Meltzer’s secret to success? An unorthodox diet.

With more 100-mile wins than any ultrarunner in history, Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer is no stranger to suffering over long distances. Beyond his hundred-miler wins—five of which came at Colorado’s famously grueling midsummer Hardrock 100—he has also set FKTs on the Appalachian Trail and Pony Express Trail and founded a race of his own in Utah, the Speedgoat 50K.

Proper fueling is critical to distance-running success, and that preparation begins long before race day. Some ultrarunners are known for their religious adherence to a strict diet filled with high-quality calories and performance-boosting ingredients. Meltzer, on the other hand, has a daily beer habit, stuffed his pockets with bacon while running the AT, and regularly eats Three Musketeers bars and ice cream.

We spoke to Meltzer about what he eats in the days and hours leading up to a race. He agreed to share, with one caveat: The best thing you can do is keep things simple and consistent.

One Week Before

“I don’t change a thing here. Whatever I want, I eat without overthinking it. In my case, that often means a bunch of food that sounds odd when you say it all together—steak, chicken, lots of bacon, pizza, crepes, verde burritos—it doesn’t matter to me. A verde burrito is one of my favorites, though, made with herby-green sauce and jalapeños.”

One to Two Days Out

“I’m almost always traveling at this point before a race. But I’m not one of these people who brings the ingredients for a perfectly curated and balanced meal with me on the road. I eat at a restaurant and get whatever looks good to me. Will I eat at McDonald’s? No. But I’m really not picky. Honestly, after two hours in a 100-miler, everything in my stomach is totally gone anyway. So I don’t really worry about changing my food choices all that much.”

The Night Before

“Again, I’m at a restaurant the night before, totally satisfying my cravings. That usually means a burger and fries or another pizza—probably pepperoni. I don’t overeat, but I do eat earlier than normal to make sure I can get my business done the next morning. I could also go for one of those verde burritos, but I try to stay away from too much fiber.”

Race Day

“I’m really consistent (read: boring) here. I’ll have a yogurt and banana. It goes down easy and isn’t overwhelming to my system. Back in the day, I used to eat huge breakfasts before big races, but that would upset my stomach. A lighter meal seems to work best for me, especially since I’m empty so soon after the start. Then I just go with gels, salt caps, and some strawberries and pineapple throughout the hundred miles. This year at Western States, I had popsicles in my cooler with dry ice!”

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I picked out my last two dogs on the Internet, with not much more than a photo and a brief description to go off of. And I got right both times. At the request of friends and family wondering how to do the same, here’s my complete method. 

Are you a golden retriever person? Maybe you like Weimaraners. Having a preference for a certain kind of dog is totally normal and likely based on a lifetime of indoctrination that I’m not going to be able to overcome in this article. But you have to understand that the supposed merits of "pure bred” dogs are largely a case of marketing, and marketing is designed to manipulate you. 

Thanks to all the brand’s ad buys, you might really identify with the rugged, all-weather ability—combined with the plucky anti-establishment vibe—of a Subaru. But I'd argue that it’d be an even better car if Honda made its motor and Audi supplied the interior. Now imagine if someone was prepared to give you such an improved car not for more money but for free…

Well, that’s exactly what you’d get if you adopted a mixed-breed dog. You can still choose a look and some alleged personality traits of a breed that speaks to you, then you can reduce its health problems, ensure that it’s sane, and make it totally unique by adopting a mix with your breed of choice in it. (If you want to read more about the health benefits of mutts, read this.) 

That’s what we did with Bowie. Virginia’s always wanted a Siberian husky, but I prefer dogs that are a little larger than those scrawny little rascals and that are easier to train. So when a husky-German shepherd puppy in need of a good home popped up on Instagram, I tracked him down, we video chatted with his family, then decided to bring him home. A year and a half later, he’s proved to be the most easily trainable and intelligent dog I’ve ever had, by far the most athletic, has never had even an inkling of a health concern (not even fleas), and everyone who meets him seems to agree that he’s the most handsome pup they’ve seen. If I sound like a proud dad, well, it's because I am. That’s a way better package than any pure bred husky would have given us. 

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Adopting an eight-week-old puppy gives you the most control over the dog’s development possible, but it’s also an all-consuming commitment. You will be cleaning pee and poop, you will not be sleeping, and you will lose furniture, clothing, and other possessions to the process. 

Adopting a juvenile dog (say one to three years old), still gets you in at a time when their personalities are pliable, and gets you past all that puppy hassle. But they will come with some personality traits gained from whatever they were doing before you came along. 

Adopting an adult dog nets you less frenetic energy and the ability to see their mature personality and physical form before you commit. But that personality will now be largely set and training may take more time than it would with a younger animal. An adult dog is also more likely to come with some behavior issues, but you will at least likely be able to identify those issues ahead of time. 

Adopting a senior dog is a noble thing to do and it means you’ll get a dog that’s going to be calm and grateful for its new home and family. But you are potentially taking on health problems, your dog’s ability to keep up outdoors may be limited, and your time with it may be short. 

Teddy was about five months old when we adopted her two months ago. That’s proven to be sort of an awkward age, as she’s still going through the last throes of potty training, while also coming to us with the experience of running feral and likely being physically abused at some point. That means she shows signs of fear and uncertainty easily, and is hyper-competitive with our other dogs for resources. We’re applying plenty of patience, consistency, and nurture, but looking at her objectively, we still got kind of the worst of both worlds—a puppy level of commitment, with the personality foibles of a juvenile rescue. We’re okay with that, but she’d be a difficult dog in the wrong hands. (I’ve previously written more about socializing and training your dog.)

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You’re reading this in Outside, so I’m going to assume you like doing stuff outdoors. It also likely means that you live in a city. That can create problems for potential dog owners, who may be subject to size restrictions, but need a dog large enough to join them outdoors safely. If you live in or visit places with coyotes, that’s something you need to consider carefully. A coyote will have no trouble carrying off a dog weighing up to 30 pounds, and you probably want your dog to be at least 45 pounds or so if you want peace of mind on off-leash hikes and camping trips or just while your dog plays in the yard. 

Because larger dogs are generally calmer dogs, they can actually make better companions if you live in an apartment or small home. Just make sure you’re aware of any potential size restrictions before getting your heart set on a new buddy. 

Beyond the need to worry about coyotes and the tendency of larger dogs to be calmer, I struggle to see a practical consideration in choosing the size of a dog. Dogs can get in and out of cars themselves, so there’s really never much need to lift them up or carry them around. I guess larger dogs do eat more, but since you’ll be feeding him an affordable, healthy raw food diet anyways, that cost isn’t a huge concern. But you probably do have a personal size preference, so just go with that. 

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This can be a difficult one, especially if you’re adopting a dog like Teddy, who had a difficult life before winding up at a rescue center. She was scrawny, dirty, and what little she had been eating obviously hadn’t been all that good for her. Her fur was matted, lacked shine, and stunk to high heaven. 

But the good news was that she was a mutt and she hadn’t come from a puppy mill. Those two factors together generally result in a healthy animal. 

Still, it was crucial that I made sure she was healthy both physically and mentally before deciding to bring her home. My first resource was the rescue organization itself. People who run those tend to be pretty experienced with dogs, and are invested in making sure their animals go to the right homes. So, I called up the woman who runs this one on the phone, and had a sincere and honest conversation with her about our needs and wants, and the dogs in her care. 

That conversation resulted in two siblings of interest. Driving up there, I actually thought we’d end up adopting Teddy’s sister, but on initial interactions with them, it was Teddy who appeared to be more interested in and appreciative of our attention. I felt her over to see if anything felt out of place or if she reacted to any sore spots. I made sure her teeth, gums, eyes, and paws all looked healthy. I looked inside her ears for signs of infection or sensitivity. Then I looked in her eyes and saw a soul. Just to make sure, I got our dogs out of the car and let them all interact off-leash to make sure they got along. They did, and that was it: she was our dog. 

Determining a dog’s physical health can be hard if you’re not an experienced dog owner. If you’re not, I’d encourage you to take one with you to the pound or rescue center for advice. But determining a dog’s personality is a lot easier. Dogs evolved specifically to be our companions, so their expressions and body language are designed to communicate with us and we’re adapted to understand them. Trust your gut, basically. 

Make sure you take all members of the family, canine or human, who will be living with the dog, and observe how they all interact. Approach the dog calmly, and so long as it doesn’t appear fearful or aggressive, pet, handle, and cuddle it. You want a dog that enjoys all that. Put it on a leash, and walk it around the block, observing how it interacts with you and the world. In a fenced location, watch it interact with other dogs. Call it over and feed it a treat. Is it as interested in you as it is in other stuff? Through all that, just ask yourself if it looks like the dog you want.

As a note: Please don’t adopt a dog that shows signs of fear or aggression (the PC way to say this is “reactive”) unless you have significant experience with such animals and live somewhere that the animal won’t have to interact with strange people and other dogs every day. A lot of people bite off more than they can chew trying to rescue an otherwise sweet dog with aggression issues and that ends up not only ruining their life, but burdening other dog owners. That crazy person at the dog park screaming at you because your good dog committed the grievous sin of sniffing their dog’s butt? That’s someone who shouldn’t have adopted an aggressive dog. 

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Ethically speaking, there is no moral argument for purchasing a pure breed. According to the Humane Society, 3.9 million dogs enter shelters each year in America, of which 1.2 million are euthanized. Every single one of those could have been a good member of someone’s family. 

Our oldest mutt, Wiley, is as good at fighting bears as a Karelian bear dog. Bowie will make a great therapy dog at my fiancée’s mental health clinic as his puppy energy continues abating. We’ve had Teddy for two months, and she’s already the sweetest, calmest dog I’ve ever had. None of that is reliant on anything inherent in their breeding (or lack thereof); it’s a combination of their unique personalities and the way in which we’ve shaped those during the time that we’ve owned them. 

You should set yourself up for success by following the advice I laid out above or that of any vet or qualified dog trainer. But you also have to realize that your dog will only ever be what you make it. The right dog for you is the one shaped over time through a deliberate program of socialization and training. There is no shortcut; a good dog is not something you buy, it is something you create. 

Catch this summer’s night sky in full force in one of these perfectly dark locales

This summer is slated to be a stellar one for stargazing. Saturn’s rings will be at nearly full tilt, providing quite a show if you have even a small telescope. In July, Mars will be about as close as it ever gets to Earth, meaning it’ll shine even brighter. Add to that the usual smattering of planets, constellations, and meteor showers, and you stand a good chance of seeing something spectacular in the night sky. But with light pollution threatening our view of the stars in many urban and suburban areas, the best way to get a good glimpse is to travel somewhere really, really dark. Here are some spots that won’t disappoint.

East Kemptville, Nova Scotia, Canada

At this particularly remote spot in East Kemptville, Nova Scotia, you’ll get a front-row seat for mid-August’s Perseid meteor shower—you could see as many as 150 shooting stars per hour. The Trout Point Lodge, located within the UNESCO Southwest Nova Scotia Biosphere Reserve and certified by the Starlight Foundation as the world’s first Starlight Hotel, offers astrophotography workshops, guided stargazing walks, and a 12-foot-high viewing platform equipped with the latest in telescope technology. Don’t miss the outdoor barrel sauna and wood-fire hot tub.

Gila National Forest, New Mexico

Located deep in southwest New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, the free Cosmic Campground is the first International Dark Sky Sanctuary in North America. What it lacks in facilities—the only amenities are toilets and camping spots—it more than makes up with a stellar, 360-degree view of the cosmos. To better preserve guests’ night vision, white flashlights are banned, campfires are not allowed on the observation pads, and visitors are asked to arrive before sunset. Be sure to visit Friends of the Cosmic Campground for a calendar of classes, star parties, and astronomical events.

Jackson, Wyoming

It’s dark enough in Jackson Hole that you can see the arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. Wyoming Stargazing offers guided outings in Grand Teton National Park, free Friday-night stargazing programs on the lawn outside the town’s Center for the Arts, and telescopes you can rent to check out the view on your own. Stay at the Snow King Resort (from $237) and you can book a stargazing trip through the concierge and see the stars from the outdoor hot tub.

Bend, Oregon

Sunriver Resort, 15 miles south of Bend, Oregon, takes its stargazing seriously. This sprawling 3,300-acre resort along the Deschutes River was once a World War II training facility and has its own observatory. A local ordinance restricts outdoor lighting to preserve the darkness. The observatory offers both daytime solar viewings and guided constellation tours at night. You can book a cabin or stay in a guestroom in the lodge (from $149).

Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota

At Voyageurs National Park, which includes four large lakes and 26 smaller ones along the Canadian border, you’re far enough removed from the state’s population centers that you can catch a good glimpse of the northern lights and meteor showers. The park offers a Night Explorer Junior Ranger program for kids who want to learn more about the starry sky. Most of the camping is accessible only by boat. Don’t have one? Pitch a tent at nearby Woodenfrog State Forest Campground on Kabetogama Lake ($14), or rent a houseboat from Ebel’s Voyageur Houseboats (from $335).

Castine, Maine

Maine has some of the last dark spots left on the United States’ overpopulated Eastern Seaboard. In Castine Harbor, Castine Kayak Adventures runs paddle trips on weekends for stargazing and spotting glow-in-the-dark aquatic microorganisms. This summer, the company is offering specialty trips for the meteor showers and Mars at opposition, the farthest the planet gets from the sun and closest it’s been to Earth since 2003. A short drive away, the Acadia Night Sky Festival, taking place September 5 through 9 in Bar Harbor, offers workshops, speakers, and nightly viewings of the Milky Way.

Torrey, Utah

The town of Torrey, Utah, eight miles from the west entrance of Capitol Reef National Park, recently implemented stricter lighting ordinances, earning itself accreditation from the International Dark Sky Association as the state’s first dark sky community. Sleep under the stars at Capitol Reef National Park’s Fruita Campground ($20) and take a night-sky tour from visiting astronomers within the park. Be sure to check out the occasional stargazing parties at Alpenglow Observatory.

It’s not just running. Two new studies confirm that weightlifting provides a similar boost to mental health.

At the beginning of the year, when I was coming out of a rough experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and depression, I decided to switch from running regularly to lifting weights. This was despite mountains of evidence pointing to the benefits of aerobic exercise for mental health. The story I told myself was that running is a catabolic activity: It breaks the body down and causes increases in the stress hormone cortisol. Weightlifting, on the other hand, is anabolic: It builds the body up and promotes the release of the feel-good hormone testosterone. I felt broken. I figured trying to build myself up might help.

And it did. I began strength training three to four days per week, doing mainly compound lifts like squatting, pressing, and deadlifting, and started to feel incrementally better. Whether this drove my improvement is hard to say. I was also engaging in regular cognitive behavioral therapy, meditating daily, and taking medication. But lifting weights certainly didn’t hurt.

Two new studies lend scientific credence to my experience. The first, published in 2017 in the journal Sports Medicine, found that lifting weights reduces the symptoms of anxiety. The second, published in May of this year in JAMA Psychiatry, found that lifting weights can help ease and even prevent depression. Both of these studies are particularly valuable because they are meta-analyses (comprehensive reviews of multiple experiments). In other words, these aren’t just one-off findings.

Though neither study shows a clear mechanism by which weightlifting improves our state of mind, Lindsey Brooke Hopkins, a psychologist in Oakland, California, who studies the affect of exercise on mental health, says it’s likely a combination of changes in both biology and psychology. In addition, she says, weight training helps you learn to “endure the physical and emotional discomfort” that comes with pushing hard, which Hopkins says is actually congruent with the goals of clinical approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy.

Scott Barry Kaufman, a cognitive psychologist who has experienced repeated bouts of generalized anxiety disorder (which just goes to show that this stuff affects everyone), says that, for him, weightlifting provides a one-two punch. In the short term, “something about the physical exertion really lifts my mood,” he says. “The longer-term effect is that weightlifting makes me feel empowered, confident, and ready to take on any challenge there may be the rest of the day.”

Kory Stotesbery, a psychiatrist in San Francisco, California, told me that in his ten years of clinical practice, he’s noticed some patterns of predictable improvement. “What seems to be consistent is a person with depression being in a state of I can’t and then seeing some signs of I can. Depression is a paucity of hope and anxiety is a paucity of confidence.” This is precisely why weightlifting is so effective.

“Sports, particularly those that intentionally engage physical discomfort as a requisite for success, seem higher yield in their engagement of I can,” Stotesbery says. “Maybe the path of a depressed person from bed to the shower to work isn’t that dissimilar from a weightlifter’s path from ‘this can destroy me’ to ‘I love showing myself it won’t destroy me.’ While elite lifting involves skill, intro-level stuff is pretty plug-and-play. It’s very easy to engage in a positive flow state with easily modified challenges and constant feedback on progress.”

Consider Brett Bartholomew. Long before he became a well-known strength and conditioning coach, Bartholomew struggled with depression as a youth. Lifting weights was a central component of his recovery. “Strength training allowed me to apply a concerted focus and effort against an otherwise immovable force,” he says. “Heading into sessions, I was unsure if I could handle the strain, but over and over again I proved to myself that I could. This spilled over out of the gym, too.”

Though the effects of weightlifting on mental health are encouraging, it is not—nor is any other exercise—a substitute for therapy or medication, especially in more severe cases of anxiety and depression. But what the evidence does show is that lifting, starting at just two days per week, can help ease the burden and, once someone is in recovery, prevent relapse.

As Bartholomew says, “There’s something special about being under the bar.”

If you are currently experiencing severe anxiety or depression, you can talk to someone right now at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

Brad Stulberg (@Bstulberg) writes Outside’s Do It Better column and is the author of the book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success.

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Novels might be the most humanist of art forms. They became popular just as humans started to believe they were the center of life on earth, and they’ve been the go-to form ever since for writers wanting to explore the inner lives of humans. Today, though, with so much research emerging about the rich emotional lives of animals, not to mention the planetary harm caused by anthropocentrism, more novels are reflecting a new understanding of life.

In particular, three recent novels (all of which happen to have been written by women) show a rare sensitivity toward animals: Aminatta Forna’s Happiness, Abby Geni’s The Wildlands, and Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend. The nonhumans in these novels are neither anthropomorphized nor mere ornaments. They’re characters in their own right, integral to plot and granted full emotional lives. And considering that they tap into ongoing conversations about animal rights and human-animal relationships, it’s a welcome new approach.

Aminatta Forna’s Happiness is a rich story of interconnectedness in London. American wildlife biologist Jean bumps into Attila, a psychiatrist specializing in trauma and PTSD, on one of the city’s bridges. It’s an everyday urban coincidence, though in this instance, the collision is caused by a fox crossing the bridge and becomes the first spark in a lasting relationship. This is just one of the ways in which the novel champions animals as an integral part of city life—an achievement, since London’s foxes are surely one of the world’s most reviled species. In 2014, a British newspaper ran the headline: “London council offers advice on shooting foxes, but says urban pest should be starved first and foremost.”

Jean advocates directly for foxes’ place in the city through her official study of their habits. She appears on the radio twice to state their case and risks her own safety by interrupting an illegal urban fox hunt. Meanwhile, her deepening relationship with Attila is mirrored by Light Bright, a vixen in Jean’s study, and her quest to find a mate. This strand of the story has readers rooting for the vixen (who is just a fox! that most reviled animal!) as it tugs on the heartstrings like only fiction can. Meanwhile, parakeets flit above the city, stitching together its stories: Attila watches a green feather float to the ground outside his hotel room; it could have fallen from one of the flock Jean grows attached to in a local cemetery. Through this tapestry of encounters, Forna makes the case for animals’ place in the city—and their central place in the novel.

Abby Geni has long been fictionalizing animals. Her 2013 short story collection, The Last Animal, charts humans dealing with love and loss through their relationships with octopuses, ostriches, and other animals. Her new novel, The Wildlands, is the story of nine-year-old Cora, who is kidnappedby her older brother Tucker, an animal-rights activist, for a wild, animal-liberating road trip. Tucker schools Cora in humans’ many crimes against their fellow creatures. “Half the animal kingdom would be gone in a few decades,” he tells her. “Who’s destroying their habitats? Humans. Who’s killing them for sport? Humans.” The novel’s structure, then, is built around the emotional lives of animals in captivity and Tucker’s attempts to relieve their suffering—for instance, when he sets off a bomb in a local cosmetics factory to release its test animals or shoots the owner of a network of battery chicken farms.

Tucker is driven to this lap of liberation by his despair at the anthropocene mass extinction; he rails against “the Age of Humans,” the great human degradation of life on earth. This echoes Attila, the psychiatrist and PTSD specialist in Forna’s Happiness, who considers, “A society went numb…as often from being battered by fate as from never being touched…They lived in terror of what they could not control and in their terror they tried to control everything, to harness the wind.”

Meanwhile, the narrator of Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend seems equally disgusted by the human society that surrounds her. The human, a writer and teacher, inherits a Great Dane when a close friend and one-time lover dies by suicide. She’s less than keen on accepting the huge dog into her tiny New York apartment, with its no-pets policy. Soon enough, though, she’s saying, “The more I live with Apollo, the more convinced I am that…we humans don’t know the half of how dogs’ brains work. They may well, in their mute, unfathomable way, know us better than we know them.”

The Friend is no work of activism; it’s a highly literary novel about grief, the inextricability of love and loss, and the sorry state of the world of letters today. Yet what we see emerging between Apollo and the narrator is a truly caring, reciprocal relationship in which each comforts the other in their grief. Apollo, it turns out, enjoys being read to and often brings the narrator a novel when she feels low—the best heart cure for both woman and dog. Apollo ends up being more of a domestic partner than a wild animal, but it’s still remarkable that in über-civilized and famously lonely New York, the narrator’s most intimate relationship is with an animal.

As the narrator ponders whether there’s any value in writing at all, Apollo, the silent, gentle Great Dane, emerges as a wise and dignified counterpoint to her social circle of writers, operating on a level deeper than language. “Remember, I’m only human, and nowhere near as sharp as you are,” the narrator tells Apollo.

The three disparate novels find common ground in this idea—that animals are not only worthy of empathy; they have much to teach us, disconnected as we are. Through Apollo, Light Bright, and the crocodiles, polar bears, zebras, and other animals that Tucker and Cora set free, three wildly different novelists find ways to bring us closer to the wildness of life on earth.

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Some of the best gear we’ve ever reviewed is included in Backcountry’s massive Black Friday Sale, so we mined through a decade of reviews and Buyer’s Guides to find you the best gear at the best prices.

The North Face ThermoBall Insulated Jacket ($149; 25 percent off) 

The ThermoBall made the list as one of our favorite insulated jackets in 2014 thanks to that revolutionary synthetic filling, which we noticed is, “nearly as compressible as goose fill but dries quickly and wicks moisture like a synthetic.”

Buy Now 

The North Face Terra 40 Backpack ($120; 25 percent off) 

We fell in love with this pack several years ago because it handles 40-pound loads with ease for a bargain price. And it’s only gotten better over the years. 

Buy Now 

The North Face Homestead Roomy 2 Tent ($172; 25 percent off) 

One of the best tents we tested in 2016, this shelter is so big, our testers declared it was bigger than their bedroom at home. It’s one of the rare two-person tents with room for three. 

Buy Now 

Patagonia Capilene Baselayer ($39; 35 percent off) 

These mid-weight base layers have been our Gear Guy’s go-to base layers for more than a decade, and he likes the newest version best because they’re “as light and supple as ever, and wick better than the old fabric.” 

Top Bottom 

Patagonia Nano-Air Insulated Jacket ($174; 30 percent off) 

The Nano-Air is one of our favorite mid layers thanks to its “superior breathability and stretch.” 

Men's Women's

Patagonia Lightweight Snap-T Synchilla Fleece ($65; 35 percent off) 

The iconic Snap-T makes us swoon because it offers “next-to-skin softness but has the wool-like ability to keep the wearer warm, even when wet.” 

Men's Women's

Patagonia Baggies Board Shorts ($27; 45 percent off) 

These “barely there” baggies made it into our 2016 Summer Buyer’s Guide due to the fast-drying nylon material that’s light and comfy, offering a go anywhere/do anything cover up.  

Buy Now

Marmot Tungsten 4P Tent ($237; 30 percent off) 

The Tungsten made our pick for the best family backpacking tent this year because, with 53-square-feet of volume, it has enough real estate to keep the siblings from feuding after the bonding stops. 

Buy Now

Marmot Randonnee Gloves ($70; 30 percent off) 

We’ve been touting the Randonnee as one of the warmest gloves on the market for well over a decade. The glove offers the perfect trifecta of leather palm, Primaloft insulation, and a waterproof Gore-Tex lining. 

Buy Now

Marmot Anderson Flannel Shirt ($52; 30 percent off) 

Marmot’s line of flannels wooed us last year, largely because they’re cut from a super-soft blend of cotton and Coolmax that’s like “wearing a cloud, but with buttons and a collar.” 

Buy Now

Marmot Kompressor Speed Backpack ($65; 35 percent off) 

This is the pack you need to finally tick that ultramarathon off your bucket list. The Kompressor keeps things simple, focusing on a single task: “haul water while staying snug to your body.” 

Buy Now

Marmot Graviton 34 Backpack ($111; 30 percent off) 

The Graviton made our list of best backpacks in last year’s Summer Buyer’s Guide. It’s a little pack that plays big, with all kinds of big haul features (like compression straps and daisy chains) but half the weight. 

Buy Now

Mountain Hardwear Trango 2 Tent ($487; 25 percent off) 

The ultimate winter camping tent, it’s been “field-tested for a decade in the nastiest conditions by the company’s top athletes.”

Buy Now

Mountain Hardwear Monkey Man Fleece ($131; 25 percent off) 

The Monkey Man proved to be “a comfy insulator under a shell on ten-degree powder days,” earning a spot on our list of best mid layers in last winter’s Buyer’s Guide. 

Buy Now

Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer Hooded Down Jacket ($262; 25 percent off) 

Our correspondent spent months hiking the PCT and decided the Ghost Whisperer was indispensable because it’s “the perfect trifecta of warm, light, and reasonably affordable.” 

Buy Now

Mountain Hardwear AP Scrambler Pants ($55; 35 percent off) 

The versatility of the Scrambler impressed us during testing. They’re sturdy enough to handle the gym wall, but “slick enough to wear to the bar after a workout.” 

Buy Now

Mountain Hardwear Summit Rocket 30 Backpack ($112; 25 percent off) 

When the Summit Rocket hit the market, it quickly earned a spot on our list of favorite backpacks. Its ample size gives it a place on gear-heavy climbing trips, but it’s light enough to use on less-intense day hikes too.  

Buy Now

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Giving gifts to other people can be hard. You’re guessing their sizes, you’re taking a gamble on stuff they might already own, and if you’re buying a piece of gear to help someone with their hobby, you risk a gap between their knowledge and your own. In other words, you might give them something they think is lame. But I have one go-to gift that has never let me down: a knife. 

I gave my fiancée her second knife for the first birthday she celebrated shortly after we got together. I actually spent that birthday away from her, visiting my family in France, so I wanted to make sure my presence was felt stateside. I had a knife shipped to her sister, so she could wrap it for me. When it was opened, her sister remarked, “I guess you’ve finally met someone as weird as you.” 

The knife with the right amount of splash? A Helle fixed blade with a handle made from birch, staghorn, and leather. It’s as good to use as it is to look at, and she still uses it almost every day, two years later. 

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I actually got the idea for the Helle from my friend Griff. We met each other in a bar when I lived in Los Angeles and he lived in Seattle. We decided to become friends on the spot, but living so far apart, our second date had to involve an airplane ride. That was a big gamble for both of us, so unbeknownst to each other, we both got each other friendship presents. The gift each of us chose independently to communicate the sincerity of our feelings? Knives, obviously. I gave him a big ol’ DPx Gear HEFT 6, while he got me a pretty little Helle Harding. We both still have them. 

My daily carry is actually another DPx Gear knife, also given as a second-date present from a friend. A few years ago, I invited one of my favorite authors, Robert Young Pelton, on a camping trip. I was nervous when I showed up at his house to pick him up, but my fear of not being cool enough disappeared when he pulled his own knife (one he designed) out of his pocket and handed it to me. I was overcome with loss when I misplaced that knife a couple months ago—and awash in relief when it finally turned up. 

I was really bummed last year when I had to miss my friend Ty’s 40th birthday party. And I wanted to make sure he felt appreciated anyway. Ty’s an amazing cook and always makes amazing meals on the camping trips we take together, so I got him Spyderco’s folding chef’s knife. Now he can carry a good kitchen knife with him a little more easily. 

These are just a few such stories. If you know me, odds are I’ve given you a knife at some point, too. I figure that by doing so I’m giving you something useful and also hopefully something that makes you feel a little more empowered outdoors. And you’ve probably given me a knife, too. 

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The good thing about giving knives as gifts is that you really can’t get it wrong. I write about knives, and like using fancy ones, but I’m as happy opening a box with a simple Swiss Army knife in it as I am getting something custom. One of the most unexpected, and most appreciated, gifts I’ve ever received was a thank-you present from a guy I’ve never met but who I’ve enjoyed an Internet friendship with for a few years. He had my name laser-engraved on a knife he picked out, after reading an article I’d written about picking out good knives. How cool is that? 

Expert Essentials

Outdoor Pros Share Their Emergency Gear Kits

Like any good piece of gear, you shouldn’t have to think about your first-aid kit until you need it

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Aug 21, 2018

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Aug 21, 2018

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we earn an affiliate commission that helps pay for our work. Read more about Outside’s affiliate policy.

Like any good piece of gear, you shouldn’t have to think about your first-aid kit until you need it

Professional athletes who spend a lot of time in remote, hard-to-access places know that emergency equipment isn’t optional. Here’s what they carry.

Spot X ($250) and Garmin InReach Explorer+ ($450)

Kelly Halpin, Mountain Endurance Athlete

A lifelong climber and runner, Kelly Halpin knows how to prepare for big trips into the mountains. For adventures far beyond her backyard in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she carries a fire starter, water purification tablets, a first-aid kit, a knife, and something that can be used as a tourniquet or bandage. She also carries a two-way radio for emergency communication. “When I’m in a remote mountain range or in another country, I like to carry a Spot X or Garmin InReach with me so I can communicate with friends back in town or send out an SOS if something goes wrong,” Halpin says. Compact and simple to use, these satellite messengers allow two-way text messaging in zones beyond cellular service. Both have built-in compasses and allow you to track your location, so people back home can follow your progress. The Garmin InReach Explorer+ also downloads full topographic maps. The satellite phones require subscription services with monthly fees for text messaging.

Spot X Garmin

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MSR MiniWorks EX Microfilter ($90)

Jim Walmsley, Ultrarunner

Jim Walmsley, who broke the course record at the Western States Endurance Run in California last June, carries a water filter on his biggest days. “It provides a safe way to drink water in remote, harsh areas that I’d otherwise not be able to do,” he says. “Even if I do bring enough water on big routes, it gives me ease of mind.” MSR’s MiniWorks weighs one pound and pumps one liter of water a minute.

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Adventure Medical Kits Pro ($100)

Suzy Williams, Climber, Gearhead for Backcountry.com

On a trip to the Wind River Range in Wyoming, Suzy Williams said the small, lightweight Adventure Medical Kits Ultralight/Watertight Pro was ideal for the high-elevation granite and hard-to-access terrain. The waterproof bag and contents Weighing in at 1 pound 12 ounces, the waterproof bag and contents include all the tools you might need when someone gets injured, including a splint, cutting shears, wound-closure strips, tape roll, and reflective bivy blanket. It’s especially convenient for people who may not have medical experience or know what to put in a first-aid kit.

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REI Space Emergency Blanket ($4)

Mike Wardian, Ultrarunner

Mike Wardian ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days and set the fastest time for running the Leadville Trail 100 and Pikes Peak Marathon back-to-back. He always carries medical tape, duct tape, dental floss, Benadryl, Advil, salt tablets, Imodium, toilet paper, and a headlamp. But his key emergency accessory is a space blanket. “These are seriously life savers. They’re almost weightless but can keep you warm in extreme conditions,” Wardian says. REI’s Space Emergency Blanket weighs only three ounces, so it’s easy to stow until you need it. Wardian keeps his in a Ziploc, which is lighter and more waterproof than the packaging the blanket comes in.

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Squirrel’s Nut Butter ($14), Nathan Power Shower Wipes ($5), and Rogue Dead Guy Ale

Camille Herron, Long-Distance Runner

Midwestern long-distance runner Camille Herron holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon in a superhero costume. Which might give you a clue to her character—and why she includes a beer in her emergency kit. “My crew always has Rogue Dead Guy Ale [as a] cure for all stomach and nausea issues,” Herron says. Though beer might alleviate stress in tense situations, the other items in her emergency kit make more sense: Squirrel’s Nut Butter, a blend of coconut oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, and vitamin E oil, prevents chafing when she’s clocking miles, and Nathan Power Shower Wipes clean up and disinfect wounds.

Dead Guy Ale Nut Butter Nathan Wipes

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Mammut Layers, Leukotape P Sports Tape ($9), and Dermabond ($23)

Andy Anderson, Avalanche Forecaster and Mountain Guide

In case of emergency, Andy Anderson always carries Leukotape P sports tape, which is more durable and heavy duty than other medical tapes, and Dermabond, which is basically superglue for skin. A CPR mask, latex gloves, gauze, moleskin, bandages, Tylenol, ibuprofen, and Benadryl round out his first-aid kit, which Anderson stuffs into a double-bagged sandwich-size Ziploc.

Leukotape Dermabond

To stay warm and dry during an unexpected backcountry layover, Anderson carries super-lightweight rain gear, like the Mammut Rainspeed jacket and pants. Together, they weigh about 12 ounces—less than a can of soda—and take up about as much space. In winter, Anderson trades the rain jacket for a nice, warm puffy like the Mammut Meron IN Hooded Down Jacket. Made with a lightweight ripstop material and goose down, this jacket compresses into its side pocket for storage.

Rainspeed Jacket Pants

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When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we earn an affiliate commission that helps pay for our work. Read more about Outside’s affiliate policy.

Competitive Cyclist’s 12 Days of Deals promotion is a great time to stock up on bike kit and accessories for cheap. Read on for a few of the deals were most excited about. 

The RC-7 was featured in our 2017 Summer Buyer’s Guide as one of the best men’s bike accessories. It has a supple upper, stiff carbon sole, and grippy heel cup.

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The mountain bike-specific Tectal features a clean style and unibody construction, which extends coverage over the back of the head and temples. POC also carves 15 vents and a lengthy system of air channels throughout so you won’t overheat under your lid when you start working hard on a climb.

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The windproof and waterproof Sosta vest keeps your core warm and dry on chilly winter rides. What we really dig are the rear vertical zippers that allow you to access your jersey pockets underneath the vest.  

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Outside bike test director Aaron Gulley says the Assos iJ.haBu5 jacket is the single most versatile piece of cycling apparel he has ever tested. It’s warm, breathable, windproof, and water-resistant. 

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The women's Superleggera may be light, but its waterproof outer and long cut works to keep you dry during unexpectedly wet rides. If you’re heating up, you can pack it away into a jersey pocket. 

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We called the Giordana Cycling jacket one of the coolest bike tools of 2017. Our testers loved the Polartec Alpha 60 insulation and highly breathable eVent DVAlpine exterior. 

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We wear the Tempesta glove during cold, rainy lunch rides. They feature a fully waterproof lining and a neoprene cuff, which prevents any water or cold air from sneaking in. 

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The WindFront jersey blends two fabrics to shield you from the cold on a winter ride: a windproof membrane up front and in the sleeves and a thermal fleece out back. It’s also coated with a DWR finish to shed light rain and sleet. 

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We’ve always been fascinated by ski patrollers. They get first tracks on powder days, chuck bombs for a living, and, crucially, decide when to pull ropes and open a new section of a mountain. But we wanted to know what they actually do on a day-to-day basis. So we called up Mike Thurber—friend of Outside, sometimes gear reviewer, and soon-to-be second-year ski patroller at Taos Ski Valley—to hear about a typical day on the mountain.

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As a rookie, it’s all new and interesting work, but by far the best days at the office are during storm cycles. The snow safety team looks at forecasts during the afternoon each day and decides when the crew should show up the following morning. Normally, we’re on first chair at 8 a.m., but if there’s significant snowfall, we’re awake at 4 a.m. so we can get to the mountain and be ready to go by 5:45.

On avalanche control mornings, the patrol gathers in the base area and very well might be loading the chairlift in a blizzard by the light of headlamps. We have two chairs to ride to patrol HQ, where we convene to get our weather briefing and plan the day. In general, each patroller is assigned to a specific route, with a designated route leader, and we generally head out in teams of two or three. As a rookie, your best bet is to work your ass off at all times and then make puppy-dog eyes at one of the route leaders and hope they let you go out on route with them.

The next part of the day is every bit as fun as it sounds, but it’s also the most dangerous. Basically, through a combination of high-powered explosives and ski cuts, we spend two or three hours moving around the mountain trying to trigger any potential avalanches before we allow the public on the hill. This clearly includes any of the terrain a skier might access, but also all the potential avalanche start zones above skier terrain. It’s a huge project, and it can be stressful knowing how many people are jonesing for those first turns of the day, but it pays to move pretty deliberately here as mistakes are just not an option.

Anyone who doesn’t go out on control starts running through prep for the rest of the day. That could mean clearing snow from stairs at the top patrol shack or checking the medical gear. Once control work is done, we get the green light to start housekeeping chores on the hill—setting up signs, putting up ropes for closures, opening new terrain. At Taos, first chair is at 9 a.m.

Work changes a bit once we have people on the hill. It’s often the case that we don’t open the whole mountain at once, so when we’ve taken care of the frontside, part of the patrol goes back out on other control routes that are a little farther afield while the rest of the crew prepares for a busy day. That means responding to emergencies, keeping an eye on ropes and signage, continuing work on opening the rest of the mountain, and any other general maintenance. The day goes by pretty fast—it’s easy to get caught up with patient care and side projects only to find yourself at 3 p.m. without having eaten.

We start closing hike-to terrain around midafternoon. By 3:30, most of the patrol staff meets at the top shack for sweep. Our final chair of the day is at 4 p.m. Once the last chair clears and the lifties head down, the dispatcher cranks up some music and we start sweeping the mountain. We make sure no guests are left on the hill and that things are tidy for the groomer crews. Depending on what we find, this can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more.

If you’re working as dispatcher for the afternoon, sweep is a pretty incredible way to end the day. You work on closing down HQ while the rest of the team sweeps the mountain. Once everybody’s down, you lock the door and head out. You’re literally the only skier on the mountain, and the New Mexico sunsets are unparalleled, period. It’s magical.