Month: March 2019

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Outdoor gear isn’t just expensive to buy—it’s expensive to design, test, and produce. For that reason, many small brands have turned to Kickstarter to raise the money they need to manufacture new products. Here are five launches we’re excited about right now.

Filtering viruses, microplastics, and heavy metals from 24 ounces of water in eight seconds, Grayl’s new Geopress (MSRP: $90)is one of the fastest portable water purifiers around. There are two main pieces: an outer cylinder to collect dirty water, and a plastic drinking bottle with a microfiber and carbon filter on the bottom. Scoop up water in the cylinder and push the filter into it, similar to a French press. The pressure pushes the water up through the filter and into the drinking bottle. The filter is replaceable and is good for 350 uses (about 65 gallons). The project has raised more than$125,000, well over its $30,000 goal, with 20 days left.

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This everyday pack (MSRP: $152) expands on the fly, delivering exactly the capacity you need when you need it. An external flap loosens via two horizontal compression straps, accommodating everything from a bag of groceries to items as unwieldy as a bike helmet or a gym duffel, and a hidden mesh panelbelow keeps stuff from falling out. When you don’t have anything bulky to carry, tighten the straps to cinch down the flap, leaving you with a compact commuter bag. The project has raised more than $62,000, well over its $11,309 goal, with 20 days left.

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Merino is the undisputed king of natural performance fabrics, used in everythingfrom base layers to jacket insulation. Now Woolly Clothing is putting it in slacks. Made with a blend of 71 percent Australian merino wool, 22 percent cotton, and 7 percent spandex, the lightweight Longhaul pants (MSRP: $95) blend office-appropriate design (belt loops, slim pockets, and a tailored fit) with trail- and travel-friendly moisture-wicking properties and odor resistance. The project has raised more than $151,000, well over its $20,000 goal, with 15 days left.

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Sleek design, internal wiring, and one-touch folding come together to make the Unagi (MSRP: $890 and up) one of the best-looking, most portable electric scooters we’ve seen. The frame is made from aerospace-grade carbon fiber, for major weight savings, that was hand-laid for added strength in certain areas. The 250- or 450-watt engine means you’ll be able to tackle hills without sputtering. The project has raised more than $242,000, well over its $50,000 goal, with seven days to go.

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Neodymium magnets lock this carbide blade (price TBD) into a carbon-fiber sheath for stronger, more secure storage than the plastic sleeves that come with most everyday-carry knives. A simple twist frees the blade from the magnets, which reengage if you don’t remove the knife from its sheath. The blade is fixed in the handle with compression, not screws, which makes for easy swapping when it’s time to replace. Simply pull the blade to remove it from the handle. (The blade won’t come out when pulled in any other direction.) The project has raised more than $17,000, well over its $3,736 goal, with 42 days left to go.

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Five brand-new films, two that are new to streaming, and one that’s so secretive we aren’t quite sure when it’ll drop (but it should be soon!)

Yes, summer is the time for raging, but you have to rest some, too. If it’s ungodly hot outside or your local trails are closed due to fire risk, settle in with these films about running, riding, and the redemptive power of long hikes and good food.

Brand New

‘Enhanced’

A new six-part docuseries from ESPN, Enhanced looks at all the ways athletes have, legally or otherwise, pushed their performance to new levels. Executive produced by Alex Gibney, a 30 for 30 alum and producer of a 2014 Lance Armstrong documentary, and with two episodes directed by favorite adventure filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, this should be a high-level treatment of the science of human limits. All six episodes will be available on the subscription streaming service ESPN+ on July 16.

‘Operation Thai Cave Rescue’

Yes, there’s already a documentary about the Thai soccer team and their coach who were stuck in a cave for 18 days. All 13 people were rescued by the morning of July 10. Operation Thai Cave Rescue will air on the Discovery Channel on July 13 at 10 p.m. ET. Even if you think this is bonkers, the film should be a mostly uplifting watch that goes into how the team survived for that long and the heroic rescue operation.

‘The Snowman Trek’

If you want to tackle Bhutan’s 189-mile Snowman Trek, which traverses 11 high mountain passes and is considered one of the hardest hikes in the world, you’ll usually do it in a month and plan for the best possible weather in the snowy range. Mountaineer Ben Clark, who had long been obsessed with the Himalayas, decided he wanted to knock it out in two weeks. Clark recruited some other ultrarunners, including Anna Frost, who had previously guided in Bhutan, and attempted to set the speed record in the face of brutal weather, bad dynamics, and challenging conditions. Drama ensues. Watch The Snowman Trek online here.

‘Coming to My Senses’

After Aaron Baker broke his neck in a motocross accident, doctors told the professional rider he wouldn’t even be able to feed himself ever again, much less move. Fifteen years later, he attempted to cross Death Valley, unsupported, on foot. In addition to tracing the sweep of recovery and perseverance, Coming to My Senses digs into the psychological underpinnings of why athletes push themselves to physical extremes. The film is available now on iTunes.

‘Dark Money’

Campaign finance is a gateway to any other issue you might care about. That’s the premise of one of our favorite films from Telluride Mountainfilm, Dark Money, which traces financial corruption in a Montana election to show how interest groups steer politics and make candidates beholden to the groups that pay them. The story focuses on a small-town reporter struggling to uncover the dark inner workings of politics, which is one of our favorite kinds of adventure stories. It’ll screen at select theaters throughout the summer.

New on Netflix and iTunes

A few films we loved on the festival circuit have made it to the small screen. Watch at your leisure.

‘Karl Meltzer: Made to Be Broken’

In 2016, Karl Meltzer set the fastest known time for a supported runner on the Appalachian Trail. That shakes out to about 46 miles a day over his 45-day, 22-hour, 38-minute run. In addition to tailing him on the trail, Karl Meltzer: Made to Be Broken gets into AT culture and the masochistic drive that pushes speed hikers. The film was produced by Red Bull Media House, which achieves the semi-unbelievable feat of making distance running look exciting.

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‘The Moment’

Darcy Hennessey Turenne’s The Moment is a look at the origins of freeride mountain biking on British Columbia’s North Shore. The film is wild and raucous and bloody and fun, just like the riding was then. Turenne, a former pro herself, says she wanted to capture the characters and quirks of the sport she was obsessed with in her teens.

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One to Keep Your Eye On

‘Ye Olde Destruction’

Skate-art polymath Thomas Campbell (he directed A Love Supreme and helped Tony Hawk relaunch Skateboarder magazine) has been working on a self-funded, 16-millimeter film project called Ye Olde Destruction since 2011, obsessively shooting film and bringing in skate and surf photographers to help him curate shots. Campbell is notoriously reclusive and anti-industry, but he’s been guerilla fundraising by selling skate decks painted by artists friends like Ed Templeton and Geoff McFetridge. The highly anticipated film is supposed to drop sometime this summer.

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Becoming an Eagle Scout takes serious commitment. Only about 4 percent of Boy Scouts acquire the 21 merit badges and survive the intense review process to reach the elite level of outdoor stewards. Unsurprisingly, the Eagle Scouts count some impressive and hardworking men among them, including Neil Armstrong, President Gerald Ford, and Steven Spielberg. Here’s another name you can add to that exclusive list: Pattie Gonia, the viral drag queen who dances atop mountains in six-inch-heeled boots.

Pattie Gonia made her debut on Instagram in early October. Within a month, she gained more than 30,000 followers, and for obvious reasons: She’s hilarious and captivating and consistently manages to not fall off the side of a mountain in those six-inch heels. (If there isn’t already a Boy Scout badge for that achievement, there should be.) In one video, the 6'10" Pattie twirls her trekking poles on top of a mountain to Fergie’s “London Bridge.” (Fergie has seen the video.) In another, geotagged at Brokeback Mountain, she gets sexy in a cowboy getup in front of some unenthused horses. For Halloween, she hiked in full drag as Mother Nature. The self-proclaimed “world’s first backpacking queen” is officially here.

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The character—whose name is a pun on the California-based gear brand, though she has no sponsorship or formal connection to it—is portrayed by Nebraska-based photographer and Eagle Scout Wyn Wiley. Earlier this year, he and his friends were brainstormingdrag names, and a friend tossed out the name Pattie Gonia. An avid skier, thru-hiker, and rock climber, Wiley thought the idea was too fun to pass up. His upcoming trip to the Continental Divide would be Pattie’s grand debut. He once did a drag performance as Ginger Snap (he’s a red-headed photographer—get it?) and still had the boots, so he dug them up.“I just packed in the boots and was like, ‘This does not make sense at all. I have no room in my pack for these.’” Wiley doesn’t do entire hikes in Pattie’s boots, as the human ankle was not created for such a feat, but he always treks a portion in them.

So how did Pattie blow up so quickly? Wiley boasts more than 75,000 followers on his personal account—he’s a professional wedding and portrait photographer and videographer when he’s not climbing mountains in heels—which gave Pattie a solid platform from the get-go. But Wiley attributes her popularity to something a little more magical than Instagram analytics. “There’s a queen inside everyone,” he says. “I think Pattie is the voice inside telling people they should just go for it. Live unapologetically.”

Drag culture is as mainstream as it has ever been: RuPaulis now an Emmy-winning household name, and his ubiquity is only trumped by that of drag slang. Drag’s appeal reaches far beyond gay men, and to that end, Wiley estimates about half of Pattie’s followers are women under the age of 30. But he also cites Pattie’s unconventional look—her being in nature and mixing up feminine and masculine attire—as a point of interest. “I think if I just walked onto the scene as Pattie as just a classic drag queen, I don’t think it would have as much engagement,” Wiley surmises.

Wiley posted that first Pattie Gonia video to his personal accountwith the intention of it being a one-time thing. But given the enthusiastic response, he decided to build out the character, if for no other reason than to make people laugh. “Pattie Gonia is fun, first and foremost,” Wiley says. “I feel like social media sucks so much life out of us. If we can have a place where people can have a good laugh or be encouraged, I think I want her to be there.”

Beyond that, Wiley’s ultimate goal is for Pattie Gonia to inspire more people to spend time outdoors, particularly those who have historically been excluded from the outdoor community, including the LGBTQ community, people of color, and fat folks. Wiley hopes to achieve that goal by leading groups of novice hikers as Pattie Gonia, getting sponsors to provide gear for those who can’t afford it, and amplifying the work of others who have been campaigning for inclusiveness in the outdoor community for years. He particularly admires the work of Jenny Bruso, founder of Unlikely Hikers, a Portland-based group that leads hikes for the underrepresented outdoorists.

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On a more personal level, drag is a way for Wiley to explore his more feminine sides. “In my normal life, I’d say I’m pretty straight-passing,” he says. “But when I put those boots on, it feels like a girl when she puts on mascara for the first time—it unlocks a different side of you that you haven’t seen before. I think femme is important. I think masculinity is important. I think it’s all inside of us.”

For Wiley, nature also contains both a femininity and a masculinity. Outdoorsiness often has a butch connotation—roughing it and rolling around in the mud isn’t stereotypically girlie. (Of course, the act of enjoying the outdoors has no gender, but living in a patriarchal society means unwittingly assigning gender roles to all sorts of inanimate things.) As Pattie, Wiley aims to buck that cliché by shining a light on the femininity that he believes has always existed in the outdoor world. “I just got into rock climbing this year, and you can masculine your way up a wall, but there’s no beauty in it,” he says. “The people I look up to at my rock climbing gym who are so graceful about it pull from all the feminine aspects—it’s like watching ballet happen on a wall.”

Ultimately, Pattie Gonia is here to unleash the hiker, skier, and rock climber in everyone, regardless of gender. “It takes a freakin’ boss-ass bitch to climb a mountain, no matter whoever you are,” Wiley says. “Girl, guy, no matter where you are on the spectrum, it’s awesome.”

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One of my childhood dogs, a feisty Norfolk terrier named Jessie, would fling her muscular and slightly overweight little body at you as soon as you walked in the door. But she refused to ever sleep in a human bed. So I was touched when she snuggled up near my pillow one night. I was her favorite human. I could just see her curling up at my feet every night, me and not my parents or siblings. Hours later, I woke to strange, soft noises. Jessie was padding around my bed, probably trying not to wake me as she retched in small piles, creating a sort of crime-scene outline of puke around my sleeping body.

If you’ve never spent 30 disoriented seconds in the middle of the night coming to the realization that you’re being vomited on, just know that it stays with you. I still think back to this moment whenever any dog wants to jump in bed. My initial reaction is not delight that a warm, soft creature will protect me from serial killers, but instead, Did you eat something suspicious earlier today?

I would love to celebrate, as many people have, a recent study published in Anthrozoös claiming that women sleep better alongside dogs. But Jessie, and many other good dogs I’ve met in my prolific career as a dogsitter, have given me reason to be skeptical. Researchers from Canisius College surveyed 962 American women, 55 percent of whom report sleeping with a dog, and found that many of them perceived dogs as less disruptive to their sleep than human bed-mates.

I present as counterpoint the dog who farted toxically all night and the other who had to change position every hour on the hour, and pawed frantically at the blanket for snakes before lying down. (I’ve looked it up, it’s because of snakes.) To the many study respondents who also thought a dog in bed increased their feelings of comfort and security, I present the dog who stared intently at the ceiling and growled a little, then fell asleep, leaving me up on ghost watch late into the night.

I love dogs, and I’m not saying all of them are annoying sleepers. I know exactly five dogs who sleep peacefully enough to share my bed.

Here are some things most dogs do that are cute but only when you are not trying to sleep in their vicinity: snore; lick their butt for five minutes; run and bark in their sleep; roll onto their back, limbs akimbo; put their cold, clammy nose in your face; hulk over you and stare/whine/bark until you give them a tummy rub; lay across your legs (applies to dogs over 70 pounds) or directly on your chest when you are trying to breathe (applies to dogs of most sizes); and, worth repeating—fart audibly.

As far as I can guess, most humans who could be categorized as “disruptive” sleepers really only do two or three of those things. If your human bed-mate’s list extends beyond that, you should probably choose a less concerning bed-mate, no?

To prove my point, I turned to my fellow Outside employees, who are shameless Dog People. All of them vehemently disagreed with my overall argument that many dogs are too annoying to allow on the bed, then proceeded to share anecdotes that directly prove my point. These include, but are not limited to: extremely loud snoring; extremely loud barking at a possum; getting body-slammed by a particularly long-limbed dog; getting peed on; getting woken every few hours by small dogs who jumped off the bed but want to get back on the bed; and having to sleep inches away from the face of a dog that just vomited in the truck bed.

You know who does sleep well with an animal in their bed? The embattled few Outside cat owners. They believe their pets have been painted in an unfair light in this study, being described as “equally as disruptive as human partners.” Our cats do not snore, body slam, or use us as their litter box. Sometimes they’ll aggressively knead us like loaves of bread in the morning when they must be fed, but otherwise they are most likely to be found sleeping in our beds like soft, comforting, and (ahem) noiseless brioches. If you prefer vomit breath, barking, and incessant blanket-nest-making over this, perhaps you should consider loosening your grip on your dog-person biases.

The dog owners made one fair argument: In terms of brute strength, innate protectiveness, and the ability to make loud noises, dogs have the upper hand over cats and most humans. We’d prefer them as tent partners on most camping trips. Still, we lack evidence that dogs are less disruptive of sleep than humans. In fact, my coworkers willingly admit that their dogs often lower their sleep quality, but they share their beds anyway because to be a dog owner is to abandon all logic.

Editorial production fellow Madeleine LaPlante-Dube summed it up nicely: “Erin, you bring this question to us like we have the power to tell our dogs no. Dog owners have no spines.”

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No one says a word for the first ten minutes of Maine, Matthew Brown’s broody, existential take on the culture of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers. Instead we watch the film’s two main characters, Bluebird (Laia Costa) and Lake (Thomas Mann), hurl full-bore into the animalistic drudgery of life on the trail: Bluebird emerges from her tent, squats and wipes with a dirty pee rag, then removes and rinses out her well-used menstrual cup; Lake scrapes cold oatmeal from his dented pot and washes his pale chest in an even colder stream. They clamber over split-rail fences, fail to woo Virginia’s legendary Grayson Highland wild horses, and eventually hole up in a hostel where they lie, still silently, on a hard wooden floor, no doubt questioning what led them to the trail in the first place.

We, meanwhile, are left to puzzle out what led them to one another. It’s a question that propels much of Maine’s minimalistic plot and also serves as the basis for the film’s first conversation, an incredibly awkward, stilted exchange between the hiking duo and a group of other thru-hikers at the hostel. “Are you a couple?” asks one of the backpackers. “Kind of,” says the puppyishly earnest Lake. “Not at all,” retorts the mercurial Bluebird. Then she regales the group with stories of how Lake struggles to shit in the woods: “Like a goat… plop, plop, plop,” she gleefully reports in a thick accent. (Both Costa and her character hail from Spain). Meanwhile Lake looks on, crestfallen to learn she doesn’t agree that they are a thing. 

Then again, maybe she does. Either way, it’s complicated. Bluebird, we soon learn, is married. She’s also an unapologetic hot mess—erratic, untethered, shifting from maudlin thoughts to sophomoric pranks in the blink of an eye. For his part, Lake serves as the pacific,hipster yang to her yin—crooning away on a borrowed acoustic guitar, firing up the camp stove so they can eat, ambling down trails with the beatific resignation of a long-distance hiker. We never really learn how or why they hooked up on the trail. And if there is a narrative arc to the film, it’s based in the growing sexual tension between Lake and Bluebird as they alternately fight, wrestle, confide, and kiss their way up the Virginia section of the trail.

The lives and motivations of people like this duo have always held fascination for director Matthew Brown. A North Carolina native, Brown grew up in the shadow of the Appalachian Trail. Thru-hiking it, he says, was a long-standing childhood dream, but a serious back injury that he sustained at age 16 made that impossible. “Maine was an opportunity for me to do it through these characters,” he told me by phone from his home in New Mexico. “I realized I could live vicariously through their stories.”

More than that, he says, the trail offered the perfect setting for an inquiry into the kind of extreme subjectivity and limited temporalityhe says he likes to tackle in his films. His first full-length feature, In the Treetops, released at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival,followed a group of friends on an overnight road trip to nowhere. Maine has a similar vibe: far more Before Sunset or Lost in Translation than Into the Wild or Wild.

Brown says he and his team researched the film at the AT’s Trail Days, an annual three-day bacchanal in Damascus, Virginia. They spent weekends chatting up hikers at road crossings, and Brown says he “Google Earthed the shit out of” the 2,181-mile footpath. “What I like about the trail is that it seems like everyone on it is either trying to lose themselves or find themselves. Some seemed content with that; others were pretty broken down,” says Brown, who is 28. “Like a lot of twentysomethings, I feel pretty lost in my own life a lot of the time, and I wanted to explore that sensation, too.”

To achieve that effect, Brown offers a pared-down script deliberately devoid of polish or timing. Most of the scenes feature only Bluebird and Lake, and both Costa and Mann, two rising young stars in the Indie film world, deliver solid performances, particularly in those scenes depicting the more feral aspects of their relationship (and time on the trail). It’s uncomfortable watching her hawk a loogie into his mouth or listening to him get drunk on gifted whiskey, but that’s also what makes the real-time experience of their time together so real.

The actual filming of Maine (so named because it is the northern terminus of the AT, the intended finishing point for these northbound hikers) took place over 20 days—two on the beaches of Hatteras, North Carolina, for a whimsical opening scene depicting Bluebird swimming, and 18 in southeastern Virginia for the days she spends with Lake on the trail. Filming took place on location and includes the legendary Woods Hole Hostel in Pearisburg, as well as a couple of actual thru-hikers who happened to be staying there. Weather was lousy for a lot of it, and the scenes dripping with fog or depicting tents pummeled by a wet wind are some of the most authentic (and beautiful) in the film.

Nevertheless, true hiker trash will no doubt call foul on the little anachronisms throughout the film: aside from a scene where Bluebird and Lake smear each other’s faces with wild blackberries, they and their cotton clothes are way too squeaky-clean for the trail. There’s a certain campy Western feel to the way the scenery never really seems to change, no matter how far they walk. Nor does much of the scenery look like anything you’ll find on the actual trail. But getting permits to film on the AT is a bitch—even A Walk in the Woods had a hard time coordinating with the National Park Service, which oversees the AT. And while you’ll really want to cake some grime around Bluebird’s cuticles or see evidence of an actual white blaze in a scene or two, there’s plenty that the film gets right, from Christian trail magic and naked hikers to the bizarre sensory overload that occurs when you step off the trail and into a megamarket and the euphoria that comes from eating yogurt there.

Perhaps most important, Maine refuses to placate viewers with dramatic climaxes, proof of self-realization, or tidy conclusions. We leave with no more certainty about whether Bluebird and Lake will finish the trail—or who they’ll be at the end—than we did at the film’s start. And when we get to the credits, these two characters are just as flawed and conflicted as they were in the opening scene.

It’s a bold directorial choice for Brown, and one you have to respect, particularly if you’ve spent any time shouldering a pack. If there’s one genuine realization to be had out there, it’s that the trail lays us open, exposes our soft underbelly, and forces us each to behold what is there. In a lot of ways, the willingness to confront that chaos is story enough.

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Backpacks are backpacks, right? You might feel differently the next time you try strapping a pair of skis to your summer pack. Winter sports, in particular, demand season-specific features, from insulated hydration sleeves to avalanche airbags and ski attachments. Over the past ten years, I’ve tested more than 100 packs, and for this review I’ve written about seven of my all-time favorites.

My choice for all-around ski touring is the Ortovox Haute Route 40. It’s big enough for anything short of actual winter camping, stable and comfortable whether full or empty, and has most of the features I want. You can read about the Haute Route 40 below, as well as six others made for even more specialized activities.

Ortovox Haute Route 40 ($190)

The Haute Route 40 is named for the classic European ski-touring route, and it’s perfectly designed for alpine adventures. It’s a top-loading pack with a weather- and scuff-resistant outer made of polyurethane-coated Cordura and 420-denier nylon, and it works well for anything from multi-day hut trips to sidecountry laps outside the resort. The Haute Route also comes in a 38-liter women’s-specific version, which is identical except for a narrower and shorter back and thinner and more curved shoulder straps. If I could have only one winter pack, this would be it.

Like many other winter packs designed for skiing and climbing, it has a back-panel zipper for finding things buried in the pack’s bottom when your skis are strapped to the pack, a dedicated pocket for goggles in the lid, and an avalanche-tool compartment that opens via bright-orange toggles. The body has lash points for ice axes and poles and accommodates both snowboards and skis in either an A-frame or diagonal configuration.

There’s also a rope or jacket strap hidden in the top of the pack and generous padding in the shoulder and hip-belt straps. Combined with those comfortable pads, an O-shaped suspension system helps transfer weight onto the hip belt and keeps heavy loads from crushing the pack.

This feature set isn’t revolutionary so much as thoughtful and refined, more so than any other pack we tested. Despite all those sport-specific components, the Haute Route 40 looks and feels clean and simple, with few straps to flap in the wind or catch on chairlifts. And the narrow profile kept it from feeling ungainly, even when fully loaded.

“I could chuck the pack down in the snow, open the zip wide, and see everything right there. No digging required,” noted one tester. He also appreciated the white interior fabric, which helped highlight whatever he was looking for.

I think the 40-liter size is well suited to the demands of long tours, skiing big glacier routes, or the hut-to-town-to-hut style of ski touring that’s common in Europe. (If none of these are on your agenda, you might want to size down to a pack in the 30-liter range.) After a winter of use, including riding in helicopter baskets, plane-cargo holds, snowmobile trailers, and pickup-truck beds, it still looks almost pristine, a credit to its burly outer construction. If you mix up your ski-touring adventures, we don’t think there’s a better pack out there. 

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Helly Hansen Ullr Backpack 25 ($160)

The Ullr Backpack 25 has a classic layout, with back-panel access to the main pocket, a separate avalanche-tool compartment, and a compact fleece-lined pocket for goggles. It reminded me of Dakine’s tried-and-true ski packs, with their simple designs and burly materials.

Helly Hansen has been making ski apparel for years, and its experience is evident in this design. The Ullr 25 comes with zippered pockets on each side of the pack, sized perfectly and placed in the right spot for reaching a water bottle or climbing skins. Slinging the pack off one shoulder, I was able to grab a sip of water in less time than it took my ski partner to set a kick turn. I also liked the helmet holder, which unfolds from a small zip pocket at the bottom of the pack and hooks onto the pack body. It never got in the way when I was carrying skis or a board. Likewise, the rear-entry zipper is out of the way of the compression straps, letting me open the pack wide without unclipping anything.

Comfort is another highlight. A plastic sheet in the back padding kept the Ullr 25 from turning into a basketball when overloaded, and the wide hip belts had enough cushioning to support a heavy load. Packs in this size range often fail to include these features.

The Ullr doesn’t look like anything fancy, but the more I used it, the more I liked it. For a company making one of its first winter packs, Helly Hansen did a great job. If you primarily ski in-bounds or in the sidecountry, this is the best choice I can think of.

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Arc’teryx Alpha SK 32 ($325)

Skiers have been hacking Arc’teryx’s mountaineering-focused Alpha FL pack since it launched, and the Arc’teryx Alpha SK 32, a ski-specific version of the Alpha FL, is the pack many of us have been dreaming of.

Like the Alpha FL, the Alpha SK 32 is a top-loading pack that is weather resistant, minimalist, and light. It’s constructed from the same waterproof ripstop nylon as its predecessor and uses the same foam back panel and padding-free waist strap.

Unlike the FL, the SK 32 comes with a flap on the top of the pack, making it easy to stash skins, a helmet, or a rope. There’s also a separate sleeve for avalanche tools and a side zipper that gives on-the-go access to the main compartment. Beyond that, Arc’teryx stuck with simplicity. Instead of side compression straps for carrying skis or boards, it sewed loops into the pack and added a couple plastic ski straps. It’s heavier than the FL but still light at 2.2 pounds.

The ski-attachment straps can be positioned for vertical, diagonal, A-frame, or snowboard carry, though I gravitated to a diagonal carry while booting up couloirs. The weight of my skis never pulled on my shoulders or threw me off balance. On the skin track, the narrow profile was comfortable and stayed out of my way, and as long as the pack was full, the Alpha SK felt stable despite the lack of compression straps or load lifters, even while skiing.

If you’re looking for a few more bells and whistles, a good alternative is the Black Diamond Cirque, which has compression straps and a more comfortable waist belt yet still weighs as much as the Alpha SK. Also, it costs $200 to the Alpha’s $325. The Cirque is a solid minimalist pack for touring, though its fabric and zippers aren’t waterproof, and it doesn’t feel as slick and refined as the Alpha. For these reasons, just as the Alpha FL has become a cult classic in the climbing world, I think the Alpha SK is destined for similar status among ski tourers looking for a simple and light daypack.

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Scott Backcountry Patrol AP 30 ($1,100)

Avalanche airbag packs have been on a lightning-fast development track the last few years, and the Scott Backcountry Patrol AP 30 is the latest and most exciting evolution in that field. The Patrol AP 30 employs an electric fan to inflate its airbag—more on that in a second—but operates without the heavy and failure-prone batteries that turned many away from first-generation electric packs from Arc’teryx and Black Diamond.

All airbags have to get inflated somehow, and until now there were two options: compressed gas and battery-powered fans. Gas-inflated airbags are reliable and lightweight but can only be used once in the field and are sometimes a pain to refill. On the other hand, batteries can deploy multiple times on a single charge but are heavy and may not work in extremely cold temperatures. The Patrol AP 30, with its Alpride E1 system, meanwhile, is light, impervious to cold, and can be inflated repeatedly.

Rather than a battery, the Patrol AP 30 powers its fan with a supercapacitor, a complex device that is able to store energy via an electrostatic field and without a battery. (Technically, the Patrol AP uses two AA batteries to keep the supercapacitor topped up, but they’re much smaller than the lithium-ion bricks found in last-gen fan airbags. After a discharge, the AAs will need about half an hour to bring the capacitor back to ready.) Back home, recharging is quick and simple. This is more important than the pack’s ability to deploy more than once in the field: research and anecdotal evidence suggest that skiers are more likely to deploy their airbag successfully in an avalanche if they’ve practiced with it before.

The pack itself feels smaller than the advertised 30 liters, as a good bit of space is chewed up by the airbag itself. Still, it’s big enough for backcountry day trips. A zipper splits the pack open down the center. Inside is a general storage area, a shovel and probe sleeve, and a valuables pocket. Outside the pack, there’s a fleece pocket for goggles, plus ski, board, and snowshoe mounts. It’s simple design, comparable to the other airbag packs I’ve tried.

The Alpride E1 system appears to be the future of airbags. Scott was the first company to market a pack with this system, but Black Diamond recently began selling a 26-liter pack with the E1 system, too. For both packs, the biggest drawback is that they cost twice as much as most compressed-gas airbags and about the same as the other battery options. Let’s face it: $1,100 is a lot to stomach for a backpack.

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Mammut Trion Nordwand ($200)

I’ve tested a lot of lightweight packs. They’re always wonderful to pick up, but they’re not always great to carry with a full load. Mammut’s Trion Nordwand is one of the rare few that weighs almost nothing but still manages to haul a substantial load with stability and comfort.

The difference is structure. Most superlight packs are just sacks of fabric with a little padding, but the Trion has two stabilizer bars: one tube-shaped bar that runs across the shoulders and a flat aluminum stay that runs vertically along the spine. Together they help hold the pack’s shape and transfer weight off the shoulders and onto the hips. (Both are removable for stripping weight.)

The pack itself is made from supertough, ripstop Dyneema, a fabric fiber that is 15 times as strong as steel. Otherwise it’s bare-bones, with just a main pocket and a small valuables pocket. Its cinch straps tuck away, and there aren’t many loops of webbing or straps to get hung up. Be aware: there is also no external ski carry. Twenty liters is just enough to carry water, food, extra layers, and some odds and ends. You’ll be strapping your rope, helmet, and harness to the top. It’s not necessarily pretty with all that hanging from the outside on the approach, but the pack carries the load without flopping or buckling. (If you want to carry more gear, or keep everything inside your pack, the redesigned Osprey Mutant 38 or 52 are better bets. They’re also built for technical winter climbing, but are more heavily padded and can carry heavier loads.)

At the end of the day, a light and small pack means saving energy and time and lowers the risk of the pack throwing off a climber’s balance. “Once I got onto the ice, the pack just disappeared on my back,” wrote a tester. “It’s so light and stays out of the way, I mostly forgot I was wearing it.” The Trion Nordwand’s narrow and short footprint ensures that it doesn’t interfere with swinging ice tools or executing dynamic moves. And having fewer zippers, straps, or buckles also means there’s fewer things to break. Small and mighty, the Trion Nordwand is ready for just about any vertical task. 

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Ultimate Direction Skimo Adventure Vest ($185)

It’s no surprise that ski-mountaineering racers love Ultimate Direction’s Skimo Adventure Vest. One of the fastest uphill ski racers in the U.S., Eric Carter, helped design it. What’s surprising is that ski tourers liked it, too.

At 28 liters, this pack is bigger than other race-specific models, which means it adapts easily to various race lengths and doubles as a solid pack for nonrace days. And its race-focused features help speed up transitions, whether you’re competing or not.

Most notable is the quick-attach diagonal ski-carry hook. It’s so easy to use that we found ourselves hooking skis to the pack rather than shouldering them, even on short boot-packs around the resort. Testers were also impressed by the triple ripstop that Ultimate Direction used in the carry straps, which will stand up to sharp ski edges for years to come. We also loved the zip pocket at the bottom of the pack (perfect for keeping skins or crampons separate from dry gear) and the abundance of straps and extra loops, which are easily removed when not needed.

The Skimo Adventure Vest didn’t feel like a true 28-liter pack, so be prepared to pack light for regular tours. Likewise, the company makes better low-volume race options, as does Mammut, whose fan-favorite Spindrift 14 comes with a built-in jacket. But this is a pack that attempts—successfully, I think—to accommodate both racing and touring. For that it offers just the right amount of volume.

On a sunny tour out of Verbier, Switzerland, I found that it was easy to drink from a water bottle riding in a pocket on my chest, put a beanie in the hip-belt pocket, or stash my phone in a waterproof zip area, all without breaking stride. Another tester who wore it during an endurance day-skimo race noted that she could slip out of the shoulder straps, spin the pack around, and dig into the top-load main pocket, all without having to find a place to put the pack down.

For us, the Skimo Adventure Vest makes touring faster and more efficient, which is something all of us can get behind.

Buy now
 

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Jones Minimalist 35 ($170)

After almost 200 days of use, the Jones Minimalist 35 remains our favorite pack for snowboarding because it’s simple, lightweight, and well organized.

First off, there are six pockets: a side zip for accessing the bottom of the main storage area, a roomy avalanche-tool area that fits big shovel blades, two hip pockets, and two lid pockets for managing smaller items. Board carry is simple, with either an A-frame-style setup for a splitboard or a one-piece carry on the back. And overall, its claimed 35-liter capacity feels true.

Where most packs in the 35-liter range load up with features and bulky fabrics, the Minimalist uses a sailing-derived ripstop nylon made from recycled fabrics. It is perhaps not a surprise that the pack works well for touring, as it was designed by and named for legendary rider Jeremy Jones.

One tester has been using it as his only pack for the last three winters, riding Canada’s Revelstoke backcountry and on hill on Vancouver Island, hut-touring in Wyoming and Idaho, and on numerous day-touring missions in Alaska and British Columbia. The only signs of wear are two missing zipper pulls. “Great comfort and support, fits an amazing amount of gear, and the ski-pole-carrying straps are the best I’ve ever used,” he said.

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I’ve been testing packs for about a decade, and each year I enlist a small army of testers who have been skiing and climbing for even longer. Once the snow starts flying in November, I start testing the next crop of touring packs. For the past several years, my team of testers and I have tested new packs while ski touring and mountaineering, for casual laps around resorts, and on hut trips. I ship ice-climbing packs off to a dedicated crew of knuckle bashers to run them through their paces. We push each pack in its respective niche and then expand our demands to other arenas, too. 

We’re aiming to recommend packs that will last years. We believe the best product is not just the one that performs better than the rest, it’s the one that lasts the longest, too.

Backcountry skiing and its varying demands dominate the winter-pack landscape. These packs have a dedicated area for avalanche gear, are easy to operate with gloves on, come equipped with straps for carrying skis or a snowboard, and often have specific storage for goggles and helmets. They work great for backcountry riding and usually have enough additional straps and features that they can easily moonlight for ice climbing or snowshoeing. Still, ski packs come in many shades, with different features suited to different situations.

Airbags

Avalanche airbag packs increase survival rates for people caught in an avalanche. (By exactly how much is unclear. Where you ski may limit an airbag’s utility. But studies are generally clear that they do help.) In an avalanche, bigger objects tend to settle near the surface of a slide. When deployed, airbags add about 150 liters of extra volume to a ski pack, expanding your total surface area to help keep you from getting buried. Some airbags also wrap around the head, potentially offering cushioning from trauma during a slide, although it’s hard to evaluate how much protection they offer. We think anyone who skis in the backcountry more than ten times per year should invest in an airbag pack. It represents your best chance of surviving a potentially deadly avalanche. But there are several competing technologies to consider.

• Canister

The oldest technology uses a canister of compressed gas to inflate an airbag. Pulling the trigger releases the pressurized air, which sucks in more air to help it fill the airbag. The size and weight of canister systems continues to fall, but they remain bulky. Moreover, they can be tough to refill, which limits how often you can practice with one. They’re also often hard to travel with. On the plus side, compressed-gas systems, like those from Backcountry Access or Mammut, work in any temperature and are about half the cost of fan systems.

• Battery

Other airbag packs use lithium-ion batteries to run small fans that inflate the airbag. Both Arc’teryx and Black Diamond use this kind of system, although Black Diamond is now also selling at least one supercapacitor-powered model (see below). Batteries allow multiple deployments on a charge, which is ideal for getting familiar with the system at home. But batteries are heavy, bulky, expensive, and lose charge quickly in cold temperatures.

• Supercapacitor

This is the newest system, coming to stores this year aboard Scott’s Backcountry Patrol AP 30 pack and branded as the Alpride E1 system. It works similarly to the battery systems, but the energy source that powers the fan performs more consistently in cold temperatures. It can’t inflate an airbag multiple times in a row, but it recharges in less than an hour with two AA batteries or via USB. Plus, the system is the least bulky of the three options. Cost is similar to battery systems—that is to say, for many people, prohibitive.

When adventures go vertical, weight becomes a more serious concern. At the same time, ice tools, crampons, and screws are all sharp, so materials need to be robust. Ice-climbing-focused packs often use high-end fabrics and minimalist designs.

Skimo racing is growing in popularity, and racing packs are designed to make it faster and easier to manage transitions. They feature quick-connect ski-carry systems, easy access to pouches and pockets, lightweight builds, and integrated hydration options. Many, however, are too minimalist to use for anything but light and fast missions. And their trim stature may make it hard to fit larger shovels and probes.

While most generalist winter packs can carry a snowboard, snowboarding-specific packs do have some advantages, including carry systems designed for a single board and dedicated stash points for ski poles. Most snowboarders we know appreciate both.

Size

Once you know what kind of pack you need, the next variable to consider is volume. Keep in mind that you’ll be carrying more than you would on a summer hike: extra layers, more calories, climbing skins, and avalanche-safety gear. And maybe also crampons and ice axes, a rope, and a first-aid kit.

Our advice is to choose a pack between 30 and 45 liters, unless you know exactly how you’ll use the pack. Skimo racers will prefer packs in the 10-to-15-liter range, while 20 to 30 liters works best for short tours or easy backcountry adventures. If you’re winter camping, you’ll need at least 70 liters, though most summer backpacks of that size will work for winter. 

Configuration

In general, packs offer access to their main compartment through the top or back panel. Top loaders typically have one large main pocket and some kind of lid or zipper that seals and protects the body of the pack. Sometimes a side zip aids access to the bottom of the pack. They’re light and simple but require forethought while packing, otherwise there’s a lot of digging around to find things. 

Back-panel packs, meanwhile, offer easier access to everything in the main compartment. (These packs usually have a regular top opening as well.) The deep zipper makes it easy to stay organized but adds weight. I opt for a top loader when I’m keeping weight down and a back-panel design if I’m trying to stay organized.

Construction

For packs over 30 liters, I recommend a foam suspension system and aluminum stays; without both, packs are at risk of crumpling or poorly distributing their weight.

Weight

The lightest winter packs, usually those designed for ice climbing, weigh just over a pound, while the heaviest airbags top seven pounds. It’s a huge range. Pounds on the back will slow you down going uphill. On the flip side, ditching weight usually means sacrificing features, durability, stability, safety, or comfort.

Features

Helmet carriers, ice-ax straps, dedicated avalanche-tool pockets, and even crampon pouches are all worthwhile, with one caveat: make sure you need them. Otherwise those bits and pieces flap around and add weight. We think pockets for goggles, dedicated avalanche-tool areas, and side compression straps are all worth the weight. From there, it’s up to what you’ll use the pack for. Consider any features against the added weight. Most climbing-focused packs will make it easy to strip many features off. That’s a nice option if your needs vary, allowing you to outfit the pack for the day.

You’ve heard the hype about meditation and other “non-judgemental awareness” practices. Now check out the data.

This is going to sound ridiculous, but it’s the truth: when I visited Martin Paulus’s neuropsychology lab at the University of California, San Diego in October 2013, less than five short years ago, I had no idea what “mindfulness” was. This was way back before the hype cycle had kicked into overdrive. In a way, I guess I contributed to that early hype, because I then wrote an article for Outside about Paulus’s brain-scanning studies of elite athletes and Special Forces troops, and how this bizarre thing called mindfulness training could seemingly alter your brain activity so that, in stressful situations, you’d react more like these high performers. Things are different now, of course. We’re all so sick of hearing about the wonders of mindfulness that another article about it seems more like satire than science. But sometimes you have to make exceptions, and I think this one is worthwhile.

At a conference in San Antonio a few weeks ago, I ran into Walter Staiano, an Italian researcher who currently works in Spain. Working with his countryman Samuele Marcora, Staiano has been involved over the past decade with some very pioneering research into the effects of mental fatigue in sports, and the possibility of using “brain endurance training” to enhance athletic performance. More recently, he spent a few years working with the Danish Institute of Elite Sport—and while he was there, he had a chance to implement some of his brain training ideas with elite athletes.

There are a bunch of different approaches to brain training in sport, but one promising avenue is mindfulness. In fact, Paulus and his colleagues, led by neuroscientist Lori Haase, developed a modified sports-specific form of mindfulness training that they called mPEAK, or Mindful Performance Enhancement, Awareness, and Knowledge, which they beta-tested with the U.S. BMX cycling team (and which I also wrote about for Outside in 2015). The mPEAK approach is based on a widely used protocol called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which involves techniques like meditation and yoga poses, but with additional emphasis on facing sports-specific challenges like maintaining concentration and overcoming perfectionism.

Staiano, it turns out, had implemented the mPEAK program with some of his athletes in Denmark—and, crucially, had run a carefully controlled study to investigate whether it had any measurable effects. He presented those results at the European College of Sports Science congress earlier this month, and they’re worth taking a look at.

The study involved 24 members of Denmark’s national junior handball team, a sport I’m not very familiar with, but which someone recently described to me as “water polo on land.” They were split into two groups, who then did six weeks of either mindfulness training or (as a control group) breathing exercises on top of their regular training. The mindfulness training consisted of two to three hours of a week of mPEAK training (which you can read more about here) plus using the Headspace app.

Before and after the six-week intervention, the athletes completed a series of cognitive and physical tests. The cognitive tests included a “mind wandering test” and something called the Stroop Test, which assesses “cognitive flexibility [and] resistance to interference from outside stimuli.” The physical tests included a “reactive agility test” and a handball-specific agility test.

The results showed that mindfulness training improved, well, everything. In the cognitive tests, they had faster reaction times and got more right answers (avoiding the usual trade-off between speed and accuracy), and their minds wandered less. In the general agility test, they quickened their decision times, and in the handball test, they completed the task more quickly and with fewer mistakes. The control group, meanwhile, stayed roughly the same.

Will these subtle improvements translate into actual wins on the handball court? That’s hard to say, although it’s perhaps worth noting that Denmark picked up a silver at the last Junior World Championships in 2017. When I asked Staiano about the results, he seemed almost as excited about some of the harder-to-quantify effects he’d observed off the court. In post-study interviews, the athletes reported feeling more focused and present in school and private life as well as on the court, better social competence, and better sleep. Mindfulness, he believes, fits into a larger narrative about the mind’s role in sport, alongside ideas like resilience, mental fatigue, and flow.

All of this is starting to sound like one of those breathlessly overhyped articles I’ve been trying to avoid for the past few years. So let me dial it back a bit. Mindfulness isn’t a superpill or an instant game-changer. The effects are subtle. But there seems to be something here, and it’s an important step that we’re starting to see careful studies that look not just at brain scans and other proxy measures, but at sports-specific outcomes like the handball agility test. That’s why this particular study, unlike so many previous ones, seemed worth writing about. Another study presented at the same conference, from researchers at the University of Limerick, saw an improvement in golf putting performance following a four-day mindfulness training program.

These days I have much better grasp of what mindfulness is—“non-judgmental awareness” is a common gloss—than I did five years ago. But I’ll admit that I come to this topic with a fair amount of skepticism and even squeamishness. I haven’t tried mindfulness training myself. But studies like this really grab my attention. Put it this way: I’ll be following the Danish handball team with great interest over the next few years.

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My new book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, with a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, is now available. For more, join me on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for the Sweat Science email newsletter.

Adventure photographer Jen Edney embedded with the 2017–2018 Volvo Ocean Race, one of sailing’s most dangerous competitions.

Name: Jen Edney
Job: Adventure photographer; onboard reporter for the 2017–2018 Volvo Ocean Race
Home Base: Omaha, Nebraska
Age: 35
Education: Bachelor’s degree in graphic design and visual journalism from Creighton University; MFA from Brooks Institute of Photography

Jen Edney was interning at the Ventura County Star during grad school at the Brooks Institute of Photography when she received an assignment that changed her life. Local 16-year-old Zac Sunderland was preparing for a solo sailing trip around the world—he’d be the youngest person ever to do so if he succeeded. Photographing Sunderland started out as just another daily assignment for the paper, but Edney continued shooting the story for a grad school project. “Soon after,” she says, “my instructors told me to leave school and focus on the story.”

Once she began following Sunderland full-time, there was no turning back: Edney officially considered herself an adventure photojournalist.

In 2017, she became the only female onboard reporter for the 2017–2018 Volvo Ocean Race, one of sailing’s most dangerous competitions, with crews who spend eight months on boats sailing around the world.

We caught up with Edney at the conclusion of the race.

On Getting Her Spot at the Volvo Ocean Race: “I’ve been working toward this job for the past six years. It’s been a long road of putting in the miles at sea, along with building relationships and the skill set needed for the job. The actual application process included submitting a production task that would be similar to what you would have to send off the boat every day. It involved creating a two-minute video, five images, and a 500-word essay.”

On Her Daily Routine During the Race: “Onboard, I would put myself on a watch system similar to the sailors, sleeping about four hours at a time and sometimes only four hours a night if it was a busy day. When I woke, I would check with the navigator or whoever was sitting at the nav station and work around the sailors’ watch schedule to get myself breakfast and ready for the day. I always helped bail water when necessary, sometimes several times a day. The rest of my time was spent gathering interviews and covering the story, editing, and sending the content off the boat. Whenever conditions allowed, I made sure to just sit with the sailors, listen, and talk with them, without the camera. It was important to me to take a moment or two each day to take it all in and enjoy the experience, making sure I was present. Sometimes that meant enjoying the sunrise or sunset without trying to capture it on film.”

On Her Biggest Challenge During the Race: “The biggest onboard challenge was that it was wet and the boat was moving all the time. In the harshest conditions, you need to move at a pace ten times slower than you normally would, with one hand on the boat and one on the gear. You need to be aware of all the danger zones, where to be and not to be so that you aren’t in the way, and you need to learn to listen to the boat to help you know what is going on and be able to anticipate where to be to get your shot.

Overall, the challenge was constantly adapting to the job of being a multimedia reporter. When I wasn’t sailing, I was a part of the Volvo media team, going wherever they needed us. That was anything from handling live cameras on arrival or departure days, producing stories about other areas of the race, news interviews, and photographing from a helicopter. I got thrown into nearly every situation possible, and while it was challenging, I loved it because it was constantly pushing me out of my comfort zone. The pace was like nothing I’ve ever worked before.”

On Her Gear for This Assignment: “We had an onboard media system that was purpose-built. It consisted of seven fixed cameras (on deck, foredeck, mid-mast, and high mast), two of which had night-vision capability. The stern camera had a delay line to allow for incidents to be captured, and we had on-deck microphones. Photo and video media was transmitted daily from the race yachts, regardless of where they were on the planet. We used a wide range of tools to capture documentary content, including Canon Mark IV DSLRs and Sony A7s with a variety of lenses, Liquid Force water housings, and Garmin POV Virb and 360-degree cameras. We saw a huge leap this race in terms of the technology, producing never-seen-before moments from the race, such as 360-degree footage in the Southern Ocean and high frame-rate footage in very high resolution.

As onboard reporters working for the Volvo Ocean Race, we were supplied with the kit. Before the race and now that it is over, I am back to working with my personal gear: a Nikon D5, Nikon lenses, speedlights, 360 Keymission, GoPro, and an Aquatech Waterhousing system.”

On Forgetting a Key Piece of Equipment: “I forgot my toothbrush once on leg three of the race from Cape Town to Melbourne. I realized it as soon as we left the dock. My skipper gave me a spare—or maybe his, I’m not sure—but it would have been a bit long to go without brushing my teeth!”

On the Creature Comfort She Missed the Most: “I missed the ability to cook and eat fresh food and veggies.”

On the Best Piece of Advice She’s Ever Received: “Oh man, this has been quite the year for learning life lessons, having experienced emotions in a more extreme way than I have ever felt in my life up until now. I could probably write a few pages on this, but I think the best advice was to be the energy that you want to attract and to be kind. We are always going to be thrown challenges in life and things we don’t understand. A lot of wasted energy can go into wondering why, how, or what if? I learned that when I redirected that energy toward others and looked at each situation, positive or negative, and found one thing to be grateful for, it changed my outlook and ultimately the energy I was directing toward others. That gave me peace of mind and affected the energy I brought to work every day, whether I was offshore or onshore.”

On the Personal Project She Wants to Pursue Now That She’s Back: “I have a film project in the beginning phase that I’m really stoked about and looking forward to fully diving into now that the race is over. I also have a project titled Our Ocean Playground that is very technically challenging—highlighting hydrofoiling, the newest phenomenon in the sport of sailing, which pushes boats up and makes it look as if they are flying over the water. It’s one I have been working on the technical side of for several years now and had to put on hold during the race. I’m looking forward to jumping back into that project and seeing how it goes.”

On How She Feels About the Push to Hire More Female Photographers in the Industry and to Make Assignment Work More Equal Between Men and Women: “It’s great that there is a push, but my hope is that we get to a point that there is no need for one. I wasn’t hired as the only female onboard reporter in a squad of ten because there was a quota to fill; it was because I had the right skill sets for the job. We (men and women) should be hired because we are best suited for the job, for our strength in content, creativity, skill sets, personality, and confidence to deliver, not because of our gender.”

On the Photographer Who Is Inspiring Her Right Now: “Ainhoa Sanchez, a beautiful soul and the person bringing you all the amazing angles, special and magic moments from the race. She can often be heard screaming while shooting from a helicopter, not from fear but from the joy she gets from the moments she gets to capture. I’ve heard her come in numerous times from a shoot saying, “I love my job!” She brings so much passion and love into her work, which also shows in the energy she brings to those around her.”

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REI’s Gear Up Get Out sale runs from November 9 to 19 and is a great time to stock up on winter essentials and holiday gifts. REI members save 20 percent off on one full-price item and an extra 20 percent on one REI Outlet item.

Read on for our overall favorite deals. 

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We work with top retailers and brands to find the best deals on outdoor gear. Then our editors and writers carefully review the sales to select the products we’ve used and trust. When you click a Buy Now button in this story, it will take you to the brand whose sale we’re covering.

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If you’re going to follow Gear Guy Joe Jackson’s advice on how to roof-rack anything, you’ll need a solid base rack. Get any of the Yakima roof systems now while they’re 20 percent off.

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Snowshoe season is coming. During the Gear Up Get Out sale, have your pick of snowshoes from Atlas, MSR, or Tubbs for 20 percent off.

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Outside editor Emily Reed called the Astral BlueJacket the PFD of the future. Upgrade your life jacket for a fraction of the original price and enjoy being on the water longer. Need new water shoes? The Astral Brewer is one of the best ever made.

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Now is the time to stock up the skiing essentials, including the Smith Quantum MIPS helmet, which we dubbed one of the best snowsports helmets of 2018 for its “extremely intuitive magnetic strap connector that closes easily with one hand and its supremely well-fitting Boa tightening system.”

Buy Now

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Our testers hailed the Float 32 as a “workhorse of an avy pack” in our 2019 Winter Buyer’s Guide. The 32-liter bag has enough space to carry your touring essentials (shovel, beacon, and probe), plus an airbag that inflates to potentially help you float over the snow in the case of an avalanche.

Buy Now

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Start your layering process off right with these merino underwear, which are 30 percent off.

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The Smartwool PhD Seamless Strappy Sports Bra has been a staff favorite this summer for its breathability and ability to be worn for weeks on end without gathering stink.

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The LifeStraw, which filters out 99.99 percent of bacteria and protazoa, is one of the simplest filters on the market—simply dip it into your water source and drink. We like it so much that we included a version of the filter in our 2018 roundup of the best men’s thru-hiking gear.

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We love MSR Dromedary bags because they’re completely packable and incredibly easy to fill. Webbing along the side rails makes them easy to hang from a tree branch at your campsite.

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It’s no secret that Outside staffers highly endorse MPowerd Luci lights. They pack small, are solar powered, and cast a beautiful glow over any campsite.

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We think you should always leave your first aid to the professionals and pack a premade first-aid kit. We recommend Adventure Medical Kits above all others.

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Perfect for camping or keeping in your car for impromptu swims, the PackTowl towel is made from absorbent, fast-drying polyester. A hang loop and zippered storage pouch offer easy drying and packing.

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Whether you’re hoping to set a 5K PR, get the family out of the house, or sweat out a New Year’s hangover, there are thousands of fun runs around the U.S. in the next month that just might fit the bill. Here are eight great races to consider.

Washington, D.C., December 9

If you’re looking for a casual, fun 5K in the Washington, D.C., area, Jingle All the Way has you covered. If you’re hoping for a bit more mileage, sign up for the 15K. Both courses wind along the Potomac River and past the capital’s most famous points of interest, starting and finishing right by the Washington Monument. With less than 30 feet of elevation change, the courses are perfect for pushing your limits. Thousands of runners participate every year, many in costume. Jingle bells are encouraged, obviously. 

Sign Up

Santa Monica Beach, California, December 15

The Santa Monica–Venice Christmas Run is a classic for those who are SoCal beach bound over the holidays. The race, with both a 5K and a 10K, takes runners down the iconic Venice Boardwalk. More than 5,000 runners participate each year, and the event—which includes costume contests and kiddie fun runs—is a seriously fun start to the holiday season, even if that region’s winter wonderland has more sandcastles than snowmen.

Sign up 

San Francisco, December 16

Looking for a photo with Santa? At the Elf on the Run 5K and 10K race, you get a free photo with the big guy postrace, as well as a free yoga class and gait analysis. And that’s all after running along the San Francisco Bay Trail, surrounded by expansive views of the water and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sign Up

Phoenix, December 28 to January 3

Hardcore runners and ultra lovers will like this one: . The event is held at Camelback Ranch, a popular spring-training baseball facility, and runners cover as many miles as possible around a one-mile course in the allotted time. Previous winners have clocked up to 550. You’re free to stop any time for food or sleep, but the clock is always ticking. There are 24-, 48-, and 72 -hour options as well.

Sign Up

Wichita, Kansas, December 31 to January 1

This three-part race will help you ring in the New Year with a 5K in the afternoon, another 5K at midnight, and a half marathon on New Year’s Day. Of course, you can participate in just one of the events, but why not do all three and get a head start on increasing your weekly mileage in 2019? 

Sign Up

New York City’s Central Park, December 31

The party in Times Square not really your thing? Sign up for the New York Road Runners’ Midnight Run, a four-miler in Central Park that starts as the ball drops at midnight. There’s a dance party starting at 10 P.M. for a warm-up, and you’ll be running under a firework display. (Bonus: this race can help you earn a coveted spot in the 2019 New York City Marathon, thanks to the Road Runners’ 9+1 Program.)

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Seattle, January 1

In Seattle, the classic New Year’s Day 5K gets a chilly twist with an (optional) polar plunge at the finish line. After running through Magnuson Park, 60 percent of participants hop into Lake Washington, just 100 yards from the finish line. The finish-line area is equipped with heated changing tents, so you can shed your soaked layers before indulging in coffee, chili, and hot chocolate.

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Chicago, January 1

The Windy City’s New Year’s run takes participants along the blustery Lake Michigan shore before tucking back into the shelter of skyscrapers and city streets. Be sure to bundle up, because the average high temperature on January 1 in Chicago is 32 degrees. Postrace, embrace the hair-of-the-dog method: drinks are on the organizers at Select Cut Steakhouse.

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