Two years ago, I had a mild midlife crisis when I turned 40. I say 鈥渕ild鈥� because I did not make any negative life-altering choices or obsess over opportunities missed in the first 40 years of my life. I did, however, make the stereotypical massive purchase which had a toe hold in vanity.

Driven by the determination to maintain some level of athleticism as I age, I cleaned out my garage鈥攚hich had long been a gear hoarding space鈥攁nd turned it into my ultimate home gym.听 When all was said and done, my out-of-pocket expenses came to around $5,000鈥攖he third-largest single purchase 滨鈥檝别 made in my life (after my home and my Tacoma).

It鈥檚 still not the fanciest home gym in the world, but I did splurge on some top-tier equipment that I knew would enhance our workouts at home. My wife uses our garage gym six to seven days a week, while I am in for a solid three workouts per week. I used to open my garage and shudder at the mess, and now I see nothing but opportunity to better myself.

Essentials: The Must-Haves for a Basic Home Gym听

A kettlebell, yoga mat, and speaker are where it all started for me. I would put my daughter (then a newborn) down for naps and rip a fast kettlebell and core workout in my backyard while listening to tunes and obsessively watching our baby monitor. Both my workout time and space are much more plentiful now, but these three products still remain key parts of my fitness routine.

Paradigm Pro Elite 33 mm kettlebells

I would suggest that a kettleball be the first purchase for your home gym due to the dozens of powerful exercises you can do with it. I have tested and written about a variety of kettlebells and, after having used the Paradigm Competition Kettlebell for seven years, it is still my favorite and the one I go to for swings as well as presses (my main two kettlebell movements). Its hollow core makes it feel balanced in my hand and the oversized handle delivers plenty of real estate for moves that require both hands, like swings.

JBL Boombox 2

If a kettlebell is the first purchase you make for your home gym, I would suggest buying a premium speaker as your second. At $400, the Boombox 2 is crazy expensive, but the price tag comes with a huge audio upgrade from its smaller counterparts. We have had two different friends purchase this speaker after working out in our garage with us because they were so impressed with the sound quality.

With 24 hours of solid battery life, we charge the thing about once a month even when using it six-plus days a week. It is also really loud. I can clearly hear my wife鈥檚 pump-up music through a closed garage door from a hundred yards away. In my opinion, listening to the music you want loudly is one of the great joys of having your own exercise space.

If you are on a budget you can get by with a smaller bluetooth speaker like our favorite budget option, the TriBit Xsound Plus2, or you can stick with the earbuds you already have. If you have the extra dough, though, solid robust sound brings pure magic into a workout space.

Lululemon Reversible Mat 5mm

This 5-millimeter mat is meant for yoga, but thanks to a polyurethane top and natural rubber bottom, it鈥檚 robust enough to pull double duty as a core workout landing space or even a platform for squats. While cheaper, thinner yoga matts tend to get ratty quickly after extensive use, this one has remained intact after over two years of heavy use.

Nice to Haves: Equipment that Will Enhance Your Gym Experience

Once I created some more time in my life for fitness as well as more physical space in my garage, I started to accumulate specialty pieces of workout gear that would allow me to focus on parts of my body that are especially injury prone (like my chest and shoulders).

R-B Rubber Stall Mats

These 4-by-6-foot mats designed for horse stalls will turn what is likely the least comfortable floor in your home into what feels like a professional gym at a sub-$60 price tag (I got mine at my local Grange). The mats use recycled tire crumb and a polyurethane binder that has proved soft enough for me to walk around on barefoot (how I prefer to lift) and sturdy enough to handle the impact when my wife and I drop the bar after our heaviest deadlifts.听

You can purchase significantly more expensive, gym-specific flooring, but 滨鈥檝别 found that these mats work just fine and show little wear and tear after two years of heavy use. Plus, the budget price point made growing our garage gym space scalable.

Everlast Fight Sports Conditioning Rope

This 50-foot-rope made from a blend of polypropylene (80 percent) and polyester (20 percent) offered me great respite from the many stressors of the Covid lockdowns, and they continue to deliver a great stress-relieving workout today, even though they do look haggard four years later. While the rope has frayed from hundreds of uses and many thousands of slams into the floor of my garage and driveway, it still holds its weight and delivers the kind of resistance you need for a high-intensity workout.

Everlast Slam Ball

This 25-pound slam ball holds a great deal of expressed rage inside of it. Slamming it on the ground of my padded gym floor and grunting like a gorilla is one of the single best ways to release frustration鈥攁nd it鈥檚 a great core exercise when done correctly, too.

Rogue Adjustable Bench 3.1 – Black – Black – Premium Foam Pad

A solid bench is a very important safety investment when building a home gym. If you鈥檙e thinking of cutting corners with this purchase, I suggest you do a quick web search for videos of benches failing while people were bench pressing. I trust this heavy, solidly built steel bench with my life. I also love how easily I can move this bench to any incline and back to flat thanks to its slick adjustment mechanism and sturdy handle. Though hefty, it鈥檚 easy to roll the 52-inch-long-bench out of the way when not in use.

PAPABE 150-pound Dumbbell Set

My wife and I decided to get the least expensive dumbbell set that we could find, which is how we landed on Pababe. While affordable, these weights get the job done just fine. They鈥檙e rubberized, so we can drop them and create minimal damage to our mats. The light knurling on the handle delivers a just right grip that doesn鈥檛 rip up my palms during high-rep exercises but isn鈥檛 slippery when my hands are sweaty.

Rogue Flat Pack Games Box

We use this 30-inch by 24-inch by 20-inch cube for box jumps to build our explosive energy. 滨鈥檝别 also found that doing one-leg step ups to failure is one of the best ways to get the legs in shape for backcountry skiing. You can find cheaper plyo boxes, but I chose to spend extra on this one because 滨鈥檝别 learned that Rogue makes quality equipment that鈥檚 made to last.

NordicTrack X22i Incline Treadmill

I love this treadmill for its high-quality screen, iFit compatibility, and dainty 70-inch by 39-inch footprint that fits nicely in my garage. But the X22i鈥檚 best feature is its 40-percent incline. The steep incline means I can get in a proper skimo workout (with nerdy poles and all!) and burn out on vert to get my legs prepared for big ski objectives.

Splurge: Turn Your Home Gym Into a Legit Workout Space

The equipment above is all you really need to maintain your fitness as a mountain athlete. The following pieces will elevate your home workout space into a real gym, as I did on my 40th birthday. You will notice that everything in this splurge tier is from Rogue Fitness. While I believe you can get excellent equipment from Rogue鈥檚 competitors, I chose to pay full price for every Rogue item in my garage because of their durability and the brand鈥檚 lifetime warranty on all of the structural welds and frames. Buying all your equipment from one brand can also save you a lot of money on shipping costs.

Rogue RML-390F Flat Foot Monster Lite Rack – Single 1.25″ Pullup Bar

This 48-inch by 49-inch rack slips perfectly into the corner of our garage and has an ample 30-inches of space within, giving us plenty of space to perform squats and bench presses. The Flat Foot option makes it a stable, sturdy platform to do pull ups on even without bolting it to a wall or into the floor. Assembly is straightforward鈥擨 enlisted the help of a handy neighbor and we had it up in under an hour.

Rogue TB-2 Trap Bar

A friend purchased a Rogue TB-2 Trap Bar while I was saving money to build this gym and after using his I begrudgingly realized I needed to save another $415 to add this item to my purchase list. It offered a much better deadlift experience than the regular barbells I had been using. The trapezoidal design and raised handles help me maximize each of my deadlifts without having to bend too far and challenge my spine.

Rogue 45LB Ohio Power Bar – Black Zinc

While there are myriad barbells on the market that can serve you extremely well, with different designs aimed at maximizing different lifts, I chose the Power Bar because it is built specifically for my three favorite lifts鈥攖he squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. The shaft doesn鈥檛 flex much, which is nice for when we want to lift heavy. I also find that the extra hearty knurling (the textured areas on the bar) gives me extra grip while bench pressing.

Rogue 260 LB HG 2.0 Set

I have to be honest with this purchase: I bought Rogue plates because I had purchased enough gear from Rogue to qualify for free shipping (which is where plate manufacturers can get you). I could rattle off all of the benefits of these weights, like the fact that they are in killer shape after almost two years of use and thousands of drops, or how seamlessly they slide on and off the barbell and trap bar after thousands of uses.

But in my opinion, you could be well served by a more budget-plate company and save yourself around $100. That said, I would highly suggest sticking with rubberized bumper plates if you plan on lifting heavy weight and potentially dropping them.

The post How to Turn Your Garage Into the Ultimate Home Gym appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Gear is a generous Valentine鈥檚 Day gift. Picking something other than the usual chocolate, flowers, or booze shows that you acknowledge your partner鈥檚 interests and listen to their needs. Beyond that, the right gear gift can enable you and your Valentine to plan a romantic outdoor getaway.

Below we list some of our favorite gear specifically designed for two. Each product offers your partner (and yourself) something that is both extremely practical for your adventures together and romantic in its thoughtfulness.

When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside.听Learn more.

Exped MegaMat Duo sleeping pad

This wildly comfortable, two-person mattress is a brilliant Valentine鈥檚 Day gift because it invites intimacy while also offering better sleep.

I have slept more nights on the MegaMat Duo over the course of the past three years than any other inflatable camp mattress on the market. By my best estimate, that amounts to around 90 good nights of sleep. The secret to this comfort is the ample amount of super springy, open-cell polyurethane foam that鈥檚 both soft and supportive, whether or not you inflate it to a rock-hard PSI.

My wife and I are not alone in our听 deep love of the MegaMat: 国产吃瓜黑料 columnist Wes Siler used the MegaMat as the base point of an essay on why it鈥檚 smart to invest in high-end camping gear and apparently had 鈥渁n awful lot鈥� of good sex on one, too.

Exped MegaSleep Duo sleeping bag

Pairing a pricey camping mattress with the same brand of sleeping bag system may sting during the initial purchase, but it鈥檚 usually a smart investment. Just like in partnerships, compatibility goes a long way.

The MegaSleep鈥檚 measurements perfectly match the MegaMat Duo sleeping pad and offers two different insulation levels and temperature ranges depending on which side of the sleeping bag is facing up. One side (colored burgundy) is heartily insulated, and when it is oriented on top, performs like a 25-degree sleeping bag. Flip it over to its less insulated blue side, and it lands more in the 40-degree bag range that鈥檚 ideal for summer nights.

It also has a full-length zipper that detaches, so you can create two different sleeping bags (one 25-degree and one 40-degree) if you and your partner have wildly different sleeping temperatures like my wife and I.

Lifestraw Peak Series 3L gravity water filter system

Nothing says 鈥淚 love you鈥� like saving your partner from a fortnight of water-borne diarrhea. Before my wife and I started splitting rent, we split up our pack weight in the backcountry. A 3-liter gravity filter was the first piece of gear I added to our shared backpacking load鈥攃lean water is something that I never want to ration unless I absolutely have to.

We love the Peak Series 3L because it鈥檚 exceptionally user-friendly鈥攋ust fill it, hang it, and let gravity do the filtering. It also has NSF certification鈥攁 rigorous certification level that not all water filters go through鈥攕o I know it will actually filter out bacteria, parasites, and microplastics that would make us sick. Lastly, it stops letting water move through it when it can no longer safely filter water, which means I don鈥檛 have to keep track of how long we鈥檝e used it and risk catching giardia.

MSR Windburner Duo Stove System

As I said, I believe splitting pack weight is one of the great advantages of partnership. A solid two-person stove like MSR鈥檚 Windburner Duo will allow both you and your Valentine to eat more quickly and efficiently in the backcountry.

My wife and I used a Jetboil Sumo for years but switched to the Windburner Duo six years ago because the wind-shield around the heat source works better for tailgating out of the back of my truck in our ski resort鈥檚 comically windy parking lot. I have not organized a formal test, but I can anecdotally say that the boil time is around four minutes, and its 1.8 liter-capacity delivers plenty of hot water for a freeze-dried meal and a couple of eight-ounce hot drinks for a delightful backcountry date night.

Miir Tomo thermos

The 1-liter Miir Tomo has been our go-to ski resort coffee solution for three years now because it does the best job of keeping our coffee warm throughout an entire ski day. When I start getting my family ready at 6:30 a.m. to ski at our local hill, I fill the double-walled, vacuum-insulated thermos with boiling-hot coffee. Two hours later, my wife and I are drinking piping-hot coffee out of the two 8-ounce cups built in as the lid and bottom of the Tomo. Even when I leave this thermos sitting in our truck on mornings that are below freezing, we always have steaming-hot coffee to enjoy hours later at lunch.

Backpacker鈥檚 Pantry Pad Thai meal pouch

My wife and I both agree that a fantastic view beats a fancy indoor meal every time. The Pad Thai from Backpacker鈥檚 Pantry has a delightful sriracha kick and feels fancy thanks to the included peanuts you can sprinkle on top of the noodles to complete the dish. One sub-$10 package delivers 730 calories of spicy and peanut-buttery noodles that鈥檚 ready to eat in under 20 minutes. My wife and I find that one pouch serves up a light alpine dinner for a couple.

While the end result is backpacking-good (i.e. not on the same level as my favorite Thai restaurant in town), my wife and I can both eat it from the same container while enjoying an unreal sunset in the high alpine, which is plenty fancy for us.

The post 6 Valentine鈥檚 Day Gifts for Adventurous Couples appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Having tested outdoor gear as my main gig for over a decade, I am used to finding myself on the same side as the experts when it comes to gear advice. We agree that cotton doesn鈥檛 always kill; waterproof running shoes can actually make your feet wetter on runs; and yes, you should always pack a headlamp. One area where I heartily disagree? Socks. I am a big proponent of wearing synthetic (rather than wool) socks for winter pursuits.

I have tested over 150 socks鈥攔anging from ski socks to running socks鈥攆or 国产吃瓜黑料 and interviewed professional athletes, thru-hikers, and product designers in the process. Most of these folks believe that wool socks are the best choice for winter wear because of the fabric’s natural thermoregulating and odor-mitigating properties.

There鈥檚 no arguing that wool is a better insulator from the cold. It remains warm when wet,听 so your sweaty feet are less likely to freeze in your ski or hiking boots. Textile manufacturers have experimented with brilliant weaves and fancy chemicals to make synthetics (like polyester, nylon, rayon, and spandex, to name a few) as effective as wool at regulating temperature and mitigating odor, but most haven鈥檛 been able to match mother nature in those departments.

Still, I swear by socks made from synthetics and here鈥檚 why: I have brutally sweaty feet that blister like the dickens. Synthetic materials are better than wool at wicking moisture.

The right synthetics will actively grab moisture off of your skin and move it away to the exterior of the fabric, mitigating friction that can lead to painful blisters. When well made (from reputable brands like my personal favorite, Polartec), synthetics make the most of the fibers鈥� hydrophobic properties.

That said, every body is different, as are feet. Even two feet on the same body can even be different (my left foot blisters more than my right). So instead of letting you know what socks work best for me in the winter, let鈥檚 dive into the pros and cons of each.

Wool vs. Synthetic Socks: Pros and Cons

Are you concerned about odor? Go with wool.听

One of the biggest benefits of wool is its natural odor-resistance. While it is not technically antimicrobial, the keratin protein that wool is made from and the waxy lanolin that many wools contain do not allow our stinky bacteria to thrive on it the way it does on synthetics, like polypropylene (or polypoopaline, as I like to call it).

鈥淥ne of the things that I like least about the synthetic socks is that they’re embarrassing on a multi-day trip when your sock is dried and you can hold it out like a flag in a gale force wind,鈥� said Saylor Flett, an 国产吃瓜黑料 gear tester and program director for 鈥檚 outdoor program. 鈥淎nd it’s actually just a rigid shape that you have to reconform to your foot every morning until it gets wet again.鈥�

If you plan to spend multiple, consecutive days in the same pair of socks this winter, socks with high wool content are the best option.

Do you have sweaty feet that are prone to blistering? Choose a sock made from synthetic materials or a synthetic-blend.听

鈥淲ool just doesn’t dry very quickly. So once you get it wet, it stays wet,鈥� said Tyler Maheu, a textile guru who has worked on connecting brands with products for over 20 years. 鈥淵ou get a little bit of grit or whatever in your shoes in that moisture and it forms blisters.鈥�

Since synthetic moves moisture off the skin so efficiently, it can significantly mitigate the chances of getting painful blisters. My personal favorites for skiing are the socks. For running, my go-tos are .

Do your feet get cold in the winter? Wool鈥檚 your answer.听

While wool doesn鈥檛 dry as quickly as synthetic materials, it stays warm when wet鈥攊t鈥檚 like neoprene, explained Robert Fry, an expert in material sourcing who was previously in charge of wool product at Mountain Hardwear and The North Face. So if moisture is to blame for your cold feet (and your feet aren鈥檛 prone to blistering), then wool might actually help keep your feet warmer because holding the moisture close to your feet allows your body to warm it up.

On the other hand, if the moisture is moved away from your feet (i.e. by a moisture-wicking synthetic sock) and gets trapped under the plastic shell of a ski boot or the vapor barrier of mountaineering boots, the cold from the outside can really bring down your boot temp.

Do you like drying your feet by a fire on hut trips or in a ski resort parking lot? Choose wool.听

鈥淚 like drying my feet around a fire,鈥� said Flett. 鈥淚 don’t have to worry about wool melting.鈥� While this one might seem obnoxiously specific, wool鈥檚 fire-resistant qualities can be very important to those who use fires to get warm for much of the winter.

Are you freaked out by microplastics getting into waterways? Wool鈥檚 the only option.听

鈥淚’d be remiss if I didn’t mention microplastics,鈥� said Fry. 鈥淪ynthetics like air-spun or ring-spun polyester shed a lot of microplastics every time you wash those socks,鈥� said Fry. 鈥淲ool doesn’t shed the microplastics. Micro-wool isn’t harmful the way microplastic is.鈥�

Charles Ross, performance sportswear and design lecturer at the , has closely watched the effect of microplastics as well as treated cotton on London鈥檚 aging infrastructure and had a particularly interesting story about researching outflow pipes with hundreds of years of waste built up. 鈥淲hen we dug up the outflow pipe, we had synthetic waste, we had cellulose waste, but we had zero wool waste,鈥� said Ross.

Still not sure whether to go with wool or synthetic? Go with a wool/synthetic blend.听

鈥淭he best compromise is by blending wool with a synthetic yarn,鈥� said Ross early in our conversation. When done correctly, there is an opportunity for the materials to deliver the best of both worlds. This blending has to be done very carefully, though, to make sure that the warmth of wool and sturdiness and stretch properties of synthetic are being fully utilized.

One way companies achieve this is by putting the bulk of the synthetic materials in the heel and toe to help the socks move and minimize wear, while using wool elsewhere to allow the bulk of the foot to stay warm. Another method manufacturers use听 is to place soft wool content next to skin to enhance warmth and synthetic away from the skin to increase the sock鈥檚 durability.

On the flipside, poorly blended fibers can offer the worst of both worlds. Some of the original wool/synthetic blends are pure garbage because their only goal was to cut down on the amount of wool going into the sock. They were blended in such a way that they held onto moisture and odor.

Be wary of socks that use an 鈥渋ntimate blend,鈥� a process in which wool and synthetic fibers are woven together equally, sometimes strand by strand, which makes the end product take on some of the worst properties of both ingredients.听

The post Are Wool Socks Really the Best Choice for Winter Wear? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

I have a confession to make: I am super intimidated by ski boots. I have written about ski boots many times in the past decade and interviewed more than a dozen experts; 滨鈥檝别 skied hundreds of days in that time frame and worked as a professional ski instructor; and I still have a ton to learn about this complicated product. Without doubt, ski boots are the most challenging piece to buy in a ski kit. They also happen to be the most important when it comes to improving your performance and enjoyment on the hill.

I lucked into a pair of K2 Recon boots that worked for me in 2018, and am still using them out of fear of messing with the esoteric magic spell that delivers comfort to my misshapen feet.

Because I know I鈥檓 not the only one overwhelmed by the idea of finding new boots, I interviewed four experts to get to the bottom of what the everyday skier needs to know when shopping for ski boots. I ended up compiling 63 pages of notes and transcripts to try and demystify this piece of gear. Here鈥檚 your cheat sheet.

Related:

The Experts

The Bootfitters鈥� Bootfitter

Sam McDonald has been fitting boots for over a quarter of a century and his ability to distill down the nuances of the ideal fit for different feet, skiers, and body types is incredible. He has been working for Surefoot since 1997 and has been the manager of since 2010.

The Boot Tester

My friend Kelly Bastone has been my go-to personal resource for boot questions for years. She鈥檚 been a gear tester for 国产吃瓜黑料, Backpacker, and SKI for around a decade and has tested over 200 pairs of ski boots.

The Lifer

is a lifelong skier, writer, ski company marketing pro, and backcountry ski guide with deep roots in the ski industry. He鈥檚 the friend I turn to for ski gear advice because he knows a lot and tells it like it is.

The Boot Designer

is the lead ski boot engineer for K2 and a professional ski instructor. I challenge you to find someone who spends more time in or around ski boots.

4 Tips for Finding the Right Ski Boot

Flex is Tricky

The refers to how stiff the boot is and how much force it takes to get the cuff of the boot to flex forward. A higher flex number means a stiffer boot. Generally speaking, the stiffer the boot, the more a skier can crank on the skis to initiate a turn,听making stiff boots best suited to expert skiers. Flex numbers for adult ski boots range from 80 to 130, with 80 considered soft and anything above 115 considered stiff.

Ready for a myth I am excited to bust? Stronger skiers don’t听necessarily need a stiffer boot.

鈥淕et over this whole idea of, I’m an expert skier, I should be in a 130 boot,鈥� Bastone advised. 鈥淚f you ski moguls, if you’re jumpy, if you like lots of air and lots of little landings and things, you might want to go down a little in flex because as soon as you hit something unexpected, you’re going to feel like the rodeo horse just bucked you really hard in that boot.鈥�

Just because a stiffer boot is more expensive doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 the best performing boot, Burrow added. 鈥淭ypically, the stiffer the boot, the less comfort it provides.鈥� Even though Burrow is an excellent skier, ski instructor, and has made a career designing boots, she doesn鈥檛 always prefer the stiffest option. 鈥淚’m in my boots all day and I’m also pretty small, so having a super stiff boot for me can be really challenging.鈥�

Rather than blindly looking at a flex number, test out the flex for your body type and weight when you try boots on. 鈥淥nce you put it on, do some forward flexes into it, and if you feel like you’re almost falling forward, then that boot’s probably going to be a little bit too soft,鈥� said Burrow.

Flex is relative from boot company to boot company, so one brand’s听130 does not equal another’s. The first time I found that out, it made my head spin. If flex is causing you a similar level of stress, it is a good idea to go to a reputable shop to talk it out with an expert. 鈥淔lex and stiffness is hard because the numbers can be quite confusing. Going to see somebody that you trust or that your peers trust is super important,鈥� McDonald said.

Good Fit Starts with Awareness

The best place to start is by looking down at your own feet and trying to gauge your (i.e. your food width and instep height). While a bootfitter can measure the contours of your foot to the millimeter, starting with a general idea of your foot volume and shape is going to narrow your search significantly.

These days, most boots come in three different volume options: high volume (HV in the model name), mid volume (MV), and low volume (LV). 鈥淒etermining where you fall in that category can be really helpful when you’re looking at a wide range of boots, just to narrow down your selection,鈥� Burrow said.

Trust yourself, here. 鈥淢ost people know if they have a wide foot, a high arch, or narrow foot. I mean, they’ve been wearing shoes all their life,鈥� Bastone said. Burrow agreed. 鈥淔oot volume can be determined by a bootfitter or if you just know yourself,鈥� she said. If you鈥檝e experienced instep pain in shoes or boots, that could indicate that you have a high-volume foot; if your foot is really narrow, chances are you belong in a low-volume听boot. 鈥淪o just thinking about problems that you’ve had in everyday shoes, things like that and how you want your boot to fit is really important,鈥� Burrow said.

Starting with the right volume is a non-negotiable for Bastone.鈥淲ith my tester team, I was always really careful to match up the self estimated foot volume with the foot volume that the boot promises to fit,鈥� Bastone said. 鈥淚t’s awesome that even the stiff, high performance boots are often now made in a higher volume option. So it doesn’t have to be just the skinny-footed people that get the really great ski boots.鈥�

You Can Have Comfort AND Performance

Another myth I鈥檓 stoked to bust: Ski boots are supposed to hurt if you want great performance. That鈥檚 simply no longer the case in 2024. “It鈥檚 totally possible to get ,” Bastone said.

While the line between tight and too tight might feel like a tough one to toe, Bastone has a killer analogy she received from a bootfitter years ago that she has held on to. “A great ski boot should feel like a friend’s handshake鈥攅ven, warm, and supportive, but not aggressive,鈥� she said.

It is worth noting that boots that feel comfortable in the ski shop or your living room might not always provide the same comfort on a full day of skiing. 鈥淪ki boots are not crocs. Going for something too comfortable means you’re going to have something that’s a little too big,鈥� Hunt said. 鈥淎 boot might feel great when you’re standing in the shop or sitting in the lodge. But once you start moving, it’s too loose and your feet start rubbing.Then you鈥檝e got blisters.鈥�

Aftermarket Insoles and Liners Are Worth It

Hunt offered some blunt advice when it comes to a ski boot鈥檚 stock components: “The stock insoles that come in ski boots just need to be tossed immediately,鈥� he said.

鈥淭he two things that custom insoles do is make skiing easier and more comfortable,鈥� McDonald added. He mentioned that the key to extended comfort in a boot is proper foot positioning. 鈥淭he only way to effectively change your foot position is with a good custom insole. Ski boots are designed around a foot that’s in a certain position and you have to make sure you get an insole that holds you in that position.鈥�

If you are looking for an extra layer of personalized comfort, investing in aftermarket liners ( and 听are some of the most popular options) that can be easily molded to your foot and ankle shape is a good idea.

Custom footbeds and liners are pricey and might deliver sticker shock if you are already dropping hundreds of dollars on boots, but McDonald maintained that his customers are always happy they made the purchase. 鈥淏reaking in a stock liner, even the highest quality, overly engineered liner that comes from the manufacturer, can take up to 30 days,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you are willing to invest $10,000 a week in skiing at Whistler, or Aspen, or Vail, invest in some form of custom liner. It makes things way better and way easier for sure.鈥�

The post 4 Tips to Make Shopping for Ski Boots Way Less Intimidating appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

There鈥檚 a whole lotta hubbub about Black Friday in the outdoor industry. If you鈥檙e on one side of the issue鈥攊.e., hating Black Friday and the capitalist excess it stands for鈥攜ou are unlikely to get pumped about the rest of this article. But if you鈥檙e like me and you do research beforehand and hold out on purchases until they are on sale, then Black Friday is a great way to save on things you were planning to buy anyway. Below are six items I have either tested for this publication in the past or use on the regular in my day-to-day life. I swear by every single one, even in normal times. But this week, you can snag up to 30 percent off, making now a great time to strike. This is the stuff that’s worth waiting around all year for.

Swiftwick National Park Socks

The Product: Blister-proof socks with flair
The Deal:听11/25 to 12/2, you can get 25% off sitewide

By my best calculation, I have put more than 500 miles into my pair of Swiftwick Yosemite National Park Socks and they are still the first pair I grab from my drawer when I鈥檓 headed out for a run. They were my sock of choice for a 50-mile race I ran back in 2021 because the six-inch cuff helped keep rocks out of my socks, and the Yosemite print added a little flair to my kit. In my opinion, Swiftwick socks are the best at blister mitigation, which is why this pair remains my favorite a few years and hundreds of miles later.

DUER Performance Denim Slim

The Product: The highest performing slim-fit jeans I have tested
The Deal: 11/25 to 12/1, up to 50% off sitewide

Back in the summer of 2018, we published an article boldly titled, 鈥淒uer Makes the Best Jeans. Here Are Our Favorites,鈥� based on the fact that an inordinate number of people putting this publication together at the time were all wearing DUER jeans as our daily drivers. While I did not contribute any writing to that article, I was one of the louder voices suggesting we write about the Canadian brand due to the fact that I was wearing a pair of slim-fit performance-denim jeans at least three days a week for everything from work meetings to re-working the irrigation in my garden. Ten months later I wrote about how their fleece lined jeans 鈥渃hanged my life. Superlative headlines aside鈥擨 am still wearing a pair of the slim-fit performance-denim jeans the DUER sent me back in 2018. They continue to fit in such a tailored fashion that I can pull them off when business casual is the expected attire and stretch like the dickens thanks to the two-percent spandex, 28-percent polyester, and 70-percent cotton weave. So yeah, after six years, I can say that they are indeed the best jeans.

Buff Tech Fleece Hat

The Product: The ultralight, ultrawarm hat of your dreams
The Deal: 11/25 to 12/3, up to 40% off select styles sitewide

Back in 2018, I did a comprehensive test of cold weather running hats and absolutely gushed over Buff鈥檚 extraordinarily comfortable fleece option. At the time, I wrote: 鈥渢he Tech Fleece elicited notes like 鈥楲UXURIOUS!!鈥� and even an 鈥榦oh la la!!!!鈥欌�� Embarrassing number of exclamation points aside, the brushed polyamide interior was so supple on my ears and forehead that I forgot I was wearing it while running. This beanie is still a go-to six years later. Buff鈥檚 current technical fleece hat looks a little different from its predecessor, but is still extremely comfortable thanks to the four-way stretch DryFlx material it was built from (this, by the way, is an upgrade from the hat I have held on to all these years.) Forgive the brand’s intentional misspelling and credit DryFlx鈥檚 71-percent recycled material and hearty four-percent dose of elastane for a build that doesn鈥檛 pin down your ears and provides a similar, wildly soft feel.

ARMRA Immune Revival

The Product: Stomach-settling superfood supplement
The Deal: 11/28 to 12/2, get 20% off jars and bundles with promo code MYREVIVAL20, and 10% off sitewide with code MYREVIVAL10

My wife and I are definitely planning to buy this colostrum from ARMRA when it goes on sale because we typically pay full price鈥攁nd it鈥檚 always worth every penny. I am always skeptical of superfoods that use as many superlatives as ARMRA does, but we have been using this stuff daily in our household for months and have noticed serious benefits to our guts and digestive systems. I will spare you details, but can say with confidence that Immune Revival helps keep our stomachs feeling good and settled鈥攕omething I鈥檓 grateful for both while running and during everyday life.

KT Tape Pro

The Product: Stretchy support tape for muscles and joints
The Deal: 11/19 to 11/30, get 25% off sitewide

I am falling apart at 41 as a result of treating my body like it was invincible in my 20s (and most of my 30s). In the past six months, 滨鈥檝别 watched a massage therapist, chiropractor, and physical therapist all wrap up different parts of this breaking body using KT tape, and every time, 滨鈥檝别 walked out of their offices feeling like I had a little hug supporting my injuries. It鈥檚 a great way to help relieve pain and speed up recovery. I even have a roll of KT Tape at home that I bought to treat my own plantar fasciitis. KT Tape is comfortable going on, stretchy as hell so it doesn鈥檛 feel too binding, and comes off without much hassle.

Kane Footwear Active Recovery Shoe

The Product: Cloud-like slip-ons for post-workout recovery
The Deal: 11/20 to 12/2, BOGO 25% off

I named the Kane Revive Active the most versatile recovery shoe in a recent footwear test because it helped me cushion and support hammered legs but still wore like a regular shoe in all the ways I wanted it to. The footbed texture and smooth ride made the Kanes feel like a recovery shoe, while plentiful heel support, decent breathability, and a more streamlined silhouette made them functional enough for running errands. This is actually my second pair of these funky-looking recovery kicks鈥攁nd likely won鈥檛 be my last.

The post The 6 Sales Gear Guy Is Shopping This Black Friday appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

November is the time of year when we in the northern hemisphere get that sweet reminder of how shitty it feels to be too cold. If you are one of us who depends on a fire to stay warm through the winter, you know this fact: kindling is king. Whether it鈥檚 for your wood stove at 6:00 am when your house is as chilly as the dickens, or when you get off the river with frozen fingers on a fishing trip, the answer remains the same: If you want good kindling fast, you need a good hatchet. To help you find the right one for your needs, I tested some of the best models on the market. Here are my five top picks.

At a Glance

• Best Value:
• Best for Wilderness Survival:听
• Best for Precision Cutting:
• Most Ergonomic:
• Lightest:
• How I Tested

If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

Best Value

CRKT Chogan Hatchet

听

Weight: 1.5 lbs.

Overall Length: 13.2 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Insanely capable
鈯� Extremely affordable
鈯� Not powerful enough for most hardwoods

This one-and-a-half-pound, sub-14-inch hatchet proved small but mighty. The head is made from one solid piece of 1055 carbon steel鈥攌nown for its durability and edge retention鈥攚hich was heavy enough in relation to the glass-reinforced nylon handle to provide a hefty swing. This concentration of weight behind the blade allowed it to work its way through softer woods like cedar and fir, but it did find its limitations with the harder woods like madrone and oak. While I could get through the heavier woods, it typically took me at least a dozen strokes, with some feeling dangerously taxing on the nylon handle. It was a heck of a little hammer on the stakes, though, and I found it particularly easy to swing accurately; in fact, it’s about the same size and weight of the hammer I keep in my toolbox back home.

Best for Wilderness Survival

Gerber Bushcraft Hatchet

听

Weight: 2.4 lbs.

Overall Length: 15.3 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Handle doubles as waterproof match storage
鈯� Heavy enough for hardwood
鈯� Rubber gets mangled if you miss a strike
鈯� Blade is small compared to rest of hatchet

My wilderness survival game is relatively tight, but I would by no means call myself a bushcrafter. (In other words, I can reliably make a good fire with a single match, but can鈥檛 use a bow drill for shit). Still, I found this hatchet a blast to play with, even with my novice skills. There are five feet of ever-useful paracord in the handle, which contains a hollow, waterproof compartment big enough to store five waterproof matches and half a handful of wood shavings. The Bushcraft鈥檚 hefty two-and-a-half-pound weight and more than 15-inch length allowed it to work through oak and madrone quite easily鈥攚hen it came to hardwoods, it felt more like a small ax than a hatchet. For all the advantages that extra weight gave for the Bushcraft in terms of swing, its heft didn’t do it any favors in the carrying test. This would be my last pick to take on a long hike. It also lacked some blade length compared to the Ono and James Brand options. That made it harder to get through the thickest pieces of wood. The back of the head was a proper hammer that drove even the toughest stakes. The rubber insets around the back of the handle felt good in the hand, but it did get pretty mangled after a few missed strikes on the stakes. While this didn鈥檛 hurt the overall performance of the hatchet, it did become a bit unsightly.

Best for Precision Cutting

Silky Ono Hatchet

听

Weight: 1.8 lbs.

Overall Length: 12 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Crazy-sharp blade
鈯� Very sexy look
鈯� No real ability to hammer

鈥淥oooooh,鈥� my friend and I moaned audibly as we took this premium Japanese-crafted hatchet out of its hand-wrapped and -written-on packaging. I don鈥檛 fault us for our gratuitousness: this hatchet is sexy. It’s a big-ass piece of alloy steel with a perfectly grippy, textured, rubber handle and a four-and-a-half-inch blade. It looks like a meat cleaver you鈥檇 want by your side during a zombie apocalypse. The blade is so damned sharp鈥攔ight on par with the frighteningly sharp Hellgate below鈥攖hat I could shave pine logs as if they were giant bricks of Parmesan cheese. I really appreciated the superior grip of the handle while I made a 6:00 am fire with frozen fingers, and the swing weight from that large-bladed head let it crush through hardwood in spite of its kinda-short 12-inch length. I couldn鈥檛 really hammer tent stakes in with the back of it, which puts it at a disadvantage as a do-it-all camping tool. Still, I was willing to forgive the Ono due to how well it ate through wood to make kindling.

Most Ergonomic

The James Brand TJB Hatchet

Weight: 1.9 lbs.

Overall Length: 14 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Ergonomic wooden handle
鈯� Great swing momentum for extended chopping
鈯� Too big to pack into the backcountry

The James Brand partnered with legendary German ax-making company Adler to craft this beaut. The delightfully contoured, U.S.-sourced hickory handle and big old C60 steel head combine for an incredibly classy-looking hatchet. The blade was plenty sharp enough to make matchsticks out of oak. The TJB also boasted the second-largest striking surface in the test at four inches. The combo of that large, efficient head; the dampening factor of the wood handle; and a nice texture at the base of the grip just felt so damned good, strike after strike. I could make kindling with it all day. In fact, on my camping trip, I got carried away splitting cedar for over an hour straight without feeling much fatigue. It a little on the larger side to bring camping, and is suboptimal to pack in anywhere at its nearly two-pound weigh-in, but this hatchet is definitely the one that will live next to my woodpile at home if The James Brand lets me keep the sample. It feels a little lame to complain about the packaging, but I found myself not knowing what to do with it: When I first received this hatchet, I thought the ornate wooden box it came in was a nice touch, particularly for the price. Unfortunately, I broke the box while transporting the hatchet to my camping trip and had to put it in a landfill pretty quickly into my testing process.

Lightest

Montana Knife Company Hellgate Hatchet

Weight: 0.9 pounds

Overall Length: 10 inches

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Beautiful craftsmanship
鈯� Perfectly balanced swing
鈯� Portable and lightweight
鈯� More than twice the price of most competitors

I know that comparing this hatchet to the others on this list is inherently unfair: It鈥檚 like bringing a gun to a proverbial hatchet fight. Or, perhaps more accurately, comparing a cottage-built ultralight thru-hiking pack to a clunky, big box-brand backpacking pack. Here鈥檚 the thing, though: I couldn鈥檛 leave this truly beautiful tool off this list because it was so remarkably capable. It weighs less than a pound but was still able to cut through softwoods like butter, thanks to its razor-sharp blade and perfectly balanced swing weight. The lack of swing weight meant that hardwoods like madrone put up a hell of a fight, usually taking half-a-dozen hits or more to split, but I wasn鈥檛 complaining about the reps thanks to the Hellgate鈥檚 aforementioned balance. The lightly textured handle has a slight curve on the back that made it feel like it was made for my palm. This is a very subtle detail that delivered a notable amount of comfort over extended use. I found myself using it consistently for 20- to 30-minute increments without really thinking about the fact that I had a hatchet in my hand. On top of that, the Hellgate was made for hiking. While walking the 60-acre property during my portability test, I barely noticed I was bringing it along. The biggest bummer: The $375 price tag is certainly worthy of sticker shock. Still, I stand behind it: It hit like a heavy weight in a bantamweight package.

How I Tested

I made an absolutely obscene amount of kindling for this test. Over the past three weeks I have offered my kindling-creating services to all the wood-stove users in my friend group (there are four) and invited myself over to chop away on their wood piles for as long as it took to get a feel for each axe. I also took these hatchets on an annual fishing and camping trip with friends. While my buddies fished, I stayed back at camp and played with the hatchets.

I tested each blade on five different kinds of wood (pine, cedar, fir, oak, and Oregon madrone) and created all different sizes of kindling, from curly-gossamer shreds to solid thumb-size chunks. I used the backside of each hatchet to hammer in tent poles at the beginning of the trip. I also carried these hatchets around the 60-acre campsite we stayed on to gauge portability, and I weighed them on a kitchen scale (when I got home of course) to compare each one’s weight to its manufacturer-listed specs. Here are the results.

The post The Best Hatchets for Camping, Homesteading, and Backcountry Survival appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The first Gear Guy video I produced for 国产吃瓜黑料 in 2013 is, to this day, my most ambitious. It was also the scariest thing I have done while testing gear. I have always taken pride in testing gear rigorously enough to put myself in danger at times. On other assignments for this publication, I have ice climbed on thousands of feet of exposure on mixed routes in Chamonix, shivered next to a feeble fire in shorts through a night when a freak , and triggered a loose wet slide avalanche that I outskied on Mt. McLoughlin. Those moments stick out as scary, but they pale in comparison to the cold, butt-puckering, fear I felt while I faced the camera and delivered the lines 鈥�…and punished it鈥� while my dear friend Saylor fell a 50-foot tree onto a 听behind me.

If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

We dropped the dead tree legally and in an environmentally sound manner, but I still regret the decision because it was just so fucking dangerous. I could have been crushed if Saylor messed up his chainsaw work by an inch. I wanted to pretend it was no big deal, so I didn鈥檛 look back at the tree while speaking into the camera. Our camera operator, Pat, told me he would yell 鈥淏ail!鈥� if the tree looked like it was coming our way. When I heard the crack that let me know the tree was on its way down, life moved in slow motion. I could see the shotgun mic on Pat鈥檚 camera jiggling from his shaky nerves.

The tree hit its mark beautifully and the cooler beneath it survived the ridiculously massive impact. The middle of the lid was a little warped from the hit, but the hinges still worked and the body held strong. My buddy Saylor used boiling water and a rubber mallet to restore the cooler to near-new鈥攁nd used it on river trips for half a decade after the test. I haven鈥檛 been able to top that level of gear testing since then (nor would I want to now, as a forty-one-year-old father).

Professionally testing outdoor gear for the ten-plus years since then has been a dream job. Also: professionally testing outdoor gear limits the number of topics outdoorsy acquaintances want to talk to me about. I have lied about my job at parties because I knew that if I mentioned what I did for work, the night would descend into backcountry ski touring binding talk and I would miss an opportunity to connect in any real way. I have answered thousands of questions about gear over the last decade.

But the one question I have been asked the most, by far, is: 鈥淚s the Yeti [insert product] worth the money?鈥� I have been texted the question so many times that I had to type an automatic answer on my Notes app about roto-molding and insulation to be ready to copy and paste.

So, Are Yeti Products Worth the Money?

Yes. If you are here because of the headline, my TLDR is Yes. Yeti products are worth their high price tag. The rest of this article is more of an answer to why I think the super-premium, ridiculously overbuilt products are worth the money. That 鈥渨hy鈥� isn鈥檛 simple.

First, I want to address the large mythical snow monster in the room: I have not paid for any of the Yeti products I have tested over the years. I have also held on to many of the ones I did not destroy while testing and still use them to this day. Many would say that the fact that I haven鈥檛 paid for these products would discredit my belief that the high price tag is warranted.

I have never, however, paid out of my pocket for any products I have tested for 国产吃瓜黑料 (I would hemorrhage money if that were the case). The fact that I have tested them all for free gives me freedom to address the price based solely on the merits of the product. The fact that I have not paid for the products does make the conversation about price more philosophical since my own bucks aren鈥檛 in the game.

Yeti Products I’ve Tested

After a decade of dedicating my life and career to testing gear, I have gone the deepest on Yeti products, investing hundreds of hours to test dozens of products鈥攁nd opining on their value. If you have not been closely following my column for 国产吃瓜黑料 (don鈥檛 worry, my parents still tell their friends I work for Outdoor Magazine) here is a list of 15 times I weighed in on whether Yeti products are worth the price, and my verdict:

• Original Tundra Cooler review (): Oh, hell yeah.
• Rambler 18oz Water Bottle (): Body is worth it, lid isn鈥檛.
• Rambler 10oz Stackable Lowball (): Worth twice the price.
• First generation Hopper Tote (): Kinda OK?
• V Series Cooler (): Not really
• April Fools Casket ($4,114): Har har, but, well, yes?
• LoadOut GoBox 30 ($250): It depends (sorry)
• Roadie 48 Wheeled Cooler (): Yup.
• Rambler One Gallon Jug (): Totally.
• Rambler 36oz Water Bottle (): Sure.
• Roadie 24 Hard Cooler ($250): Yeah.
• Rambler 16oz Stackable Cup听(): Absolutely.
• Tundra Haul (): Sure.
• 1Rambler 10oz Stackable Lowball鈥攁gain (): Best for Rowdy Campers (only $20!).
• Hondo Base Camp Chair (): No.

As you can see, the overall result leans pretty heavily towards yes, the two exceptions being the V Series cooler and the Hondo camp chair. But to be fair, the V Series cooler got a rough treatment. And while I was diplomatic about my assessment of the original Hondo, I could have been quoted at the time saying, off the record, 鈥淥nly an asshole would buy themselves a $300 camp chair and watch their family sit in cheap ones, or pony up $1,200 for camp chairs for everyone.鈥�

Since Yeti products test so well, it’s tempting to want to jump to a simple answer to the 鈥渨hy鈥� question. If the end product is usually better than its competitors, it should be worth more. While that could offer a clean answer for individual products (particularly when comparing their first-generation Tundras to just about any other cooler on the market) it isn鈥檛 a satisfying answer when you look at Yeti as a company that posted 68 million dollars in sales internationally in Q3 of 2023 and now makes dozens of products beyond just coolers. I feel like completely focusing on individual performance to gauge value would demand a value call on each of the dozens of products they offer. But, before I take you all too deeply into those weeds, let鈥檚 take a quick refresh on the Yeti brand as a cultural phenomenon.

Behind the Brand

Brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders founded Yeti in 2006. The brothers were anglers and hunters based out of Driftwood, Texas, and their father, Roger, had seen success inventing super durable, high-performance, two-part epoxy fishing rods that sold at a premium price point. Because Roy was initially in the boat business, he wanted to make a super durable cooler that could also serve as a casting platform鈥攕omething that would be virtually indestructible and irreplaceable. To achieve that goal, the brothers听eventually landed on using on the exterior of the coolers鈥攖he same technology that made whitewater kayaks exponentially stronger in the 90s鈥攁nd jamming them full of a shit ton of insulation. The result was insanely durable and lightyears better than most of its competition. It was also way more expensive.

I brought up covering Yeti coolers in an editorial meeting in 2011 while I was a junior member of the staff at 国产吃瓜黑料. My pitch was clumsy and utilized my signature brand of rapid-fire, sweaty upper-lipped excitement鈥攁nd I got crickets.听 I remember one editor, who happened to be one of my idols, looked down and shook his head in painfully visible disappointment. At the time, they were just coolers. Or were they?

Whether or not people asked for a $400 cooler, they have proven willing to pay for one in the past 14 years. I feel personally vindicated by Yeti鈥檚 bonkers success. In 2023, Yeti launched 15 new products. Their investor report for Q3 expected that for the 2023 year, they would have, 鈥淐apital expenditures of approximately $55 million (versus the previous outlook of $60 million) primarily to support investments in technology and new product innovation and launches.鈥� Yeti now has dozens of communities of superfans ranging from Grand Canyon raft guides to octogenarian golfers. The company鈥檚 main business campus takes up 175,000 square feet. In other words, Yeti is massive.

Superior quality is a huge part of the story of Yeti鈥檚 success. I don鈥檛 think it is the entire story, but it most certainly is the foundation on which this juggernaut was built. I had heard of a low-key secret testing facility that Yeti had built to stress test their products somewhere in the mid-aughts and had pitched touring it for years. Last fall I had an opportunity to go see it and judge for myself how much effort they put into making sure their products could withstand abuse.

Their Innovation Center is an unmarked warehouse attached to office space, part of a sea of barely distinguishable buildings outside of Austin, Texas. When I entered, I was greeted with the noises of Yeti products getting their asses lightly and repetitively kicked everywhere. The first noise I heard was a Roadie Haul handle being extended and dropped by a robotic hand named Tripp every ten seconds. Tripp is one of the three UR5 Robotic arms that are in near constant use and are named for the heroic interns of yore (in this case: Tripp Arnold) who were employed to hand zip the original Hopper Soft Coolers 2,500 times, keeping track with a baseball clicker.

Throughout my two-hour tour of the facility, I saw dozens of machines that gave me more existential fear about robots replacing my job as a gear reviewer than any AI writing software has. There was a machine that dropped coolers from very precise heights over and over again. A robot that opens and closes four cooler lids at a time. A carousel that took rollie coolers on a circular course over obstacles like slatted decking and climbing holds before giving the wheels a stamp of approval. All told, there are 21,120 square feet devoted to testing Yeti鈥檚 vast range of products.

I have toured factories before鈥敱踱�檝别 watched Keen employees carefully place soles on work boots and the folks at Benchmade expertly craft kitchen knives in state-of-the-art facilities here in the US. I have never seen anything close to this type of rigor on the industrial testing side, though. This whole space, the size of many factories, was devoted solely to testing and prototyping the gear. It was truly incredible and I desperately wanted its awe-inspiring magnitude to directly assign value to the Yeti products I have spent so much time testing.

In service of that goal, I badgered Matt Bryson, Senior Manager of Innovation and Validation Engineering at Yeti, for superlatives throughout the tour. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the most weight you have placed on a product?鈥� 鈥淎re there any products that took an incredible beating but failed at the last second?鈥� 鈥淲hat is the craziest test you have performed on a product?鈥� His answers were both incredibly smart and very unsatisfying in the way only a hyper-intelligent corporate product specialist can deliver.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 know what somebody is going to do with a product. It could be wild, something that you never even thought of. We have to prepare for anything. Since you don鈥檛 know everything someone can do, we typically over-index on everything,鈥� Bryson said. 鈥淵ou can break anything. There is a point we call something abuse. You can鈥檛 set a cooler on fire and expect it to still work. We balance that fine line between heavy use and abuse really well.鈥�

For the record, I think that is a fabulously smart answer. But it wasn鈥檛 enough to satisfy my obsession. I was begging him to give me a quote that would not only answer the 鈥渨hy鈥� for this article, but for me, personally, as well. Honestly, I wanted the onus to be on him to assign value to this iconic outdoor gear category.

I was asking for more than manufactured tests could deliver. I was asking not just for impressive proof of the Yeti products鈥� performance and durability, but a statement that would sum up their significance in people鈥檚 lives. Honestly, though, a real-world scenario months before my visit had given me the answer. A solid cooler did benefit my life in ways that actually matter.

The Impact of a Well-Built Product

During a decade of testing, I have tested the crap out of Yeti products I have written about. I have thrown them from cliff tops, drug them behind moving vehicles (please note the plural), and filled one with hundreds of pounds of a fabrication shop鈥檚 debris and dropped it from a fully extended forklift. I have burned through at least six kitchen thermometers and hundreds of pounds of ice performing backyard thermoregulation tests.

While I took pride in the rigor of these contrived tests, it had been years since I depended on a cooler to show up for me performance-wise. Due to my life as a dad and waning desire to take risks, it had been a while since I had a real-world stress test scenario. Until last summer.

Last August, my then five-year-old daughter Josie and I found ourselves lightly stranded on the far northern California coast when wildfires shut down the highway that is the most direct arterial from the beach to our home. The town adjacent to our campsite, Crescent City, lost power for over a week. I heard reports from town asking people to stay out to keep the scarce resources open for firefighters.

I had a special week planned with my kiddo, however, so I checked in with the camp host to make sure that we weren’t taxing community resources if we kept to our site and the beach, and decided to wait until we ran out of ice or the road opened back up to head home. To be clear, this was not a real emergency鈥攚e could have driven the ten-hour drive home on the detour routes. The length of our trip, though, depended on the performance of our cooler.

Yeti Roadie 48 Wheeled Cooler

We had brought two coolers, an and a . Both coolers had an even distribution of food, root beers, and La Croix鈥檚, and each held a block of ice tucked into their right corner. I used the ice-maintenance tools honed over 20 years of multi-day rafting trips (basically, keep the fucking cooler shut!) to maximize our ice use, and we went about our solitary business.

It became clear on day two that the Yeti Roadie was doing its job better. I began moving prize cooler items鈥攖he block of Tillamook Cheddar, ravioli, Kerry Gold butter鈥攐ver to the Roadie to hedge my bets against losing them. Every morning, Josie and I would eat the highly processed donuts in our sleeping bags (I called it her raft guide training), walk outside, take a super quick peek at our ice situation, and then make the call if we would take the long route (lengthened by about five hours from shut down roads) home or stay and surf for another day.

That trip was the most magical one of my year. I kept my phone charged using a solar panel and bank and we checked in with my wife in the mornings and evenings. Otherwise, it was just Josie and me. I talked and played with my five-year-old in the sun for hours with zero distractions. One day we played on the beach for nine hours and saw three other humans and two dogs.听 Another day, we didn鈥檛 leave a 200-foot radius and remained completely entertained with conversation, art projects, and learning tricks on her new bike. I spent as many uninterrupted and fully present minutes with her during that trip as I normally would in weeks鈥攎aybe even months.

Every morning I would silently pray that we鈥檇 still have ice in the coolers. By day five, the ORCA鈥檚 ice disappeared. On day seven the Yeti cooler still had a baseball-sized chunk in it. Josie and I could have easily stuck it out for two or three more days if we didn鈥檛 get called back home by a surprise visit from relatives.

I arrived at my parents鈥� house in Ashland utterly exhausted, with a truck bed full of camping supplies and a spectacularly dirty and happy five-year-old. I gave the dinner party a light recounting of the previous week鈥檚 challenges鈥攁n adventure that was really just an inconvenience mitigated by good gear. Somewhere in the middle of my story, Uncle Bob made eye contact with me over his slice of pepperoni pizza, and I saw it coming.

鈥湵踱�檝别 gotta ask, Joe. Are those Yeti coolers worth the money?鈥�

I invited Josie to sit in my lap and looked down at our dirty feet.

鈥淵es, Bob,鈥� I replied. 鈥淵es, they are.鈥�

The post Are Yeti Products Worth the Money? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

First off: I know many runners who smoke me in training and on race day in simple cotton socks and tops. It is a privilege to upgrade to items that wick moisture, prevent chafing and blistering, and fit you well. But if you can afford it, I highly suggest spending around $80 on a really nice shirt and a pair of socks. My reasoning? These two overlooked pieces will make your training more comfortable and mindless, and as a result, you will likely run more. 滨鈥檝别 tested dozens of running shirts and over 100 pairs of socks in my time at 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Gear Guy so you can trust me.

The part of distance running that can prove both deeply meditative or totally maddening is the repetition. I find that the difference between becoming an elevated version of myself and a grumpy asshole on an early morning long run is my level of comfort. Yes, shoes matter. Shorts and pants do, too. But we talk about those all the time and often forget to pay attention to shirts and socks. This is a mistake. When the simplest pieces of a kit fail, a run can become unbearable.

The swish swish sound of one’s moving arms while running can act as a metronome with which when your body is comfortable. That same swish is a tinny laugh in the face when your armpits are chafing. And every brush of a poorly built shirt over a raw nipple feels like an advanced interrogation technique. Professional running coach Brett Hornig recently told me that most runners have a cadence of between 160-180 steps per minute鈥攖hat鈥檚 a lot of reminders you are in nipple pain. The best way to mitigate both of these maladies is by wearing a purpose built top made specifically to wick moisture from your body (along with a little dose of Body Glide if you need it).

The same goes for feet. Experiencing gestation then birth of a blister over the course of a run can become a mind鈥檚 whole focus. The larger the blister, or the creation of multiple blisters, make the discomfort all the harder to ignore. Furthermore, blisters are a compounding pain for folks who run daily鈥攕taring down at those mangled toes can make lacing up for another run feel intolerable. A sock that can move moisture, hug your foot like an old friend, and move with your stride will significantly reduce the chances of blisters and hot spots.

Your personal needs and tastes are going to dictate what type of shirt or socks you should buy, but there are a few non-negotiable features to look for.

For shirts, make sure it鈥檚 made for exercise and wicking moisture. (I prefer synthetic running shirts but there are some great merino options鈥攖hey just don鈥檛 agree with my body.) Next, try it on and make sure you like how it feels against your skin鈥攊f you don鈥檛 like it while standing still, it will likely be really uncomfortable when it鈥檚 wet and you鈥檙e moving. Lastly, make sure it fits how you want (I lean a little baggy for comfort and because it helps with wicking).

As for socks, I highly suggest trying on a few pairs and walking around in them to make sure they don鈥檛 bunch or rub on when you move. Pay attention to how they feel on the heel, toes, and sole. Once you find a pair that works for you, think about buying a few pairs so you can rotate them in the wash.

What follows are my personal suggestions for upgrades on socks and running tops. Since everyone is different and socks and tops are very personal, I organized my suggestions around common needs.

Socks

Most Durable

($17-21)

滨鈥檝别 interviewed dozens of PCT Hikers about their gear for 国产吃瓜黑料 over the past eight years and an incredible percentage鈥擨鈥檇 say around 85 percent鈥� use Darn Tough Vermont socks because they last about twice as long as their competitors. The same goes for the company鈥檚 running socks. I have been testing a pair of their since 2016 and they just won鈥檛 die. They probably see about 100 miles a year, but I have never been easy on them鈥攖hat鈥檚 some incredibly impressive longevity.

Best Fit

($17-19)

I know, the name feels on the nose. But, every running sock from this brand legitimately has an exceptional fit thanks to an extremely deep and elastic heel cup, a stretchy arch to pull feet back into that heel cup, and a little extra room for toes to splay up front. Because of this design, they won鈥檛 slide down when you鈥檙e charging hard, and they鈥檙e particularly good at preventing blisters.

Most Comfortable

($17-24)

Swiftwicks are currently my favorite running socks because of how well they mitigate blisters. The only time I developed blisters while wearing them was when I ran a 50-mile race, and even then, I still only ended up with some minor ones. The only downside is that these are the least durable of the three pairs here鈥擨 get about 250 miles on each pair.

Shirts

Best Crossover

Patagonia Capilene Cool Trail Shirt ($45)

滨鈥檝别 packed the same salmon-colored Capilene Cool Trail Shirt I wrote about in 2019 in every single suitcase I have traveled with over the past four years. The recycled polyester is spun with an odor control technology called HeiQ Pure to keep the shirt smelling fresh wear after wear, which means less laundry on the road. It wicks well, and 滨鈥檝别 never experienced any discomfort running in it. As a bonus, I also feel comfortable pairing it with jeans for a casual dinner.

Most Comfortable

Saxx Aerator Top ($45)

The same alchemy that makes Saxx鈥檚 synthetic underwear ridiculously supple creates a magic feel to this top. The shoulder seams lay flat under a running pack, and the 100-percent polyester fabric dries in a flash. Add in just the right amount of perforation in high sweat areas (like the armpits) and you have a moisture wicking, chafe-free machine.

Best Style

The small, Santa Barbara, California-based apparel company Rabbit Run, makes the best-looking run pieces, period. Every single top from this brand makes me look cooler. Seriously. And they all have great technical chops鈥攏o chafing and great moisture wicking鈥攖oo.

The post Our Gear Guy鈥檚 Recommendations for the Most Overlooked Pieces of a Running Kit appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Getting outside and rafting, surfing, and camping with my four-year-old daughter and wife is unequivocally my favorite thing in my life. It is also usually a massive pain in the ass to make happen. Since both of those things are true at the same time, I embrace any chance to streamline getting the family out the door for an adventure. One of the key parts of that process is our mondo 18-ounce pump bottle of SPF 50 ($58) that sits in my daughter’s bathroom. It鈥檚 pricey, but good sunscreen is non-negotiable in our outdoor-centric house, and this is our favorite after testing over 50 of them. Not to mention that this one container has been enough to last us an entire summer and will likely get us through ski season, too.

My wife, daughter, and I all use the same sunscreen. That might not seem like a big deal to folks who don鈥檛 have to put a dozen moving pieces together to get out the door, but since we all use it and it鈥檚 always in the same place, it likely saved us hundreds of minutes since we started using it three years ago. The pump makes applying the proper amount easy and efficient, even for our daughter.

Supergoop Play actually feels good to put on and, once applied, it disappears. It doesn鈥檛 whiten up our faces like mineral-based sunscreens, and doesn鈥檛 have a strong smell. It rubs in easily and hydrates our skin without being greasy. If we need to take some with us, we refill travel-sized sunscreen containers.

It is a chemical, rather than mineral, sunscreen, which concerns some folks, but it doesn鈥檛 contain oxybenzone, titanium dioxide, or PABAs. Supergoop follows EU standards for ingredients鈥攚hich is significantly more stringent than the U.S.鈥攁nd the result is a product I feel really comfortable using on my daughter every single day. That sense of comfort is enhanced by its SPF 50 rating and 80 minutes of water and sweat resistance. A few re-applications is plenty to get us through a full day of swimming, hiking, and picnicking outside.

Am I going to hit an efficiency vortex and get out my door in three minutes when I go boating with my daughter tomorrow morning? No. I assure you we will be a hot mess鈥攕truggling to find the just right hat that my daughter wants to wear or a matching pair of adventure sandals. But a stop in the bathroom for both of us to generously lather up with Supergoop will give us a few extra minutes on the water and keep us protected while we鈥檙e out there, though, which I will happily take.

The post The Sunscreen Our Gear Guy Trusts to Protect His Whole Family appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Each summer my hometown of Ashland, Oregon sees a large influx of Pacific Crest Trail hikers coming down from the hills to restock, take a zero day, and do laundry. I love walking around my town, introducing myself to PCT hikers, and asking them about their gear.

By the time they have reached Ashland, northbound hikers have traveled 1,706 miles by foot. They have their kits dialed and have had plenty of time to form opinions about every single thing on their bodies and in their packs by the time we talk.

This morning I ran into six of them outside of our tiny post office waiting for it to open, and asked them a basic question: 鈥淒o you have a favorite piece of gear in your kit?鈥� These are their answers.

At a Glance:

听When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside.听Learn more.

First Name: Megan

Trail Name: Rascal

Name Etymology: 鈥淚 was on the AT a couple years back and was about 100-miles in and everyone kept calling me little animal because I wanted to do big miles,鈥� Rascal said. 鈥淓ventually we were sitting at a free pancake breakfast from one of the many First Baptist Churches in the south and I said, 鈥業 just want a good trail name goddammit,鈥� and slammed my hands on the table. They said, 鈥楢lright little rascal, calm down.鈥欌��

Hometown: Burlington, Vermont

Favorite Gear Item:

鈥淚t’s a woman-owned, woman-operated company and they made these little microfiber triangles that we all hang off our packs. It’s so nice to not smell like urine all the time.鈥� While Rascal highly recommends this product, she didn鈥檛 have any specific buying tips for the machine washable antimicrobial cloths that feature one waterproof side to keep your hands clean. 鈥淲hatever your favorite color is.鈥�

First Name: Bjorn

Trail Name: Three Dinners

Name Etymology: 鈥淚n 2019 I was hiking in the Pyrenees and I thought company was coming that did not. I ate all three of our dinners. An English guy said, 鈥榊our trail name must be three dinners鈥� and I have kept it.鈥�

Hometown: Narvik, Norway

Favorite Item:

Three Dinners purchased this .6-ounce field trowel in Norway and appreciates how light weight it is. He finds it indispensable. 鈥淲hen you have to poo, you have to dig鈥擨 couldn鈥檛 make it without this,鈥� Three Dinners said. 鈥淵ou gotta use it everyday and you want to do it the right way鈥攏ot just poo and run away.鈥�

First Name: Ethan

Trail Name: Roo

Name Etymology: 鈥淚t鈥檚 short for kangaroo. I had a jacket that had a little pouch and I鈥檇 throw all my things in there and call them my little Joeys.鈥�

Hometown: Eugene, Oregon

Favorite Item: Shoe Goo 3.7 ounces

鈥淚 think I can maybe double the life of my shoes by just coating little holes as they pop up with Shoe Goo,鈥� Roo said. 鈥淭hen they don鈥檛 spread. My last pair of shoes, I was a little late on the Shoe Goo-train, and still got a thousand miles. I have a feeling that I could potentially ride these [Roo鈥檚 second, and current, pair] out to the end and get 1,600 miles out of them.鈥�

First Name: Antoine

Trail Name: Muppet

Name Etymology: 鈥淢y Senchi Designs Hoodie is very yellow so I look like Big Bird or a muppet basically.鈥�

Home Province: Quebec, Canada

Favorite Item: (formerly known as the Wren Hoodie)

The high breathability coupled with the long hair-like fibers of the Wren make it an ideal ultralight midlayer. Muppet sang its comfort praises. 鈥淚t鈥檚 super light, super fluffy, super comfortable. I just love my lovely Senchi fleece.鈥�

First Name: Milla

Trail Name: Data

Name Etymology: 鈥淚 like to track things. I track my sleep hours, my steps, and whatnot. I also like to know every mile marker that I am getting to. If you want to know where water is, ask me.鈥�

Hometown: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Favorite Item: Unbranded Eyewear Retainer

鈥淭he first 1,500 miles, I was notorious because I put my sunglasses on my head and they always fell off. This is my favorite piece of gear because it has saved my glasses,鈥� Data said. 鈥淚 don’t know the brand, but Muppet gave it to me. It isn鈥檛 fancy but it works.鈥�

First Name: Thomas

Trail Name: WALL-E

Name Etymology: 鈥淚t is like robot. I pack my trash into really tiny Ziploc bags鈥攖he snack size. I can fit three full days of trash into one of those. I squeeze it all super tight and like to pack it nice and clean like that robot does.鈥�

Hometown: Denver, Colorado

Favorite Item:

鈥淔ood is so important to me. Every evening for dinner or for breakfast in the morning, I like having the freedom to make whatever I want,鈥� WALL-E said. 鈥淚 like having a pot that is big enough to fit ramen, mashed potatoes, tuna, bouillon cube, Knorrs, beef bone broth, or mixing things together. You also need a good lid to boil it. It is super light and it makes me very happy on trail. My experience would be super different without it.鈥�

Read More

The Best Tents for Camping in Comfort and Style
The Best Sleeping Bags for Frontcountry Escapes
The Best Sleeping Pads

The post We Asked 6 PCT Hikers What Their Favorite Piece of Gear Was appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.