Month: March 2019

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Backcountry’s Semi-Annual Sale is happening today through August 22 with clothing, gear, and accessories marked down as low as 50 percent off. Here are ten of our favorite deals.

It may not look like much, but don’t let the bare-bones exterior fool you. The Teton’s intuitive dual-burner design performs well without being overkill. The burly, nonstick steel grate is nickel coated, so it won't rip up burger patties, and sturdy adjustable feet make balancing a big pot of boiling pasta on a rocky beach breezy.

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This superlight jacket is filled with Patagonia’s proprietary PlumaFill insulation which is made of hydrophobic polyester fibers that mimic the structure of down while still retaining synthetic’s warm-when-wet properties. Rather than being blown into baffles like other synthetic down fibers, the PlumaFill is tacked between sheets of ten-denier nylon fabric in long strands, so it won’t shift and create cold spots. 

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If you’re traveling somewhere with great access to sun, a solar panel is a great option for an energy source. Use the Nomad 13 to charge your device directly, or connect it to an external battery to store juice for later. 

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Once you invest in a car camping table, you never go back. This lightweight and sturdy aluminum table seats four and collapses down to the size of a fence post when not in use.

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Don’t let the weather stop you from taking your pup on a summit push. This softshell jacket is waterproof, windproof, and features reflective trim and light loops to keep your pup visible at night.

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Designed by ultrarunner Anton Krupicka, this vest carries just the essentials. It includes two soft flasks, dual ice axe loops, trekking pole straps, and a large 11-liter main back compartment.

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Lighten up your cook set with this titanium pot, pan, and carrying case. The whole package weighs just seven ounces but doesn't skimp on features. The pot holds four cups of water and the lid doubles as a frying pan.

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The Black Hole backpack brings the familiar burliness of Patagonia’s beloved duffels to an everyday bag. The 25-liter bag has an internal laptop sleeve can double as a hydration sleeve when out on a weekend hike.

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This waterproof cover saves your backseat from muddy paws, wet fur, and dog slobber. It has openings for seat belts and easily folds into its own pocket for when you have human passengers.

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The Ambit3 is equipped with GPS, an altimeter, and an integrated compass. Its most appealing feature? Over 100 hours of battery life when used with minimum GPS tracking. 

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On September 5, the World Surf League announced a major milestone: equal prize money for male and female surfers at every WSL event in 2019 and beyond. It was a watershed moment for a sport with a history of treating women as second-class athletes.

“Bravo to the WSL for their commitment to equal pay,” says Bianca Valenti, a San Francisco–based pro who conquered 20-foot waves to win Latin America’s first big-wave surf competition this summer. There, she won $1,750—a quarter of the $7,000 men’s purse. “Maybe we’ll find we have created equity not just in surfing, but for all sports.”

So where do other sports stand? Surprisingly, when it comes to prize money, a great number have reached parity—as high as 83 percent, according to one BBC Sport survey. But prize money isn’t the whole story, and because it’s a public-facing number, organizations have a considerable PR incentive to make purses equal. Harder-to-quantify issues like salaries, sponsorships, representation, and opportunities often still lag behind for women athletes.

When Title IX passed, in 1972, not a single sport rewarded men and women equally. Tennis became the first, in 1973, after Billie Jean King and eight other female pros pressured the U.S. Open. By 2004, sports like volleyball, marathon running, and skating were awarding equal prize money. In the past four years, according to the BBC, at least 12 more sports joined the club. Climbing, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, BMX, mountain biking, triathlon, and track and field pay men and women equal prize purses at the world championship level. Sports that haven’t closed the gap include cliff diving, ski jumping (in 2017–2018,the sport’s male leader in prize money raked in more than twice as much as the women’s leader), and many cycling events.

Road cycling is a particularly egregious offender: a UCI-sanctioned World Tour one-day road race pays the male winner nearly 18 times more than the female victor. But recently, the sport has taken some significant steps forward. This March, the Tour of Britain increased prize money for the women’s race by more than $60,000 to match the prize purse for the men, making the most lucrative event in women’s cycling even more rewarding. Also this year, the Tour Down Under raised its women’s prize to match the men’s. In 2014, Le Tour de France introduced La Course, a women’s race with prize money equal to what a man wins for winning a stage of the Tour.

However, these events are still several stages shorter than the men’s races, and other elements, such as media coverage, remain unequal. This year’s La Course delivered a thrilling race but fell short of delivering the audience it deserved. Only the last kilometer was televised in the United states, and the rest required a $50 streaming subscription. Still, it was considered a victory after years of women fighting to have any event, with little success.

On the other hand, younger sports are more likely to have reached gender parity than historically male-dominated sports. The International Triathlon Union, for example, has paid equal prize money to men and women in every race for every year since its 1989 inception—more than a decade before triathlon became an Olympic sport, in 2000. (Triathlon is indeed a more progressive sport for gender equality, but one of the sport’s biggest events, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, offered more qualifying spots for male pros than for women until 2018.) The International Federation of Sport Climbing has also offered equal pay from the start.

There’s now a push from the highest echelons of sport—the International Olympic Committee—to get all sports paying equally and paying attention to harder-to-quantify factors of equality. On International Women’s Day in March 2018, the IOC announced the results of its Gender Equality Review Project, including 25 recommendations for promoting gender equality in sports. Three of them related to funding, and one specifically called out financial rewards, urging international sport federations to “establish mechanisms to address inequalities between genders in prize money or other athlete payments.”

As with so many other watershed moments of progress, this Olympic push is being led by a woman: Marisol Casado, president of the International Triathlon Union since 2008 and a rare example of a woman elected to the top post of a sport’s highest governing agency. (Of 40 Olympic International Federation presidents, Casado is one of two women.) As the chair of the IOCGender Equality Review Project, she has pushed for not only equal prize money but also equal media portrayal and gender balance in leadership—perhaps the next frontier in the quest for gender parity in sports.

Speaking of leadership, it’s worth noting that surfing’s rise to equal prizes is happening under the WSL’s first female president, Sophie Goldschmidt. But it didn’t happen without an external push from a vocal group of women, including Valenti and other pros, San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner Sabrina Brennan, and a pro bono attorney, who formed the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing. The committee demanded that a women’s division be added to the Mavericks Challenge, a big-wave competition that for decades was open only to men.

The women prevailed. Mavericks added a women’s competition. But it took government involvement to push things forward. By excluding women, the contest was violating anti-discrimination laws that apply to events held on state lands, and the state of California mandated the inclusion of women as a condition of issuing an event permit. The resulting publicity put a spotlight on the inequality that pervaded other areas of the sport—like prize money. And the victory for women's surfing could have larger implications for other sports that play out in publicly funded venues. 

“Every time I drive by one of those ginormous sports stadiums, I’ve always thought about how much public funding goes into them,” Brennan says. “So now we’re looking at what can this do for other sports?”

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All signs point to Hurricane Florence causing immense damage when it impacts the East Coast somewhere between Georgia and Virginia on Friday. But just how extensive could it be? Well, the region has a model for just such an event. Its name was Hugo. 

Like the forecasts for Florence, Hugo was a category four hurricane when it made landfall just north of Charleston, South Carolina, shortly after midnight on September 22, 1989. And, also as is anticipated for Florence, Hugo tracked inland, bringing wind and rain far beyond the coastline. 

When Hugo made landfall, its sustained winds measured 135 to 140 miles per hour. That was bad enough to flatten entire forests. But what caused the most damage was Hugo’s immense storm surge, which measured 19.8 feet in Bull’s Bay, north of Charleston—the highest surge ever recorded along the East Coast. This decimated coastal property and infrastructure in the storm’s path. 

As it moved inland, Hugo carried hurricane force winds as far as Charlotte, North Carolina—150 miles from the ocean. Impacts from the storm’s wind and rain would continue to be felt as the storm tracked north into Canada. By the time the storm reached Montreal, its winds were still gusting up to 59 miles per hour, knocking out power to 13,400 homes. 

It was eventually calculated that Hugo had damaged or destroyed 108,658 homes, trailers, or apartments in South Carolina alone, killed 13 people, and caused $5.9 billion in damage. In North Carolina, six people were killed and another $1 billion in damage was done. 

At the time, Hugo was the most destructive hurricane this country had ever experienced. Downed trees and storm damage are still visible in the region 29 years later. Yet it was far from a worst-case scenario. By impacting just north of Charleston, it spared that city and its dense population the worst of the storm surge. Hugo was also a fast-moving storm, leaving rainfall totals of just five to ten inches in its wake. “As devastating as Hugo was, much of the area did not experience the full fury of a category four hurricane,” states Robert Bright, a hurricane researcher at the National Weather Service. “It certainly could have been a lot worse, certainly in Charleston.” 

Florence's damage could be much more extensive. 

At the time of writing on Tuesday, coastal cities from Charleston, in the south, to Virginia Beach, in the north, lay in Hurricane Florence’s cone of uncertainty. Same goes for pretty much all the beach communities throughout the Carolinas. A direct impact to any of them could cause major flooding. Farther inland, major population centers like Charlotte, Fayetteville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, the Raleigh-Durham area, Norfolk, and Richmond, are all likely to experience high winds and huge rainfall totals. Unlike Hugo, Florence is currently forecast to slow when it hits land, dumping what could be feet of rain in some inland areas. In states already inundated by immense rainfall, this much rain in high elevation areas could lead to major flooding downstream. 

Some storm watchers and emergency management professionals fear that people who lived through Hugo might be inclined to take Florence too lightly. “Yes, [Hugo] was a category four, but if you lived in Charleston, you did not go through a category four,” cautions Cathy Haynes, of the Charleston County Emergency Management Agency.

“People have never seen anything like this in their lifetime,” says Charleston-area meteorologist Rob Fowler.

https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1039262009613799426

In response to the storm’s approach, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia have all declared states of emergency. South Carolina has ordered a mandatory evacuation of its entire coast line. Starting Tuesday, state officials will reverse east-bound lanes on all major roadways leading toward the coast, in order to maximize traffic flow inland. Government offices and schools will close Tuesday in 26 South Carolina counties. North Carolina is evacuating the Outer Banks and Virginia has ordered 245,000 to leave the state’s eastern shore. In anticipation of destructive flooding, Virginia has already mobilized its entire National Guard. 

Hurricane Hugo was the first major storm of the cable news era and images of its unprecedented destruction were taken live to households nationwide. But just like the limited graphics and shaky video quality look quaint today, so do the storm’s impacts. Three decades later, Hugo has been eclipsed by 12 other Atlantic hurricanes. In that time, storms like Katrina and Harvey have taken damage totals above $125 billion. Let’s hope Florence doesn’t make that list. 

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When a human-resources team from Patagonia flew to Atlanta last fall for an internship-recruitment session at historically black Morehouse College, many of the 50 students who attended had basically the same reaction: What’s Patagonia?

It was the company’s first event at Morehouse, and “for a lot of the students, Patagonia was a newer brand,” says recruitment manager Deanna Lloyd.

Longtime browsers of the Patagonia catalog probably won’t be surprised to learn that the company’s workforce is exceedingly homogeneous. “The majority of our employees are white,” Lloyd concedes. It’s a similar story throughout the gear industry. But Patagonia, REI, the North Face, and a handful of others are attempting to change that by rethinking their business models and hiring practices. Given the degree to which people of color and members of the LGBTQ community are underrepresented in outdoor-industry jobs, it’s a formidable task. And while assessing progress is difficult at this stage, experts say there’s a long way to go.

Statistics regarding diversity at gear companies are hard to come by. But according to a 2014 report by the advocacy group Green 2.0 on the racial makeup of environmental organizations, people of color comprise a distressingly low 12 to 15 percent. (The data is based on a survey of more than 300 nonprofits, government agencies, and grant foundations.) Those numbers “would most likely be mirrored in the outdoor industry, if not worse, in my own personal experience,” says Ava Holliday, founding partner of the Avarna Group, a consulting firm that advises outdoor companies and environmental groups in their diversity and inclusion efforts.

Holliday cites a “clear business case” for diversity and inclusion: the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2044, people of color will be the majority. Without a diverse workforce, she adds, product quality will suffer. “How will a gear company figure out how to make outdoor clothing for trans people without trans voices in the company?” she asks. Not to mention that if the industry wants to help preserve public lands, it will need to do its part to create a more inclusive playground and rally that majority to safeguard the environment.

Patagonia is acutely aware of the country’s changing demographics. “It’s the reality,” Lloyd says. “We need to pay attention to it in all aspects of our work and make sure that Patagonia remains relevant in those conversations, from a mission standpoint and from a product standpoint.”

Diversity hiring is a crucial step in dismantling the exclusivity endemic to the industry. “It’s really important that people open their eyes to what’s out there and how the world is changing, to create more opportunities for people to come to the table,” says Eboni Preston, director of programs for the Greening Youth Foundation (GYF), which works to introduce underrepresented communities to environmental advocacy.

Many gear companies have committed to hiring more women, and some are making strides toward diversity in their advertising and marketing. REI’s numerous diversity initiatives include the popular 2017 Force of Nature campaign, which featured stories of female adventurers, many of them women of color. And recent North Face ads have highlighted athletes from diverse backgrounds, including women of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and black and adaptive climbers. 

But for some companies, diversity ends there. There’s a difference between making ad campaigns more inclusive and hiring a diverse group of employees in design, product-management, and executive roles. Those that aren't fully invested in inclusivity hiring risk engaging in a version of so-called greenwashing—creating the appearance of diversity through marketing campaigns without making a real effort behind the scenes. That’s happening at some major brands, says Kenji Haroutunian, a business consultant who advises clients on diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, or DEI—human-relations-speak for hiring people of color, LGBTQ people, and women. Haroutunian is also a former director of Outdoor Retailer, the gear industry’s biggest trade show. “From a marketing standpoint, they’re reaching out and showing a different face,” he says. “Internally, though, they’re still being run by the usual suspects.”

Holliday concurs. “There are quite a few brand ambassadors and social-media influencers being featured,” she says, adding that the North Face recently highlighted black mountaineer Tyrhee Moore. “But when we go and work with companies, I don‘t see that much racial diversity in the staff.”

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Changing an entrenched culture isn’t easy. One reason is that employers typically don’t look beyond a small, insular pool of prospective hires—the vast majority of whom are white. “At a lot of these companies, people were hired because they were buddies,” says Deanne Buck, executive director of Camber Outdoors, a nonprofit formerly dedicated to gender equality that recently shifted its focus to underrepresented groups in general. “You got in because you knew someone or raced with them.” The result is an industry that’s “hyper-networked,” in Lloyd’s parlance.

Compounding the problem is that smaller brands often lack HR staff, or even a single recruiter, not to mention formalized DEI practices. And many larger businesses have been slow to make equitable hiring a priority. “If they’ve been doing it the same way for a long time and they’re successful, they don’t necessarily see a reason to change,” says Haroutunian.

Still, many companies are making progress. Canadian gear retailer MEC began a DEI program in 2009 that filtered into its marketing materials in 2012. “When we changed the brand, we had a lot of negative sentiment in social media,” MEC’s chief executive David Labistour said in a 2014 interview. But the company continued to thrive; revenues spiked 10 percent in 2012 and have continued to steadily grow. In 2015, sales were $282 million, a 9 percent increase over the previous year.

Last summer, MEC deepened its commitment to diversity, according to new HR director Nahal Yousefian. The focus is on helping staffers recognize unconscious bias, which Yousefian hopes will spur change driven by employees themselves. “Instead of a centralized HR department coming up with a policy renewal every year, people are actively out there, engaged and ensuring the barriers are removed,” she says.

Patagonia partnered with the Greening Youth Foundation, which is helping bring people of color into the apparel brand’s competitive summer internship program; the Atlanta recruitment trip last fall was sparked by a former GYF intern who attended Morehouse. This year, 9,000 applicants vied for 18 internships. Patagonia selected two black interns through GYF in 2017, and this year it chose one. (Lloyd notes that there were additional interns of color that the company recruited by its own efforts.) Patagonia hasn’t hired any former GYF interns to permanent positions, but it did hire one as a seasonal worker this summer. Lloyd says that a scarcity of entry-level positions—or positions of any kind—means that “we don’t guarantee employment for our interns.”

Still, Lloyd considers Patagonia’s recruitment efforts successful, pointing out that three times as many people of color applied to the internship program this year as in 2017. “We have been able to reach a more diverse candidate pool,” she says.

REI has long been an industry leader in diversity hiring, according to Haroutunian. REI’s website proclaims it “a workplace where everyone is welcome and everyone is comfortable being who they are,” and it broadcasts REI’s support of marriage equality. The site also offers a glimpse at the company’s racial diversity: currently, 18 percent of its workforce and 30 percent of its board of directors are people of color, and in 2017, it increased the ranks of executives of color from zero to 6 percent.

For the past decade or so, REI has been “standing on the gas pedal, making changes to various elements of their business, including marketing and outreach, recruitment, and their real estate strategy,” says Haroutunian. That included putting stores in urban centers like Las Vegas, Houston, and Washington, D.C.

To reach a range of communities, the company partnered with Black Girls Run, the National Brotherhood of Skiers and Cyclists, and the urban cycling festival Ciclavia. It also teamed up with Outdoor Afro—a group that has partnerships with about a dozen other gear businesses, including Columbia, Keen, Klean Kanteen, Osprey, and Patagonia. Similarly, Polartec's sponsorships include the adaptive outdoor recreation group Paradox Sports and Open Style Lab, a nonprofit that makes apparel for people with disabilities, and the North Face linked up with Latino Outdoors and the Paradox Sports Adaptive Climbing Initiative.

Among the other companies with dedicated diversity programs is Massachusetts-based Polartec, which pays its interns—most of whom are Hispanic students at a nearby private Catholic high school—by covering their tuition. It also posts job listings on 40 websites in an effort to go “beyond LinkedIn, Facebook, and some of the locations where [the applicants are] a little more homogeneous,” says Breanne Buzay, Polartec’s vice president of human resources. This year, Keen began a partnership with the Greening Youth Foundation for its summer internship program. The North Face’s Explore Fund gives grants to groups that are underrepresented in the outdoors; through its parent company, VF Corporation, it posts job openings on more than 800 employment sites, and it recently sent recruiters to the diversity summit People of the Global Majority.

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Assembling a diverse staff comes naturally to a few companies, including the Philadelphia gear and apparel brand United by Blue and retailer Gear Coop in Costa Mesa, California. Both pull from racially diverse pools of people living in the surrounding communities.

With 45 employees, Gear Coop is a small, minority-owned business without an HR department or formal hiring protocols of any kind. But its owner, Terry Lee, says the company has informally made “deliberate diversity decisions.” Every department of the company has women and minorities on staff—mostly Asian and Latino—he says, adding that Gear Coop’s LGBTQ workers have historically comprised between 5 and 15 percent of its overall workforce.

“Every time I go to Outdoor Retailer, I’m reminded of how nondiverse the outdoor industry is,” says Brian Linton, founder and CEO of United by Blue. Back home it’s a different story. “Not that we’re perfect or a full representation of what diversity means to the outdoor industry, but we’re based in Philadelphia, and we’re naturally in a position to be more diverse.”

Linton says 10 percent of United by Blue staff are people of color or LGBTQ. He believes his company’s focus on the urban outdoors helps attract a diverse workforce. “We appeal to people that are all walks of life,” he says. “It’s not just about going out and climbing El Capitan or trying to do extreme adventures. It’s a very approachable brand, and therefore it’s an approachable company for a diverse group of people.”

That philosophy is echoed at REI. “They’ve had a long-term strategy of broadening their appeal,” Haroutunian says of the retail co-op. “And they walked away from their hardcore customer long ago.”To help lure people of all abilities, REI carries a wide range of products—including newbie-friendly used gear and a less expensive house-branded line. The company has seen steady growth in recent years; in 2017, sales were $2.6 billion, a 2.5 percent increase over the previous year.

That REI’s diversity numbers are impressive compared with other gear companies underscores how far the outdoor industry still needs to go. The industry lags behind the hotel, health care, and telecommunications fields, and even some tech companies, according to Fortune’s rankings of the most diverse workplaces. People of color make up 81 percent of Foot Locker’s workforce (compared with REI's 18 percent) and 33 percent of the executive echelon at Dropbox (versus REI's 6 percent).

Marketing campaigns, outreach and partnership programs, and DEI efforts help. What else can companies do? They can recruit widely—way beyond their buddy networks. They can use more inclusive language in job postings and reevaluate the skills they require. “What qualifications are necessary and what are things folks can learn on the job?” as Holliday puts it. That extends to college degrees and experience in the outdoor industry. Removing some requirements can open up the talent pool.

Creating a welcoming company culture is also important. “Whether it’s a person of color or a transgender person, they should feel like it’s an equitable workplace, with equal opportunities for a fulfilling career,” says Camber Outdoors’ Deanne Buck. “You definitely don’t want people coming in and leaving because they don’t feel like there’s a good opportunity for them.”

One way to retain a diverse workforce is through sponsorships—mentoring programs in which established employees introduce newcomers to higher-ups, putting them on the radar for future projects.

REI and MEC have been working on equity and inclusion hiring for about a decade, but it’s early days for most of the industry. Some companies are taking small steps and hatching plans for future initiatives. Others talk a big game but have shown limited results. Many say they consider DEI a priority, even if they won’t divulge specific policies or plans.

Camber Outdoors’ recent shift to the full range of underrepresented groups was prompted in part by the realization that its efforts were benefiting only a subset of women. “Using the word women in our mission didn't account for the complex and varied experiences of women,” Buck says. “We were leaving women of color out of the conversations and the solutions.” The group’s new focus is on developing programs to help gear companies create “leadership teams that reflect our population and demographics,” she says. To that end, Camber Outdoors is bringing together members of the industry to develop a set of DEI standards—for instance, that all final-candidate pools for director-level positions include two women and two people of color.

Patagonia is working with the Avarna Group to help develop its DEI initiatives. “This is a long-term process,” Lloyd says. The company intends to expand its GYF internship program; this fall it plans to embark on a southeastern tour targeting more historically black universities.

GYF interns receive broad experience at Patagonia, working in the design, compliance, and marketing departments, among others, according to GYF program director Eboni Preston. In other words, they aren’t being placed solely in high-visibility departments to maximize the optics. “Not to be funny, but no, the black kids aren’t all going to marketing,” says Preston. “They’ve spread the diversity across Patagonia as a whole.”

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What’s the best backpacking stove? To answer this question, I tested 29 stove models from six different brands, interested only in those that I’d be happy to carry for an extended outing in the backcountry and run on either white gas or isobutane canisters—stoves that 90 percent of the backcountry-going public would be interested in.

My favorite from that pool was the Primus Primetech stove set. It’s reasonably priced, simmers well, boils quickly, and comes with everything I needed to cook in the backcountry. Other stoves in this test make more sense for people who are on a budget, backpack alone, or plan to go on remote expeditions, and I’ve written about several of those options below. But for a general-purpose camp stove, the Primetech is tough to beat.

Primus Primetech (From $130)

I hesitate to write “one and done,” “far and away the best stove I tested,” “runaway winner,” and so on, but that’s kinda how I feel about the Primetech. The Primetech is an isobutane stove using a remote canister system and comes in two sizes: one that weighs 487 grams and comes with a large 2.3-liter integrated pot, and one that weighs 287 grams, comes with a 1.3-liter pot, and is perfect for two campers.

The Primetech runs on single-use isobutane canisters, which you’ve probably seen in your local outdoor store. A burner attaches to the isobutane canister via a six-inch hose, whereas with pedestal-style and integrated stoves, generally the burner attaches directly over the canister. (Jetboil’s Flash is the best-known integrated-style stove; for a more detailed explanation of stove and fuel options, see the section at the end of this article.)

As fortune would have it, the Primetech was the last stove I tested and by far the most impressive. For $130, it comes with a burner, integrated windscreen, lid, handle, a simple pot, and a pot with an integrated heat exchanger. (Heat exchangers are fins attached to the bottom of the pot that help distribute heat more evenly.) That’s everything most backpackers will need and then some.

The Primetech wasn’t an outright winner in many of the categories tested—the Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium, at 56 grams, was much lighter, and the Primus Classic Trail was much cheaper at $20—but it was often second best, and when the Primetech lost to stoves in one category, it typically flattened them in others. The Primetech was the quietest stove tested, and its simmer function was second only to the GSI Halulite Minimalist, which took more than a minute longer to boil water. Its mechanism for adjusting how far above the burner the pot sits was the nicest to operate and made it easier to avoid burning rice, a perennial challenge with camp stoves. Its boil time for a half-liter of water was also second fastest at 1:50, only 15 seconds behind the category-winning Jetboil MilliJoule, and that stove doesn’t really simmer. Plus, while we didn’t test any of these stoves in true winter conditions, the Primetech should perform well in cold temps: The remote canister system can be inverted for improved efficiency, and it has a regulator, which helps maintain optimal fuel pressure. Both features are helpful in cold weather.

Of course, this stove does have its downsides. While isobutane canisters are becoming increasingly popular worldwide, they’re still hard to come by in some destinations. (Usually, a bit of internet research before traveling will reveal where to find them.) And while isobutane stoves are generally adequate for winter use, they’re not quite as good as liquid fuel or white gas stoves. Finally, the Primetech lacks a piezoelectric, or push-button, ignition. These buttons are convenient but finicky and always need to be backstopped with a reliable lighter or matches. As such, I didn’t give that feature much weight in this review.

In short, this stove does everything exceptionally well, includes everything you need, and comes in a great little package.

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Jetboil MightyMo ($50)

For a simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-set-up stove, it’s tough to beat the Jetboil MightyMo. At 197 grams with the fuel canister included and retailing for $50, the MightyMo hits a sweet spot in the budget-friendly pedestal stove category. It will work well as a stove for two people, and it was quick and reliable to operate in my tests.

That said, many of the pedestal stoves I tested would be good bets for anyone looking to optimize for simplicity and keep costs low. Keep an eye out for the MSR PocketRocket 2, GSI Pinnacle, and the LiteMax or GigaPower from Snow Peak. There aren’t huge differences between any of these stoves. They’re similarly priced, weigh within about 20 grams of each other, and posted boil times that varied by only about 30 seconds for a half-liter of water. The one exception is the Primus Classic Trail, which at $20 was the least expensive stove reviewed, but at 194 grams without a pot or fuel, it was the heaviest of the pedestal stoves. Still, I liked the MightyMo’s combination of price, weight, and quick 2:15 boil time.

Two final reservations: While you can probably make it work, none of the stoves in this category are great for cold-weather camping. Nor are they great for more than about two people—with all pedestal stoves, things start getting unstable when you use a big pot.

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MSR WhisperLite Universal ($140)

For certain trips, you want a stove that you can count on no matter where you find yourself, one that you can repair after anything shy of an elephant stampede, and one that will burn pretty much whatever you put in it, including tap water from Flint.

The WhisperLite Universal was the first stove I owned and is arguably the most popular backpacking stove in existence. I still have the same WhisperLite I bought in college in 2001, and I’ve used it in Alaska, the desert Southwest, and Peru, and I plan to take it bikepacking in Nepal this fall. If you expect to travel to remote locations, this is the stove to buy.

The WhisperLite makes sense for remote travel for two primary reasons: its ability to run on diverse fuels, and its reparability. Otherwise excellent stoves like the Primetech are limited to burning isobutane canisters, which may be harder to find. Using isobutane, the WhisperLite boiled water slower than the Primetech (3:01 versus 1:50 for a half-liter), but the difference is that it can boil water using almost anything—isobutane, white gas, and kerosene all work well. I’ve never had trouble finding fuel for the WhisperLite, even in villages in the Peruvian Andes. Similarly, if something breaks on the Primetech, you’re likely out of luck. MSR, however, sells a $30 repair kit that’s the size of a pack of gum and comes with enough spare parts to virtually rebuild the WhisperLite.

The biggest downside of going with a multifuel stove like the WhisperLite is that they all come with learning curves, particularly when substituting fuels. There’s a lot more to break or clog on a multifuel system. As a result, these stoves require more maintenance, which naturally requires knowing how to take these stoves apart and clean them, as well as understanding that they operate differently when using different fuels. On isobutane, for example, the WhisperLite burns for a full minute after you turn it off. And when using white gas or other liquid fuels, there’s a priming period to get the stove running, usually about 60 seconds. That means it’s not a perfect choice if efficiency is a major priority.

In the multifuel category, the MSR DragonFly ($140) was better at adjusting simmering temperatures, and while it was substantially louder than the WhisperLite, it is still an excellent stove. But in the many hundreds of days I’ve spent using the WhisperLite, I’ve never run into a problem I couldn’t fix in 15 minutes, and its flexibility and reliability are enough to keep it in my pack. And while it hasn’t been trampled by elephants, my WhisperLite was actually stomped into the mud by an errant group of backcountry cattle a few years back, which is pretty close. It’s still going strong.

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GSI Halulite Minimalist ($75)

There are people—I’m not one of them—who get upset that they even have to carry a stove in the first place, people for whom cooking is at best an inconvenient necessity and whose packs are probably home-built from single-ply toilet paper. You know the type. If you’re in this category, or if you just want a warm cup of coffee and water for instant oatmeal in the morning, or if you’re among the many backpackers who prioritize size and simplicity, I recommend the aptly named GSI Halulite Minimalist, a 236-gram pedestal stove (pot included) that runs on isobutane and retails for $75.

The Halulite Minimalist is simple and small. Everything is well designed, from the removable pot koozie to the silicone pot grabber, which reminds me of the rubber finger monsters I had as a kid. It comes in the most compact package of the complete stove kits I tested and is impressively light. The 3:35 half-liter boil time wasn’t the fastest of the test, but if all you’re doing is heating water for coffee, an extra 30 seconds isn’t a big deal. And if you decide to do some real cooking, it also simmered surprisingly well.

If the Halulite seems too bare-bones, take a look at Jetboil’s closest competitor, the MiniMo, an integrated stove that’s about 130 grams heavier and much more expensive at $135, but it has a pot that is better suited to couples and boils water faster.

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Camp Chef Stryker 200 ($100)

Aside from its clean design, the Camp Chef Stryker 200 is the only isobutane canister stove I’ve seen that can be converted for use with the standard one-pound propane canisters that are ubiquitous at sporting goods stores across the country. As a backpacking stove, it’s relatively light (523 grams with the integrated pot) and small enough to fit in a pack. But its ability to run two kinds of popular fuel would make a lot of sense as a backup car camping stove. If you’re looking for a really simple stove that works reasonably well for both backpacking and car camping, this is it.

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I didn’t do enough real-world cold-weather testing to make strong recommendations in this category. But from personal experience and some educated guessing, I’d suggest the MSR WhisperLite Universal or a similar liquid fuel stove, or a remote canister stove such as the Jetboil MilliJoule or the Primus Primetech system.

Liquid fuel stoves get the nod for two reasons. First, I’ve found them to be slightly more reliable than canister stoves when the temps really drop. Second, if you’re going through lots of fuel, as you might on an extended winter expedition, it’s simply more efficient to pack a gallon of white gas than it is to pack dozens of fuel canisters. That said, there are some pretty good cold-weather fuel mixes available for canister stoves, and the ability to invert the canister with a remote system increases efficiency. Both are sensible choices.

When selecting stoves to test, I picked brands that are readily available at most outdoor stores in the United States or are carried by reputable online retailers. I decided to skip stoves from small brands that are found only online. I made this decision in order to select for long-term reliability, and many upstart stove companies just haven’t been around long enough to have a track record. In addition, I decided to avoid so-called alternative-fuel stoves, such as those that burn alcohol, pellets, or wood, since those products fit niche markets. Once I had a list of companies, I requested as many models as possible and went to town. In total, I included 29 stoves in the test.

I have a fair amount of personal experience with many of the stoves in the test. I’ve been working in guiding and outdoor education since 2000 and, until recently, spent somewhere between 60 and 150 days a year in the backcountry in environments from winter trips to Alaska to summers in the desert. Based on that experience, I decided to evaluate stoves using the following criteria.

This is a good metric for comparing stoves within a single manufacturer’s lineup, but there’s not really a universal standard for testing, so it may not be a helpful number when comparing Jetboil to Primus, for example. Also, read the advertised boil time carefully. Some stoves list a time to boil a half-liter of water and some a full liter.

I used a digital kitchen scale to weigh each stove. The lightest stove in the test weighed 56 grams but didn’t come with a pot and accessories. Where possible, I’ve included weights for entire stove systems.

This emerged as an almost meaningless metric. For example, the GSI Glacier Camp claims an 11,000 BTU output but needed 3:36 to boil a half-liter of water. The Jetboil MiniMo, however, claims a 6,000 BTU output but boiled the same amount of water in 2:14. I couldn’t directly measure BTUs, but my best guess is that each stove’s design—and whether it used a heat exchanger, in particular—had a big effect on real-world thermal efficiency.

In addition to my observations about stove reliability—in general, the stoves I’ve written about here didn’t break on me—I looked at whether maintenance kits were available and found them for multifuel stoves from MSR and Primus.

Notably, the most expensive stoves I tested were often not my favorites. When comparing two similar stoves, I gave the nod to the less expensive option but weighted stove performance over price.

Most of these stoves operate at a similar decibel level, though there were a few outliers. To test loudness, I downloaded a free app to my phone that let me measure noise output, held it a couple inches away from the burner, and noted a five-second average of the noise produced with the stove going at full tilt.

A note on piezoelectric ignition systems: They’re convenient but susceptible to failure and must always be backed up with a lighter or matches. As such, I consider them convenient amenities but not a serious selling point.

Backpacking stoves fall into two categories: liquid fuel stoves and isobutane/canister stoves. In North America, liquid fuel mostly means white gas. That’s what you’ll find in the green gallon Coleman cans in any sporting goods store or small-town mercantile in the country. In other parts of the world, liquid fuel can mean unleaded gasoline, kerosene, diesel, or jet fuel. I didn’t include alcohol or solid-fuel stoves in this test.

As should be obvious, both fuel types are highly combustible, and there’s some risk in using any backpacking stove. In my experience, that risk is manageable, but it’s worth understanding the potential problem areas.

I’ve never seen an out-of-control fuel burn with isobutane, but it could happen if the O-ring at the mating point between the fuel and stove fails. Counterintuitively, a more likely type of injury is from frostbite. As you screw the canister into the stove, it’s not uncommon for a small burst of gas to escape. If that fuel comes into contact with bare skin in significant quantities, mild or superficial cold injuries are possible, especially in otherwise cold temps. This is due to the rapid evaporation rates of the isobutane/propane mix. File this under “rare but possible.”

With liquid fuel stoves, the likelihood of a serious burn is much higher. I’ve seen careless users spill fuel all over the stove and fuel cylinder when attaching the pump, subsequently engulfing their entire stove (and part of their kitchen) in flames. I’ve also seen folks use too much fuel to prime their stove, creating flare-ups that reached two feet above the burner level. The first time this happened to me, I was cooking just inside my tent and nearly burned my shelter and the rest of my gear to the ground. Both problems are easy to avoid with a little practice—with any stove, canister or liquid fuel, commit to practicing before you go camping. You’ll figure out potential weak points and limitations, and you’ll be much faster when you go to use it in the backcountry.

Pedestal Stoves

The simplest, lightest, and least expensive stoves on the market, pedestal stoves feature burners that screw directly onto the top of a fuel canister and start cooking. Popular options include the MSR PocketRocket and Primus Classic Trail. Many heat water quickly and simmer reasonably well. As such, they’re great all-around stoves, but they have drawbacks.Pedestal-style stoves are about the worst choice for winter camping and cold temps—they lose vapor pressure quickly and become quite inefficient. Stoves that allow their fuel sources to be inverted or lie prone do better in cold weather. And because the pot stacks directly on top of the pedestal stove’s burner and fuel canister, this style is not a good option if you need a big pot to cook for groups. Even with an optional plastic base that clips to the canister to improve stability, there’s potential for spillage.

Within the pedestal category are integrated stoves—stove sets that are all in one, where the pot screws directly into the burner and that almost universally include a pot with a built-in heat exchanger. When stowed, the burner and fuel nest inside the pot, which is itself frequently encased in a neoprene insulating sleeve. Prominent examples include the Camp Chef Stryker and most stoves in the Jetboil line.

Remote and Liquid Fuel Stoves

Remote stoves typically refer to canister stoves where the canister attaches to the burner by means of a long hose, as opposed to screwing directly into the canister port. This allows you to invert the canister, dramatically improving efficiency in cold temps. It also brings the stove closer to the ground, generally resulting in improved stability for larger pots. Examples include the Jetboil MilliJoule and GSI Pinnacle 4-Season. Liquid fuel stoves, like the MSR WhisperLite Universal, use a similar setup but burn a variety of fuel sources.

No surprise, what you plan to do with your stove will inform what kind of stove to buy. As much as I love my WhisperLite, it’s not my first choice if I’m only going to heat a couple cups of water over the course of a weekend. Conversely, while the GSI Minimalist kit is awesome for quick outings, I wouldn’t take it to Alaska for a few weeks of living on a glacier. Before buying a stove, consider the following three points.

If your goal is to hammer out big days, look for simpler, lighter stoves. Canister stoves fit this bill, and the MSR PocketRocket, the Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium, and my choice, the Jetboil MightyMo, are all good options. If you plan on spending a lot of time in camp and want to eat well, consider stoves with a better simmer control and more accessories, such as the Primus Primetech or MSR WindBurner system.

A good rule of thumb is .75 liters of pot capacity per person in a cook group. Most pedestal-style stoves aren’t stable enough for more than a 1.5-liter pot—much bigger and you risk losing your meal or burning yourself. If you’re regularly cooking for large groups, remote canister or liquid fuel stoves are lower to the ground and make big pots safer to use.

Isobutane fuel canisters are increasingly easy to find at outdoor stores worldwide, but they’re not a sure bet, even in smaller American towns without an outdoor store or Walmart. That means stocking up on canisters when traveling off the beaten path or taking a stove such as the WhisperLite Universal that can burn different fuel types. Do not fly to rural Kyrgyzstan and expect to find isobutane canisters.

The easiest way to recover from the grind is to follow this basic formula, then get creative with the add-ons

Imagine this: You just spent the day giving your all on a big hike or ride, or a long day at work followed by an evening gym session. You arrive home tired and ravenous, without an ounce of give-a-shit to spare. Typically, you’d respond to this situation by stopping at a drive-through or microwaving a plastic-enclosed food item with an ingredient list that’s 75 percent unpronounceable.

There’s a better way, says Lentine Alexis, a classically-trained chef, nutrition consultant, and former professional endurance athlete. Take a natural carb, a bunch of vegetables, a dose of protein, thumb of fat, and some sauce, and throw it all into a pan, then let it rip for a few minutes. You’ll have a delicious meal that covers all of your nutritional bases—lots of protein and your RDA of vegetables—without much cleanup.

“I love one-pan meals,” says Alexis. “They’re stupid easy, and great for athletes because we often get home having under-eaten all day and we need a healthy meal.”

Cultures from around the world have long had their own spins on the basic formula of combining the above ingredients. In Korea, there's bibimbap: rice with beef, pickled vegetables, chili paste, and a fried egg. In Spain, paella: rice, green beans, meat, seafood, spices, and beans. In Thailand, pad thai: rice noodles, meat, eggs, peanuts, spices, and vegetables. In America, the breakfast skillet: potatoes, eggs, bacon or ham, vegetables, and cheese. The flavor profiles you can create with the basic formula will keep you culinarily satisfied for years.

The meal is easy to customize for your nutritional needs, too. Need a lot of protein? Add a lot of meat. Trying to cut carbs? Go easy on the rice (or noodles, or potatoes, etc). Vegan? Use tofu instead of meat.

One-pan meals are best on week nights, when you have leftover grains and meat in the fridge, says Alexis.

Here’s the basic formula you’ll toss on the pan:

• Two tablespoons oil
• Eight to 12 ounces of protein (eggs, chicken, shrimp, steak, tofu)
• Two cups of cooked grains, tubers, or pasta
• 1/4 cup sauce
• Four cups of vegetables (roasted, steamed, baked, or fresh)

And while you should feel free to let your creative culinary juices flow, we know that sometimes a little inspiration is much appreciated. Try one of Alexis’ favorite combos, each ingredient portioned out according to the basic formula above:

1. Eggs + Black Rice + Miso-Turmeric Dressing + Avocado + Roasted Broccoli
2. Chicken + Rice + Maple-Soy Dressing + Kale + Radishes
3. Tofu + Blue Emmer + Sriracha Mayonnaise + Roasted Mushrooms + Butternut Squash + Torn Kale
4. Skirt Steak + Tagliatelle + Olive Oil + Harissa + Torn Olives + Kale Ribbons

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Under a new plan released Wednesday by the Bureau of Land Management, most of the land President Trump excised from Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument would become available to oil, gas, and coal companies. Under the same plan, Bears Ears National Monument would be managed in a way that “provides more flexibility” for uses like mining, timber harvest, grazing, and off-road vehicles. This, despite promises from Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke that the quest for energy dominance had nothing to do with their decisions to drastically shrink both monuments last year.

And the plans come even though the fate of these monuments is far from settled. After President Trump reduced the size of Bears Ears by 1.15 million acres and Grand Staircase by 900,000 acres, conservation and tribal groups promptly filed five lawsuits arguing that the Antiquities Act, which Trump invoked, allows a president to create, not shrink, national monuments.

With litigation pending, monument proponents say any change to management plans is premature. “It’s an entire waste of time,” Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, told The Salt Lake Tribune. “It’s clear that they are trying to race ahead and do as much damage as they can in the shortest time possible.”

The documents identify four management alternatives for both monuments, and in both instances the agencies identified the least-restrictive option as their preferred way forward. While both management plans are a major departure from the protections afforded monuments, the changes proposed for Grand Staircase-Escalante are notably stark. Under BLM’s preferred plan, nearly 700,000 acres of the original monument would be open for extraction. (BLM included a report detailing the potential for coal, oil, and natural gas development.) No areas in the monument would be managed as wilderness.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, in defending his department’s call to shrink the monuments, has said over and over that “not one square inch” of land is being removed from the federal estate, but BLM’s plan would sell off 1,610 acres of Grand Staircase.

“The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument already has a plan that should remain in place, continuing to protect the priceless antiquities within its borders, at least until a court rules on the legality of the Trump reduction,” Nicole Croft, executive director of the conservation nonprofit Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, said in a statement.

In Bears Ears, where the mineral potential is far less, the greatest risk is to the Native American cultural artifacts that prompted the original monument designation. It’s estimated that over 100,000 cultural sites exist within the original monument boundary, an area that was subject to extensive looting in recent decades.

“It’s time that Native voices, as the original peoples of the Bears Ears region, are heard and the sovereign rights of Native Nations to protect their sacred places are recognized,” Honor Keeler, assistant director of Utah Diné Bikéyah, said in a release. “The Bears Ears region is a sacred place that cannot be chopped up into pieces, for it is a sacred place in its entirety that has been used for thousands of years by the Indigenous Peoples of these lands.”

The proposed Bears Ears plan calls for an American Indian Tribal Collaboration Framework to incorporate tribes in management decisions, but elected tribal officials have told Congress and the administration that such overtures are more demeaning than cooperative, given they asked for monument protection in the first place.

The draft plans dovetail with broader efforts, led by Republicans, to minimize protection of cultural artifacts and wildlife on public land. For instance, the preferred management plan for Bears Ears “emphasizes resource uses and reduces constraints while … maintaining compliance with existing laws and regulations,” but Republican attacks on bedrock environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act would make compliance much easier for polluting industries.

Attorneys suing the Trump administration have told Outside they would request an injunction to any change in management plans, which would add yet more time and money to an already drawn-out and expensive battle over national monuments. “By the BLM’s own estimate, the Grand Staircase plan alone has already cost American taxpayers $1,160,004,” Croft wrote. “That’s money desperately needed to improve hiking trails, hunting grounds, and law enforcement.”

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You could absolutely survive in the backcountry on a block of ramen noodles and a warm, sweaty cheese stick you found in the bottom of your pack. That would probably give you enough calories to get through the next day’s hike. But backpacking isn’t about survival, and to fully enjoy yourself on the trail you should look forward to dinner. Thankfully, backpacking food has come a long way in the last few years, with companies using organically grown and sustainably sourced ingredients to create recipes that hinge on actual whole foods. Leave the ramen at home and check out these backcountry culinary delights instead.

We’ve never had a bad meal from Good To-Go, but this curry is transcendent. Jasmine rice lays down the foundation for the broccoli, cauliflower, and peas in a rich and salty coconut curry sauce. Add a can of chicken and you’d swear you’re at your favorite Thai joint.

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Patagonia has developed a variety of healthy, sustainably sourced meals and snacks that work at home or at the campsite. I’m partial to its organic black bean soup, which is rich and full of corn and packed with protein (16 grams per serving). Its wild-caught smoked salmon is a meal on its own (just add crackers) but I like to flake one of the filets over the soup. Bring your own hot sauce and an avocado if you want to get really fancy.

Buy Soup Buy Salmon

Alaska-based Heather’s Choice uses six ounces of wild Alaskan salmon in each packet of chowder, along with potatoes, carrots, and celery. It takes a while to “cook” this soup (20 minutes) but your patience will be rewarded—the salmon, coconut milk, and touch of cayenne mix for a real treat.

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Maybe it’s all those westerns we watched as kids, but we think chili is a backcountry staple, and Wild Zora’s Paleo is loaded with savory chunks of beef and sweet potato. Just pour 1.5 cups of hot water in the pouch and let it sit for 15 minutes.

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Packit Gourmet makes an insane variety of foods, from cold-water-prep lunches to sharable appetizers (trailside queso, anyone?). It has some inventive dinner options, but we like the Big’Un Burrito with Fajita Chicken because it’s laden with chicken, black beans, and rice and cooks in the bag. Bring your own tortillas and you’ve got a burrito to go. There’s even a sachet of Cholula hot sauce in the package.

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Hopdash aims to help you meet up with local running teams while on the road

As someone who doesn’t work in the tech industry, I tend to be skeptical about Silicon Valley. And by skeptical, I obviously mean envious. The feeling is surely exacerbated by the fact that the rise of apps has coincided with (if not directly contributed to) the decline of my industry. At a time when legacy publications are folding left and right, it seems like I’m constantly reading about some hoodied wunderkind becoming a gazillionaire for disrupting the way we buy burritos. However, even a curmudgeon like myself will occasionally come across a web-based service and think, Hey, I could really use something like that.

Case in point: a new website for runners called Hopdash.

“If I’m new to a city, my first question is where should I run?” says Zach Cole, a 28-year-old product designer for the rideshare app Lyft who launched Hopdash late last month.

After a year in which he spent a lot of time traveling for work, Cole, who grew up minutes from the Boston Marathon course, found that one of the best ways to discover a new city was to jump into workouts with local running teams.

“A lot of the local running clubs tend to carry with them a little bit of the character of the city itself,” Cole says. “You get to go and see the city through the perspective of being a runner.” This insight sparked the question of how he could make the often insular world of local running culture more accessible.

Initially, Cole says, he’d envisioned something like a “Lonely Planet for runners,” a quasi tour guide in which popular Strava routes from different cities would be collected and shared in one place. The problem with this approach, however, was that there’s too much discrepancy between people’s running preferences—one person’s easy jog might be well beyond the capabilities of another—so it was hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all model.

Instead of specific routes, Cole decided that, at least for now, it made more sense for Hopdash to list a city’s running “Hotspots,” like Central Park in New York City or San Francisco’s Crissy Field. Needless to say, this isn’t groundbreaking in itself, but the more compelling aspect of Hopdash is that the site also lists which running clubs are hosting workouts on a given day of the week. A dot-based rating system indicates the degree of competitiveness of a particular club: one dot indicates all levels welcome, four dots implies that the club attracts some pretty serious runners.

As with other aspects of the site, this rating system remains a work in progress. Cole says that he’s gotten feedback from some users who have found it perplexing, so he’s still figuring out the best way to convey club-specific information. Also, at the time of this writing, only four cities appear on Hopdash: New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Still, it’s a start. In its first week, Hopdash received submissions from more than 200 cities requesting to be added to the platform, including Moscow, Lisbon, Dublin, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Lagos. The goal, Cole says, is for the site to eventually become an international resource for runners, one that will provide more detailed information for each running locale—for example, where a runner can expect to find incredible views, or an abundance of public facilities, or a vigorous interval session.

For that to happen, Cole envisions a scenario in which people create user profiles and upload content on their own. When I suggested that this might result in a morass of unfiltered input, Cole agreed that maintaining a standard would definitely be part of the challenge, but that Hopdash could be self-regulating to some degree with enough contributors. A running club that provides a consistently great experience for drop-by guests could be voted up, while a dubious running route could be flagged and taken down—kind of like a runner’s equivalent of TripAdvisor.

“I think there are ways for allowing content like this to really be community-sourced, which I really love because it harkens back to the ethos of why I wanted to build this in the first place,” Cole says. “That’s what’s so cool about running: being introduced to new people and learning about the city through these communities.”

While speaking to Cole, it occurred to me how surprising it is that a site like Hopdash doesn’t already exist. As far as I’m aware, most runners who are about to embark on a trip and are wondering where they’re going to get their miles in are at the mercy of social media or Google. In the past, I’ve often found myself scrolling through anonymous message boards, wondering if MileHighClub84 and I have the same definition of “dangerous wildlife.”

If Zach Cole and his Hopdash project end up successfully fulfilling that niche, I, for one, would be grateful. I might even be happy for him.

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Burning about 100 miles north of San Francisco, the Mendocino Complex wildfire is the largest in California’s history. But explaining its vast scale is difficult. Let’s examine the attempts to do just that—and see if we can arrive at a good understanding of what 300,000 charred acres really looks like. 

The Complex fire is actually made up of two fires: the smaller River Fire, which has burned 48,920 acres, and the larger Ranch Fire, which has burned 255,482. Combined, that total is still only about one-tenth the size of the worst wildfire in the nation's history. 

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Both fires started on July 27 and quickly grew in size. Extremely dry brush in the area, combined with steep hillsides, created ideal conditions for the blazes to spread.

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Despite its size, the fire hasn’t proven nearly as destructive as the nearby 177,400-acre Carr Fire, which burned portions of Redding, California, destroying more than 1,000 homes and killing seven people. Meanwhile, no one has been killed by the Mendocino Complex Fire, though two firefights have been injured and 119 residences have been burned. 

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Contrary to what Donald Trump appears to believe, firefighters don’t rely on water to fight fires like this. Instead, they cut breaks in the vegetation, which serve as borders that the flames can’t cross. While they’re doing that, aircraft dump retardant on unburned brush, trees, and structures. 

https://twitter.com/svqjournalist/status/1025192962827812864

As of Thursday morning, crews had contained an impressive 51 percent of the fire. Given stable weather conditions, that should prevent the fire from spreading much farther, but experts say total containment could take several weeks more, largely due to the areaÆs steep, challenging terrain. 

https://twitter.com/NWSTwinCities/status/1027178479132061696

Despite its massive size, the Mendocino Complex Fire was far from a worst-case scenario. But it will still prove incredibly expensive to fight. Currently, there are 404 fire engines, 93 water tenders, 19 helicopters, 84 bulldozers, and 4,019 personnel tasked with containing it. Additional fire crews have been brought in from surrounding counties and states, and from as far away as Australia and New Zealand. 

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Finally, perhaps the best way to get your head around the fire’s size comes from NBC, which has created a tool that allows you to superimpose the fire's perimeter over any address in the U.S.