Short answer: A lot. Long answer: It depends on a multitude of factors, including body weight, pack weight, elevation gain/loss, terrain, and more. Here’s a quick round-up of a few online estimates (and guesstimates), plus…
Read More
Top 7 Ways to Get Outdoors with AMC in 2025
A couple of years ago, I started keeping something that I call a “joy calendar.” Life was moving a little too fast, and I’d said yes to too many things, which were piling up and...
Read more
Here’s the video, which should help clarify things: I wouldn’t have bruised and blackened my toenails last week if I had taken the time to employ one of my favorite hiking boot lacing techniques: the…
Read More
Any survival kit should have the tools to start an emergency fire. A firestarter (waterproof matches, flint, etc.) is the crucial item, but a close second is quick-to-light emergency tinder to get the fire going,…
Read More
Gore-Tex hiking boots are supposed to be waterproof, right? Well, they are—except when they’re not. My standard hiking footwear is a pair of Vasque Sundowner Classics, which include a Gore-Tex liner. I’ve worn them in…
Read More
How much weight will a tent add to your pack? It depends. Manufacturers list two weights for tents, trail weight and packed weight. Neither is truly accurate. Packed weight refers to how much the entire…
Read More
Snow stakes are designed to anchor a tent in compacted snow. They aren’t absolutely necessary to pitch a winter tent—you can also create anchors by using buried objects in the snow, or “deadmen”—but they are…
Read More
I’m always on a quest to pack maximum backcountry calories for minimum weight, especially during the winter season when calorie burn runs particularly high. I’ve detailed the highest calorie trail foods out there in a…
Read More
Discover the pros and cons of these two common pack designs. Over the past two decades, backpack design has increasingly shifted away from external frames to internal frames. Indeed, it can be difficult these days…
Read More
Brightness is typically indicated in lumens, a measure of the total output of a light source. A classic Mini Maglite flashlight peaks at around 15 lumens. A typical LED headlamp puts out roughly 50 to…
Read More