It’s way more expensive and not as comfortable. Our gear director weighs the pros and cons of an über-light kit. This question is all about aspiration. I remember the first time I saw an ...

Over the years, ultralight backpacking has garnered an unfortunate reputation: obsessive, elitist, unsafe, prohibitively expensive. While we could debate the first three (obsessive is the only one I’d ...

When you’re logging miles on the trail by day, a backpacking tent is your priceless refuge by night. It’s the shelter that will keep you warm, dry and away from bugs, where you’ll snooze, change ...

I first encountered the ideas of ultralight backpacking in 1994, in an article in now-defunct (and much-missed) Backpacker magazine. It was titled “Less is More,” by Mark Jenkins. (I still have a PDF ...

Fourteen-thousand miles on the trail. Up mountains and over rivers. For weeks at a time. And all of it out of a backpack that weighs less than a gallon of milk. That’s right, Clint “Lint” Bunting is ...

Rookie campers may think that sleeping mats are all pretty much the same, but in fact they vary enormously. From simple foam rollout mats to highly engineered insulated options for trekking in winter, ...

Since the 1930s, backpacking has progressed in leaps -- from 1930s wood-and-rope Trapper John pack boards, to World War II surplus gear, to external-frame, hip-belted Keltys, to today's internal-frame ...