Gear Junkie

Best Biking Cities
Two wheels, a chain, and some gears -- the humble bicycle has seen a resurgence with commuters and city dwellers in the United States and beyond. This article highlights 10 top biking cities around the globe.

Ribz Frontpack
In the world of backpacks, there is a niche category of products that positions compartments and pouches over the chest. The RIBZ Frontpack is a new entry into this esoteric product realm.

Running Gait Analysis
A gait-analysis test dissects stride and form to unlock a runner's anatomical potential -- or at least tell you which type of shoe to wear.

UK Gear PT-03 Desert Shoe
Made for the "hottest and most arid of environments" on the planet, UK Gear's Desert Shoes are a unique entry into the genre of outdoors-oriented footwear.

Team Garmin-Slipstream Race Food
To fuel a squad of bike racers like Team Garmin-Slipstream during the Tour de France and other events it can take upward of 7,000 calories per rider per day. Here's a peek into the team's recipe box.

Single-Speed Bike: Raleigh Rush Hour
Raleigh offers the full fixie experience with its Rush Hour, a single-speed road bike built for speed and maneuverability on city streets.

"Run for Life" Book
If you want to stay fit for your whole life -- even run into your 80s or 90s -- Roy M. Wallack's latest book, "Run for Life," provides a blueprint to do just that.

YogaSlackers Y.E.S. Tour of Colorado
It is day No. 7 for Team YogaSlackers' Y.E.S. tour, an unsupported bike trip of Colorado to promote "awareness through adventure."

Whitewater Creek Boating
Waterfalls, tight turns, fast-flowing rivers and boat-sucking currents are all part of the allure in a whitewater discipline called creek boating.

Garmin 405 Review
The Garmin 405 is well suited for all runners, even gear-phobics and running purists. A new Gear Junkie writer, Mackenzie Lobby, offers her field-tested review.

Will Lyons, Teva Games Super Racer
Will Lyons, a 24-year-old from Asheville, N.C., went to the 2009 Teva Mountain Games wanting to experience everything he could. And he did, participating in six events in four days.

GJ Interview on Wicked Outdoorsy
All you ever wanted to know. Well, at least a few things. Drew Simmons at Wicked Outdoorsy grabs an exclusive interview with the Gear Junkie.

Ultimate Mountain Challenge: Race Reports
Last weekend at the Teva Mountain Games, I competed in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, a competition with kayaking, a 10K footrace, a mountain bike course, and a road bike time trial. I ended up taking 5th place overall in the amateur division. Here are my four reports from the field.

Race Report: 10k at the Teva Mountain Games
Humbled and awed are two words to describe my experience running the Native Eyewear 10K at the Teva Mountain Games this past weekend.

Swrve Jeans, Cordaround Bike to Work pants
The very idea of pants made for cycling begs a simple question: Why? Indeed, why not just go with regular jeans? The answer is likely sitting folded in your closet.

The Gear Junkie vs. The World’s 2nd Fittest Man. . . the conclusion
It started with fun banter over dinner and turned into what some hoped would be a heated competition at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail. Now, the results are in.

Castelli Sottile Cycling Jacket
At first touch, this jacket feels like reinforced plastic sheeting. It weighs a mere 3.3 ounces on my scale. But the Sottile Jacket, new from Castelli this spring, can add a significant layer of protection against the elements.

Race Report: Teva X-1 Mud Fun Run
Doing a somersault into the 10-foot-long mud pit, crawling on hands and knees through it, and slipping and sliding on the way out was just as fun as encouraging onlookers to give me a high five with filthy hands.

Ultimate Mountain Challenge: Race Report 4
The Fetzer Vineyards Road Bike Hill Climb included about 10 miles of distance and almost 2,000 vertical feet of elevation gain. I clipped into my Giant TCR Advanced SL, a top-tier road bike, and pedaled hard out of the gate.

Ultimate Mountain Challenge: Race Report 3
The Native Eyewear 10K Spring Runoff is touted as one of the most challenging footraces in the nation. Indeed, the course up Vail Mountain includes 6.5 miles of trail that climbs and climbs for 1,800 vertical feet.

Ultimate Mountain Challenge: Race Report 2
My legs are still sore. My lungs are searching for more air. Stage No. 2 of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge was the Sobe XC Mountain Bike race. . .

Interview with kayaker Pat Keller
Pat Keller took 17 minutes and 22 seconds (for 6th place overall) in today's Bud Light Lime Class II Down River Sprint, a kayak race down Gore Creek in Vail.

Ultimate Mountain Challenge: Race Report 1
This is the first of four reports from Stephen Regenold on his experience racing in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge.

A Friendly Competition, The Gear Junkie vs. The World's 2nd Fittest Man
Part one of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge is complete and Stephen Regenold has completed the Bud Light Lime Class II Down River Sprint. The winner of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge must have the lowest combined time through all four events.

Interview with Jeff Lenosky
At age 38, Jeff Lenosky of Sparta, New Jersey, is still a serious threat in competitions like the Freeride Dual, a head-to-head race. . .

Teva Footwear 2010 Sneak Peek
Most of these shoes and sandals will not be to market until 2010. But at an event today at the Teva Mountain Games, GearJunkie.com got a sneak peek. . .

Ready to race
Despite living slightly more than a mile above sea level and spending (only) the last month training for the Teva Mountain Games, I'm slightly nervous for the 5K Mud "Fun" Run and the roughly 6-mile mountain bike race Saturday afternoon.

Respecting white water
Professional and amateur kayakers doing flips and rolls in the bone-chilling waters running through Vail Village make it look easy. Today, I had the chance to learn to roll in a kayak. . .

Altitude, Altitude, Altitude
As one of the members of the GearJunkie.com crew at the Teva Mountain Games I had my choice of events in which to participate and decided on the Native Eyewear 10k Runoff. This is billed as the hardest 10k in the nation and after spending two days running around the mountain I can see why.

Live at the Teva Mountain Games
The GearJunkie.com crew is in Vail, Colo., this weekend to cover the Teva Mountain Games. For athlete interviews, reports on races, and updated photo and video coverage, monitor our new TMG channel. . .

Costa Del Mar Corbina Sunglasses
Whether you’re crossing a glacier or just biking to the grocery store, the right pair of sunglasses can protect your eyes. This review covers Costa Del Mar's Corbina model.

Bike Race Gear Report
Last month, in a nine-hour effort, I completed the Ragnarök 105 bike race, which is fully self-supported and primarily on gravel roads. This is the gear report.

Loaded Dervish Longboard
The Loaded Dervish is a longboard cambered from tip to tail and with wheels completely visible when standing on the deck. It looks different -- and performs different -- than any board you've ever seen.

Kids and the Outdoors: 10 Tips
Parents take note: While children can slow you down, they hardly have to end an adventurous lifestyle. Here are 10 tips to keep your kids safe, interested, happy, comfortable and always amazed in the world outdoors.

GoPro Helmet HERO Wide
Pack a tiny digital-video camera in a watertight polycarbonate case, add mounts for helmets, bike handlebars, or a Velcro bracelet for your wrist, and you have the GoPro.

Teva B1-G Air contest
To launch its new B-1 multi-sport shoe, Teva is organizing the Teva B1-G Air contest.

Rand McNally fabMAP
Take a microfiber lens cloth and print a map on it. That's essentially what Rand McNally did with its fabMAP products, a cartographical collection featuring cities and parks around America printed on a soft fabric.

Athlete Interview: Eric Jackson
Owner and cofounder of his namesake Jackson Kayaks, Eric Jackson, a resident of Rock Island, Tenn., is an Olympian and a multiple times kayaking world champion.

E-Bike Review: OHM Cycles XU700
OHM Cycles' XU700 e-bike comes standard with a lithium-ion cell to enable extra oomph with each pedal stroke. This is my review.

Athlete Interview: Mike Kloser
At age 49, Mike Kloser, a former world champion mountain biker, still ranks among the best endurance-sports athletes in the country.

Opedix Performance Apparel
Can apparel add support to the skeletal structure? Yes, according to Smart Fitness Products, maker of Opedix tops and tights. . .

Athlete Interview: Adam Craig
A resident of Bend, Ore., Adam Craig, has collected 12 national championships titles in various disciplines of bike racing and ridden in the Beijing Olympic Games. Here's a quick interview with Craig on his gear, training, and preparation for an upcoming Teva Games event.

Ragnarök 105 Bike Race
The Ragnarök 105 is a bike race in Minnesota named after a Norse era of mythological doom and war. For cyclists, the daylong course is a fight of both muscle and mind.

Teva Gnar Shoe Review
Out of the box, the Gnar appears to be a sneaker. But take a close look and you’ll see drain vents throughout the upper and a perforated insole. . .

Training for the Teva Games, part II
Over the years, I have competed in dozens of events, from sprints to a 10-day adventure race through the deserts of Utah. For training, in general, I am unusual in that most of my preparation for a big event involves a string of smaller events and/or activities like mountain bike races, orienteering meets, XC skiing, and local adventure races.

Enervit Enervitene Cheerpack
This ain't no average energy gel. Each Enervitene Cheerpack costs $4 a pop and is marketed to be "so effective, it's almost like cheating."

Test Drive: Toyota Venza
The Toyota Venza is a new all-wheel-drive crossover sedan aiming to take market share from cars like the Subaru Outback. This is our review after a test drive in the desert.

Dragon Rogue Goggles
A full day on the mountain means goggles on your face for hours at a stretch, so they have to be comfortable. The Rogue delivers with a triple layer foam skirt and a comfy microfleece lining.

Gregory Diablo Backpack
Gregory Mountain Products' latest backpacks incorporate elasticized attachment points purported to move with and mimic your body during activity. . .

Outside's Top 10 Adventure Twitters
Outside Magazine's recent rundown of top Twitter "publishers" included The Gear Junkie. Read on for the full list of the "Top 10 Adventure Twitters". . .

Luxury Lite UltraLite Cot
As an alternative to a sleeping pad, the Luxury Lite UltraLite Cot weighs in at less than 3 pounds and keeps a camper "floating above rocks, sticks, roots, water and snow."

Backpacks for Biking
The classic bike-messenger bag has been adopted the world over as requisite equipment for two-wheel transit with goods in tow. But for me a messenger bag's single-strap setup -- weight on one shoulder, the bag balanced on the arch of my back -- has never felt comfortable or secure.

New York Times: North Country Trail article
The trail goes through more than 100 state parks and state forests as well as areas managed by the National Park Service. It brings millions of day hikers each year into some of the finest natural places that New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota have to offer.

Teva Mountain Games Intro
In 2006, I traveled to the Teva Mountain Games for a weekend of rafting, racing, and running in the mountains over Vail, Colo. This June, GearJunkie.com is heading back for more. . .

Gear Review: CamelBak ShredBak
CamelBak's ShredBak vest is a category-defying piece of apparel made with a polyester outer shell and a mesh "suspension vest" inside, which holds a 72-ounce water reservoir. . .

Dragon E.C.O. Experience Sunglasses
E.C.O. (Environmentally Conscious Optics) is the initiative of surfer and environmental activist Rob Machado, and his old-school style is instantly evident in the Experience glasses. They're a throwback, and these babies are big. The Grilamid nylon frame is supposed to be proportionate to Machado's ever-expanding 'fro (seriously, I'm not making that up), so the sheer size of the frames could be a drawback for some.

Pearl Izumi Infini T Long Sleeve
You know that t-shirt you love so much because it fits just right? This top manages to channel some of that mojo. The fabric is silky smooth, and the fit is streamlined but not restrictive. And the Infini T wins extra design points for the angle-cut cuffs that keep your hands bunch-free, plus a soft baffle inside the neck zip that prevents chafing.

Gear Review: Esbit Stove
The Esbit stove was invented in 1936, and in the decades since its chemical-based flame has heated untold millions of meals for campers and backpackers in search of the simplest form of fire on the trail. . .

New York Times: Belize Birding Adventure
I'm on a roll with the New York Times. Sunday's Travel section featured my story on birding adventures in Belize, including a wilderness canoe trip I took in January to search for the scarlet macaw parrot. . .

New York Times: 50th Published Story
My story in today's New York Times is a personal milestone: It is my 50th reported and published piece for the paper since 2006. . .

Gear Review: AMK World Travel First Aid
Adventure Medical Kits' new first-aid product line is made for international travelers, including one kit dubbed as "the cheapest life insurance policy you'll ever buy". . .

Gear Junkie on Twitter
The Gear Junkie is now micro-blogging daily on Twitter about all things gear and outdoors, in 140 characters or less. . .

Seattle Sports On the Go Audio
Seattle Sports On the Go Audio is a self-powered iPod player that lets you bring tunes along on wilderness trips. . .

Welcome to GearJunkie.com's Teva Mountain Games
In 2006, as a penultimate training weekend before embarking on the 10-day-long Primal Quest Utah Adventure Race, I traveled to Vail, Colo., for the Teva Mountain Games, a premier outdoors festival for pro and amateur athletes. My team raced in a 5k mountain run, whitewater rafted on the Eagle River, and then trekked, climbed, biked, and boated for eight hours through an adventure race course that traced in the mountains over Vail.

New York Times -- Harney Peak story
My story this week for the New York Times covers Harney Peak, a 7,242-foot mountain that marks the highest point of elevation between the Rocky Mountains and the French Pyrenees. . .

Slacklining Feature Story
Long a fringe activity, slacklining has grown to become almost mainstream in the outdoors world. This story highlights my experience learning to slack last year with two pros. . .

Gear Review: Polartec Jackets
My test of these three jackets spanned a wide geography and several winter weather conditions, from 20-below-zero to above freezing and drizzly. . .

Field Test on Helmet Cams
Contributor Ryan Dionne reviews two popular helmet cameras in his latest Field Test column. . .

Gear Review: VholdR and V.I.O. Helmet Cameras
In the world of athlete-driven, portable video cameras -- a.k.a. "helmet cams" -- the VholdR and the V.I.O. POV.1 are at different ends of the spectrum. Sure, both cameras can be mounted nearly anywhere on an athlete in motion. They are similarly durable and made to

Lutsen story in New York Times
Lutsen Mountains, a resort overlooking Lake Superior in northern Minnesota, is the topic of my travel story in today's New York Times. . .

World's Top Nighttime Adventures
My story this week on Travel+Leisure.com covers the "World's Top Nighttime Adventures," from night orienteering to kayaking in bioluminescent life in Washington's San Juan Islands. . .

10 Tips for Action Photography
Photojournalist T.C. Worley climbs mountains and treks to deep unknowns -- with camera always in tow. We picked his brain for tips on how to get the best shots, in any outdoors situation. . .

Gear Review: REI Cirque ASL 2 Tent
REI's Cirque ASL 2 tent, a two-pole design, sets up quickly and provides the bare bones essentials needed in a backpacking model. This is my test. . .

New York Times -- Powder Mountain, Utah
My travel story in today's New York Times covers Powder Mountain in Utah, an immense and old-school resort I skied in January. . .

Somnio Custom Running Shoes
Somnio touts its footwear as the world’s first "truly customizable" running shoes. The shoes come in 648 anatomically-unique configurations to ostensibly fit your foot like a glove. . .

Gear Review -- Patagonia Nano Puff Pullover
Scrunch and squeeze the Patagonia Nano Puff Pullover and it will compress inside its own chest pocket to create a grapefruit-size package that weighs less than a pound. . .

New Field Test Reviews (3-09)
We posted three new Field Test gear reviews today from Gear Junkie contributors, including a snow tire, a trail running shoe, and a balance board trainer made for the outdoors set. . .

Gear Review: Indo Board Balance
The original Indo Board comes with a roller so you swivel back and forth. That device was beyond my realm. But this model, which has a mouth-inflatable cushion instead of the roller, was made to help beginners condition their core and build balance without the danger of rolling off the edge of the board. I brought the board home, determined to conquer the swishy demon.

Blizzak DM-Z3 Snow Tires
Studded snow tires have long been a staple in my home state of Utah. In other places, where you go off to the mountains once a week at the most, you carry chains, torture yourself on the side of the road in whipping wind and finger-freezing snow while you try to wrap those clunky links around your tires.

Pearl Izumi SyncroSeek III WRX
Trail-running shoes perform a tricky balancing act. They need to be light, agile, and cushioned for miles of fast trails, so they can't simply be sporty hiking shoes. But to deliver real stability and protection, they have to be more than road runners with extra tread.

World's Greatest Diving Spots
For a story this week on Travel+Leisure's web site I polled 10 veteran scuba divers to compile a list of the "World's Greatest Diving Spots". . .

Gear Review -- SIGG Retro Heritage Bottle
Its design has roots in a water bottle made almost 80 years ago. But the SIGG Retro Heritage bottle, available next month, is strangely similar to aluminum water bottles made today. . .

Mountaineering Gear Test on Alta Peak
Alta Peak, an 11,204-foot pyramid of rock in California's Sierra Nevada Range, served as a proving ground last month for me with several new pieces of outdoors gear. . .

Leatherman Freestyle Review - The Gear Junkie Scoop
A march toward making the world's most minimal multi-tool has led Leatherman to the Freestyle, a bare bones blade-and-pliers product coming out in May. . .

Gear Review -- Boa Technology Inc.
Boa Technology's namesake twist-to-tighten knob "renders shoelaces obsolete," according to the company. This year Boa is branching out, from tents to hydration packs. . .

Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race
The Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race is dubbed 'the toughest and wildest race on Earth.' A Gear Junkie correspondent reported from Patagonia last month to find out why. . .

Gear Review -- Winter Running: 10 Tips
Too cold and snowy to go on a jog? Running outdoors year-round is possible with the right apparel and gear. Here are 10 tips on technique and the essential items. . .

"Choose-Your-Adventure" contest: Trip Report
The "Choose-Your-Adventure" sweepstakes trip concluded last weekend on the summit of 11,204-foot Alta Peak. Here's a report with highlights from the adventure . . .

Gear Review -- The Sqivvy
No, this is not an outhouse. The Sqivvy, a "portable pop-up privacy shelter," is a 4 x 4-foot tent that's about 7 feet tall. It packs to the size of a bike tire and unfolds to pop into form. . .

"Choose-Your-Adventure" Post-Trip Wrap
Gear Junkie is back after a three-day getaway in Sequoia National Park, where the "Choose-Your-Adventure" trip with REI Adventures -- as well as the summit bid on Alta Peak -- was a success. . .

"Choose-Your-Adventure" trip: The Send-Off
Gear Junkie is signing off from the blog for a few days and heading out on the "Choose-Your-Adventure" trip with REI Adventures in Sequoia National Park. . .

Gear Review -- Coghlan's Survival Kit-in-a-Can


Dreaming in High-Def
YouTube has perpetuated a generation of amateur videographers. But rarely do hobbyists make the transition from online to primetime. . .

Gear Review -- Karhu XCD ski gear
Karhu's XCD line touts a "marriage of downhill and cross-country qualities," including metal edges, Nordic builds, and a sidecut and camber capable of touring as well as turning on the slopes. . .

Field Test on Rec'Repair Kit
Cracked your kayak on a rock? No problem with the Rec'Repair Emergency Patch Kit. Ben Roman, a Gear Junkie Field Test contributor, this week put the kit to the test. . .

Rec' Repair Emergency Patch Kit
The heart of the kit is a rigid, heavyweight plastic patch with adhesive backing. When heated to about 200 degrees, it becomes rubbery and moldable, so it can be cut to size and formed around your broken gear. As soon as it cools, the adhesive sets and the patch hardens.

Gear Junkie in "The Week" magazine
In the latest issue of "The Week," a popular magazine on politics and news, Obama is on the cover, and the Gear Junkie is inside. . .

Snowkiting Feature Story
Snowkiting harnesses wind to propel skiers and snowboarders over frozen lakes and other snow-covered terrain. A Minnesota company promises you can learn the sport in just one day. Here's my account of the lesson. .

New York Times -- Crested Butte, Colo.
My story in today's New York Times looks at professionals who have eluded the traditional constraints of geography to foster white-collar careers essentially based in the wilderness. . .

Wool Buff - The Gear Junkie Scoop
Coming soon to a store near you: The Wool Buff -- just like the original hard-to-categorize headwear, but this time made of merino wool. . .

Top 10 Gear Giveaway Winners
The Top 10 Gear Giveaway winners have been drawn. . .

Winter Photography: 10 Tips
Ten quick tips on how to shoot better outdoors- and action-photography in the winter months. . .

Mountain Hardwear Compressor PL
Cold, harsh environments can offer great opportunities for adventure -- and some of nature's most stunning beauty. Now imagine enjoying the cold without the bulk and hassle of Michelin-Man clothing layers. A recent winter trip to Vermont was the perfect test for the sleek Mountain Hardwear Compressor PL jacket...

Gear Review -- Canada Goose Snow Mantra Parka
Gear Junkie tests Canada Goose's Snow Mantra Parka, the "World's Warmest Winter Coat". . .

Arc'teryx Covert Cardigan
The Covert Cardigan by Arc'teryx, a pricey mid-layer top, is as comfortable as putting on your favorite hoody but without the weight. Plus, it's not made of cotton so you can use it for active pursuits. Made with Polartec Thermal Pro fabric, this sweater is one of those tops you can wear skiing, and then wear downtown afterwards -- and then still wear while lounging around the house the next day.

2009 Winter OR Show Wrap-up - Timex Expedition WS4, Mountain Hardwear Refugium Trifecta, Cloudveil Koven Plus Down


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #13
Products as seen by the Gear Junkie at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009: New REI shell jackets and pants. . .

OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #12
Products as seen by the Gear Junkie at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009: EverLite EL9 Solar Clip Light. . .

OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #11
Products as seen by the Gear Junkie at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009: Patagonia Nano Puff Pullover. . .

Osprey Talon 44
The perfect backpack is like a well-trained butler -- it stays out of the way so well that you practically forget it's there, but it anticipates and delivers what you need. The Osprey Talon 44 achieves this blend with an ergonomic design and minimal weight.

Timex Expedition WS4 - OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #10
Products as seen by the Gear Junkie at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009: Timex Expedition WS4. . .

OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #9


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #8


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #7


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #6


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #5


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #4


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #3
Products as seen by the Gear Junkie at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009: Mountain Hardwear Refugium Trifecta jacket. . .

OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #2


OR Winter Market 2009 -- GJ Report #1


2009 Winter OR Show -- The Petschel Report #4
In this fourth and final report from the OR trade show floor, we cover a Swiss Army Knife backpack, a vest with a built in water reservoir, and a first aid kit made for women. . .

2009 Winter OR Show -- The Petschel Report #3
In his third report, Gear Junkie correspondent Pat Petschel writes on new products from the show floor at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City. . .

2009 Winter OR Show -- The Petschel Report #2
Gear Junkie correspondent Pat Petschel reports on new products from the show floor at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. . .

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market trade show
The Gear Junkie crew is on site at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. Watch here for reports on the latest gear for 2009. . .

2009 Winter OR Show -- The Petschel Report #1


New Gear Giveaway Contest Launched!
Our new contest, launched this week, will feature a total of 34 winners to receive gear packages from GJ's Top 10 products of 2008. . .

Gear Review -- KOR ONE Hydration Vessel
Don't call the KOR ONE a water bottle. This one-foot-tall elliptical flask is indeed a "hydration vessel". . .

Kuru Chicane women's shoes
It's not every day I wear "tennis shoes" in the winter. That's like wearing white pants after Labor Day, right? But when you throw a softshell upper onto a wrap-around sole that has little rubber stumps on the bottom for grip and traction, you turn a tennis shoe into a kind of winter glove for your foot.

Metolius Master Cams
Many rock climbers love Aliens. Not creatures from space that burst out of your belly, but the cams made by Colorado Custom Hardware. Technically called spring-loaded camming devices (SLCDs), this category of gear is used to build anchors and protect a climber while on lead, as they cam inside a crack to create a solid anchor point.

New York Times -- Surf Superior story
My story in today's New York Times covers one of the world’s most unlikely surf scenes: Winter surfing on Lake Superior. . .

Gear Review -- La Sportiva A.T. Grip Hobnail Kit
Got ice? La Sportiva's A.T. Grip Hobnail kit allows runners to add industrial-strength traction to their soles via the application of 20 screw-in spikes. . .

Norway Trip in Skiing Magazine
Skiing Magazine ran a story last month by my friend and Norway trip mate, Berne Broudy, on the trip we took to ski the country's Romsdal Alps last March. . .

Gear Review -- JanSport Reclaimed Series backpacks
JanSport's Reclaimed Series backpacks are hand-stitched day packs made from the remnants of well-used backpacks returned over the years to the company's warranty department in Everett, Wash.

Back from Belize
I'm back home after a week away in the tropics of Belize, where I explored the cayes offshore and the Cayo District inland. . .

Gear Junkie AWOL in Belize
Signing off from the blog, and life in general, for a few days to head south seeking tropical air and mountain adventures in the interior of Belize. . .

Gear Review -- SOG PowerAssist Multi-tool
The SOG PowerAssist is stocked with esoteric and useful implements, including a V-shape blade to use as a seatbelt cutter and switchblade-like action to fling open a knife at the touch of a finger. . .

New Gear Junkie Field Tester: Bryon Powell
This week we welcome Bryon Powell to the Gear Junkie Field Test. Powell, a Washington D.C. area ultra runner, publishes iRunFar.com and competes in foot races around the country. . .

Gear Review: GU Roctane
You may have recently noticed GU Roctane at your local outdoor retailer. You may also have noticed that this energy gel costs 50 to 100 percent more than its competitors. What you can't learn from reading the label, or the price tag, is that both Roctane flavors -- Blueberry Pomegranate and Vanilla Orange -- have a taste that's worth the hefty price.

Gear Review: La Sportiva Fireblade Trail Running Shoe
Earlier this year, I did something that an experienced trail runner should know better than to do: On a Friday afternoon, the day before a race, I bought a trail shoe made by a company whose shoes I'd never worn, and then I raced the 40-mile Mount Mitchell Challenge in it the following day.

Gear Review: Atayne POV Tech Shirt
The idea for Atayne, a new sports-apparel company in Arlington, Va., was sparked when red dye from a brand name running shirt unexpectedly bled onto company co-founder Jeremy Litchfield's skin. Since then, Litchfield and his business partner Michael Hall have developed short- and long-sleeve technical shirts made from recycled plastic bottles that are free of toxic chemicals. They use natural Cocona (activated carbon from coconut shells) as a microbial inhibitor.

North Pole Ski Expedition
John Huston and Tyler Fish, respectively of Chicago and Ely, Minn., form a two-man team trying this March to become the first Americans to ski unsupported to the North Pole. . .

Pearl Izumi Amfib Lobster gloves
Want to turn heads while biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing or running to the grocery store on a chilly day? Slip on a pair of Pearl Izumi Amfib Lobster gloves and you'll be sure to get a few perplexed looks. But who cares! You don't put on lobster gloves to look cool -- err. . . different. You put them on to stay warm.

Gear Review: Sugoi Majik shell jacket
This svelte new winter running shell jacket from Sugoi, the $170 Majik, looks nice and fits fine. Too bad it failed the breathability test by a long shot. . .

Top 10 Adventures of 2008
From the Romsdal Alps of Norway to a scuba dive in a spring near the Great Salt Lake, 2008 proved to be a year of high adventure for the Gear Junkie. Here are my top 10 trips of the year. . .

Ski Report from Crested Butte, Colo.
A big weekend for snow in Crested Butte, Colo., where the Gear Junkie is currently holed up for a few days of pre-Christmas powder skiing in the trees. . .

Gear Junkie AWOL in Colorado
Heading west tomorrow morning for some early season snow. It's been dumping at Crested Butte, Colo., and I have some new gear to test. . .

We have a winner!
We have a winner! Matt Eder of Portland, Ore., has been drawn from among the thousands who signed up for the Gear Junkie's Choose-Your-Adventure Sweepstakes to win an REI Adventures trip. . .

Sweepstakes Winner Drawing
Note to Choose-Your-Adventure Sweepstakes entrants: We have drawn a sweepstakes winner and will soon announce the name. . .

Gear Junkie Sweepstakes -- Final Day!
It's the final day to sign up for our contest, the Gear Junkie's Choose Your Adventure Sweepstakes. We'll draw a winner at midnight tonight to go on one of five REI Adventures in early 2009. . .

Skiing and Snowboarding Gear 2009
In this column on gear trends in skiing and snowboarding for the '08/'09 season, I highlight a jacket with embedded electronics, self-tinting goggles, and a customizable ski boot with a moldable outer plastic shell. . .

Newton Running Motion All-Weather Shoe
Newton Running has unveiled a shoe for cold temps and damp days. The Motion All-Weather Shoe, released this week, has a water-repellent upper and a sticky-rubber sole designed for grip in cooler temps. . .

Gear Review: Wilderness Wear Merino Wool Base Layer
I've never given an I.Q. test to a ram, or an ewe for that matter, but those who have agree that sheep are a notch or two dumber than cows and pigs, and certainly far below dogs. How is it then that sheep are so absolutely astute when it comes to high-performance fabrics?

Vew-Do Flow balance board
The best training for an outdoor sport or activity -- say snowboarding, as one example -- is to simply get outside and do it. But that's not always possible, and sometimes an indoor-training alternative is in order.

R.E.D. Skycap II Snowsports Helmet
Winter sports are upon us, and to help stay safe when snow meets the law of gravity, you need a helmet to protect your noggin. A nice all-around pick is R.E.D.'s new Skycap II, an updated and upgraded version of the company's classic helmet design. Its simple style packs numerous features into a lightweight model, and it's certified for skiing or snowboarding.

Redwood Creek Wine Greater Outdoors Project
What would you do with $50,000? Redwood Creek wines wants to pay it forward in an effort to help better America’s great outdoors. The company established the Greater Outdoors Project to recognize and support nonprofit organizations that . . .

Gear Junkie's Holiday Gift Guide
Click here for the Gear Junkie's Holiday Gift Guide, a 12-product spread of outdoors-oriented gift suggestions, from ski bags and knives to a carbon-fiber travel guitar made to take the bumps of a backpacking trip. . .

Forbes story on Travel Gear
My story this week on ForbesTraveler.com highlights a dozen new outdoors- and travel-oriented products, including a helmet cam, a $459 sports watch, and a desktop weather station that receives wireless data on ski conditions around the country. . .

Race Report: Ford Ironman Arizona 2008
Someone once told me that races are nothing more than an event where you can show off how hard you have trained, and I think that an Ironman triathlon represents this more than any other type of event. The more I am involved in endurance sports -- my past is in soccer and more traditional sports -- the more I appreciate the work ethic it takes to be good at these events. You can't fake it, and you can't walk up to the start line and gut it out. It may not be your day even if you are well trained, but it will never be your day if you are not.

Sender Films -- THE SHARP END
Sender Films' latest, "The Sharp End," is a vividly-filmed and heart-pounding hour of rock climbing, alpine and ice ascents, slack-lining and BASE jumping at crags and mountain ranges around the planet. Click here to see the trailer. . .

Top 10 Gear List - 2008
Dozens of trips, hundreds of hours of training, and a year of product testing has led to these conclusions, my Top 10 Gear of the Year Awards for 2008. . .

Top 10 Gear List 2008 -- Under $30 Picks


Gear Junkie 'Field Test' section Launched
A new site feature, the Gear Junkie Field Test, puts outdoors equipment into the hands of hard-core users -- from professional mountain guides to outdoors writers. . .

Longboard Innovations
The sport of longboarding is a rising trend with active adults. No longer is this sport limited to the realm of the teenager, and no longer do the boards simply mimic a skateboard with a stretched deck. . .

Osprey Talon 11 backpack
When a hydration pack isn’t quite enough and a full day pack is a skosh too big, the Osprey Talon 11 is jumping up and down yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!” At first glance, it’s hard not to fall in love with the little acid green pack that has reflective flames on the front. After all, it’s light-weight, flashy and reasonably priced.

New Clif Bar Flavors
I’m a self-proclaimed skeptic of most things -- especially if it’s food that “tastes like cardboard,” which is a saying some people ascribe to the category of energy bars. After sampling a few Clif Bars years ago, and not finding a flavor I liked, I hadn't touched the product until recently.

Jetboil Group Cooking System Review
When you’re starving and don’t have much time to cook a meal, the Jetboil Group Cooking System is a good choice. It’s a stove ideal for a small group of backpackers who need an easy-to-use system that heats up fast, breaks down easily and requires minimal extra supplies.

Turn your iPhone into a GPS unit
Navionics, a Wareham, Mass.-based electronic cartography and navigation company, launched an iPhone app that turns your phone into a charting tool. The Navionics Mobile lets you view in-depth charts using your GPS position, and allows you to pan and zoom, query chart objects and more. The app also has outdoor and ski trail data so you can navigate while skiing, hiking or biking.

North Face, Kelty, Mt. Hardwear sleeping bag review
For most conditions in most areas of the country a three-season sleeping bag is a no-brainer. There are times when you need more warmth and insulation, and there are times when you need less, but usually the three-season setup -- those three seasons meaning spring, summer and fall, but not winter -- is just about right.

Gear Review: Sierra Designs Meteor Light 2 Tent
In the world of outdoor adventure, weight can make the difference between a good time and an 'I-wish-I-was-sitting-at-home-watching-college-football' time. And Sierra Designs, a Boulder, Colo.-based company that specializes in tents, sleeping bags and clothes, knows that. So in the off-season (which, in the outdoors world, doesn't exist) the company revamped its tents.

Gear Review: Leatherman Squirt P4
Many outdoor adventurers have a favorite piece of gear they always have with them. For me, it's my Leatherman Squirt P4. Like MacGyver and his trusty Swiss Army knife, I rarely leave home without my Squirt.

BELA-Olhao sardines
It's a little strange popping open a small tin filled with oily fish that still have bones and scales intact. Sure, the heads and tails are missing, but the potent stench of fish billows from the small metal container as soon as you open it. If that's not too much for you, then you've picked the right nutrient-rich trail snack. BELA-Olhao sardines are reportedly packed fresh within eight hours after they are caught off the coast of Portugal.

Pearl Izumi Microsensor Skull Cap
Winter athletes know it can be difficult to find a hat that fits under a bike helmet and stays put for running. But Pearl Izumi has done just that with its Microsensor Skull Cap, an upgrade to a design that's been around for years.

New York Times -- Bonneville Seabase story
Sharks dwell in a natural warm spring basin south of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Seriously, they do. My story in today's New York Times covers a scuba dive I did to Bonneville Seabase, an unlikely facility that has coaxed sea life to live 600 miles from the nearest coast. . .

Review -- Merrell Men's Rove Tech Jacket
Remember those suave Members Only jackets from the '80s? Well, Merrell might hate me for saying it but the Rove Tech Jacket, something I've been wearing all fall, is reminding me of that Reagan-era fashion staple. . .

Book Review -- A Hard-Water World
To the uninitiated, ice fishing seems improbable, wacky, and dangerous. But every winter, more than 2 million hardy northerners go to their place on the lake. This book highlights the experience. . .

Outdoorzy.com's Gearzy Awards


Forbes -- Rock Formations Story
From Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick to the famous chalk arches of Etretat in Normandy, France, my story today on ForbesTraveler.com -- "20 STUNNING ROCK FORMATIONS" -- covers geologic oddities from around the planet. . .

Gear Review -- Black Diamond Orbit Lantern
Made for backcountry skiers, climbers and backpackers, the Orbit Lantern is a pocket-size, collapsible mini lantern that shines enough light to prepare dinner, organize gear, read or play checkers while storm-bound in a tent. . .

Gear Junkie Forum, Week 2 Giveaway
In case you didn't see last week. . . Gear Junkie now has a forums section! Sign in and start contributing, asking questions, swapping stories, or writing your own gear review. BONUS: The next 50 forum contributors will win a prize, including. . .

Gear Giveaway at TrustyPony
Prizes like a LowePro laptop/camera backpack and Guyot Designs backpacking dinnerwear are up for grabs this week at TrustyPony. Just make a comment and you'll be entered into a (very small) pool of potential winners. . .

The Runner's Heart
Common cardiovascular wisdom says running can do only good for the heart. But a study at a German clinic has linked marathon runners to the phenomenon of artery-clogging plaques that can cause a heart attack. . .

Tech4O TraiLeader, Quark Jacket, AMK, GlacierGel - Gear Field Test -- Kings Peak, Utah
Last month, on a quick two-day ascent, I climbed Utah's Kings Peak, the state's highest mountain at 13,528 feet. Here's a run down on the gear I used on the way up, some of which worked much better than the rest. . .

Bear Naked Survey
Click on the home page here (up and to the right) to take Bear Naked's trail mix survey. It's easy and quick, and the company will select 50 random respondents to win a grab bag of Bear Naked prizes. . .

Gear Junkie Forum Launched
Gear Junkie now has a forums section! Sign in and start contributing, asking questions, swapping stories, or writing your own gear review. BONUS: The first 50 forum contributors will win a grab bag of prizes. . .

New York Times -- Utah's Kings Peak story
My story in the New York Times for Friday, November 14, covers the climb on Kings Peak I completed last month with three friends during a quick two-day ascent. At 13,528 feet, Kings is the highest point in the state of Utah. . .

Mila PLS 100 headlamp - The Gear Junkie Scoop
Developed for nighttime skiing, running, climbing and other activities, the Mila produces a wide-angle bubble of light that stretches hundreds of feet into dark night. . .

Horny Toad's "WE can solve it" sale


Ski Norway Video


Mountain Hardwear Quark Jacket
The Quark Jacket from Mountain Hardwear is described as "mosquito netting with a waterproof and breathable laminate." It is indeed light weight, though it does its job to keep rain out while granting a noticeable amount of breathability. . .

New York Times -- Muzzleloading story
And now for something completely different, check out my story in today's New York Times. . .

REI's "Bike Your Drive" site
As a longtime city bike commuter -- and an advocate for cycling on several recreational, economic and societal fronts -- I was happy to see this news on REI's new online cycling resource. . .

Terra Nova Laser 20L Review - The Gear Junkie Scoop
Developed for sports like adventure racing and mountain marathons where you might run for hours with a backpack on, the to-be-released Laser 20L is marketed as the "best in class for weight, features and fit." This is my test. . .

Gear Review -- Leatherman Skeletool
The 5-ounce Leatherman Skeletool promises all the basic functions you need -- but not a toothpick more. . .

Gear Review -- Hi-Tec V-Lite Altitude Ultra
Waterproof-breathable boots are nothing new in the outdoors industry. But Hi-Tec has partnered with a U.K.-based defense company on its latest leather boots to incorporate a technology developed for military clothing worn in a chemical attack. . .

Gear Review -- Buddy-Board
"Is your life worth 30 seconds?" That's the question posed by Buddy-Board LLC on the packaging of its namesake product, a dry-erase board made for recording information about your backcountry adventure. . .

Utah's Kings Peak Trip Report
The Gear Junkie is back from Utah, where a weekend of crazy adventures climaxed at the summit of Utah's Kings Peak, the state's high point. Here's a quick trip report. . .

Gear Junkie AWOL in Utah
Signing off for a few days to catch a plane to SLC and head into the mountains, where I'll make an attempt at Kings Peak, the highest point in the state of Utah at 13,528 feet. . .

Night Orienteering Feature Story
Night orienteering requires racers to read a map and compass while tracking vegetation boundaries, bouncing along lakeshores, hiking gullies -- all by the paltry glow of a headlamp beam. This is a short feature story on the nocturnal Nordic sport. . .

Gear Review -- Light and Motion Seca 700 Race
Want to cut a clean, white beam ahead more than 100 feet on a trail for nighttime mountain biking? Got an extra $550 to spare? The Seca 700 Race may be your next bike light. . .

Olympus Stylus 1050 SW Review - The Gear Junkie Scoop
The Olympus Stylus 1050 SW is a rough-and-tumble ruggedized camera, taking bumps and drops from shoulder-height onto solid stone. I know this to be true, having dropped the camera a few times while testing. . .

How to Write a Gear Review
Ever dreamed of writing gear reviews for a living? Or at least scribbling your thoughts for the chance to play with a lot of cool new outdoors toys? In this column I offer eight quick tips for the aspiring gear writer. . .

Freeride Mountain Biking
Dirt jumps, ladder bridges, wall rides -- and all the consequences associated with such stunts -- define the discipline of freeride, one of mountain biking's biggest trends. . .

Turin Bike Trainer
With a base price tag of $12,500, and configurations that will sell for more than $20,000, the Turin bike training system encapsulates a rider in a bubble of technology and is touted as the "ultimate in indoor training". . .

Maori Bone Necklaces for Boaters
Boaters take note: Wanderer Imports LLC of Asheville, N.C., now offers cow bone Maori necklaces carved with symbols purported to help guarantee safe passage over water for kayakers. . .

Gear Review -- Skeeter Beater
The Skeeter Beater is a product made for people -- and I'm included in this wayward group -- who like to sleep inside their cars on occasion. . .

Marathon Running: 12 Unorthodox Tips
From foot lubrication to a (legal) performance-enhancing drug, here are 12 unorthodox tips I've gathered on the gear, nutrition and technique for completing a 26.2-mile marathon run. . .

Project 7 water bottles


Goldsprints
Goldsprint racing, a rising offseason cycling activity, melds a stationary bike trainer with a videogame. Riders put their pedals to the metal to spin in front of a crowd. . .

Gear Review -- Castelli Insolito Radiation Jacket
Extreme adaptability to outside temperatures during the autumn, winter and spring cycling seasons is the Insolito Radiation Jacket's primary claim to fame. Made by Castelli, this hybrid outerwear is touted to regulate ambient outside temps for cyclists from 25 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. . .

Choose-Your-Adventure Sweepstakes


Gear Preview: Wenger Footwear Line
Touting Swiss Army Knife attributes, Wenger has launched a footwear line with several innovative and adaptable touches, including a rubber sole that adjusts stiffness and traction depending on outside temperature. . .

Fastest Grandpa on the Planet
Jim Hammond was born in 1914. He's aiming for a world running record at the Senior Olympics in 2009. . .

Gear Review -- Specialized BG S-WORKS MTB Shoe
The top-of-the-line BG S-WORKS MTB shoes from Specialized provide a gain in comfort and performance that might give a competitive edge. But are they worth the $300 price tag. . .

Gear Review -- Justin's Nut Butter
Justin's Nut Butter makes the salty sustenance and nutritional boost of good ol' fashioned nut butter now available in tear-and-squeeze packages for carrying in a pocket or bike jersey to eat in the outdoors or on the go. . .

REI's Prototype Green Store
For a peek at what outdoor retail might look like in the near future, head to Round Rock, Texas, where REI just opened its second prototype "green" store, a LEED-standardized building that incorporates roof-mounted light tubes and recycled sunflower seed husks. . .

Critical Mass Bike Ride
The monthly Critical Mass ride blocks traffic and emboldens bikers who might otherwise stay off city streets. But does it hurt or harm the cause for workaday bike commuters? This is my first-person account on the social phenomenon. . .

Cosmas Hercules - The Gear Junkie Scoop
The Hercules is the "first true mountaineering boot certified for wildland fire fighting," according to manufacturer Cosmas, an Italian boot maker. It's made to cater to young firefighters who now eschew traditional logger boots in favor of something with more performance and style. . .

Bear Naked Trail Mixes
After a long hiatus from trail mix, I am back into the nutty/fruity energy-food concoctions. Specifically, Bear Naked Inc. of La Jolla, Calif., makes a mean trail mix with its Pacific Crest and Appalachian Trail blends. . .

Gear Review -- Do-All Bike Shoes
The do-all shoe concept has long been a pipe dream for footwear designers, and a couple companies have pushed shoe products to market advertised as hybrids that'll clip to a bike pedal and grip on a trail. This is my review of three run-hike-bike hybrid models. . .

"Do-It-Yourself Digs"
Sifting through the antiseptic dirt of Chile’s Atacama Desert, Carl Schweser, a traveler on an Earthwatch expedition, once came face to face with a mummy. “It was right out of the pages of National Geographic," he said. My story this week for Travel+Leisure covers the Atacama adventure plus nine additional "Do-It-Yourself Digs" . . .

Cyclocross
Cyclocross is an up and coming discipline where off-road courses with tight turns, muddy slopes, steep banks, sand pits and manmade obstacles make up the medium of the sport. This is my feature story on a CX event last fall. .

Bamboo Tent Poles - The Gear Junkie Scoop
In a "quest for innovation and environmentally conscious design," NEMO Equipment Inc. of Nashua, N.H., recently unveiled plans to manufacture thin tent poles made of bamboo for a pair of its lightweight tent models beginning in late 2009. . .

Men Who Shave Their Legs
Beyond aerobic sports, in no other part of mainstream Western society does the male species commonly take wax or blade to leg hair. But among the Lycra set smooth legs are touted as a rite of passage and a performance-enhancing procedure. This feature story investigates the clean-shaven phenomenon . . .

Gear Review -- Gerber Omnivore flashlight
The Omnivore, a new cigar-size flashlight from Gerber, is battery agnostic, meaning it will take power from any of the varying combinations of AA, AAA or CR123 batteries you can drop in its chamber. . .

La Sportiva Gandalf Review - Gear Junkie Scoop
La Sportiva's to-be-released climbing shoe -- a $215 magic boot that can purportedly endure a decade of alpine action -- is named after the Tolkien wizard who guided Frodo and his entourage through the mountains of Middle Earth. . .

Forbes story on "High-Tech Travel Gear"
My story this week on ForbesTraveler -- "High-Tech Travel Gear" -- covers a subgenre of gear that's emerged from the outdoors, technology and travel-goods industries to serve globetrotters who go far away and deep into new cultures on their own. . .

Petzl's MYO RXP - The Gear Junkie Scoop
Petzl's latest headlamp offering, a $100 LED model due out in January, offers light-level customization to let users tweak and finely tune the brightness setting of their own personal window of artificial daylight. . .

Forbes story on Travel Writers' Top Escapes
In a story this week for ForbesTraveler I polled nine adventure-travel writers to discover destinations not often featured in print. Read on to discover where the people who travel for a living choose to go when an editorial board is out of the picture and a deadline for the story does not exist.

Gear Review -- Energizer e2 Lithium Headlamp
That famous pink bunny powered by batteries has rolled into the outdoors arena with a headlamp offering -- the Energizer e2 Lithium -- that has several new and unique features for the category and surprisingly solid performance in my initial tests. . .

Barefoot Believers: Running Without Shoes
A growing subset of runners are shedding their shoes and putting bare feet to the ground -- and footwear companies are starting to take note. This is my profile on a 30-year veteran of the barefoot movement and his attempt to drag me along for a shoe-less run. . .

Ardica Technologies - The Gear Junkie Scoop
No black helicopters yet in sight, but this column covers a new DARPA-funded energy-density technology now trickling to the outdoors industry in the guise of four soon-to-be-released electrically-heated shell jackets from Mountain Hardwear. . .

New York Times -- Tour de Trempealeau story
Road riders in Wisconsin's Trempealeau County see an average of only three cars per hour, creating a virtual car-less bike paradise for riders in the region. This is my story on the municipality, a 20-mile-wide wedge of bluffs, farms fields, deep tributary ravines, and 382 miles of paved roads perfect for the skinny tires of a road bike. . .

Giro Sports Glasses
Helmet maker Giro Sport Design has jumped into the sport-eyewear category, and innovation goes by the name of the patent-pending Pop Top system in the company's most intriguing new optical offering: A lens-switchable sunglass that fires out its polycarbonate tint via a small cam lever. . .

Stand-Up Paddling
Stand-up paddling, or SUP, is among the biggest trends this year in board sports, even in landlocked locales like Minnesota. This feature story highlights the burgeoning SUP scene near downtown Minneapolis, where surfers stand up and dig in on the City of Lakes' most famous body of water. . .

Gear Review -- 'Technical' Flip-Flop Sandals
Can performance features be added onto the blank slate of a flip-flop sandal sole? Keen, Sole and Teva say 'Yes.' Here's my review of three open-toe offerings touted to stay on the foot and perform in outdoors settings beyond the beach. . .

Gear Review -- PUR Purifier of Water
PUR markets its latest water-purification product as a "mini water treatment plant in a packet." Indeed, I turned a bucket of brown river water from nasty to clear by following the company's step-by-step chemical process. . .

Gear Reviews Update (Aug. 2008)
This week we've updated the Gear Reviews section of the site, adding links to more than 25 product reviews from the past four months. You may have seen some of these grace the Daily Dose blog. But now in the Gear Reviews "archive" they're cataloged in chronological order starting from last week heading back.

Heidiskis - The Gear Junkie Scoop
Say it with me: "3,800 Euros for a pair of skis." That's about $5,913 as per this week's currency exchange. But Heidiskis, a Montreux, Switzerland, boutique ski brand touts its custom winter sticks as being worthy of their Matterhorn-high price tags. . .

OR Show -- 2009 Product Preview, part IV
In this fourth and final look at new gear from the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show I cover a collapsible kayak, a Schoeller-ensconced mountaineering boot, and an REI backpack made for the Hannah Montana demographic. . .

TheStreet.com covers OR Show
The news fallout from the Outdoor Retailer trade show -- which I covered extensively last week -- has garnered mentioned on TheStreet.com, a popular business site that covers the financial markets, economic and industry trends and financial planning. . .

OR Trade Show -- 2009 Product Preview, part III
In this third look at the latest gear from the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show I have uncovered stylish sunglasses made for fishermen, water shoes that look like skate shoes, and a luxury rooftop cargo box from Thule that will sell for $800. . .

OR Trade Show -- 2009 Product Preview, part II
The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show has come to a close. Here's the first peek this week at new and to-be-released gear, gadgets and apparel from the convention center show floor, bike shoes, 1-gram tent stakes and carbon-fiber kayaks included. . .

OR Trade Show -- 2009 Product Preview, part I
The Gear Junkie is on site at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show in Salt Lake City. This is an initial report on the to-be-released gear, gadgets and apparel that'll be seen in outdoors shops circa 2009. . .

New York Times -- Rendezvous story
Not your typical Stephen Regenold adventure-journalism fare here, but in today's New York Times I wrote about the hobby of rendezvous re-enactment, a gig where grown men and women dress in fur-trade period outfits, sleep in tepees or canvas tents, and turn their backs on modern civilization for a couple of days. . .

Therm-a-Rest NeoAir
Touted as the "world’s lightest, most advanced three-season air mattress" the to-be-released Therm-a-Rest NeoAir insulates with a grid of welded-nylon air chambers and compacts to the size of a 1-liter Nalgene bottle. . .

Critical Mass, The Inside View
I rode in my first Critical Mass last month, a 200-rider strong showing in downtown Minneapolis on July 25. We rode with 28 police on bicycles and squad cars circling the entire time. At least that was until the whole event evolved into a benign parade of sorts through the city. . .

World's Scariest Roads
Since the dawn of motorized transit, deep jungle and high mountains haven't stopped humans from trying to lay roads through the planet's most treacherous terrain. This article on Travel+Leisure.com highlights 10 top dangerous roads around the globe, including the likes of Bolivia's North Yungas Road, a mountain-hugging lane lined by 1,000-foot drops. . .

Gear Review: Look Quartz Carbon Pedals
Tour de France types need not apply. Look's latest "p�dales automatiques" are made for the mountain biking crowd. This is my review of the Quartz Carbon line, a clipless series touted to have several simple innovations for performance underfoot on singletrack and beyond. . .

Wired's High-Tech Olympic Gear
This short article features five over-the-top athletics products that'll purportedly be employed by Olympians next week in Beijing. My favorite is the Nike track shoe made with the same liquid-crystal polymer threads as used in the airbags on NASA's Mars rover. . .

Rant: Inc. magazine story on Newton Running
Interesting story this week on Inc. magazine's website. It's a profile of Newton Running, the shoe company out of Boulder, Colo. Great background and all on the innovative business and its unlikely trajectory to success. But then I got to page No. 4 where the writer sideswipes the ol' Gear Junkie here. . .

Mind over Mountain -- Profile of Andy Knapp
This feature story profiles Andy Knapp of Minneapolis, a 59-year-old adventurer who's climbed Denali, biked solo to Alaska, kayaked alone across Lake Superior, and is now fighting kidney cancer with the same resolve he's applied to challenges in the outdoors his whole life. . .

Gear Review -- Coghlan's LED Micro Lantern
Coghlan's LED Micro Lantern looks like a trinket or a keychain toy. But this tiny light, bolstered by a 5mm LED, shines enough ambient illumination to stand in for a much larger source of light inside a tent. . .

The Gear Junkie goes 'Outside'
Introducing "The Gear Junkie Scoop," a new weekly column on OutsideMag.com that will cover news, hot products, and to-be-released gear and apparel from all corners of the outdoors industry. The column launched this week with the review of a 9-ounce sleeping pad purported to pack down to the size of a Nalgene bottle. . .

Forbes story on "Extraterrestrial Escapes"
This story is about a different type of adventure travel. Namely, "extraterrestrial tourism" is a broad term for any type of travel involving the weird, whacky and the unknown. In a story this week on ForbesTraveler.com, I highlight 10 top alien destinations, including a handful I have visited in person over the years. . .

Gear Review -- Luxury Camping Equipment, part II
A solar-charging messenger bag, a food box for Fido, and a watch that predicts when the fish will be biting. These products round out my coverage of luxury camp items this week. Oh, and don't forget the motorized margarita blender with motorcycle handlebar grips. . .

Gear Review -- Luxury Camping Equipment, part I
From portable hot-water spigots to tent pegs topped with pink flamingos, this is the first in a two-part column on luxury-oriented camping gear. None of this gear is essential, and roughin' it this is not. . .

Arc'teryx going Aerobic in '09
Arc'teryx will release multiple collections of aerobic-oriented apparel and outerwear with its spring 2009 line. This is a sneak peek, from tights and running tops to a "skort" designed for mountain marathons. . .

Invent-a-Sport Contest
Horny Toad and Instructables.com have introduced the "Invent-a-Sport" Contest, a competition seeking descriptions, photos and video clips of real or imagined fringe sports or outdoors activities. . .

Miles Per Gallon


Cord Lock Light
It's a cord lock. It's a light. It's the Cord Lock Light, a regular spring-loaded cincher as found on backpacks and sleeping bags, just with a built-in tiny LED light source. . .

Gear Review -- The Jimi Wallet
I blogged on the Jimi last month, the so-called “wallet for people who hate wallets.” But here is my full review of the credit-card-size clamshell case, which comes in nine colors and has a removable money clip in case you want to go even more minimal. . .

Pole Positions
In one of my more strange assignments ever, last week I covered a rising form of aerobic workout that takes its cues from erotic dancing. "Strip Fitness," as the class was called, is advertised as a way to "tone your booty, legs, arms and abs with style."

New York Times -- Devils Tower story
Devils Tower is a 1,000-foot-high thumb of rock in northeastern Wyoming, a geologic wonder and one of nature’s most ultimate works of art. It's also a mecca for rock climbers. Today, in New York Times, I chronicle my recent ascent of the Tower, a four-hour evening climb timed to allow us to see a sunset at the top of the world. . .

Hash House Harriers
The Hash House Harriers are a "drinking club with a running problem." This tradition, started nearly 70 years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has its roots in a group of British expatriates who wanted to exercise and imbibe after work once a week. This is my story of a run with a local HHH club, exercise, competition and imbibing included. . .

Gear Review -- Hydration Bladder Test
Hydration in the great outdoors for me now rarely involves a water bottle. Instead, the hose-sucking efficiency of a water bladder in a backpack gets me the H2O I need -- and fast. Here's a roundup review of three bladders I've been testing as of late, a standoff to see which reservoir best performs on the mountain, trail and on the bike. . .

Feature Story: Canicross
Run with your dog. Let him pull. That's the premise behind canicross, a dog-sledding derivative that milks maximum propulsion via a canine-connected cord to rocket human-dog teams down the trail. . .

Gear on the Wall
Car racks can get your gear from home to any given adventure destination. But what about keeping things straight and racked up at home? Here are two quick options for easy at-home gear organization. . .

Gear Review: Fresh Bath Travel Wipes
Fresh Bath Travel Wipes are a "sponge-bath solution for the adventure set." Clean your dirtbag body dreads to toes with these aloe vera/potassium sorbate-infused towelettes, made to cleanse and "moisturize" skin while you're traveling or deep in the woods along with taking care of the de-stink. . .

11-year-old Climbs Denali
Jordan Romero. Age 11. On his way to becoming the youngest person ever to climb the Seven Summits. Last week: Denali. Five summits down, two to go. That's right, and he's not even yet in junior high school. . .

Shaman in an Office Park
I went in for a physical assessment. I got crystals and magic instead. This is my story on Chris Frykman, a chiropractor who cracks backs, wields crystals and sends thought energy in his customized version of an alternative medicine called applied kinesiology. . .

Horny Toad Acquires Nau
Apparel maker Nau Inc., which went out of business last month, has been resurrected with the help of a certain other apparel maker in Santa Barbara, Calif. They're calling the new brand, to be launched Aug. 1, "Nau 2.0" . . .

Adventure Kid Club


MSNBC / Forbes Summer Gear Story
From gas-powered margarita blenders (no joke) to watches that predict the weather, my story today on MSNBC and ForbesTraveler.com, "The Ultimate Summer Gadget Guide," is as over-the-top as it comes. And that's not to mention the tent from Eureka with fans, lights and outlet plugs. . .

Gear Review: Petzl SiGNAL light
The bottle-cap-size SiGNAL light from Petzl is a "multidirectional performance safety light," according to the company. It's a backup light source and blinker made for keeping in a backpack or stored stuffed away in the seat bag on a bike. This is my review of the product, a tiny, triple-bulb L.E.D. that may well have saved my life last week. . .

Handlebar-Mounted Map Holder
Handlebar-mounted map holders are one of those esoteric outdoors items that only complete cartographic nerds and adventure racers can wax silly about. Since I fit both molds, the Rotating Map Holder from Adventure Racing Navigation Supplies caught my eye. . .

Shop5 Rates Gear Junkie No. 1


Jetboil Helios Review
In my test of the Helios High-Performance Cook System -- Jetboil's latest camp stove creation -- the burner produced a "10-inch-tall dancing blue genie" of a flame. It also boiled a liter of water quicker than almost any stove I've ever seen. This is my full review. . .

New York Times -- Big Bog Story
In today's New York Times I write about northern Minnesota's Big Bog, a spongy, hard-to-access wilderness on the bed of the long-gone glacial Lake Agassiz. This is a story on my trip to the bog last month, a place where "wolves and moose roam on soft earth, plants eat bugs and otters live in rivers thick with ooze. . ."

Rogaine Orienteering Race Feature Story
In this feature story on the Minnesota Orienteering Club's annual Rogaine event, I chronicle a six-hour backwoods race involving swamp swimming, flag finding, brush crashing and constant map and compass utilization in the thick and buggy Chequamegon National Forest of northwest Wisconsin. . .

Gear Review -- Thule Setup on a Small Car
My goal was singular and precise: To outfit a small stationwagon with maximum equipment-carrying capacity. This included a rack, bike mounts and a cargo box on a car that can often qualify for "compact" spaces in a parking garage. . .

Case Study: PLB in Action
A mountaineering accident last week prompted Bill Becher, a writer friend of mine from southern California, to deploy a personal locator beacon (PLB) in hopes of rescue. This is a Q&A with Becher on the incident. . .

Testing Blood Lactate Threshold
This feature story details my experience undergoing a blood lactate threshold test, where a fitness trainer put me on a treadmill and pricked my fingertip repeatedly for blood samples. The goal was to determine my lactic acid threshold, the point at which I start to "feel the burn". . .

Gear Review -- Corsair Inc. Flash Survivor
Need to protect those secret GPS coordinates? This USB flash drive saves data in a CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum case that's waterproof to 600 feet under the sea. . .

Gear Review -- d30 + Spyder MTB Suit
This is my review of a $620 mountain biking suit from Spyder. The D3O Armored Crew and the D3O Ultimate Chamois Bike Short both employ their namesake d30 gel -- a top-secret material made with �intelligent molecules� that flex under normal situations then lock together to absorb energy once a force is imposed. Say a crash on your mountain bike, for example. . .

Gear Review -- Adventure Lights Inc.
I blogged on Adventure Lights Inc. of Beaconsfield, Quebec, earlier this year. Now, after a couple months of playing with the company's line of esoteric emergency lighting products, this is my full review. . .

Green Gear 2008
Going green is not a new phenomenon in the world of outdoors gear. But today's eco-friendly gear is a far cry from the hemp hoodies and low-tech "earth gear" of yore. This is the first in a three-part blog on gear that touts a good eco story plus performance for use in the field. . .

Trip Report -- Harney Peak, South Dakota
Unbeknownst to many American mountaineers, the highest point of elevation east of the Rocky Mountains is not in New Hampshire. That title belongs to Harney Peak in South Dakota, a 7,242-foot mountain I hiked last weekend . . .

Trip Report -- Big Bog, Minn.
Just got back from an odd one. This weekend I traveled to northern Minnesota and the Red Lake Peatlands, a spongy, hard-to-access wilderness that is the lower 48 states' largest bog.

Gear Review -- Crazy Creek HexaLite camp chairs
I blogged on the HexaLite camp chairs from Crazy Creek a couple weeks back. Now, after some more in-depth testing 'round the campfire, here is my full review of the two roll-able, stash-able HexaLite models made for the ultra-light backpacking crowd. . .

Trip Report -- Devils Tower
Just got back from Wyoming and Devils Tower, a 1,000-foot-high thumb of rock in the northeastern part of the state and my favorite rock climbing area in the country. Here's a quick trip report on the route we went up, "El Cracko Diablo," and a few images from our climb. . .

Gear Review -- BPA-free Water Bottles
BPA is dead. After years of dragging its feet, Nalgene Nunc International has dropped the controversial chemical from its entire line of water bottles. Oh, and CamelBak did, too . . .

Gear Junkie AWOL in Wyoming
Signing off from the Daily Dose blog -- and life in general -- for a few days here as I pack my bags and jump in the car to drive to Wyoming, where Devils Tower awaits. The plan is simple: climb the sheer-sided 5,112-foot monolith using an arsenal of new gear. . .

The Jimi Wallet
After riding a self-proclaimed "Frankenbike" around the streets of San Francisco for several years, Mike O’Neill designed a new take on the stodgy old "Costanza" wallet. Indeed, the company slogan is "The Wallet for People Who Hate Wallets" . . .

Reclaimed and Recyled Messenger Bags
In a world often bogged down by waste, outfits like FREITAG, Relan LLP and Recycling is Rad have created a cottage industry of designing messenger bags out of reclaimed materials, including sources as diverse as vinyl sheeting from billboards, highway signs, old clothes and animal feed bags from the Philippines. . .

Track Bike Racing at the NSC Velodrome
The NSC Velodrome is a 250-meter bike track made with wood planks from African afzelia trees. Its banks provide a medium where riders pedal laps at the natural lean of a bike, eliminating skidding and defying gravity in the process. This is my story about trust, inertia, speed, centrifugal force and faith in physics the first time I rolled onto the track. . .

Lux Eco Resorts Story


Field Test -- Norway's Romsdal Alps (part II)
The Norway gear hash-out continues. In this column yesterday I covered the hard goods employed on a ski touring trip last month in Norway. For today's review, the focus is on apparel, specifically the outerwear and base layers I wore on a mountain called Kvitfjellet . . .

Field Test -- Norway's Romsdal Alps (part I)
In this blog last month I wrote trip reports on my journey to Norway's Romsdal Alps, where I skied the peaks above the fjords near the city of Molde. Today's column, the first in a series of two, digs into the gear I used while touring said epic peaks in the alpine bliss of fjordland. . .

'Large Fella on a Bike'
In 2004, Scott Cutshall was a freelance jazz drummer, a husband and a father. He was 38 years old, though not sure if he'd live to see 40. He wore size XXXXXXXXXXL pants and could not tie his own shoes. Breathing was sometimes difficult. That was before he started riding a bike. . .

Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat
Function definitely trumps form for this outdoors hat, a wide-brimmed cap with 360 degrees of solar coverage and some sort of Asian peasant aesthetic thing going on. . .

Gear Review -- Dream Island Sleeping Bag
The Dream Island sleeping bag from Big Agnes -- when used in tandem with the company's unique pad system -- can feel like the simulacrum of a mattress and quilt in your tent. Plus, it's a double-wide, meaning two bodies fit side by side to keep the Island extra cozy and warm. . .

Life, Death and Altitude
A death on a high peak -- plus personal failures in performance at altitude -- prompted Mike Farris, a 52-year-old college professor, to write a book, "The Altitude Experience," due in May from Globe Pequot Press. This is my profile on Farris' life in the mountains and a peek at the 80,000 words he wrote to answer some of his own hardest questions on performance, sanity and risk in high-altitude mountaineering. . .

Gear Review -- CamelBak Podium Bottle
I wrote a preview blog on this product last month. Now here's the official Gear Junkie review, a full testing of a bike bottle CamelBak is touting as an update to technology that's been around since the 1950s. . .

Jason Magness, Zen Action Vagabond
As Zen vagabond types go, Jason Magness -- a climber, adventure racer, yogi and slack-liner from North Dakota -- is the real deal. And this weekend no less than the Wall Street Journal chronicled Magness' life in a 2,000-word story featuring quotes from climbing legends, images of Virabhadrasana poses on inch-thin lines, and . . .

SteriPEN JourneyLCD Review
I spent part of last evening zapping helpless microorganisms swimming in tepid water. But it's ok, the little suckers were trying to make me sick. The SteriPEN JourneyLCD, a UV-light-emitting water purification device, eliminates common threatening microbes, viruses and bacteria that might otherwise make one ill if sipping tainted water. . .

I-gliti Roller Skiing Apparel
Warning: Snark alert. I don't do this very often. But a press release just came over the wire too difficult to resist: Behold! The I-gliti apparel line, the first clothing and accessories collection designed exclusively for, um, roller skiers . . .

Workout Wear
Preparing for outdoor adventure, be it backpacking, biking or mountain climbing, can require ample time training indoors. Here are a few pieces of apparel -- for men and women -- that make the sweaty work (maybe) somewhat easier. . .

The World's Weirdest Footraces
A 5K for nudists, an Antarctic marathon, and a race that cumulates at a giant pit of mud round out my Top 10 picks for the oddest footraces on the planet. One event here features -- no joke -- paramilitary obstacles and electrically-charged whips. If you're into this type of gig, this story is your guide. . .

Book Review -- "Backcountry Skiing"
This 344-page textbook is a guide to all things backcountry and skiing. It covers topics from avalanche safety and navigation to gear, ski-mountaineering, fitness information and nutrition for the high peaks. . .

iPod and iPhone Trail Maps
I think this is a cool idea. Saw reference to it on GoBlog this morning. Podpro.ca now offers download-able trail maps for your iPod or iPhone, letting you click and scroll on the chairlift to pick your route of descent from a tiny backlit screen (instead of an unfolded map flapping in your face). . .

Gear Review -- J.L. Darling Rite in the Rain paper
Rite in the Rain paper has roots in water-resistant paper first developed for the Pacific Northwest logging industry in the 1920s. Today, you can write, draw and record in the great outdoors on these acrylic-coated pages with no real regard to the elements overhead and passing by. . .

Gear Review -- SPOT Satellite Messenger
The much-talked-about SPOT satellite messenger is a first for outdoors users: The GPS-based locator beacon blips text-message data and lat/long coordinates to emergency services, friends and family. What makes it so special is that it can be employed in emergency situations and for NON-emergencies alike. This is my review. . .

International Adventure Girl -- Bria Schurke
Bria Schurke, a 22-year-old woman from Ely, Minn., has led a life straight from the pages of National Geographic. As the first-born child of explorer Paul Schurke, Bria went to the North Pole in first grade and picked through mammoth bones on Russia's Wrangel Island while still in junior high. Oh, and she's now an ultra racer as well. This is my profile of Bria's life so far, dog sleds, Greenlandic pack ice, raw seal meat, and all. . .

Redwood Creek Cooking Contest
Calling all campfire cooks. Redwood Creek Wines is sponsoring a unique cooking contest with a $10,000 prize. Last year's winner, Leah Lyon of Oklahoma, pulled off victory with her "Coal Roasted Chuckbox Pozole Stuffed Onions," a recipe (pictured left) that includes poblano chiles, an avocado, cornbread stuffing mix, and four sweet onions. . .

Water Bottle Cartoon


Gear Review -- Timberland Rime Ridge
The Timberland Rime Ridge boot pulls characteristics from technical wintertime footwear as well as from the realm of the snow boot. At $190, they are not something most people will buy for tromping around the yard. But for snowshoeing, hiking and even easy mountaineering these pseudo Moon Boots offer an interesting option. . .

Norway Ski Trip -- Report #3
This final trip report about my Norwegian escape last week is photo-heavy, with Kvitfjellet and Smorbottentin, two magnificent mountains of the Romsdal Alps, grabbing most of the limelight. The skiers -- skinning up, summiting the mountains, and then (some) dropping knees to burn perfect tele turns -- don't hurt either. Makes me want to get back on that plane and do this trip all over again. . .

Norway Ski Trip -- Report #2
Last week while on a ski-touring trip to Norway's Romsdal Alps I sailed the long and narrow seas of a fjord. This is the second post in a three-part report on my trip, where we "sailed" (powered by a 250hp Volvo diesel) a ship called the Anne Margrethe to ports like Andalsnes and Eresfjord, hulking mountains towering above, icy water below sloshing by. . .

Norway Ski Trip -- Report #1
I'm back from Valhalla, jet-lagged and mind swimming (and legs aching) from a week of adventures in the high peaks of central Norway. This is my first trip report, a hash out on a mountain climb and ski tour my group did last Saturday in the Romsdal Alps, thousands of meters high over yonder fjords on a peak called Kirketaket. . .

Gear Review -- AT Ski Setup


Gear Junkie AWOL in Norway
Signing off from the Daily Dose blog -- and life in general -- for a few days here as I pack my bags and jump on a plane, skis in tow and headed to Norway. Specifically, I'll be ski-touring in the Romsdalfjorden region, where fjords snake as long slate passageways around mountain peaks with names like Ytstetinden, Skjervan and (my favorite) Trolltinden. . .

The Ski Journal
Just received issue No. 2 of The Ski Journal, the self-appointed "world’s highest quality ski publication." But indeed this glossy magazine is pretty, a bright catalogue of deep snow, mountainscapes at sunset, weird ski people, and cliff-hucking fools. . .

Dog Power -- Skijoring for Speed
Skijoring is a cousin sport to dog sledding in which Nordic skis, harnesses and a short length of bungee cord form a system that can power interspecies teams to speeds heretofore unseen on flat snow. This is my story on a skijoring trip last month, where my 90-pound Weimaraner rocketed 15 miles down the trail, yours truly in tow. . .

Gear Review -- Kahtoola MICROSpikes
Getting a good grip on packed snow and ice is a perpetual challenge for hikers and trail runners who brave the winter months. Kahtoola Inc. offers a frozen-ground gripping solution with its new MICROSpikes, lightweight crampons made for speed. . .

Crazy Creek HexaLites
The new HexaLite camp chairs from Crazy Creek offer a campfire seating option for backpackers starting at less than 1 pound. By employing hexagonal-cored closed cell foam and polyester mesh, these foldable, rollable seats provide the clamshell comfort and back support the company is known for but in a more minimal package. . .

CamelBak Podium Bottle
Coming your way in March, next week that is, CamelBak will release the Podium Bottle, a squeezable bike bottle aiming to replace a technology that's been around since the 1950's. . .

Gear Review -- Arc'teryx Alpha LT Jacket
The Alpha LT by Arc'teryx is a pricey and top-end shell jacket made for mission-critical mountain situations where a thin sheen of nylon could literally separate a climber from life and death. At $499, the elements-eschewing piece employs GORE-TEX's fancy Pro Shell treatment, keeping it light and lean for fast alpine attempts. . .

'Sailing Across the Prairie'
Wind howls unfettered for hundreds of empty miles across the great plains of North Dakota, where this week three athletes are finishing up an attempt to traverse the entire state via the nonmotorized sport of snowkiting. This is my feature story on the group, "Sailing Across the Prairie". . .

The Gear Junkie Giveaway is back!
Want a half-year supply of Clif Bars? How about a new Thule bike mount? Or a $249 REI tent? The Gear Junkie Giveaway is back. Click here for details on how to sign up. . .

Gear Preview -- Novara Bikes 2008
The impressive spread that is Novara's 2008 bike lineup includes cyclocross rides, full-suspension mountain bikes for women and men, a foldable travel model, a "safari" bike for touring (pictured at left), and fender-equipped urban commuters ready to go. . .

Big Donation to B4BC


Gear Review -- Nau Go-More-Pile Jacket
The Go-More-Pile jacket from Nau Inc. rides an increasingly popular aesthetic of clean design and subtle detail that works to similar effect in an outdoors or an urban setting. . .

Kelty Adventure Sweepstake 2008, Destination: Iceland


Adventure Lights
Adventure Lights of Beaconsfield, Quebec, makes lights for all type of flashing, signaling, attention-getting needs, including lights and L.E.D. models for law enforcement, search-and-rescue, the military, and public safety. This is a quick look at three outdoors-oriented models I've been testing as of late. . .

New Kelty Packs A'Comin' This Spring
It's been 55 years since Dick Kelty first put a backpack on the market, welding aluminum tubes together in his garage while his wife, Nena, sewed and fit the fabric onto the frame. The result was an innovation for its time and place, and at $24 a pop Kelty's packs sold like proverbial hotcakes. . .

New York Times -- Ski The Fabled Banana Chute
My story today in New York Times covers a 5,000-foot ski descent I did with a group of locals last month in Ogden, Utah. The backcountry line -- which begins near the summit of Mt. Ogden -- courses downhill through the narrow Banana Chute, then into valleys and powder fields before scooting into a riverbed where you ski to the residential grid of a mid-size American town. . .

Enforcer Ice Glove (with magic gel!)
Many a foul face was generated in my ice climbing days from knuckle bashing against the hard white sheen of a frozen fall. Swing the ax the wrong way over a protrusion and -- BAM! -- you're in for some hurt. But Black Diamond, working with d3o lab, a U.K.-based chemical engineering company, has introduced a handwear innovation that might just alleviate this knuckle-crushing phenomenon altogether. . .

Snowkiting Crusade -- 2XtM 2008
And they're off! The 2XtM Expedition kicked off Monday of this week, three athletes snowkiting south from the Canadian border on a three-week-long journey in an attempt to traverse the entire state of North Dakota via the non-motorized sport of snowkiting. . .

Gear Review -- Wintertime Trail Runners (2008)
Deep snow and icy trails are upon me here in Minnesota, my home state and an ideal proving ground for footwear made to take on winter. This is my test of three winterized trail-running shoes, namely new models from Salomon, La Sportiva and Vasque. . .

Primal Quest, Seven Summits Edition
Just got off the phone with Don Mann, the CEO of Primal Quest. He's ramping up for Primal Quest Montana, the 5th edition of the world's toughest adventure race, to be held June 21 to July 2 this year. But my conversation with Mann was about next year's event, the 2009 race, where Mann's company plans to take the PQ international, potentially with a race that climbs one of the Seven Summits as part of its course. . .

BPA in the News
BPA is in the news again. That's short for bisphenol A, a controversial compound that mimics the hormone estrogen and is found in polycarbonate containers, notably in those ubiquitous cylindrical water bottles from Nalgene. But this time around the news, which was picked up yesterday by every major network, revolves around a study about baby bottles and the presence of this chemical, which some researchers say has been linked to obesity, diabetes and developmental problems in lab animals. . .

Gear Junkie Archive -- Major Update
QUESTION: What do products like Zinetic Pocket Slippers, Brave Soldier athletic lube, the Alpha LT Jacket from Arc’teryx, and Guyot's Squishy camp bowl have in common? ANSWER: They are all featured items among the nearly three-dozen new gear reviews added to the Gear Junkie Archive today. . .

Spyder's $2,000 Ski Suit
What do 2,000 clams get you from Spyder in the realm of high-end ski outerwear? How about a shell jacket with RECCO avalanche-transceiver reflectors? Included. GORE-tex Pro-Shell fabric with 3M Thinsulate insulation? You bet. Morse code printed on the jacket lining? Check. A whistle. . .

Gear Review -- Glacier Gloves
It's been 25 years since Glacier Glove of Reno, Nev., started selling its line of stretchy, spongy, hand-molding gloves that have the same water-tolerating qualities as a wetsuit. To be sure, the company founder incorporated neoprene into his handwear design, a first at its time, creating a glove that could get wet and still provide warmth and enough dexterity for swinging an ice ax or spinning a fishing reel. This is my test of one of the company's original standby models. . .

Arrowhead 135 Ultramarathon (2008)
As ultra races go, the Arrowhead 135 is an odd fish, more akin to an Alaskan sled dog epic than the Ironman. The race, which kicks off for its fourth running today, requires competitors to combine athletic strength with survivalism, sending cyclists, trekkers and skiers solo and unsupported on the race's namesake 135-mile course through the frozen North Woods of Minnesota. . .

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2008 (update No. 3)
In this final blog on gear from this year's Outdoor Retailer Winter Market trade show in Salt Lake City I look at recycled backpacks, heated gloves, "sock-less" shoes made for the sport of triathlon, a wool sports bra (!), a Swiss Army Knife of a backpack, and a sleeping bag system that you can wear around the campground. . .

Trip Report -- Skiing Mt. Ogden's Banana Chute
Last weekend, after two days at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City, I snuck off into the mountains to try out some new ski gear on a big descent. Indeed, at more than 5,000 vertical feet, the Banana Chute off the west side of Mt. Ogden is among the largest sustained ski descents in the region. . .

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2008 (update No. 2)
I meant to lay down this blog on Friday after two days of snooping the halls of this year's Outdoor Retailer Winter Market trade show in Salt Lake City. But skiing, in the guise of big backcountry descents in the Wasatch Range, got in the way this weekend of me doing much of anything productive. So now, without further ado, here are a few more hot items from the show floor, backpacks, water booties, jackets, electrolyte-laced hot cocoa and all. . .

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2008 (update No. 1)
Today begins the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market trade show in Salt Lake City, where hundreds of companies announce thousands of new products for the $289 billion outdoor industry. The Gear Junkie crew is on the ground in Utah, walking the show floor in search of the best and most intriguing new equipment and apparel. Here's update No. 1, direct from the halls of the Salt Palace convention center to you. . .

World's 10 Most Dangerous Mountains
Take it or leave it, this morbid article on the climbing world's most dangerous mountains has a few interesting nuggets. Did you know that K2 is a misogynistic mountain with an apparent curse against women? Or that Mt. Washington in New Hampshire is more dangerous, stats-wise, than Denali? Weird stuff. . .

Scarpa Spirit 4 ski boots
And the final piece of my new alpine setup is. . . the Scarpa Spirit 4. These high-performance touring boots handle demanding downhill terrain with a rigid build, but they convert to a touring mode for skinning high faces or long ridgelines in search of perfect backcountry snow. . .

Fritschi Diamir Freeride Plus bindings
Yesterday I drooled onscreen about the Black Diamond Kilowatt skis sitting here in my office ready to cut deep snow in Utah's Wasatch Mountains next week. But what about my bindings? For this trip I'll be testing the Fritschi Diamir Freeride Plus, which are essentially alpine bindings with a touring mode. They are solid in any type of terrain going down, but then with the flick of a switch you can enable a free-heel mode for climbing up-mountain with skins. . .

Black Diamond Kilowatt Ski
The deep snows of Utah beckon. Next week I head west to Salt Lake City for some business, and then a weekend of pleasure, skiing the fluffy white at Alta Ski Area in Little Cottonwood Canyon. My skis of choice? Oh, let me now drool. Black Diamond just shipped me a demo pair of its Kilowatt skis, which are stable and wide-bodied sticks perfect for. . .

OR Show Winter Market -- Last Year's Gear
In one week I head west to the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, a trade fair in Salt Lake City for apparel and gear buyers + journalists like me. The problem with reporting this show for a web site is that most of the gear featured on the show floor is for next season, i.e., autumn of 2008 or later. Little of it is available for testing or purchasing for months out. But what about looking at last year's digs? The following story highlights 10 product picks that should be on the store shelves now. . .

From the Archives -- Winter Camping Gear
Few outdoor pursuits draw such strong reaction as winter camping. The idea of laying down in the snow, closing your eyes and going to sleep is a ridiculous concept for most of the population. But modern equipment for winter camping, including puffy sleeping bags, pads, shelters and bivy sacks, makes the task more bearable. From the Gear Junkie Archives, here's my review of several winter camping products to keep you warm sleeping outdoors any time of the year. . .

Cache Lake Dehydrated Camping Food
For winter camping, summer canoe trips, car camping, or leisurely backpacking trips, quality dehydrated food can add hugely to the experience. For this review, I looked at NPO Foods' Cache Lake brand, "Camp food so good you'll want to eat it at home!" Or so the company says. . .

'Rivering'
Of all my esoteric outdoors pursuits, skiing frozen rivers -- a sport called "rivering" in Minnesota -- might be my most unusual. It's a hybrid game that involves skis or snowshoes, ropes, climbing equipment, and some canyoneering savvy. The goal is to weasel your way upstream on frozen rivers, preferably through narrow canyons and up and over icefalls, where climbs up to 100 feet high might guard the upper reaches of a particular river in Ontario, Minnesota, or other places in the Lake Superior basin. . .

Eleven-Year-Old Summits Aconcagua
On December 30, Jordan Romero of California became the youngest person to stand atop Aconcagua, a 22,841-foot peak in Argentina that's the highest in all of the Americas. Jordan, along with his father and stepmother, endured a 9-hour push to the summit, at times trudging through three-foot-deep snow in temps as low as minus-30 Fahrenheit. Remember, this kid is 11. . .

Free Skiing This Weekend!
The annual Winter Trails day is being held this upcoming weekend, on Saturday, Jan. 12th. This is a program that offers free snowshoe and XC ski equipment for the day. It's happening all over the country at more than 100 locations. Visit the Winter Trails website (www.wintertrails.org) to find a participating resort near you. . .

The Ultimate Fight


Vibram FiveFingers Running Shoes
OK, clear your throat. Now let out a hearty laugh. Yes, these are gloves for your feet, and they look silly. Now listen: Vibram USA is onto something here. I have run close to 100 miles in a pair of FiveFingers, and darn if I'm not becoming a convert. . .

New Gear Junkie Newspaper -- Twin Falls Times-News


GearFlogger Blog
Came across the GearFlogger blog last week. Good stuff here. It's put up by two guys in Alaska, Denali veterans and all, who review "equipment for human-powered backcountry adventure." Just two AK wanderers waxing poetic about gear they love, and venting their "collective spleen about gear that failed in the moment of need. . . "

Winter Bike Commuting: 10 Tips to Ride Safe
Bike tires hum on snow, and they buzz on ice. But they rarely slip when you’re going straight. Gears click and shift the same in almost any weather. Just remember the lube. And the cold wind? With the right clothing it’s not an issue, according to regular wintertime riders. This article offers 10 tips to get you riding fast and safe on the winter road. . .

Primal Quest Adventure Race, the Sprint Series
The Primal Quest brand is synonymous with week-long, kill-me-now adventure races through some of the wildest terrain on the planet. (I know: I saw God several times while doing the race in Utah during July of 2006.) But what about applying the Primal Quest structure to shorter races, indeed "sprints" that last just three to five hours? In a conversation yesterday with Primal Quest CEO Don Mann, I was given some details on a developing new series of races that. . .

2XtM (To-Cross-The-Moon) 2008
Continuing the snowkiting story line, today's post -- the first of 2008! -- will tell the story of Sam Salwei and Jason Magness, two adventuring friends of mine from North Dakota who next month will set out on a three-week trip to traverse their home state self-supported and entirely powered by the wind blowing them over snow. . .

Kiteskiing, Demystified
I went kiteskiing last weekend for the first time. A blast. And easier than I expected. Indeed, after two hours of kite instruction, I was cruising across a frozen lake, dipping my nylon sail into gusts for power, edging hard with the skis to turn, and flying down- and up-wind with fairly simple manipulation of the lines. . .

Top 10 Gear List: 2007
After training for hundreds of hours and competing in a dozen ultra-endurance adventures around the country over the past 12 months, I picked 10 products that stood out, my annual "Top 10 Gear of the Year Awards." The gear — which includes running shoes, a backpack, snowshoes, skis, a bike, a training watch, and a sleeping bag system — represents the best of the best from the hundreds of products I reviewed last year. . .

Gear Review -- Brave Soldier LLC skin care products
Take some tea tree oil, add jojoba, mix in some lavender and neem leaf extract and you have the base formula for Brave Soldier skin care products, a line of natural ointments, salves, creams, gels, and lubricants developed a decade back by a dermatologist and his mountain biking buddy. . .

GoldSprints
Goldsprint racing is a rising offseason cycling activity that melds a stationary bike trainer with a video game. Riders pedal to move wheels on a computer-connected roller system, transferring power output to its virtual equivalent onscreen, where an animated biker ticks along. I tried this strange -- and physically taxing -- activity last month while on assignment for the local newspaper in Minneapolis . . .

The Gear Junkie's Top 10 Adventures of 2007
Yesterday was a teaser blog to my annual "Top 10 Adventures of the Year" article. But today I'm unveiling the whole list, starting in Utah's Wasatch Mountains where I skied 15,000 vertical feet of powder turns last January; heading south to a karst abyss called Cenote Dzitnup in Quintana Roo, Mexico; then going back to more traditional adventure pursuits, like dodging avalanches and 80mph winds on the flanks of a 14,162-foot stratovolcano in northern California. . .

Top 10 Adventures of 2007 (part I)
From caves in Quintana Roo, Mexico, to the Nevada desert, to a 14,000-foot volcano in California, 2007 proved to be a year of high adventure for the Gear Junkie. Avalanches, mountain climbs, whitewater, crocodiles and even errant gunfire were all part of the fun. Here's the first in a two-part blog, highlighting my adventures Nos. 6 through 10 for this year. . .

Forbes Interactive Ski Gadget Man
In a story last week for Forbes, I virtually equipped the "Ski Gadget Man," a hypothetical downhiller outfitted head to toe with the latest and greatest in this season's ski gear. The clickable graphic of the man is essentially a neat way to do a gear guide: Scroll over the helmet, goggles, gloves, poles, boots, etc., and a pop-up window details each of the nine choice products I picked. Altogether the assemblage comprises a near-$4,000 fantasy package for the aspiring alpinist. . .

K2 Climb on TV
On Sunday December 16th, at 2 p.m. EST, NBC will broadcast a one-hour television special about the 2007 Shared Summits K2 Expedition. On July 20th, 18 people, from eight countries, fought their way to the summit of K2. It was the most successful day in the history of the mountain, but it was not without tragedy. Two climbers lost their lives, reinforcing K2's reputation as the most dangerous mountain in the world. . .

Holiday Season Gear
Of all seasons, the holidays are the easiest time of year to drop cash on gear and goodies for the great outdoors. Here's a quick look at eight Gear-Junkie-approved items, all under $55, to consider for someone special on your list. . .

Andy Knapp -- Survivor
Can perseverance and fortitude forged from a lifetime in the outdoors boost your strength in other parts of life? For Andy Knapp, a 60-year-old retail buyer at Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis, the answer is a big Yes. For the past five years Knapp -- a lifelong adventurer -- has fought kidney cancer, and he's tried to approach the sickness with the same type of strategy he'd apply to a tough mountain climb: Each painful therapy, each new experimental drug is a pitch to scale on a steep face. Kick one foot into the snow, rest, breathe, then step up and kick again. . .

Book Review -- "White Heat"
Novelist and Pulitzer-Prize nominee Wayne Johnson has written a book about skiing. "White Heat" debuted last week, and it covers the lifestyle that is skiing -- in all its forms. Johnson, a 51-year-old native of Minnesota and now a resident of Utah, is a writer as well as a mountain patroller at Park City Resort outside Salt Lake City. His 352-page tome includes. . .

Gracie's Gear Sports Bra
The inspiration for Gracie's Gear Inc.'s debut product came two years ago when founder Lauren Grace Updyke was training for her first marathon. She had tucked energy gel packs under the strap of her sports bra, an easy-access point, though not without some chafing consequences. And then it hit her: Why not incorporate a pouch on the front of the bra. . .

Top 20 Snowiest Ski Resorts
In the winter of 1998, while living in Washington state for a few months, I drove north from Seattle to Mount Baker for a weekend of skiing. Unbeknownst to me, the area was experiencing a freakishly deep winter, with snow piling house-high by early December. I skied with my brother, pushing through hip-deep drifts, jumping cliffs, and exploding downhill in big balls of white. It was to be Baker's deepest season ever, a jaw-dropping 1,140 inches of snowfall over the winter months. My story on ForbesTraveler.com today honors the snow gods of Baker and 19 other snowy resorts around the planet. . .

Polar RS800G3 System Review
The stratospherically priced RS800G3, a $499.95 sports watch system from Polar USA, is a product designed for a growing demographic of obsessive exercisers and fitness-gadget freaks with disposable cash. Remember that neighbor who bought a custom frame carbon-fiber bike for $9,000? This is his watch. . .

Gear Review -- Rick Steves Travel Gear
Rick Steves, a travel writer and television host, has spent one-third of his adult life living out of a suitcase in Europe. This review looks at three pieces of travel gear he's developed from that experience on the road, including a suitcase, a travel bag/backpack + a pickpocket-deriding billfold made to perturb the proverbial thief. . .

New York Times -- Cyclocross Story
In today's New York Times, I write about Cyclocross, a growing off-road discipline that might first appear to be an amalgam of BMX bike racing and road riding. The sport’s short, looped courses include obstacles, ramps, bumps, sand pits, sharp turns and lots of mud -- all navigated on a road-bike-like cycle that has drop-bar handles, skinny tires and no suspension. . .

Patagonia Synchilla Marsupial: An "Icon"?
Among the most jaunty and bourgeoisie of gear reviews I wrote this year was a short piece for Travel + Leisure magazine on Patagonia’s Synchilla Marsupial fleece top. It appeared in the publication's November edition. The blurb turned out fine. But it was the context that struck me, as it ran in the magazine's "Icon" section, a column that highlights -- as its name implies -- iconic products in the realm of Converse Chuck Taylors and the VW Bug. . .

Slope Style 2008
The new ski season is here -- and so is the new gear. For a story in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune, I polled industry buyers, ski magazine editors and professional snow-sliders to create a list of innovative skiing and snowboarding products for the '07-'08 season. Here are my top picks. . .

Gear Review -- Chariot Cougar 2
Chariot Carriers Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, calls its exercise stroller products "Child Transport Systems," alluding to the fact that each one has the ability to move a kid around in multiple fitness-oriented manners. Indeed, by switching out components, you can hike, run, bike, ski and stroll with kid -- or kids -- in tow. A neat idea for sure. But it will cost you: The full Cougar 2 setup runs a cool $1,001. Here's the dirt from my test run of the Cougar 2 last month. . .

Gear Preview -- Atomic Hawx 110 Ski Boot
The superlative-heavy press release for Atomic's new Hawx boot line touts claims like "the most significant innovation to downhill boot technology in 25 years" and "The Next Revolution in Skiing is not a Ski." (It's a boot.) But what the Hawx does is significant: This boot promotes natural forefoot flexibility and movement by incorporating a shell that bends in unison with the metatarsal zone of the foot. . .

K2 HellBent skis
The fattest of the fat in this year's lineup from K2 is the HellBent, a deep-snow defying reverse-camber plank that touts fast planning on powder without requiring the "speed or effort" associated with traditional fat skis. . .

Jamie Pierre -- Huckmeister Extraordinaire
What does it take to leap a 255-foot cliff on skis? Ask Jamie Pierre, a Minnesota-born extreme skier who I profile in a story for today's Minneapolis Star Tribune. Pierre, now a 34-year-old Utah resident, made his leap into ski history in January 2006, when he skied off the abysmal backside of Fred's Mountain at Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming. He dropped for four long seconds in a roar of wind, granite wall racing by, before landing on his helmet-less head in an explosion of white.

Outdoors Clothing Coming of Age, part II
Yesterday I mused on function versus form in the apparel industry, where beauty in design often comes at the cost of versatility, performance or comfort. My argument -- that a niche of young, energetic outdoors-industry companies are the only ones getting clothing right -- might bump up weird with an editor at Glamour or Vogue. But I'm sticking to my guns, and here are a handful of additional apparel products I feel make my point:

Outdoors Clothing Coming of Age, part I
I have a weird theory that the outdoors industry is ahead of the game in the world of clothing and apparel. My logic is that there are companies in this industry that now make nice-looking -- trendy even -- duds that are also -- and this is the kicker -- FUNCTIONAL. Form and function. That old maxim. Yes, my Icebreaker zip turtleneck -- as an example -- looks nice and wicks; and keeps me warm; and has eco advantages; and doesn't need to be washed very often; and . . .

Volkl's Tigershark
Turn it on. Turn it off. The new Tigershark ski from Volkl has spring-loaded carbon rods that engage off and on at the flip of a switch. Volkl calls the Tigershark "the ultimate cruising ski with two speeds, " as you can change the feel and response of the ski to match mountain conditions at will. . .

Bridgedale Precision Fit Ski Socks


Kästle Skis Are Back!
I had a pair of neon green Kästle GS skis back in the day. Long ones, 210 or 215 cm, I think. Great, fast skis. Then, in the late '90s, Kästle shut shop. But the Austrian ski company is back, debuting four models for the '07/'08 season, including the top-end MX88, which I get into here. . .

The Odd Sway of Gyrotonic
Last week, I stepped outside of my fitness box to take two private sessions in Gyrotonic, an obscure yoga-influenced workout technique developed by a Hungarian dancer in the 1980s. Often compared to Pilates, the Gyrotonic methodology employs specialized and strange-looking exercise equipment to guide and position participants through a series of circular and spinning moves.

Marker Duke Ski Bindings
Marker is touting its Duke Binding as "the first significant ski binding breakthrough in years." A big claim for sure. But what the Duke does is cool: These hearty alpine bindings have a free-heel mode, letting skiers experiment with skins, adjustable poles, avalanche transceivers and all other gear associated with backcountry travel. . .

Outdoorzy.com
Outdoorzy.com is like MySpace or Facebook but for the outdoors crowd, with free member pages where you can post photos, write trip reports, read gear reviews, and -- most importantly -- connect with other "outdoorzy" types who share your interests. Bonus: Outdoorzy.com users now get several free member benefits just for signing on. . .

Fungus Hunt
Late last month I went hunting. We brought no guns, only knives. But my prey was not deer or grouse or elk. Mushrooms -- the fruit of fungus -- in the guise of oysters, puffballs, sulphur shelf, shaggy mane, and hen-of-the-woods were the objective on this outing, which I cover in a travel article for today's New York Times. . .

Fitness in the Blood
What on earth is a blood lactate threshold? I had no idea before last week, when I got on a treadmill to undergo a fitness test. But knowing your blood lactate threshold -- a point where lactic acid floods muscle cells too fast for the body to metabolize the excess -- can help trainers prescribe personalized fitness regimens that maximize your time outdoors (or indoors) running, biking, hiking, etc., in preparation for that next big event. . .

New 'Adventures' Page Posted!
Behold! We've re-launched the feature-story section of the site. The Gear Junkie Adventures page has a new look and feel + a handful of new stories. Topics range from our current top story on "adventure eating," to a primer on orienteering, to a piece on the sport of riverboarding in Utah. In total, there are 21 feature stories plus a dozen ancillary slideshows accessible by clicking on any image within the text. . .

Arc'teryx Alpha LT Jacket
Arc'teryx designs and manufactures outerwear that's pricey, high-performing, and highly modern. According to company press materials, its design team doesn't focus on incremental advancements, but on "radical improvements that heighten the user experience and affect the landscape of the outdoor industry." The Alpha LT Jacket, a $499 shell I put to the test this month, so far has held up to that criteria. . .

First-Time Cyclocross Race
I pedaled my maiden voyage into the sport of cyclocross this weekend at Grumpy's CX on Sunday in Blaine, Minn. The race, a 30-minute-long lap event, featured mud pits, barriers, and switchbacks on slick grassy side-hills. Each 2-kilometer lap was relentless, forcing riders to pedal, turn, brake, jump on and off the bike to negotiate barriers, and then pedal off again, with no downhills or long straightaways at all for a rest. . .

Q-and-A with The Gear Junkie
In this tell-all Q&A interview, Stephen Regenold (a.k.a. The Gear Junkie) talks with author Bill Katovsky about cycling 135 miles on snow, "existential realignment" via ultra-endurance athletics, and watching a friend rag-doll over talus on a particularly horrid ski biff in the backcountry north of Bozeman, Montana. . .

2007 Adventure Race National Championships
No, those aren't swamp monsters. I know this is Halloween. But those mud-wallowing figures to the left there are actually adventure racers, and they're headed this weekend to the United States Adventure Racing Association’s National Championships, which kicks off on Friday in Potosi, Missouri. Seventy-six teams will race for 30 hours in a multisport melee that will determine an overall U.S. Champ. . .

Good coffee in the Great Outdoors
Brewing up a good cup of coffee in the outdoors often requires a French press or a portable -- but always bulky -- camp-stove-compatible espresso maker. But Java Juice Inc., a Los Angeles brewer (www.javajuiceextract.com), distills the process to its utmost simplicity: Pour a packet of extract into a cup of hot or cold water, and drink. . .

REI's "Rx in a Box"
Procuring a pair of prescription sunglasses no longer needs to involve a trip to the eye doctor. With its new "Rx in a Box" program, REI has teamed with Smith Optics to give customers a two-step, $250 solution to getting their outdoors-oriented prescription eyewear in, well, the blink of an eye. . .

Vibram Bike Shoes
I wrote about Vibram's entry into bike saddles yesterday. Well, the company has also jumped into bike shoes, including clip-less and platform-pedal-compatible models from Gaerne, LAKE, Northwave, Shimano, and Timberland. Here's a sum up. . .

Rubber Meets the Road
Vibram is a brand synonymous with the deep-rutted rubber tread of hiking boots. But this month the company announced its entry into the world of bike seats. The Yutaak Genuine Gel and Yutaak Gel Flow, made by Selle Italia, feature patterned Vibram rubber for grip and comfort as you roll down the road. . .

King Lines, the movie
This movie -- "King Lines: Chris Sharma’s Search for the Planet’s Greatest Climbs" -- is a trippy, forearms-tingling feast for the eyes. (Yes, I did just say that.) But come on, this is the world's best climber (Sharma) hanging on and leaping to tiny holds while deep-water soling high and (as said) rope-less far above the Mediterranean Sea. . .

Bike for Life, the book
In his book, "Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100" (Avalon Press, $16.95), my SoCal buddy and fellow fitness/outdoors writer Roy Wallack lays out a premise that says cycling -- with its combination of fun, ease of use, travel, social interaction, joint-gentleness, and physical challenge -- is the ideal sport for longevity. Now I'm just a young chick at 30 years of age. But for me this book was still relevant and interesting, not to mention hilarious, informative and even juicy at times. . .

'O,' The Defeat
Can you say 'spanked'? Out of my league, maybe. This weekend I raced in the Big Blues Ramble orienteering meet outside Chicago, where a hundred or so top orienteers from around the country gathered to sprint like deer through the woods. But I felt far more the tortoise this weekend than the hare. . .

Orienteering Gear for A-Meet
Tonight I head south from Minneapolis on the long drive to Chicago, where the Big Blues Ramble orienteering meet is taking place in the woods west of town. This is a United States Orienteering Federation sanctioned A-Meet, with people coming in from around the country to hunt and sprint for flags. Here's the gear I plan to use to (hopefully) make a good showing. . .

Marathon Meltdown
Participation in marathon running continues to soar in the U.S., where last year about 410,000 people completed the 26.2-mile challenge. But is this populist tilt a good thing? Big marathons involve planning akin to a military operation, with thousands of workers moving small cities of 20,000 or more people through elaborate urban courses. Managing so many people at their physical and mental limits can be daunting, and, some argue, dangerous. . .

New Gear Review Columns Posted!
For those who don't know, The Gear Junkie began life -- and remains -- a nationally-syndicated newspaper column that runs once per week around the country, Seattle to Minneapolis to Greensboro, N.C. After the columns run in newsprint, we store them online in The Gear Junkie Archive. Today, we posted six new columns, including reviews of a jog stroller, a fixie bike, gaiter-socks from Inov-8, a daypack, Mylar bivy sacks, and a pair of center-mounted child bike seats. . .

BOB Ironman Sport Utility Stroller Review
If you're going to run with your child -- and I mean really run, with serious training sessions, multiple times per week -- then you want to put the cash down on a serious jogging stroller. You need it to track straight. It should roll almost effortlessly along with the slightest of nudging. And your kid should be cozy and safe inside.

Center-Mounted Child Bike Seats Review - iBert Safe-T-Seat, Kangaroo WeeRide
There are few things my two-year-old daughter loves more than a bike ride. So this summer I've been testing two child bike seats, the iBert Safe-T-Seat and the Kangaroo WeeRide from Kent International Inc., both of which mount above the top bar of the bike's frame.

Gregory Z22 Backpack Review
Designed for day-long excursions including mountain trekking, hiking, peak bagging, adventure racing, and the like, Gregory's Z22 manages up to 25 pounds of cargo in its 1,300 cubic inches of capacity.

Inov-8 Debrisoc Column
Walk a mile through any woods, run down a ragged trail, and the chance of collecting a twig or pebble in your shoe is fairly high. For backpackers and hikers, a tiny intrusion -- say a small stone wedged under your sock -- can easily sprout a hot spot or blister.

Adventure Medical Kits (Thermo-Lite 2 Bivvy; Heatsheets Bivvy)
A bivy sack is a sleeping-bag-like product, a large shell to slip inside and lie down, though without lofting insulation. They repel rain, wind and snow and are used in lieu of tents or tarps by mountaineers, minimalist backpackers, and other hard core adventure types who sacrifice comfort, and some protection, for weight savings.

Single-Speed Bike Trend - Kona Paddy Wagon Column
Single-speed bikes are the cycling trend from left field, the impossibly illogical populist fad that has in the past couple years put hundreds of thousands of people on bikes with just one steady, often slow, speed.

Blog Action Day
What would happen if 12,000 blogs published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? That's the idea behind Blog Action Day (www.blogactionday.org), which has organized thousands of bloggers -- The Gear Junkie included -- to write about a single topic today, October 15. Thus, here is my Blog Action Day post on "The Environment" . . .

New York Times -- Trek To Tundra
In a story for today's New York Times, "A Pocket of Alpine Tundra Nestled Atop New England," I investigate the weird world of alpine tundra, where life adapts to cold stone and thin soil, and snow, ice, wind, water and sunlight mix in rare and intense proportions to mimic conditions not widely seen since the end of the last ice age. . .

Gear Test -- END-AR (part II)
This is the second part of my recap on last weekend's END-AR, a 12-hour adventure race in North Dakota. My team, Covert Loons, took first place, pushing hard for 75 miles and 10+ hours straight on the bikes, feet, and in a canoe. Here's a summary of some gear that worked, and some that did not. . .

Blind Hiker To Take On Appalachian Trail
Mike Hanson, a 42-year-old attorney from St. Louis Park, Minn., has plans to take a multi-month hiatus this coming spring to hike the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail. He'll go from Georgia to Maine, solo and unsupported, a journey Hanson anticipates will entail eight months of travel at about 10 miles of trekking per day. Oh, did I mention that Hanson is blind. . .

Gear Test -- END-AR (part I)
Last weekend I competed in the END-AR, a 12-hour adventure race in North Dakota. My team, Covert Loons, took first place, pushing hard for 75 miles and 10+ hours straight on the bikes, feet, and in a canoe. This blog is the first in a short series about the gear that worked (and some that did not) on our race to the finish line. . .

12-hour AR + 26.2 miles = :)
Well, I lived. My epic weekend -- a 12-hour adventure race on Saturday, then a marathon on Sunday -- went pretty much as planned. Both events went well. Except for almost getting shot. That's right, during the adventure race errant bullets whizzed by my head at one point, ricocheting off the ground then zinging by my partner and I as we pedaled through the desolation west of Grand Forks, N.D. . . .

12 hours + 26.2 miles = ?
I'm likely in over my head this weekend: At 1 p.m. this afternoon I'm heading to North Dakota to race in the state's first-ever adventure race, the 12-hour Extreme North Dakota Adventure Race. (It's an event being put together by my Great Plains yoga buddies, Jason Magnus and Sam Salwei of YogaSlackers.com fame.) Then, on Sunday morning, I'll toe the line at the Twin Cities Marathon to run 26.2 miles through my home town of Minneapolis. Ouch.

SteriPEN Adventurer Review
This review is about pills, underwear, an ultra-violet-light-emitting device, and most of all clean water. Indeed, if you don't wanna get Legionnaires’ Disease (or diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, smallpox or typhoid fever), then read on to see my take on the SteriPEN Adventurer, a portable purifying magic wand of sorts that destroys the DNA of microorganisms, making them unable to reproduce and cause illness in your tenderfoot belly. . .

Gear Junkie Fashion Week, part II
In this second, brief -- and final! -- installment of my "High style in the great outdoors" coverage, I look at a so-called "windshirt" jacket from Cloudveil, cargo shorts from Horney Toad, and a Nau item that looks transported from the set of Star Wars' Cloud City, with Lando Calrissian as the model. (Sorry for that geek reference there. . . .)

MSNBC -- Big Game Fishing
I rarely write about fishing. But Forbes approached me last month wanting a story on a niche within the fishing world -- so-called big game fishing -- and after a day of researching and interviewing I was, well, hooked. Take the tale of the 396-pound giant catfish, for example. When Larry Dahlberg hooked this beast -- found on the Courantyne River in Suriname -- it was so strong that it spun his boat, towing the crew and loaded craft several meters against the current. When he landed the beast the fight was far from over: Dahlberg's partner, attempting to steady the flailing creature, suffered a dislocated shoulder at the shake of the fish's head. Now that is a fish tale!

Gear Junkie Fashion Week, part I
High style in the great outdoors used to entail a flannel shirt and some stout leather boots. Now you're as likely to see The North Face on the back of an urban "explorer" flagging a cab in Manhattan as on the summit of K2. I take responsibility as a provocateur of this trend, wearing my Cloudveil and Arborwear and Icebreaker apparel not only in the outdoors, but now maybe just to dinner at the place around the corner. . .

Gear Giveaway is Back!
It was one year ago this month that we launched TheGearJunkie.com. To celebrate, we're starting up a new weekly gear giveaway contest where you can win the likes of a Jetboil PCS Camp Stove; a GoPro Digital HERO 3 camera; the Kelty Lightyear 15 Sleeping Bag; Gregory's Z22 backpack; Osprey's Talon 11 pack; and much more. . .

Happy 30th, CORDURA!
Ah, CORDURA. For outdoorsy folks, this is the fabric of our lives. A tough nylon hybrid used in everything from caving suits (see image at left) to backpacks and duffle bags. It's a commodity material used by hundreds of outdoors gear companies, and this month the fabric is celebrating its 30th birthday. So, I thought a little tribute to CORDURA might be in order, as well as a bit of deep-diggin' information on all you wanted to ever know about this mainstay miracle fabric. . .

Terrasoles "Après Anything" Footwear
I don't actually know what "après anything" means, but with its new Terrasoles line of shoes R.G. Barry Corp. "targets the void many people face when transitioning from active footwear into something that is more comfortable and casual, yet remains functional." Right. . . like when I get done climbing a mountain, remove my boots, and think "dang, if there wasn't just a shoe perfect for this pub and the muddy lot I need to negotiate on my way inside. . . ."

Clip-Shot Camera Holder
Lyndon Wilson, a machinist from Noxon, Mont., rang me up last week to introduce his Clip-Shot camera holder. The product is essentially a small clamp on a tiny stainless steel post, threaded to attach to a camera via its tripod mount. To use it, attach a camera, clamp the Clip-Shot to a treebranch, ski pole, ice ax, etc., then set the camera's self-timer, and never miss a shot again. . .

Preview -- TrailFlex Modular Pack System
There are three steps to building a custom TrailFlex Modular Pack System: 1) Pick a base harness; 2) Add backpack; 3) Select your components. This build-a-pack design lets you customize a backpack for your body type and your sport, from bird watching to adventure racing to geocaching. The company, RMK Accessories of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, offers more than 20 attachable accessories that snap on and off via little knobs. . .

Newton Running Shoe Review - Newton Gravity
Innovation in the realm of running shoes often comes in the form of new colors, added padding, or subtle -- sometimes gimmicky -- design tweaks that do little to increase performance on the run.

Zinetic Pocket Slippers
"Boots off. Happy on." That's Zinetic Inc.'s slogan for its line of unisex pocket slippers for the outdoors. Kind of (somehow) sexy sounding I thought at first. But the product is fairly straight laced, just a flappy hard rubber sole and a meshy top. They're made to wear in lieu of the heavy and clunky footwear often accompanying outdoors types to hostels, backcountry campsites, ski lodges, and yurts deep in the San Juans. . .

Beer Run
The Hash House Harriers are a drinking club with a running problem. That's according to a man known as Bob-Shiggy-Bob, who I met last month while on assignment to cover the strange international phenomenon of hashing, an athletic drinking game of sorts involving ad hoc urban courses, clues chalked on sidewalks, hidden coolers of beer, and grown men running wild while dressed in bunny suits.

Piezoelectric Pack
In a recently-published academic paper titled “Energy harvesting from a backpack instrumented with piezoelectric shoulder straps," mechanical engineers from Michigan Technological University and Arizona State demonstrate the potential of a backpack that makes its own energy via piezoelectric straps. Apparently, the rubbing of backpack straps on shoulders creates enough movement, heat and energy to create electric power that can be transferred to charge GPS devices, L.E.D. headlamps, a cell phone, or an iPod Nano while on the go. . .

The Stick
The Stick has been around for a while. I've seen guys hawking it at those trade-fair venues set up before marathons and tris for years. Now I finally got one. Been training for another marathon, and for the first time I have a hamstring issue. Thus, I ordered The Stick. The company touts it as an athletic panacea, making "muscles feel better, work harder, last longer and recover faster." In reality, it's more or less a therapeutic rolling pin for your legs. . .

Kenton Athletics -- Soap for the Outdoors Crowd
I don't usually review soap, but Kenton Athletics, a Providence, Rhode Island, company sent me a couple bottles of its 2-in-1 Body & Hair Wash, a blend that goes for $7.49 a bottle and is marketed toward two underserved (and maybe much in need) demographics: men and outdoorsy types. . .

Slacklining on the Rise
A story I wrote for yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune focuses on slacklining and its rising star with athletes beyond the climber mold. Indeed, Joe Kuster of Slackline Express LLC has now sold slackline kits to the U.S. gymnastics team, physical rehabilitation clinics and the New Orleans Saints football team. "It's been taking off," he said. Read on to see my full spread on the slackline phenomenon. . .

MSNBC -- "10 Best Climbs"
My story on "10 Best Rock Climbs in the U.S." got picked up today by MSNBC. For this story, originally written for ForbesTraveler.com, I interviewed 11 top climbers, including the likes of Lynn Hill, Jack Tackle, Will Gadd, Timmy O'Neill, and Michael Kennedy. These guys (and gals) are legends in their sport. The routes, which range from classic beginner climbs to experts-only epics, represent some of the best vertical lines this country has to offer. Tie in, rope up, and read on to see all the airy details. . .

New Reviews -- Highgear Alterra; Wenger Deep Diver
A timepiece with added outdoorsy features -- say an altimeter or a built-in compass -- is mandatory gear on most adventures. My latest column covers the Highgear Alterra and the Wenger Deep Diver, two adventure wristwatches. One is stocked with digital gauges like an altimeter, thermometer, and a built-in compass. The other watch, a stainless-steel analog ticker, is less business in the great outdoors, but more bling-bling. . .

The Adventure Wristwatch (Highgear, Wenger)
A timepiece with added outdoorsy features -- say an altimeter or a built-in compass -- is mandatory gear on most adventures. I swear by the Suunto t6, a standby performer that's clicking strong for me after a year-and-a-half of hard labor and outdoors abuse.

Digital HERO 3 column
The Digital HERO 3 from GoPro (www.goprocamera.com) was created to take the hassle out of capturing Kodak moments -- as well as video -- in times of high action. Essentially a large wristwatch-type device, the $139.99 camera straps on via a neoprene-and-Velcro bracelet, ready to flip up and shoot from the hip, er, wrist, at all times. This is my review.

Digital HERO 3 camera review
A camera is a requisite piece of equipment for me on any outdoor adventure. But my main shooter, a big Canon digital SLR, while good at soaking in scenes, is a huge pain to haul down the trail.

Newton Running Gravity Shoes Review
The long-awaited Gear Junkie column on Newton Running's Gravity Shoes debuts today in the Billings Gazette, one of my syndicate newspapers. The initial blog and review of the shoes on this site created more buzz than any other write-up this year. Now three months later -- and a couple hundred running miles down the road -- I'm ready to offer some opinions and conclusions on these $175 shoes. Do the promises live up to the hype? Not to mention the price tag? Read on to see my take. . .

Rogaine!
Rogaining, an Australian offshoot of orienteering invented in the 1970s, puts teams of two to four people on a choose-your-own-adventure course in wilderness dotted with flags. (No, this isn't about a baldness medication.) I wrote about a recent rogaine race I ran in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune. Details on my swamp-swimming, thorn-crashing, multi-hour backwoods brawl are here. . .

Inov-8 Race Pro 12 Pack
Inov-8's new Race Pro 12 is an "elite lightweight hydration pack" made for trail running, cycling, adventure racing, and other off-trail excursions where speed is goal No. 1. Indeed, this pack weighs less than a pound when empty (15.5 ounces), and includes a minimal feature set: There's about 12 liters of capacity in the main compartment; a large stretch mesh pocket on back; hip-belt pockets; reflective piping for nighttime visibility; and a nice harness system that hugs when you run. Oh, and did I mention the horizontal hydration bladder. . .

New York Times -- Natural Water Slides
It was late July when I joined Dave Hajdasz, a contributor to www.swimmingholes.info, to tour some natural water-slide sites around Vermont on a travel assignment for New York Times. (Tough gig, I know.) Natural water slides -- essentially whitewater chutes navigable on your rear end -- flank rivers and streams in places like Vermont, where tumbling water and time have worn smooth paths over stone.

Velodrome Track-Bike Racing
"My bike has no brakes and just one gear. But I'm pedaling with all I've got, tucked and spinning, breathing hard. Hands clenched on drop bars. Wheels humming. Thighs screaming. Knuckles literally white." Thus starts my story in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune, where I investigate track-bike racing at the Velodrome, a 250-meter oval of weathered wood . . .

SPOT Satellite Messenger
I blogged on this last week in my OR Show wrap-up, but the PLB-like device deserves a bit more attention. Indeed, the SPOT Satellite Messenger is a new type of personal locator beacon, one that gives you options as to which kind of emergency (or non-emergency) communiqué you want to blip out from the wilderness to the world at large. . .

America's Baddest Rapids
My story on "America's Baddest Rapids," which got picked up by MSNBC, polls whitewater guides, pro boaters, and product designers to establish a list of the best whitewater rivers in the United States. Rivers ranged from the woodsy, 150-mile Kennebec in Maine, to the Mokelumne River in northern California, which flows from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range as a boulder-strewn creek suited for advanced and expert paddlers only. . .

Adventure Medical Kits S.O.L. Survival Pak
The S.O.L. survival kit goes with a silly pun and a stretch of an acronym -- "survive outdoors longer" -- but the tiny package is a nice upgrade from the company's previous ultra-light survival pack. Namely, the new S.O.L. Survival Pak comes in a roll-top waterproof bag + it includes a Heatsheets Survival blanket that doubles as a tarp in times of foul weather and wilderness distress. . .

GoLite Footwear Carbon Fyre trail runners
These to-be-released trail runners -- the Carbon Fyre from GoLite Footwear -- will be among the priciest ever made when they debut in March 2008. Indeed, at $160 the shoes go at twice the price of a good pair from Vasque or Inov-8. But GoLite always has some tricks up its sleeves, including. . .

Kahtoola MICROSpikes
Yes, these are crampons. Well, sort of. Pedestrian crampons. But with 10 spikes, each one 3/8-inch long, and made of stainless steel, the Kahtoola MICROSpikes could do real work paired with hiking boots or running shoes to provide traction on snow and ice. A "shoe harness" made of a stretchy rubber flexes as you step in, then cinches tight. And they're so packable and light that people (me, for example) will be tempted to try and employ them for easy mountaineering. My pair arrived in the mail yesterday, and I can say I am intrigued. . .

Aerobie's AeroPress
Unbeknownst to me, Aerobie, Inc. -- maker of those ring-shape discs that fly about a mile -- also dabbles in coffee. Indeed, the AeroPress is a new coffee/espresso maker portable enough to take backpacking, and its design is, well, kind of cool. I've been testing it out for the past several mornings, employing fine fresh grounds, some hot water, and the easy-to-use AeroPress plunger to pressure brew some good-tasting joe with very little effort. Clean up is quick and easy, too . . .

Wakesurfing in the New York Times
In last Friday's New York Times I wrote about wakesurfing, a behind-the-boat sport that employs five-foot (or shorter) surfboards and specially weighted boats that create wakes that mimic an ocean wave. Unlike its cousin sport of wakeboarding, wakesurfing avoids towropes once a rider is standing, relying instead on the hydrodynamics of an artificially created wave. . .

What does it take to run Badwater?
The bitter pill that is the sport of ultramarathon -- footraces of 50 miles or more -- is unusually hard to swallow in Death Valley National Park, where each July the Badwater Ultramarathon attracts 85 men and women to run 135 miles through the desert sands and to the mountains beyond. What does it take to run the Badwater? Ask Blake Benke, a 30-year-old athlete and ex-Marine from New York City who finished in eighth place during this year's event. This story is a profile of his race. . .

New York Times -- Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula
Last Friday the New York Times ran my story on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, a remote finger of land that pokes 75 miles into Lake Superior. It's a wilderness of stunted stone mountains, mossy forests and sparse settlements born in a mining boom. I toured a copper mine and trekked into the piney hills, where the mossy/rocky/boreal theme kept me thinking a gnome just might skitter on by. . .

Outdoor Retailer Trade Show Wrap-Up
I'm back from the Outdoor Retailer trade show, dizzy and tired from four days on the go, four days of snooping through convention center hallways, testing new products on site, and getting quick, pull-back-the-curtain glimpses of what's to come in the outdoors industry in spring 2008 and beyond. Here's a peek at some highlights. . .

The OR Summer Market Scoop, part II
Crazy times this week in Salt Lake City. Product demos, P.R. meetings, and nonstop press engagements on the floor of the Salt Palace convention center, where the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show is now launching into its third day. Here are a few more items that have caught my eye, live from the show floor. . .

The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Scoop
My plane leaves tonight for the 2007 Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, where hundreds of companies announce products for 2008. This show is the Sundance Film Fest for outdoorsy types, with parties, press conferences, media appearances, and endless swag. What'll be hot and cool this season in Salt Lake? Here's what caught my eye so far. . .

Samsonite OutLab
In 2008, Samsonite, the "world’s leader in travel" will launch a new outdoor bags collection, including hard-shell packs, duffels, daypacks, and a slash-resistant piece called the Sloth made for rolling through dicey neighborhoods at night. . .

Sneak Peek -- Sugoi Helium Jacket
Helium is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, inert element, and it exists only as a noble gas except in extreme conditions. What that has to do with the new Helium jacket from Sugoi is hard to say. But this jacket -- which will block wind, breathe, and keep you warm enough when needed -- is nearly as light as air. Indeed, did I mention its weight? See this scale? 90 grams, or just 3 ounces!

KEEN Inc. -- The Trailhead Collection
Sandal-maker KEEN (o.k., the company makes lots of shoes now, too) has just announced an expansion into two new footwear categories, climbing and cycling. You'll have to wait a few months, but when these shoes debut the company promises some unique performance and comfort features, including. . .

Numa Tactical -- The Unbreakable Shades
Yes, these are sunglasses. Folded up into a knot. Done on purpose for demonstration sake. But they'll pop back into shape the moment they're untangled. Then insert the lenses, and go. Numa Tactical, “the toughest eyewear out there,” or so the company promoters now say. . .

Gear Review -- Adventure Medical Kits Bivy Sacks
Adventure Medical Kits' two new bivy sacks -- the Thermo-Lite 2 Bivvy and Heatsheets Emergency Bivvy -- are essentially improvements on the decades-old concept of the Space Blanket. Indeed, these ultralight mummy bags, which are made mainly for emergency use, can repel rain, wind and snow + offer some noticeable warmth on nights down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Or employ these bags -- like I do -- during fast-and-light adventures and you're talking significant weight savings. . .

Sailing on Lake Sakakawea
Yesterday in this blog I reminisced about a trip I took through hell one year back, the 110-mile mountain bike epic that is North Dakota's Maah Daah Hey Trail. But the days before this bike trip, at the start of the long weekend in North Dakota last July, I experienced a different type of adventure: Sailing on Lake Sakakawea. And this one was pure heaven. . .

Remembering the Maah Daah Hey
It was about one year ago this week that I biked the Maah Daah Hey Trail, an epic 105-mile singletrack through the remote Badlands of western North Dakota that ranked among my most harrowing adventures during all of 2006. That's right, big adventure in North Dakota of all places. I pictured wheat fields and cows. Instead we got temps up to 112 degrees and endless, desolate track. . .

Foot Care for the Ultra Crowd
In endurance sports like adventure racing and ultra running, keeping your feet happy and healthy for hours or days on the go has always been difficult. Lord knows I've learned the hard way. This story outlines a few tried-and-true foot strategies I've employed for keeping things feeling good and functional down there in the land of blisters and chafe. . .

Center-Mounted Child Bike Seats
There are few things my two-year-old daughter loves more than a bike ride. So this summer I've been testing two child bike seats, the iBert Safe-T-Seat and the Kangaroo WeeRide from Kent International Inc., both of which mount above the top bar of the bike's frame, letting you pedal with your kid essentially cradled between your arms. Though these contraptions are not without their (major) flaws. . .

Guyot Designs' Splashguard
Sometimes the simplest solutions are among the best. Take Guyot Designs' Splashguard Universal, a $3.25 cap designed to fit all wide-mouth water bottles from Nalgene, GSI, and the like. As the name portends, the SplashGuard's purpose is to prevent that splashing, sloshing effect that comes when trying to drink while on the move.

Gear Preview -- Buck 731 X-Tract LED
Buck Knives' X-Tract multitool has been upgraded to include a small L.E.D. light, adding illumination to the list of tasks this small foldable doodad can accomplish. The X-Tract's original claim to fame was its one-handed operation, allowing users to flip open a pliers, the blade, or. . .

Gear Review -- Messenger Bags 2007
I've been testing three messenger-style bags as of late, including an outdoorsy model from Gregory; the techy Ruckus by Pacific Design; and a large and strange orange waterproof sack from Cascade Designs, part of the company's Urban line, which the press material says were created for "the performance-first bike messenger, or the young professional who isn’t quite the leather-briefcase type.” Indeed, I thought about lugging one along on a canoe trip. . .

24-hour Mountain Bike Races
I've started writing for New York Times' new sports magazine, PLAY, including a recent blurb on 24-hour mtb races. The following talks about 24 Hours of 9 Mile and 24 Hours of Killington, two upcoming pedal-'til-you-puke comps. . .

Gear Review -- Guyot Designs Squishy Bowl
Backpackers can fold, cram and stuff these silicon bowls in the bottom of their rucksack. They weigh almost nothing and pop back to retain their shape like magic. They cradle camp food on a smooth, food-grade silicone palette that cleans easy with some scrubbing in a stream, or with your tongue. . .

Gear Review -- Inov-8 Debrisoc
6 hours, 59 minutes, 55 seconds. That was Team Gear Junkie's time at Saturday's MNOC Adventure Race, a run/bike/paddle competition in east-central Minnesota, where some requisite gear hashing included a maiden test of Inov-8's new Debrisoc gaiter. . .

Art of the Lure: ICAST's Best
This week in Vegas, the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades (ICAST) hosts its 50th annual show. This is fishing's premier trade event, and with it comes the year's biggest announcements. The following items -- from lures to sonar screens -- were awarded Best in Show. . .

Gear Review -- Brooks T5 Racer
In an attempt to run as unencumbered as possible, I've been testing a pair of Brooks' T5 Racers, which are flyweight road runners nearly unnoticeable on the foot. They're essentially a soft meshy shell with an EVA midsole, though very little support. Indeed, at 5.9 ounces per shoe, these sprinters are literally half the weight of some comparable shoes I own, which can be good and bad. . .

Thule Echelon Bike Rack
Thule is calling its new Echelon bike rack "the ultimate in fork mounts," proving that superlatives can be applied to just about anything. But enough rib-poking, the Echelon is a nice new rack with notable upgrades, from an easier-turning adjustment knob to an improved clamping system. The company also guarantees compatibility with all disc-brake/suspension fork combinations. . .

Buzz Off in the News
Buzz Off Insect Shield LLC, makers of a bug-eschewing treatment applied to clothing from companies like Ex Officio, recently issued a press notice regarding the increased longevity of its formula. Essentially, Buzz Off Insect Shield is now guaranteed to last through 70 clothes washings before its effectiveness wears off. I'm a believer in this stuff, having tested Ex Officio's Buzz Off line two years back while tromping through a swamp in. . .

New Columns Up!
We loaded five new columns this morning to the Gear Junkie Archive, which now includes about 200 in-depth gear reviews from the past four years. All reviews were written by Stephen Regenold; they originally appeared in his nationally-syndicated newspaper column, The Gear Junkie. This week's batch has something for everyone, from shoes made for river walking to a camp stove, to a tent that just wouldn't die.

River Shoes (Keen and Mion)
The esoteric nature of water sports like canyoneering, rafting, riverboarding, and whitewater swimming calls for equally esoteric footwear. Indeed, to acquiesce with eddies and tumbling submerged stones and nasty currents, companies have designed shoes that guard toes, give grip underwater, and generally protect your feet once they're submerged.

Eagles Nest Outfitters Hammocks Review
Summertime is made for lounging outdoors, which is exactly what I did for much of last weekend. Specifically, I chilled in a hammock from Eagles Nest Outfitters Inc., a company from Asheville, N.C., that makes hammocks for backpackers, bike touring groups, canoeists, and the like.

Quick Sight LLC Tandem Spotter
The age-old technique of pointing to yonder distant object with an extended arm and outstretched finger -- "Right there, right there!" -- is an inane and inefficient means of directing someone's line of sight.

eVent fabrics overview
Gore-Tex may have the name. But the new kid in town is eVent, a waterproof/breathable laminate manufactured and marketed by the BHA Group Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Company.

Field Test -- Mount Shasta Climb
In early May, on a trip to climb the 14,179-foot stratovolcano of Mount Shasta in northern California, I spent what has been my most harrowing night ever at altitude, with winds gusting to 80 miles per hour and an avalanche sliding a quarter mile from camp.

Adventure Eating
In outdoor sports like trail running, mountain biking, adventure racing, and climbing, getting the right mix -- and the right amount -- of carbs, fats, proteins and nutrients can be literally tough to swallow. But your body cannot function without food. You need to eat -- and eat a lot -- to excel at any intense outdoors activity. This is my article on how to do it.

Gear Review -- Gregory Z22 backpack
Designed for day-long excursions -- mountain trekking, peak bagging, adventure racing, and the like -- the Z22 can manage up to 25 pounds of cargo in its 1,300 cubic inches of capacity. But what makes the little pack unique is its new suspension system, which allows air to circulate behind the back panel, between the pack body and your back, thus keeping you cooler. Or so the theory goes. . .

Gear Preview -- HangTimer
I have yet to huck with this thing, but once I'm ready with skis or a mountain bike, the HangTimer from DropZone Corporation, with its built-in accelerometer, is set to measure my precise time in the air. It measures the time you are airborne, starting from the moment you leave the ground, and then saving a time the instant it senses you land, er, I mean crash.

Salomon Space Boot
The Aspen Boot from Salomon employs a material that's been used in space suits and is approved by NASA. Called Spaceloft, the fabric permits thinner boot uppers at the same level of thermal protection as a thicker pair. Kind of like a pair of Sorels, only svelte and lighter like oversize trail-running shoes. Salomon is calling its Aspen Boot the "first ever nanotechnology application to outdoor footwear."

Pop-Up for Adventure
From a new company, SylvanSport, based in Transylvania County, North Carolina, comes a new concept in the age-old category of the pop-up tent trailer: One designed for the adventure and outdoors crowd. “This is distinctly not a traditional RV or pop-up and will be marketed and distributed differently," said Thomas Dempsey, founder of SylvanSport. Indeed, the company is dubbing the to-be-released trailer a "backpack on wheels". . .

Sneak Peek -- Salomon Speedcross 2
Salomon has shipped me an early test pair of its latest trail runner, the Speedcross 2, which comes out in the fall and is built for cool weather and snow. It looks like an upgraded XA Pro, the company's flagship off-trail/adventure shoe. But the Speedcross 2 is tweaked with a new "knee-saving" cushioning system that I noticed within the first few feet of my test run last night. . .

Primal Quest Registration
If you're one of the elite, a wilderness athlete who can hack deserts and mountains and fast whitewater streams day upon day during a race, then this is your weekend. Registration for the Primal Quest, a 10-day adventure race to be held next June, opens on Sunday. Oh, you also need about $12,500 on hand. . .

Meet Dr. Feet
Diagnosing the likes of plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, stress fractures, and shin splints, Dr. Paul Langer is a podiatrist as well as a running expert. As a runner, Langer has two dozen marathons, several triathlons and the Ironman under his belt. As a doc, he treats patients based on medical knowledge as well as his personal familiarity with the human body in motion. This is my profile.

Gear Review -- Highgear Alterra
Don't call this a wristwatch. It's an altimeter that you wear on your wrist. It has a built-in barometer, compass, thermometer, and other tools. It's got a watch function in there, too, making the Alterra a bonafide timepiece for high adventure. For this review I put the Highgear Alterra up against my favorite adventure wristwatch, the t6 from Suunto, which has similar functionality, but costs about $100 more. . .

Cloggens Shoe Review
No, these foam-based, clog-type, slip-on sandals aren't Crocs. Just very similar. Some would say rip-off-level similar. In business-speak, though, Cloggens LLC is simply a "fast-follower," which is a company that jumps into the slipstream of another enterprise with a similar -- and sometimes better -- iteration of the same idea. . .

Gear Review -- Trek Talonz
I like this idea. Pole baskets with an attitude! Indeed, I thought of something similar once about 10 years back. But it looks like DG Industries beat me to the punch. . .

BOB Ironman Sport Utility Stroller Review
At $349, the BOB Ironman Sport Utility Stroller is about as much as I can imagine ever spending on a child-pushing device. But this little chariot is nice to run along with, as it tracks straight and rolls effortlessly down the paved path. Little pushing is required once momentum takes over, just a steady hand on the grip bar. However, I do have a few gripes. . .

Buck/Mayo Kaala knife
Knife geeks call this new blade from Buck "light, fast, agile and elegant." Seriously, they do. Those adjectives are front and center on the press release. Light and fast, ok. But elegant? Anyway, this is a 1.9-ounce straight blade that can be worn around the neck commando style. It caught my eye for its simplicity of design, which looks perfect for. . .

Racing Across America
Forget about Lance and Landis. Let's not talk about the Tour. The world's toughest bicycle race -- the Race Across America (RAAM) -- kicked off June 10, and most solo riders are still going strong -- now a week and two days later. They've ridden nearly nonstop for sleepless days on end, and this year's solo winner has just come in. . .

Gear Review -- Rugged Laptop Carrying Case
Otter Products' Rugged Laptop Carrying Case is waterproof, crush-proof, pressure sensitive, and lockable. At $170, the case essentially converts a workaday laptop computer into a “ruggedized” model for use in the outdoors. As a svelte black briefcase, the Rugged Laptop Carrying Case can swing a James Bond aesthetic, too, making it passable in formal business settings.

Inov-8 F-Lite 250 Review
In a quest that's stretching now beyond the two-year mark to find the perfect trail-running shoe, I've discovered only one real thing: There is no perfect trail-running shoe. For every situation and every trail, for every person, for every foot, a different shoe will work better or worse. I'm happy now, finally, with that conclusion.

The Bedroll Protector Review
In the realm of mediocre product ideas, Blackstone Outdoor Gear's new Bedroll Protector wins a top prize. To be fair, this water-resistant sleeping bag cover isn't a bad idea. It's just not a really good one, either.

BigFoot Gear Bag
"It's a tarp! It's a ground cloth! It's the Ultimate Carry Anything Bag!" Thus screams the headline on www.bigfootbag.com, where PortaQuip LLC of Loveland, Colo., promotes its new gear-transport product, a giant cargo bag of sorts that appears akin to the world's largest bean burrito.

Otter Products Rugged Laptop Carrying Case
Otter Products LLC markets its Rugged Laptop Carrying Case as the ultimate computer tote, with a virtually indestructible polypropylene shell and a design that's waterproof, crush-proof, pressure sensitive, and lockable.

New York Times -- The Mount Shasta Story
My saga on ice tornadoes, the jet stream, an avalanche and, well, not quite making it to the top of a mountain is in today's New York Times. The story, "On Mt. Shasta, Winter’s Wrath Knows No Calendar," describes a climb I did last month, where weather played its ultimate trump card and nearly blew me and a climbing partner clean off the peak.

Gear Review - BigFoot Gear Bag
"It's a tarp! It's a ground cloth! It's the Ultimate Carry Anything Bag!" Thus screams the headline on www.bigfootbag.com, where PortaQuip LLC promotes its new gear-transport product, a giant cargo bag of sorts that appears akin to the WORLD'S LARGEST BEAN BURRITO. . .

Gear Review - The Bedroll Protector
In the realm of mediocre product ideas, Blackstone Outdoor Gear's new Bedroll Protector wins a top prize. Essentially a body bag, the Bedroll Protector is made of a thin plastic material that crinkles when you lie down. Campers slip a sleeping bag and pad inside, and the bag's bathtub-style floor does duty as a waterproof ground cloth. BONUS: It's also a suffocation hazard!

Rite in the Rain
According to the J.L.Darling Corporation, soggy and illegible paperwork has plagued outdoor writers for decades. As an outdoor writer myself, I concur. Regular paper often falls flat trying to perform outdoors and in the elements. But Rite in the Rain offers a solution. . .

Professional Bike Fitting
A professional bike fitter can adjust a bicycle to match a rider’s precise body dimensions to the degree of millimeter increments. And this procedure is not just for experts. Even once-in-a-while cyclists can gain from a better-fitting bike. The result is increased comfort, performance, and -- in some cases -- the elimination of sore backs, over-extended knees, and other common pedal-cranking maladies.

Biologic ZorinPump
It's a bike seat. It's a pump. It's the Biologic ZorinPump, a seat-post/bike-pump combo product from U.K.-based Dahon Incorporated. You stand while you pump and use the saddle as a handle. All tire-inflating innerworkings are concealed in the post. Kind of dorky. But, then again, kind of cool. . .

Probar Superfood Slam
There really is nothing like a brown-rice-syrup-acai-berry-shelled-hemp- seed-peanut-butter-rolled-rye-flax-seed- cashew-almond-evaporated-cane-liquified- alfalfa-wheat-grass-juice-rice-flour energy bar. Nothing. Nothing but the Probar Superfood Slam bar, that is. . .

Kona Paddy Wagon
Sweet and single -- single-speed, that is -- the Kona Paddy Wagon is an affordable track-bike-like option for urban riding or mid-distance commuting where hills play little into the route. I got one shipped out direct from Kona last month, and I'm now cranking it daily on urban errands and night-rides with friends. And darn if I'm not enjoying the ride. . .

Junior Gear Junkie


Wenger Deep Diver Watch
In the newly-announced category of SCUBA bling, Wenger has unveiled the oh-so-aptly named Deep Diver watch, which is safe to ocean plunges up to 1,000 meters down. Yep, that's 3,300 feet under the sea. Plus, it's handsome enough to pass muster at that coast-side 5-star dinner joint after the dive.

Survival Gear Feature Article
I've long kept a cache of lightweight emergency equipment in the bottom of my backpack, including a space blanket, matches, a compass, fire-starters, water purification, duct tape, and the like. For a new story -- "Survival Gear" -- I polled three survival experts, one a graduate of the United States Air Force Survival School. This is their take on what you should not leave behind when heading out into the woods.

Teva Mountain Games
I attended the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colo., last year, running in the 5K and doing the adventure race, which included 12,000-foot summits, endless uphill biking, and a wild river ride. A blast, actually. Unfortunately, there's no adventure race this year. I'm not there either, alas. But the Teva Mountain Games goes on, and here are the details. . .

Oat-O-Life Lunchtime Oatmeal
In the realm of oddball outdoors food, Command Foods' line of lunchtime oatmeals -- including Broccoli Cheese, Tangy Lemon Chick'n, and Vegetable -- takes some kind of cake. These "rolled baby oats"-based packages come ready to cook in one minute in the woods with a bit of hot water, and the taste is, well, unique. . .

Survival Gear - 10 Items To Survive


Primal Quest Adventure Race 2008
The news is out on Primal Quest 2008: it's going to take place. But the info on PQ's site is a bit vague, and as an intrepid journalist -- as well as a racer in the 2006 event -- I wanted more. Thus I went to the source, Mr. Don Mann, for this exclusive interview. . .

Wakesurfing
In the guess-what-I-did-last-night file, here's a kicker: I went surfing behind a speedboat. No, this isn't wakeboarding. Look close. This is surfing. On a wake. There's no rope connecting the surfer to the boat. The wake mimics the look and feel of an actual ocean wave, except here you can keep going forever. . .

Eagles Nest Outfitters' camping hammocks
Summertime is for lounging outdoors, which is exactly what I did for much of last weekend. Specifically, I chilled in a hammock from Eagles Nest Outfitters Inc., a company from Asheville, N.C., that makes some of the finest hammocks for backpackers, bike touring groups, canoeists, and the like.

Kampp Tales
I met JJ Reich last week. He's the "Senior Field Test Coordinator" at North American Hunter and North American Fisherman magazines, where he oversees dozens of in-depth product reviews each year. In other words, he's a Gear Junkie of utmost renown. Reich is an author, too, and his Kampp Tales series of children’s books address the topics of . . .

Vibram FiveFingers
OK, clear your throat. Now let out a hearty laugh. Yes, these are gloves for your feet, and they look silly. Now listen: Vibram is onto something here. I ran 7 miles last night in a pair of the FiveFingers Sprint, and darn if I'm not becoming a convert.

Dog Tag Sharpener
Klawhorn Industries' Redi-Edge Dog Tag P38 is a skimmed-down knife sharpener shaped like a -- you guessed it -- military dog tag. It weighs essentially nothing, yet sharpens fairly quickly with its "ceramitized" cutters that scrap knife blades to a (partially) fine new edge.

Quick Sight LLC
Made for birders, hunters, photographers, star gazers, and maybe rock climbers trying to point out holds high on a face, the IC-UC handheld spotting sight allows one person to direct a second person's line of sight to a particular pinpoint location. It works by positioning two sights, one on either end of the Plexiglas harmonica-shape device, over the same point in the distance. What you see through your hole, is what I'm seeing through mine. Simple.

Knife of the Year
At a trade fair in Nürnberg, Germany, called IWA & OutdoorClassics 2008, the Victorinox Rescue Tool has been awarded "Knife of the Year 2007." The IWA International Knife Award, as the designation is apparently also called, went to the Victorinox hand piece for its innovative design, which included. . .

Gear Review -- eVent fabrics
Gore-Tex may have the name. But the new kid in town is eVent fabrics. While, sort of new. Though the brand debuted more than five years back, eVent fabrics is still unknown to many outdoors consumers. But the formula -- which is used in everything from jackets to shoes to sleeping bag stuff sacks -- is reaching a critical mass.

AR in New York Times
In my story for New York Times today I wrote about this season's upcoming ARs, which include multiday races in Michigan, sprints in Wisconsin, and daylong (read: 24 hours straight) duals in the deepest Appalachia.

How To: Orienteering


Bike Helmets Do Save Lives!
This one's from The Goat, via the Capital Times newspaper in Madison, Wis., where 26-year-old Ryan Lipscomb has performed the ultimate gear test of GETTING HIS HEAD RUN OVER BY A TRUCK!

Newton Running
Made to mimic the feel and technique of running barefoot, Newton Running's new line of high-end shoes have lugs that extend from the base of the forefoot region on the sole. These rubber lugs -- made to strike the pavement and rebound you into the next stride -- promote a more efficient and natural running technique, according to the company. But for $175 a pair the question is: Are they worth it?

Gorilla Tape from Gorilla Glue Company
Duct tape has long been a personal panacea for me in the outdoors, patching torn Gore-Tex, padding blisters, and performing a litany of ad hoc operations on the trail. So last fall when a new adhesive product called Gorilla Tape came on my radar claiming superiority to duct tape, I was immediately game to put it to the test.

River Shoes
Keen and Mion have each sent me a pair of water/canyon/river shoes, respectively the Hood River II sandals and the Fast Canyon hybrid-frogfoot-sandal-thingy. Cool designs both, with sticky rubber on the sole, drainage, and protection for "amphibious athletes," as Mion calls river walkers, canyoneers, and other odd water-loving types like me.

Jetboil Review Redux
In my blog last week about a field test high on Mount Shasta, I revealed some gear performance inadequacies, including a mention of the Jetboil stove. Well, two Jetboil insiders jumped on my problem, simulating the conditions I faced on the mountain, and offering an explanation as to what went wrong.

Field Test -- Mount Shasta
If nothing else, my attempt to climb the 14,179-foot stratovolcano of Mount Shasta last weekend in northern California was a great opportunity to test gear. Here's my report on six key items that did -- and did not -- perform during the climb.

Mount Shasta Report
Can you say crap storm? I just got back from Mount Shasta, and I have a good story to tell. Winds reached 100mph on top, and an estimated 80mph where we camped. A large avalanche slid less than a quarter mile from our camp. Our tent survived, though other climbers' shelters did not: poles snapped, nylon ripped, some tents literally blew away, gear flying down the mountainside.

Company Profile -- Mandatory Gear
This is my profile of Mandatory Gear, a Minneapolis company that makes some of the lightest-weight backpacking and adventure racing gear available. Indeed, the company's Puppy Pile tent is touted as the lightest freestanding, four-person tent ever made, registering on the scale at a mere 1 pound 9 ounces.

Gone Climbin'
This week, on assignment for New York Times, I'm high up on California's Mount Shasta, a 14,179-foot stratovolcano that's the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range. My assignment is to climb and glissade off from the summit. I'll (obviously) be sneaking in a bit of gear testing on the side during this trip.

Perfect Trail Runner
In a quest that's stretching now beyond the two-year mark to find the perfect trail-running shoe, I've discovered only one real thing: There is no perfect trail-running shoe.

Gorilla Tape
Like duct tape, Gorilla Tape is marketed as a universal salve for quick fix-ups. In the outdoors this means repairing broken poles, patching punctured tarps, mending backpacks, and serving as surrogate first-aid in times of dire need. This is my review.

New York Times -- Urban Mountain Biking
In a story last Friday for New York Times, I covered the rising trend of urban mountain biking. In cities from Philadelphia to Santa Fe, mountain biking is gaining momentum as a viable urban activity. Extensive trail networks designated for the knobby-tire crowd now wind through parks like Theodore Wirth in Minneapolis and Powhite Park in Richmond, Va., or under freeway viaducts in places like Seattle.

Greatest Gear of 5 Years
And the winner is. . . the Buff! Yes, a strange choice for my favorite outdoors product from the past five years, but nothing else I've tested has stuck with me as much as the Original Buff, a hat of sorts, but oh so much more! Read on to see my review of the Buff + the complete list of 10 best-of-the-best gear items -- my Greatest Gear of 5 Years -- that have earned my trust on dozens of adventures around the globe.

Greatest Gear of 5 Years, part IV
Continuing the countdown of my top gear picks from the past five years, Granite Gear's Virga backpack and the Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike come in respectively at Nos. 4 and 3 on my list.

Greatest Gear of 5 Years, part III
Continuing the countdown of my top gear picks from the past five years, the Genesis Pharmaceutical Hydropel body lube and Rail Riders Weatherpants come in respectively at Nos. 6 and 5 on my list of 10 best-of-the-best gear items that have earned my stamp of approval -- and then some.

Greatest Gear of 5 Years, part II
Continuing the countdown of my top gear picks from the past five years, the Pacsafe TravelSafe 100 security pouch and Montrail's Susitna XCR super trail runners come in respectively at Nos. 8 and 7 on my list of 10 best of the best gear items that have earned my stamp of approval -- and then some.

Greatest Gear of 5 Years Part I
Counting down from 10, over the next couple days, I'm going to reveal my Top 10 Favorite Gear Picks from the past five years. Indeed, it was five years ago this month, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, that I penned the first Gear Junkie column. Here are picks Nos. 10 and 9, starting with some Zip-lock bags made for the outdoors set. . .

PhotoMap
New government-issue color aerial photographs taken between 2003 and 2006 have enabled MyTopo.com to create a new cartographic product, the TopoPhoto map. This hybrid feat blends traditional United States Geological Survey (USGS) style with the on-high vantage of a detailed aerial shot.

Letter from Quintana Roo -- Dirty Water
This is my report on the efforts of a dozen disconnected groups -- from area NGOs and independent academic researchers, to international organizations as large as UNESCO -- that are creating a critical mass to promote sustainable development on a macro scale in Mexico's eastern Yucatan, where a fragile ecosystem could suffer under the crush of the government's development plans.

Backcountry.com Cairn Fleece Jacket
Fleece jackets hover in a mushy middle ground between waterproof-and-breathable shells and sturdy workaday wool sweaters. They're warm enough for nice sunny winter days, but too airy when the wind really blows.

DIY Energy Bars
Matisse & Jacks is a small San Francisco company that makes boxed mixes for bake-at-home energy bars, competing against the likes of Clif and PowerBar in a market saturated with energy-food solutions. So why would anyone want to spend the time baking an energy bar?

Low-Top Hikers
Heavy hiking boots are a thing of the past for any informed outdoors wanderer. Indeed, the clunky boots of yore -- some weighing more than 3 pounds apiece -- have been cast aside by most every footwear company now in favor of lightweight shoes and low-top hikers.

The Extraterrestrial Highway
In a story last week for the New York Times, I wrote about a recent odd trip I took to Nevada to cover the Extraterrestrial Highway. This concept, launched 11 years ago this month, was an attempt by the Nevada Tourism Department to attract travelers to south-central Nevada, where old atom bomb test sites, secret Department of Defense airstrips, and sequestered tracts of military land create a marketable mystic.

Salomon S-Lab XA Pro 3
Can you say cream of the crop? The Salomon S-Lab XA Pro 3 shoes were developed for elite adventure racers, top trail runners, and mountain marathoners who might tick off a 40-mile backcountry session on any given Saturday.

Eds Wilderness Systems Ski Pulk
As long as humans have lived in winter environments they have been designing devices for dragging or pulling loads across the snow and ice. At least that's according to Ed Bouffard, a former instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School who runs Eds Wilderness Systems LLC out of his home in St. Cloud, Minn.

"K2," The Play
"K2" is a play by Patrick Meyers that opened earlier this month at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis. Written nearly three decades ago, K2 has seen runs around the world, including Broadway. A 1992 motion picture of the same name is loosely based on Meyers' play. This is my review of the performance, focusing on the philosophical/existential dialogue as much as the high Himalayan drama.

True Eco Resorts
In a recent story for ForbesTraveler.com on ecologically-friendly lodges, I attempted to look beyond the promotional green-washing that's becoming common in the tourism trade. Instead, I spoke with lodge owners, activists, and people like Martha Honey, executive director of The International Ecotourism Society to formulate a Top 10 list of places doing it right for the planet.

Backcountry Cairn Fleece
Backcountry.com, an online retailer of outdoors equipment, launched an in-house line of technical outerwear earlier this year, including the Cairn Fleece Jacket, a $110 model I've been testing for two months. Made of Polartec Thermal Pro fleece, the Cairn has a unique look and feel, its exterior face a rough weave of lines and micro corrugation.

The Cyclist's Tight Spot
In 1997, a urologist and professor at Boston University School of Medicine named Irwin Goldstein declared: "There are only two kinds of male cyclists — those who are impotent and those who will be impotent." Thus begins a story in yesterday's LA Times by my writer friend and fellow gear junkie Bill Becher, who dove deep into the most current data available on the connection between cycling and sexual dysfunction.

GORE-TEX TransRockies Run
A new ultra/trail-running race, the GORE-TEX TransRockies Run, goes through the White River and San Isabel National Forests, through the town of Leadville, and finally on to a finish in Aspen. The cumulative course is 125 miles long, with mountainous trails that ascend for 25,000 feet over the length of the run. Look for me (maybe) at the start line this fall.

Wall of Wave
This image has apparently been all over the Internet/blogosphere, but, well. . . wow, worth putting here as well. This is Tahiti’s Teahupoo break, apparently one of the steepest (and most dangerous) waves on the planet. You fall, you die. That sort of thing.

Digital HERO 3
I met Nicholas Woodman of GoPro in Munich, Germany, two years back, when his innovative wrist-hugging camera was nominated for an ISPO Brand New award. At the time, the Digital HERO was the coolest sports-camera idea I'd seen in a long while. The theory was: Hook this camera to your wrist and go surfing, or B.A.S.E. jumping, or skiing, or whatever, and the little shooter is always there, ready to fire off and capture the moment. . .

Send It!
If you've already seen Dean Potter essentially solo El Cap, and are not too hopped up on builderers like me, you might get into this new film I saw the other night, called First Ascent, which covers, as the name implies, FA climbs around the globe, from deep-water solo feats in Thailand to frigid Himalayan granite. Here's my take on the new film, produced by Sender Films and Peter Mortimer.

Q-and-A with The Gear Junkie
Rail Riders recently interviewed The Gear Junkie, and here's the full Q&A, complete with ramblings on existential exhaustion, emotional breakdown and enlightenment. Questions in the interview range from discussions on outdoors sports to my opinion on ways to treat waterborne parasites. Oh, and there's a bit about gear in there somewhere as well.

The Mike Curiak Syndrome
Mike is back, and things did not go quite as planned, though he put up a courageous effort. As reported by Craig Medred in the Anchorage Daily News, Curiak ran into 30-below-zero weather combined with 70 mph winds.

$800 Fishing Waders
Before today, I had no idea that $800 fishing waders were in the realm of the possible. But Simms Fishing Products of Bozeman, Mont., can get you just that...

Meet the Aquaskipper


Potato Guns and Projectile Shooters


El Cap Solo Video


Buildering


The Bicycle Commuter Act


Cold Consequences


Harvard Studies Adventure Racing


Ahnu Footwear


Utah's Epic Ride -- Skiing Six Resorts in One Day


New York Times -- Trail-running races


New York Times -- Michigan's Extreme Anomaly


Gear Review: Eds Wilderness Systems Ski Pulk


Primal Quest on hold


Mountains To Climb Before You Die


Winter Running


North America's Toughest Ski Runs


Subterranean Snooping on the Yucatán Peninsula


Atomic Snoop Daddy ski
In late January, high up in the sunny Wasatch Mountains above Salt Lake City, I put a pair of new skis to an ultimate alpine test of sorts called the Ski Utah Interconnect Adventure Tour.

Gear Review: Atomic Snoop Daddy ski


Backcountry Skiing, Michigan Style


Margarita flavor Clif Shot Bloks
Among all the oddball energy-food products I've tested in the past year -- from organic health goo to a bar developed by the U.S. military -- Clif Bar & Co.'s new margarita-flavor gummy chews struck me as most absurd.

Custom footbeds
Custom molded footbeds used to be available only through retailers like ski shops, where fitting your foot to an anatomically-unique insole was managed by professionals. Now two companies make products that let you mold a custom insole at home.

Self Reliance Defined (on a bike in Alaska)


Metal Water Bottles - Sigg & Klean Kanteen
Translucent polycarbonate water bottles made by companies like Nalgene and GSI Outdoors used to be the only thing going for hydration in the outdoors. Now metal is moving in.

Ice Biking


Kahtoola FLIGHTsystem
Kahtoola Inc.'s new FLIGHTsystem -- an innovative overboot-snowshoe package that costs $334 -- was made for wintertime runners and outdoorsy types who need to go fast and light through the snow.

Lake Cycling Winter Biking Boots
Lake Cycling touts its new MXZ301 bike shoes as the "ultimate in cold weather cycling footwear." But these aren’t truly bike shoes. The MXZ301 model -- insulated leather high-tops with neoprene cuff closures -- are indeed full-on winter biking boots.

Winter Biking Tops
Riding a bike through cold, sleet and snow requires a litany of specialized equipment, not least the jacket and top you wear against the wind. Over the past two months, in temps ranging from 40 degrees down to near zero, I tested two new tops made to provide warmth, comfort, freedom of movement, and breathability while pedaling fast through cold weather.

What is a frontpack?
In a story last month for New York Times, I wrote about the trend of "frontpacks," which are packs with mesh pouches, zipper pockets, and compartments positioned up front on hip belts and over the chest. Companies like Salomon, Aarn Designs and syncpack claim moving weight forward on the body acts to counterbalance the heavy load on back.

Puffy Down Jackets
Before hip-hop stars started wearing them climbers, skiers and other hard cores depended on these quilted coats in the outdoors.

Stanley Outdoor 20oz. Food Jar
The drab-green torpedo that is the classic Stanley thermal bottle has been keeping coffee hot in the outdoors since 1913. Now, the company has decided to dabble in soup. Just in time for ice-fishing season -- or any winter-weather outdoors activity -- the company has a new product made to keep semisolids like soup, chili, pasta and stew warm and palatable for hours on end in the great outdoors.

Füritechnics - knife sharpener
I'm no knife junkie. But I know a sharp blade from a dull one. And I know how to work a blade on a whetstone, but like many neglectful knife owners I often don't do it.

Petzl E+LITE survival headlamp
Wilderness survival gear is often reduced to a Mylar blanket, matches, a compass and maybe a signal mirror. But what about a light source during times of distress and disorientation?

OR Show: Top 10 Product slideshow


Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2007 - Top 10 Product Picks


Ice Bike Racing


The Pilgrimage


Daily Dose: Aquapac International Limited


Daily Dose: Red OXX Carry-On baggage


Daily Dose: Mora Knives


SureFire Flashlights Review


Daily Dose: Adventure Medical Kits Survival Pak


Daily Dose: The Adventure Eating Diet


Daily Dose: Minimalist tents


Daily Dose: Bic Sport fold-in-half Yakka kayak


Daily Dose: Co-Motion Streaker & Fixed-Gear Bikes


Daily Dose: Thule Load & Go gear organizers


Daily Dose: Kid-carrier backpacks


Daily Dose: Gregory Mountain Products, Traction series


Daily Dose: Primal Quest Gear


Daily Dose: Adventure Bikes


Daily Dose: HOOAH! bars (and others)


Daily Dose: Buck's pseudo-switchblade


Daily Dose: Map extravaganza 2006


Daily Dose: Riverboarding


Kayaking in the land of the Maya


Beatific Biking on Vancouver's North Shore


Skiin' New Skool


The Gear Junkie's Top 10 Adventures of 2006


Daily Dose: C.A.M.P. lightweight climbing gear


Daily Dose: Holistic Fitness Gear


Daily Dose: Teva Shoes (not sandals!)


Daily Dose: Heart-rate Monitor Watches


Daily Dose: Inov-8 Mudclaw


ISPO BrandNew Award


New sport combines skiing and flying (!)


Adventure Bike season is a'comin'!


Schoeller's "c_change"


Daily Dose: REI Adventure Luggage


nuun hyrdation tablets review


Daily Dose: Original Energy Drinks


Daily Dose: Prescription Action Eyewear


Bike-Jor, or how to wear down your hyper dog


Daily Dose: WeatherNow console


Ultra Cycling's New World Order


Top 10 Gear Awards


Top 10 Gear List - 2006


The "aero-slippery" bike jersey, from Castelli


Back from the Mexico Adventure. . .


The Gear Junkie in Backpacker magazine


Dryland Dog Sports


Mexico Adventure; Sian Ka'an preserve


Ski Utah Launches "Greatest Ski Blog on Earth"


Gel-Bot


Frontpacks


Heart-rate Monitor Watches
On the crest of a hill, running full steam ahead under a pale summer sky, my heart rate ticked up to 180 beats per minute. Huge gulps of air. Burning thighs. A twinge of lightheadedness overtaking. My very being was redlining on a training run just three blocks from home.

C.A.M.P. lightweight climbing gear
The philosophy of going fast and light through the mountains has been universally embraced by climbers. In lieu of fixed ropes, heavy packs and pound-in anchors, climbers from California to Katmandu now stress speed and agility in the vertical world.

Holiday Gift Guide 2006
Built for skiers and snowboarders looking to access the backcountry, the Fall Line pack comes with a Nalgene hydration bladder that's insulated from freezing.

Competitive Backcountry Skiing in Colo.


PCT yo-yo man


Highgear to build New Balance Monitors


U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team picks top resorts


Prescription Action Eyewear
Eyewear is annoying in the outdoors. Foggy lenses, sweaty frames, mud splats on glass -- all are common complications of wearing glasses in the great outdoors. But companies like Smith Optics and Julbo Inc. -- sunglasses makers who dip a toe into the Rx pond -- now have products that make eyewear easier to get along with while cycling, climbing, skiing, backpacking and trail running.

Teva Shoes (not sandals!)
Since 1984, when a Grand Canyon river guide invented a unique sport-oriented sandal with over-the-foot nylon straps, the Teva brand has been synonymous with open-toe footwear of all kind. But the company, a division of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, dabbles in shoes as well.

Holistic Fitness Gear
Metaphysics rarely intertwines with physical fitness. But the mixing of magic, muscle and mind is encouraged by a tiny subgenre of companies in the outdoors and fitness worlds.

Original Energy Drinks/Java Juice, Yerba Mate
Two of the world's original energy drinks have been accompanying me on the adventure circuit as of late. Indeed, the proverbial quick picker-uppers of coffee and tea now reside next to the energy gels and electrolyte tablets that populate my pack.

nuun Hydration Tablets review
Pop a pill in your water bottle, let it dissolve for a few seconds, and drink. That's the simple concept behind nuun tablets, a unique new idea in the category of hydration and electrolyte-replacement products. Essentially a fast-dissolving pill, nuun tablets fizz and disappear like Alka-Seltzer when dropped in water, resulting in a mildly-flavored electrolyte drink to help athletes stay hydrated and cramp-free.

REI Wheeled Adventure Luggage
Rolling wheel-equipped luggage, once a leathery genre of the business class, hit the mainstream years ago as airline travelers realized its ease and efficiency. I was admittedly a late and skeptical adopter, lugging duffels and gear-stuffed backpacks through airports year after backbreaking year.

Gel-Bot water/gel bottle
Energy gel and water are the preferred fuels for untold millions of aerobic athletes. Gel provides quick calories. Water hydrates. The two work well together. The Gel-Bot, a new-age water bottle developed by ventureDESIGNworks of Menlo Park, Calif., integrates a gel-dispensing flask with a traditional plastic bike bottle. Essentially, the Gel-Bot has a multi-position valve that lets you suck water or gel from the same container.

Off-trail running/Inov-8 Mudclaw
For a moment, forget about Nike and New Balance. Take pavement and trail out of the picture. Imagine running on rocks, jumping stumps, stomping in mud, and bushwhacking at high speed.

WeatherNow console
Happy clouds and sunshine danced upon the big blue digital face of the WeatherNow console in my living room one fine morning. It was to be partly cloudy, with a mild breeze and a high temperature for the day of 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Self-Contained/Solar-Powered Tent


Outdoor Industry Executives Pick Top Travel Destinations


Snowkite Across North Dakota to Promote Wind Energy


GoLite USARA Adventure Race National Championships


Hikin' the Ice Age Trail


World's Strongest Dad


Rogaine, it's not just for baldness anymore!


The Gear Junkie, TV star?


The Gear Junkie Live!


Too much gear?


Xstream Expedition Race Begins this week


Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua’a


Sailing the High Seas of. . . North Dakota!


ForbesTraveler.com -- 21st-Century Camping


Black Diamond Rechargeable Uber-Headlamp


New York Times


Trail runners 2004 -- Montrail, La Sportiva, Vasque
The amalgamation of hiking boot and athletic running shoe about a decade ago produced a new shoe category called trail runners. Today, that niche is splintering into even narrower divisions as athletes begin to use trail runners for more than just running down paths in the woods. I recently tested three unique new designs...

Highpointing -- Silva, Maptech, Mountaineers Books
Each of the 50 U.S. states has a high point of elevation, be it a towering mountain peak or a nondescript knoll in a cornfield. To a small group of climbers who call themselves highpointers, every one of these summits is geographically significant.

ACR Survival Gear
ACR Electronics, a 48-year-old company based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., likes to credit itself with saving more than 10,000 lives over the years. Indeed, its line of survival products has been used by soldiers, sailors, Apollo 13 astronauts and outdoor athletes since the days of the Eisenhower administration.

Portable Camp Tables
In the wilderness, a simple thing like a table can be luxurious. Just having a sturdy, flat surface to cook, eat and play cards on truly makes a campsite feel complete.

Metolius Safe Climbing Gear
Metolius recently debuted several rock-climbing products with safety features that exceed the industry standard. The company built redundancies into its harnesses, beefed up its ropes, added instructional markings to carabiners and tweaked several other product lines to make its gear as safe as possible.

RailRiders Eco-Mesh Shirt
Morocco's annual Marathon des Sables is a six-day, 150-mile solo race through the Sahara Desert. It's among the world's most extreme endurance events. Temperatures have reached 125 degrees some years, and it's an unsupported race so you have to carry all water and supplies in a backpack.

Watchful Eye Designs ALOKSAK bags
When a waterproof bag has been used by the U.S. government for Anthrax containment, you can probably trust it to keep your map dry on a canoe trip. Watchful Eye Designs' line of ALOKSAK bags were originally developed for hazardous waste storage. Only recently did athletes begin using them to keep gear dry in the woods.

Best Bike accessories - REI, Blackurn, Pedro's, Kryptonite
After pumping up the tires on my new mountain bike and tweaking the brakes, I set about adding the obligatory and essential accessories. In addition to a water-bottle holder and a rear flashing red light, I added a pack, a toolkit, a pump and a lock to make the bike ready for the road and the trail. Here are the details...

Kona bikes: Jake the Snake, Unit
Kona Bicycle Company designs and manufactures bikes made for such esoteric cycling categories as dirt jumping, urban cruising, single speed and cyclocross. The company's philosophy eschews all-around bike models, instead focusing on specific niche designs made to perfectly match a rider's given style or terrain.

Mandatory Gear - Adventure Racing gear
Mandatory Gear's slogan is "ounces equal minutes," meaning the lighter you are the faster you'll be on the trail. The company, which focuses on gear for adventure racing and ultra-light backpacking, has some of the lightest-weight products on the market.

Best Small or Specialty Backpacks - Indigo, Gregory, Mountainsmith
Indigo's Rox 18 is a pack made with climbers in mind. It has a unique bottom compartment the company calls a Café Pocket that lets you access food and water with one hand without removing the pack. The design is streamlined and unobtrusive; a plastic-sheet frame adds rigidity to comfortably let you carry loads up to 20 pounds.

Monoculars -- Bushnell, Minox
The monocular has a unique slide-focus switch to let you easily and precisely adjust focus while sighting a distant object. Its sharp, clear lens provides a wide field of view while also granting a minimum focus distance of 4.5 feet to accommodate people who want to view wildlife without causing a disturbance.

Cross Country ski gear - Fischer, Toko
It was to be my biggest ski year to date -- three weekend trips, a 51-kilometer race and tons of training. In preparation, I researched ski gear before the snow fell and picked up a new pair of sticks a week after Thanksgiving.

Kahtoola KTS crampons
Brian Cannon from Kahtoola Inc. touts his company's KTS crampons as being good for wintertime trail running or simply shoveling the snow off an icy sidewalk. Then, almost as an afterthought, he mentions the crampons have been used to climb Mt. Everest.

Welcome to THEGEARJUNKIE.com!


REI Winter Ridge Nordic Jacket
It's 10 AM on a Saturday morning in early December. My skis are on the snow, and it's time to get serious. The Birkebeiner, a 51-kilometer ski race held annually each February in northern Wisconsin, is looming on my calendar.

Snowshoe reviews - Atlas, Grivel, MSR
Snowshoe manufacturers like to call snowshoeing the fastest-growing winter sport in the United States. Personally, I've relied on snowshoes more and more in the past five years, especially for tough mountain approaches where skis would be too cumbersome.

World's Best Winter Mitts
When it's too cold for gloves -- generally around 10 degrees Fahrenheit for me -- a good pair of mittens is crucial to enjoying any wintertime adventure. You sacrifice dexterity for cozy digits, but that's the price of warmth in the rock-bottom cold months of the year.

Life-Link -- Guide Ultra-Light trek/ski pole
Moses had his staff. John Muir, I am sure, had a stout wooden walking stick. But I have what Life-Link calls the lightest and most dependable trekking poles on Earth.

Downhill Skateboarding - Freebord X-80
Freebord Manufacturing's singular goal is to simulate the feel of snowboarding on pavement. The company's three skateboard models, which have unique six-wheel setups and secure bindings, let riders carve and slide on asphalt while cruising downhill.

Child Bike Trailer - Bob Ibex
Long bike trips into the backcountry are often limited by the amount of food, water and gear you can haul in panniers or a backpack. The Ibex from Bob Trailers was made to nix that dilemma, letting you tow 15 to 70 pounds of tents, tarps, granola and Gatorade over off-road terrain.

Rocky Mounts Noose - Bike Rack
Vehicles like the Saturn Vue or Jeep Cherokee come with factory-mounted racks to tote gear. But adding a bike rack to these vehicles' crossbars often does not work unless you get mounting hardware specifically made for the car.

Wenonah canoe review
Wenonah's Spirit II, a sleek all-purpose canoe made for multi-day trips, is available in several configurations. The Kevlar version weighs a miniscule 42 pounds and costs $2,099; the base model, a 68-pound boat made of a plastic material called Royalex, costs just $1,199. They are the exact same canoe, just made with different materials.

Marin Rocky Ridge mountain bike
These bikers, which Marin Bikes says are generally in the 15- to 21-year-old age group, have brought BMX-type tricks and aggressiveness to the sport of mountain biking. Jumping dirt cliffs, riding down stairs and airing off industrial loading docks are all in a day's ride.

Sherpak Elite - Car-top carrier
The trunk space in my mid-size sedan rarely accommodates my weekend adventure gear requirements. To add some capacity, the Sherpak Elite from Seattle Sports Company attaches to the car's rack and provides up to 15-cubic-feet of space in a water-tight container.

Garmin Geko 301 GPS device
The Geko line of GPS devices has gained popularity for their small size, ease of use and relatively feature-rich capabilities. The Geko 301 -- the top-end model in a line of three -- measures a scant 1.9 x 3.9 x .96 inches and weighs 3.4 ounces, including its two AAA batteries. Basic features include, a digital compass, an altimeter all standard GPS navigational tools and several built-in GPS games.

Gerber LED lights
Gerber, a renowned knife manufacturer, has stepped into the camp-accessories market with the introduction of two unique lighting products. Based on L.E.D. lighting technology, the Inferno Flexi-Light and Hornet Flashlantern provide campers with a convenient light source that can each last up to 40 hours on three AAA batteries.

Shimano M120 bike shoe review
Riding a bike without your feet clipped to the pedals can be compared to skiing without poles. Both sports work either way, but like ski poles, clipped-in bike shoes provide a higher level of performance and efficiency.

Personal Oxygen System -- BetterThanAir
BetterThanAir, an Evergreen, Colo.-based company that makes a line of oxygen-consumption products including the oxygen bars popular in airports and nightclubs, has entered the outdoor market with its PO24U Personal Oxygen System. Basically a portable oxygen tank, the product was designed to be stashed in a backpack by athletes for a quick hit of oxygen when the need arises.

Performance Wool, Synthetic T-shirts - Duofold, Ex Officio, Prana
The old standby cotton T-shirt doesn't have much of a place in the outdoors. Even beyond the "cotton kills" adage, the average cotton shirt is clammy, heavy and generally not terribly comfortable for athletes.

Princeton Tec Corona headlamp
Princeton Tec calls its new Corona the brightest and most efficient headlamp on the market. That's a claim so lofty that after reading it once I felt obligated to give the headlamp a full test.

MyTopo.com
MyTopo.com is Web site made for people like me. Run by Montana-based AOHunt LLC, MyTopo.com offers an immense, searchable online database of United States Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps and satellite photos.

Trail Blazer Camp Saws
The saw, made of anodized aluminum and stainless steel, has a 14-inch blade that is adjusted taut with the twist of a wing nut. When ready, the saw's design lets you lean down with one hand on the end and push and pull your way through solid pine or oak with little trouble.

Business shoe hybrids -- Timberland, Birkenstock, Merrell
Timberland is a company that realizes business trips are not all work. At the very least, most business travelers have free time at night to explore town. Some -- like me -- even sneak off on quick day trips to check out nearby canyons or mountain trails when the chance arises.

Riverboarding Video


World's Best Wool Socks
The Thorlo sock pulls up to the knee and fits well all over.

Montrail Bivouac Booties -- "Technical Slippers"
It was early January and I'd been lured into a three-day winter camping trip in Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. This was no walk in the woods, as they say. Temps were below zero and we had 22 kilometers of backcountry terrain to ski before setting up camp.

Outdoor Industry Trends


World's Best Winter Hat
Three months ago I set out to find the world's best winter hat for skiers, snowshoers, climbers and general outdoor enthusiasts. I collected and reviewed a dozen new and classic designs, testing the hats on outings from Chicago to northern Ontario and in temps as low as 25 below zero.

Free Spirit Outfitter -- Deluxe Skijor Package
Scandinavians long have combined skis and dogs for efficient wintertime travel. Skijoring, which translates literally to "ski-driving" in Norwegian, borrows techniques and equipment from dog sledding and Nordic skiing to create a unique sport that is currently seeing a renaissance in the United States.

Outdoors Luggage -- Eagle Creek, Patagonia, Victorinox
My requisite adventure gear -- mountain boots, trekking poles, ice axes, snowshoes, crampons, climbing rope, tent, stove and all else -- demand capacious luggage that can take a beating on the road.

Multi tool review - Buck, Leatherman, Victorinox
There are fabled stories and epic survival tales built completely on the transpiration of a multi-tool in a time of dire need. Whether it's the climber high on a mountain who repaired his stove just before freezing or skiers who needed to jigger a binding back to life 14 miles from the car, the multi-tool has saved a legion of outdoor athletes from great misery or much worse.

Mares diving equipment -- snorkeling, SCUBA
To the outside observer, the foundational equipment from any sport -- be it a bike tire, a canoe paddle or a snorkeling mask -- appear unchanged from year to year. But anyone close to the sport sees the new designs, the incremental gains and every subtle product improvement manufacturers make.

Zip It Gear -- Socks with zippers!
First, there was the decoy wallet. Then, the money belt came along. Now, Zip It Gear claims to have a better way to keep your cash, keys and credit cards safe while traveling abroad.

Best Outdoor Hats -- OR Gear, EMS, Dr. Shade
Sun, rain or snow, I'm rarely outdoors without a hat of some sort on my head. I recently put a batch of hats to the test on adventures as far afield as the Utah desert and the rainy Pacific Coast near Tofino, British Colombia. Here are my quick reviews and recommendations.

Oakley Prescription Glasses
Despite a dependency on corrective lenses, I'd never considered sports-oriented prescription glasses to be germane for the active genre of outdoor sports I favor. When people mentioned "performance" eyewear, the one thing that came to mind were the thick-framed plastic goggles seemingly favored by high-school wrestling teams.

Indigo SlipNot ski poles
In steep backcountry terrain, ski poles must be absolutely solid and failsafe. A hop-turn above a cliff band, for example, is a tenuous move that depends almost as much on a stable pole plant as it does a good ski edge in the snow.

Hydropel sports ointment
My feet may never forgive me for the past two years. Three marathons, ten adventure races, a triathlon, several mountain climbs and hundreds of hours of training have left my dogs beat up, ragged and just plain ugly.

Bushnell NightHawk Review - See-in-the-dark device
Night-vision devices, popularized in suspense movies like The Silence of the Lambs and grainy war footage on CNN, were until recently expensive and not optimized for general use in the outdoors.

National Geographic Road Atlas
The National Geographic Road Atlas: Adventure Edition takes everything Rand McNally does right and adds even more pertinent information for fellow vagabonds and weekend warriors.

Volkl Supersport Superspeed & Tecnica Diablo Fire Reviews
This year, in preparation for an early-season ski trip, I decided to step into 2005 with some new, high-end alpine skis and boots. Both the Volkl Supersport Superspeed ski and Tecnica Diablo Fire boot came with high recommendations from my more in-the-know skiing friends. Both also have price tags that forced some high expectations on my end.

Riverboarding
Just off Interstate Highway 70 in eastern Utah, in the steep topography north of its namesake town, the snaking Green River cuts a deep gorge through a backdrop of desert monoliths and thousand-foot cliffs. My view of this gorge last month on a visit to the area was from a riverboard, soaking wet and half submerged at face level with the whitewater.

Ibex wool clothing - Best Wool Base Layers
In a world of Lycra, nylon, Spandex and polypropylene, a fabric as age-old as wool can seem obsolete. But sheep fuzz is making a comeback in outdoor circles as its natural characteristics are seeing new appreciation from outerwear designers.

Minimalist tents -- Nemo, Mandatory Gear, Big Sky Intl.
Newtonian physics and fussy things like the inherent mass of matter may one day stymie the progress of lightweight tent design. But until then, a handful of companies will pursue the Holy Grail of creating a shelter so feathery and ephemeral as to be perfectly unnoticeable in a backpack.

The Adventure Eating Diet
Over the years, traipsing around the globe, a pack on my back and a map in my hand, I've honed the art of something I like to call adventure eating. In the woods, in the mountains, or even on a train from Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps, this style of eating -- which involves quick and convenient calorie consumption, no cooking required -- has saved me time and money, and it has alleviated the headache of constant food preparation at times when I could be doing something much more fun.

Squeaky Cheeks body lube powder
The unmentionable and embarrassing bodily effects of repetitious exercise -- chafed thighs, armpit rash, butt burn -- traditionally have been managed with greasy lubricants. Petroleum-based salves or sport-specific rub-on products help eliminate the painful skin-against-skin chafing and chapping common in running, cycling, hiking and other outdoor sports.

Best Wool Base Layers - Icebreaker, Ibex, DuoFold & Louis Garneau
I give myself the right to be particularly picky about products as close and intimate as base layer clothing. Long johns, skivvies, union suits, long underwear -- whatever you want to call them -- must be well-fitting and comfortable. For outdoor athletes, they must also strike a perfect balance of breathability and insulation.

Ski Goggle Review - Julbo Excel & Zeal Detonator
Many a ski day was ruined during my younger years while wearing the wrong eyewear on the slopes. A procession of cheap sunglasses and second-hand goggles left me with foggy vision and wind-battered, teary eyes whenever the weather turned foul.

Best and Worst Sports headphones
While the popularity boom of digital-audio devices like the Apple iPod has allowed people to easily take music with them for training sessions and outdoor adventures, earbud-type earphones are usually less than optimal for athletes. In addition to mediocre sound quality, standard earbuds may fall out during rigorous activity or in cold weather.

The Inka pen
In a former life, Greg Adelman designed optical instrumentation for Scripps Institution of Oceanography and worked on engineering projects for the U.S. military and NATO.

Brunton GreenHeat flammable canisters
Brunton has taken the decades-old concept of canned heat and added a couple crucial modern twists. The company's new line of GreenHeat fuel canisters, which are being marketed to backpackers, climbers and anyone else who needs to pack as light as possible, are filled with a special concoction of gelled and highly-flammable vegetable oil.

Yakima PowderHound SE ski rack
Most companies would celebrate a 25th anniversary with some cake and a few bottles of champagne. Yakima chose to commemorate its 25th year in the vehicle-rack business with a special-edition ski rack.

Backpacking, Adventure Racing & Orienteering Map Tools - UTM, Silva Distance Gauge
As I prepare for a long season of backpacking, orienteering, adventure racing and general outdoors exploration, maps are on my mind. They're also sprawled out on my dining room table, marked up, highlighted, drooled on and sitting ready for action. Here are four new products I've been using with the maps at home and in the field.

Surly Singulator - Single-Speed Bike Conversion
There comes a time in the lifecycle of a bike when the cost to replace certain components becomes unjustifiable. New derailleurs, chainrings, cranks, bottom brackets, cassette gears and other parts can quickly add up to several hundred dollars in expenses.

Water and Hydration Bottle Health -- polycarbonate polemics
The ubiquitous polycarbonate water bottle is the canteen of the 21rst century. But these colorful plastic vessels, made by companies like Nalgene and GSI Outdoors, have been embroiled in a controversy for the past two years, ever since a researcher at Case Western Reserve University said they may pose health risks.

Nordic Walking
Perhaps you've seen them walking through the park, striding earnestly, poles pumping at their sides, skiers without any snow. Perhaps you've snickered or offered a smart whispered aside. I have, too.

REI Flash Review -- Ultra-Light Backpack
This minimalist day pack, which weighs 10 ounces and costs only $25, is made of lightweight and water resistant silicone-infused nylon. It has no frame, an un-padded mesh harness, and only one large compartment with a hydration sleeve and small mesh pockets inside. There isn't a zipper or tab of Velcro on the product, and it's actually more of a sack than a pack.

Mountainsmith Road Trippin’ Series
Mountainsmith is a company founded on the thought that frustration may be just as much a mother to invention as necessity ever was. In the late 1970s, Patrick Smith founded the Golden, Colo., company after repeated disappointment with the backpack designs of the day.

Performance apparel -- CW-X, Under Armour
Clothing of the future will do much more for athletes than simply protect from the elements and regulate body temperature. Precise fit, ergonomic alignment, muscle support and other anatomical advantages will be default features in new breeds of performance-enhancing apparel.

The Gear Junkie Ubercycle - Single Speed Bike Conversion
It was to be an art project, a labor of love, an aesthetic expression on two wheels. Exorbitant expenses and common sense be darned. This was to be a svelte, solid, ultra-light, from-the-ground-up, custom-made Gear Junkie ubercycle.

Adventure Clothing - Rail Riders, Mountain Hardware, Arborwear, Mountain Khakis
Most of my outdoors cohorts wear athletics tights for sports like mountain biking, backpacking and adventure racing. Though you'll catch me in tights on occasion, I'm more comfortable -- physically and narcissistically -- in looser-fitting pants.

Schoeller NanoSphere magic fabric
The stretchy, nylon-based fabric used in the making of the Cloudveil Switchback jacket is designed to mimic the smooth shell of a beetle. It also takes cues from cabbage leaves and insect wings, and it is coated with millions upon millions of infinitesimal grains of silicon.

Defeet custom socks
In the early '90s, Shane Cooper brought together the unlikely bedfellows of bike racing and sock knitting to create Defeet International. Cooper, who was a semi-pro cyclist at the time, grew up fascinated with his father’s knitting machine parts distributor business, and he decided to try a hand at making a better bike sock.

Canon EOS 20D digital camera
Whether it’s the requisite summit shot on top of a mountain or a picture of an amazing sunrise over the ocean, photography has become a default part of any big adventure for me. When going fast and light, I carry a small Pentax Optio digital camera with 3-megapixel resolution. It fits in a pouch no larger than a cigarette pack and does a fine job for photo album snapshots.

National Geographic Maps, TOPO! State Series
National Geographic Maps employs 60 full-time cartographers to produce publication supplements, atlases, globes, recreational maps and maps used for the society's video and television productions. This division also produces TOPO! State Series software, a collection of digitized United States Geological Survey (USGS) maps packaged by state or region.

Bike Helmet Reviews - Bell Sweep XC, Uvex Supersonic RS, Louis Garneau Aki
I ride roads and trails, pavement and dirt, mud and snow, and one good bike helmet is enough for me. So, this spring when it came time to replace my long-used and abused Trek helmet, I decided to test out models from three companies in a search of a new chief noggin bonnet.

Pacsafe Daysafe security backpack
Talk to any group of well-traveled people and the stories of surreptitiously lifted purses, picked pockets and swiped backpacks will eventually start to propagate the conversation. Passports, cash, credit cards, plane tickets, camera and hotel key can be lifted quiet and clean in an instant, forcing a woebegone trek to the American Embassy for identity reclamation, phone calls and money wired in from mom and dad.

Eco friendly fabrics - Hemp, Organic Cotton, Wool, Bamboo
Until the early '90s, Styrofoam cups and food containers were the norm in the restaurant business. Now, recycled paper products dominate, being pushed into popular use by consumer demand for corporate environmental responsibility.

Princeton Tec Bike Light Reviews
On the very periphery of the outdoors genus, there exists a group of bike heads and gear junkies who will not think twice about putting down $500 on a high-power bike light system. Granted, the light cannons manufactured by companies like NiteRider and Light & Motion -- which create...

Adventure racing shoes (Salomon, Nike, Adidas, Montrail)
A typical adventure race includes steep uphill climbs, river crossings, long treks off trail and miles upon miles of fast running on gravel roads and trails. As such, the footwear built for the sport must drain water quickly when submerged, protect the foot from roots and rocks, run fast when the trail opens up and offer enough comfort and support for the long haul.

Best Luxury Camping Accoutrements
Poking at coals and roasting marshmallows -- requisite campfire idleness and tomfoolery -- are as integral to the outdoors experience as any epic hike in the woods. Here's a quick look at three camp items I've been using as of late to enhance my 'round-the-fire-ring time...

Car Camping Tents (Kelty, Paha Que, Hilleberg)
A small tent really has no place at the common drive-up campsite. For car camping, you want a cavernous, feature-full, stand-up-and-stretch-out nylon lodge with pockets, vestibules and all the bells and whistles. Here's my quick review on three such outsized tent models...

Ispo show highlights
As one of the world's largest outdoors and fitness-sports exhibitions, Ispo brings together a diverse group of international companies to provide a peek at worldwide recreational trends. Indeed, at this year's summer show, held July 3 - 5, exhibitors from 46 countries were present, and only a small percentage of companies on the show floor were American.

Aquapac - waterproof gear containers
In total, Aquapac makes 40 products, with designs to accommodate cell phones, GPS devices, MP3 players, radios and PDAs. The polymer cases are flexible like plastic bags. The sealer on top is a bulky plastic trim that covers the case opening. It locks down and closes airtight with the twist of two or more tiny levers.

Winter camping equipment -- sleep gear - Exped, Mandatory Gear, Outdoor Research Lighthaven
Few outdoor pursuits draw such strong reaction as winter camping. The idea of laying down in the snow, closing your eyes and going to sleep is a ridiculous and foreign concept for most of the population.

Outdoor Retailer trade show Winter Market 2006, gear highlights
The Outdoor Retailer trade show is a twice-annual gathering of product designers, salespeople, retail buyers, athletes and other forms of outdoors cognoscenti. The Gear Junkie was there, too. Here's a peek at new products and test prototypes from the show to watch for over the coming months.

Riverboarding : Green River, Utah


Sea to Summit waterproof gear bags
In 1990, an Australian named Tim Macartney-Snape took a swim in India's Bay of Bengal, and then he shouldered a backpack to start a long hike uphill. Four months later, hiking from the ocean, through the foothills of the Himalayas, and eventually climbing to base camp on Mt. Everest and up the mountain itself, Macartney-Snape stood on the summit of the world's highest peak.

Summertime kid gear - Outdoor Gear for Kids
Forget video games. Turn off the TV. It's summertime, and kids need to be outside under the blue sky running wild. Here are a few toys for the tikes and gadgets for the older girls and boys. Gnarly gear. Outdoorsy accoutrements. Material motivation, perhaps, to help nudge your kids off the couch, into the backyard and beyond.

Sandals Summer Review - Keen, Chaco
There are myths and hearsay in backpacking circles of hardy trekkers who go days and weeks on the trail in only a pair of sandals. Now, these are not flip-flops, mind you. Over the past decade, companies starting with Teva and Chaco, and now Bite, Keen and others, have refined the traditional sandal into something with support, grip, comfort and durability.

Best Wool Base Layer Test
Just a couple years back, it was hard to find quality winter-weather base layers made of anything but polypropylene. But the tide has turned, and this year wool is the fabric of choice for more than a dozen outdoors apparel companies.

Ice climbing equipment
The obscure, some would say insane, sport of climbing frozen waterfalls is not so obscure anymore. At least according to a new report compiled by the Outdoor Industry Association, a Boulder, Colo., organization that tracks outdoor-recreation trends. The Outdoor Recreation Participation Study, Seventh Edition, cites ice climbing as a sport that 1.1 million people tried last year in the United States alone.

Cold-weather cycling jackets
Wintertime bike riding is not for the meek. Numb hands, slippery sidewalks and unplowed trails, windburn, road spray and endless dark evenings can make even the heartiest two-wheeler surrender to a stationary bike indoors at a health club.

Cold weather and Winter Cycling Apparel
Keeping toes warm and legs dry is a continual challenge for wintertime bike enthusiasts. Road spray on your seat, numb ankles exposed to cold wind, loose pant legs snagging in the chain -- all are annoyances and safety hazards on the snowy road or trail.

Surly Bikes' Pugsley


50 State Highpoint Quest


Primal Quest Adventure Race


Canyoneering in Grand Staircase


Yurt Ski Trip


Via Ferrata in Ogden


OR Show, gear highlights


Yes, you can surf in Wyoming...


Urban-skid-out-biker-kid-extraordinaire


Inov-8 mountain running shoes
These aren’t trail runners. They aren’t shoes you’d wear for a jog on the street, either. U.K.-based Inoveight Ltd. makes shoes for the oddball sport of mountain running. Indeed, the company’s promotional literature says the shoes are designed for the complex, undulating terrain found in the mountains. Rocks, scree, talus, streambeds, icy goats trails, slabs and mountain meadows are all fair game.

Wenger Uber-Knife


Davis Instruments Knot-a-Bag
The humble plastic bag is an indispensable item for anyone who spends time in the outdoors. Whether stowing food for an overnight backpacking trip, transporting a wet swimsuit or wrapping up a cell phone to keep it dry in the rain, the ubiquitous plastic bag is a simple, inexpensive and low-tech solution.

Professional Bike Fitting
Fine tuning a bike to fit a rider’s precise body dimensions -- down to millimeter increments -- is a regimen often associated with serious road bikers and Tour de France athletes. But there is a movement in the cycling industry to push professional fittings to bike commuters and recreational road riders, and proponents tout performance and comfort gains that will benefit even the once-in-a-while biker buff.

Hydracare water bladder cleaning kits
You know it’s time to clean your hydration bladder when: A) Live algae has sprouted in a crease; B) Water that goes in pure comes out tasting literally fishy; or, C) That strange and swampy odor seeping from your CamelBak is eliciting vocal complaints from your hiking buddies.

Seattle Sports Company CrossBreed Dry Pack 1500
The rubbery roll-top dry bags popularized by river rafters and whitewater kayakers several years ago are gaining favor with hikers, hunters, backpackers and adventure racers. If 100 percent dry gear is an absolute necessity -- as it's increasingly becoming with cell phones, digital cameras, walkie talkies and GPS systems -- these PVC, urethane or treated-nylon bags are pretty much the only thing going.

ProBar Energy Bar Review
Art Eggertsen worked as a congressional lobbyist representing nutrition-education interests before switching to a career in energy foods. As founder of ProBar LLC, a small company based in Park City, Utah, Eggertsen leaned on his knowledge of health and nutrition to create a unique new energy-bar product.

Ironman wrap-up, or The Gear Junkie gets the flu
To borrow an old line, the best-laid plans of mice and (Iron)men often go awry. Thus was my case with Ironman Wisconsin, an event for which I'd committed hundreds of hours of training over the past six months, only to be struck down with the stomach flu three days before the race.

Ironman Swim
In mid-September, the Gear Junkie is signed up to compete in Ironman Wisconsin, a full-scale Ironman triathlon event that includes a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a 26.2-mile marathon run. In addition to some serious training and mental commitment, several key pieces of gear will help me swim, pedal and limp my way through the course.

Jetboil Review - Personal Cooking System
The Jetboil Personal Cooking System (PCS) has been called a total rethink of the traditional camp stove. The all-in-one $80 product, which debuted two years ago to much fanfare in the outdoors press, integrates a small butane burner with a special heat-transfer ring and a 1-liter metal cup. The end result is a cooking system that is about twice as fuel efficient as competing stove models, according to the company's tests.

Ironman Run
The final leg of an Ironman triathlon -- a painful 26.2-mile marathon run -- is undoubtedly the most loathsome and horrific portion of the race. After the swim and several hours of biking, most athletes are beat up and physically drained at the start of the run, and the end is only then just barely in sight.

Outdoor Research Zealot jacket
For warm summer rains, the Zealot will feel clammy. And for the coldest winter days, the thin shell may feel a bit paltry, no matter how much fleece and polypro you’ve layered underneath. But for most conditions, the jacket nails a nice middle ground of being light, breathable, wind-proof and capable of keeping all the elements at bay.

Mora knives
More than 100 years ago, in the rural Swedish village of Ostnor, just outside of the well-known town of Mora, a knifesmith named Erik Frost founded Frosts Knivfabrik. The Mora region was renowned for its high-quality blades, and Frost built his company on knife making principles and practices that had been handed down for many generations.

Ex Officio Buzz Off clothing
I have a friend who has suffered the ill effects of Lyme disease. It's a long, horrible and draining sickness that I would not wish on an enemy, and since this person's diagnosis I've been doubly conscious of the small dangers in the woods.

Johnson Outdoors, boat review roundup
Johnson Outdoors Inc. is a recreational conglomerate that oversees such well-known water sports brands as Old Town, Ocean Kayak, Carlisle, Escape, Extrasport and Necky. Over the course of the past four months, I've had the chance to test three Johnson Outdoors boat models at locations as far flung as the Mississippi River in central Minnesota and the Pacific Ocean just south of California's Big Sur.

The Thumb Compass Review
The thumb compass is a funny little esoteric piece of gear that's slowly earned my respect over the past few months. I was first introduced to the concept by an orienteering acquaintance who could run through the woods like a deer, jumping logs, dodging branches, skirting swamps, all while reading a detailed map and taking quick glances at the small thumb-mounted dial.

Ironman Bike section
The second leg of an Ironman triathlon is a grueling bike segment that stretches on and on for 112 miles. Top-end cycling equipment is a must, as competitors strive to finish with a good time while exerting as little energy as possible before the final running segment of the race.

Brunton SolarRoll Review
Brunton's SolarRoll products are flexible plastic sheets with embedded solar paneling made for powering electronic equipment deep in the wilderness. The rolls weigh less than the average camp stove but output up to 14 Watts of power, which in my tests was enough juice to recharge a laptop computer.

Quechua 2-Second Tent
Last week I reviewed three high-end tents made for minimalist hikers who need to go fast and light through the wilds. This week's featured shelter, an 8-pound igloo of fabric called the Quechua 2-Second Tent, is a flip opposite design, both in form and function.

Performance Flip-Flops - Keen, Chaco, Teva and Mion
The proverbial flip-flop sandal just barely passes for a shoe. It offers little support and no toe protection. It's made to be worn casually, for comfort, convenience and little else.

Primal Quest


Primal Quest gear, part III: Water sports
Down-river transit during the Primal Quest adventure race will be accomplished in two ways: In a traditional tandem kayak as well as on a not-so-traditional riverboard. As such, the race requires an odd mix of aquatic gear, including knee and shin guards, fins, booties, a climbing helmet and, of course, the riverboard itself.

Primal Quest gear, part II: Biking
To prepare for a long haul, I've outfitted my mountain bike with lights, bags and components that will -- hopefully -- get me through the many saddle-sore days and nights I'll spend in the desert.

Primal Quest gear, part I: Trekking
Say a prayer for the Gear Junkie. By the time many of you read this, I will be off into the wild yonder of the Primal Quest adventure race, a 10-day, 500-mile multidisciplinary event taking place in late June this year in the Utah desert. As a member of a four-person squad called Team Bulleit, I'll go nonstop, day and night, through mountains and canyons, desert plains and deep forests. A map and compass will be our only guide through a vast and unmarked wilderness course.

Gregory Mountain Products, Traction series
New this year, the Traction series, which includes five products geared toward students, travelers and businesspeople, is in the catalog alongside packs made to withstand an ascent of the North Face of Mount Everest.

Kid carrier backpacks - REI Piggyback, Kelty Tour
Our baby daughter turns one-year-old next month, and in the ongoing challenge to keep active with the little one backpack child carriers have been a godsend. In the past six months, my wife and I have hiked in Sweden, trotted along in local orienteering races, walked unencumbered with the dog on a leash through our neighborhood, and even shoveled snow with a content baby in the carriers we’ve been using.

Thule Load & Go gear organizers
Load & Go products range in price from $15 to $75 and break down into three categories. The Go Packs, which are the Load & Go items made for hardshell rooftop cargo carriers, are essentially large nylon duffle bags. They are boxy and big -- with 3,800 cubic inches of capacity -- but shaped to fit the curves inside cargo carriers from Thule (though they work in similar boxes from Yakima and other companies as well).

Fixed-Gear Bike: Co-Motion Streaker
An hour into a long bike ride last week, I had an epiphany. Though I'd ridden through the city, on streets and sidewalks, and then turned south on a fast paved trail to ride for several miles, I had not once touched the brakes.

New knives! (Buck Sirus; Wenger Evolution S)
Indeed, Buck markets the Sirus ($93) and its other assisted-opening knives to campers, hunters and hikers, touting quick access to the blade as well as built-in safety measures to make sure it does not pop open unexpectedly.

Energy bars, the quantitative view
This week I'm taking the opposite tack on the selfsame subject, relaying pure information and straight objectivity on the five types of energy bars I ran past my tongue last week. Not a single pesky opinion of my own here. Just the nutritional nitty-gritty, and all things quantitative on the carbs and sugars and fats and secret ingredients that make these bars what they each individually are.

Best Energy bars
My current obsession with adventure racing has me eating a lot of energy bars. Out in the woods, running and biking and bushwhacking for hours on end, I may consume eight or 10 bars in a day. Cashew cookie, carrot cake, lemon, chocolate brownie, cherry pie and cocoa mole. All the flavors of the rainbow in my pack. Field testing, as it were.

Bic Yakka Review - Fold-In-Half Kayak
The company's Yakka kayaks, which include three models, are nearly identical boats with rigid plastic hulls and inflatable sidewalls. For storing and transporting the Yakka kayaks, Bic Sport added hinges to the middle of the hull, letting you fold the boat in half and tuck it away in the bed of a pickup or, perhaps, your closet in a cramped city apartment.

Adventure bikes - Surly Pugsley, Evingson Cycle Voyageur
Essentially beefed-up mountain bikes with massive tires, adventure bikes have been manufactured by custom shops since the late 1990s. Surly Bikes, a company based in Bloomington, Minn., debuted the category's first mass-produced model when it shipped its Pugsley frame in mid 2005.

Gear Review : Map extravaganza 2006
In preparation for a trip to Utah last month, I went purposefully overboard on the procurement of maps. To scout new wilderness I'll often purchase a few United States Geological Survey (USGS) quad maps and maybe buy a guidebook or two. But for my Utah trip I needed more.

Red OXX Carry-Ons
United Airlines allowed me to bring two pieces of luggage -- each with a max weight of 50 pounds -- plus two carry-on bags. After packing in snowshoes, helmets, a wetsuit, climbing gear and ropes, a paddle, shoes, inline skates, trekking poles, and a few other mandatory adventure items, I was nearing the airline's prescribed stowaway limit.

Adventure Medical Kits Survival Pak
Wilderness survival is a lost art. Cell phones, GPS systems, emergency radio beacons, on-call helicopter rescues and other modern introductions have softened society's stance on the importance of knowing how to survive alone in the deep woods.

SureFire flashlights Review
The U2 Ultra, indeed, has luminosity enough to rival the surface of the sun. The United States Military uses it during battle. Cops wield this beam to spot creeping criminals in dark alleys. Some Web sites actually classify it as a weapon, the flashlight's bright white beacon capable of temporarily blinding and discombobulating a perpetrator.

Mora Knives
More than 100 years ago, in the rural Swedish village of Ostnor, just outside of the well-known town of Mora, a knifesmith named Erik Frost founded Frosts Knivfabrik. The Mora region was renowned for its high-quality blades, and Frost built his company on knife making principles and practices that had been handed down for many generations.