a lot of energy for me. Waterproof? Who needs it. Combine with wool socks, walk right through the stream crossings, and you’ll be warm again only a few yards down the trail. Don’t be tempted by expensive trail runners with a goretex membrane, it’s unnecessary and just makes them as expensive and sweaty as boots. Just get good wool socks like smartwool (I’ve tried REI brand wool socks and they fell apart rather quickly, my smartwool socks seem to last forever). Disadvantages: don’t do this in snow. Your feet will freeze. On snow, you need a full waterproof shoe. For summer Sierra climbing, there’s no snow to speak of, trail runners are great.

Lightweight packs. The Granite Gear Vapor Trail (just over two pounds) is sort of the gold standard for lightweight backpacking packs (probably 80% of thru-hikers use this pack) if your load is under 30 lbs or so. For heavier loads (ice camping, technical climbing, etc) I like Osprey packs. The z-pulley waistbelt is crucial! They have the best compromise between fit, suspension, frame, weight, and minimal but essential features that I’ve found. I use an Exposure 66 pack (four pounds) for loads up to 50-55 lbs.

Down products by Western Mountaineering and Feathered Friends. Both made in USA, WM in San Jose CA and FF in Seattle WA. You can probably find slightly lighter ultra-lightweight gear but these guys have the perfect balance between weight, durability, and all-around broad-spectrum use. WM garments are impressively light but for me fit a little roomy and loose, with a broad waist that allows wind gusts in. The tight fit of FF jackets and vests is so sublimely perfect! The Helios vest and jacket are the ultimate lightweight active garments. The shoulders are cut so the waist, which has just the perfect amount of elasticity, stays down when you raise your arms. You don’t know how awesome this is until you start climbing in the cold. The FF Volant jackets are a little more bomber, and available with a waterproof outer fabric which is great in snow, hail, and light rain. Also the Volant hood is a thing of warm, supple, magical beauty. Conversely, I prefer the simple elegant cut of WM sleeping bags to the myriad options of the FF bags. I use the classic sub-2lb Western Mountaineering Ultralight for most conditions, and a very very fluffy sub-3lb Antelope with the waterproof shell for very serious cold. Disadvantage: cost.

Windshell gloves, made of Gore Windstopper N2S. This is a thin windproof liner glove, ultralight, zero bulk. The wind is a huge part of the problem with cold hands, and these minimal little shells go a long way towards fixing that while retaining full dexterity. They’re not slippery on 3rd class rock either. The ones I have are made by Outdoor Research but I’ve seen identical gloves from a few other companies. You’ll probably need some heavier gloves for many climbs as well, but I always have these with me.

Jetboil stove. True, you can put together a tiny canister stove, a miniature titanium kettle, and an insulated bowl for a slightly lighter cook system. But I absolutely love the way the jetboil locks solidly together (it coverts to a hanging stove with a ziptie and a piece of fishing line), the speed and efficiency is sometimes shocking (don’t start it until you have all the food ready to go), and the mechanical cleverness of the thing is worth appreciating too. It’s actually quite easy to simmer with, which I really appreciate as no-cook hot-steep food does get old eventually. It’s amazing how heating your food over actual fire produces a much more appetizing consistency. Store a small disc of green scotchbrite pad in the bottom, for cleanup and to keep rust from the bottom of the fuel canister from staining the pot. I curse the days when I need an old-fashioned white gas stove to melt lots of snow. Disadvantages: bulk (odd shape never fits right in the pack), cost, weighs an ounce or two more than a Dragonfly and tiny Ti pot.

Petzl Tactikka Plus. There are dozens of great LED headlamps out there, most of them hard to tell apart. I think this is the only one featuring a flip-up red filter, which saves your night vision. Most of the time, you just need a tiny amount of light to see something in the tent or to pick a bug out of your noodles. On full bright mode, it’s enough to see a trail by. There will probably come more headlamps with red LEDs or flip-up filters, just get one. They’re great.

Gore-Tex Pro Shell jackets. For years, your only option for a waterproof/breathable shell was the original three-layer Gore-Tex. This was a heavy-duty outer fabric, the microscopic and fragile membrane, and an inner fabric layer to protect the membrane. The jackets were all made with a thousand zippers and pockets and weighed thee pounds, and were “sort of” breathable in certain conditions. They worked pretty well in cold alpine conditions, so you bought one since you just had to have it for mountaineering, and you had a lightweight non-breathable shell or poncho for backpacking. Then the Gore patent expired, and all of a sudden there were a dozen similar tech fabrics on the market, some of which worked, some of which didn’t, but almost all of which were lighter than traditional three-layer Gore-Tex. Gore came out with Paclite, which is similarly cheaper and lighter and not quite as breathable. But last year, they did away with the old school stuff and invented something they call Pro-Shell. I can’t tell you how it works. I can only tell you that my Arc’teryx Alpha LT jacket made of Pro-Shell is 13 ounces (as light as a cheap non-breathable jacket, and the classic Marmot Precip that was a standard backpacking jacket for its light weight) and is amazingly breathable and durable. You are so used to immediately feeling clammy and hot inside a waterproof jacket, that it actually feels a little weird when you put this on and feel no change in temperature at all. This jacket doesn’t add warmth, it just keeps you and your warm layer dry, and breathes like like it’s barely there. Bravo, W.L. Gore & Co.! Disadvantages: extreme cost.
Many companies make garments with this fabric. I like my Arc’teryx for its minimal cut and features, and thus light weight. Excellent seam taping and finishing of all interior stitches. On my particular jacket, the storm flap behind the zipper isn’t quite wide enough to block out an all-day tropical rainforest downpour. It’s fine for temperate rains. Believe it or not, it’s actually cool to wear in that hot all-day tropical downpour. Also the pockets are useless for your hands (they’re cut high and small to be accessible over a waist strap or harness), so you have to pull the waist up to get in your down jacket pockets.
I don’t quite see the weight savings in WP/B mountaineering pants, which have to be built tough to stand up to rock, crampons, etc. The Pro-Shell stuff is only a little lighter at twice the price compared to standard Gore-Tex.

Outdoor Research Deluxe bivy sack. I love sleeping in a bivy. I like the snug, tucked-in, minimal feeling. Others are horrified and bewildered by the claustrophobic little things. I know for a fact that a light bivy (this is 24 oz, or 1.5 lb) is less than half the weight of any good two-person tent anywhere. I’m usually stoked if there’s an odd number of people on a trip, since it means I get to use the bivy instead of carry half of someone else’s heavy tent. What I like about the Deluxe bivy is the simple, single delrin hoop over the head. More is unnecessary, less is annoying and stuffy. The last thing you want is a bivy that needs to be staked out, it should be free-standing like this one. Of course, OR discontinued this model a while back and their current ones seem heavier. There ought to be a new round of bivys coming out made with Pro Shell and other fabrics like Epic, eVENT, etc. One of those might be my next one when this one wears out. Look to Black Diamond, who bought Bibler and have been really pushing boundaries with their single-wall tents.