Outside

CONFESSION: I’ve never been on a backpacking trip. As newly appointed editor of Outside’s all-encompassing Gear Guide, I’m hesitant to admit this. I’m a lifelong recreational day hiker. An enthusiastic backcountry explorer. Terrible sleeper. I also spend an unjustifiable amount of time thinking about where my next meal will come from (this applies whether I’m doing something active or just sitting at my desk all day). It’s the sleeping-and-food thing that has always kept me from committing to self-supported backpacking trips. Car camping, on the other hand, speaks to me. Give me a full-size cooler (page 51) I can fill with eggs and bacon and beer and canned cocktails; a double air mattress (page 57) that’s four inches thick and fills the entire footprint of a two-person tent; and enough space…

a. Lisa Jhung Categories: Trail and Road Running Shoes Location: Boulder, Colorado Freelance journalist, editor, and author Lisa Jhung has researched, tested, and written about running shoes for more than 15 years. She coordinates a fleet of female shoe testers out of Boulder and says her home office is a perpetual obstacle course of cardboard boxes and piles of shoes. A high school jumper and occasional sprinter/hurdler, she started running—really running—after walking off the collegiate volleyball team and swiftly progressed to road and trail races of any distance, triathlons, multiday adventure races, and mountain running. She’s happiest testing rugged trail shoes on gnarly terrain. b. Eugene Buchanan Category: Boats Location: Steamboat, Colorado Eugene Buchanan spent 14 years at the helm of Paddler magazine as publisher and editor in chief. As a freelance journalist, he has written about…

TESTERS: 254 MILES COVERED: 7,040 HIGHEST ELEVATION: 19,000 feet, Himalayas, Nepal LOWEST ELEVATION: 0 feet, American Samoa HOTTEST TEMP: 115° F, Escalante Canyon, Utah HEAVIEST LOAD: 125 pounds, Chugach National Forest, Alaska MOST CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF PRECIPITATION: 10, Anchorage, Alaska BEST TESTER QUOTE: “The pockets, I learned, are also good at holding standing water. In a pinch, you could carry a big straw and periodically drink from the small ponds on your hips.”—Tester Bradley Allf, after evaluating backpacks during a downpour in Linville Gorge, North Carolina…

Osprey Exos/Eja Pro 55L $290 Looking at this pack’s cushy hipbelt, airy trampoline back panel, and plentiful pockets, you’d be forgiven for expecting it to weigh twice as much as it does. But that’s the magic of the men’s Exos/women’s Eja Pro 55L, which is more comfortable and durable for its weight than any other pack we’ve tested in its category. The Pro is composed of 100-denier ripstop nylon reinforced with a 200-denier ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)—a stronger-than-steel fiber often used by ultralight cottage brands. The pack’s dorsal pocket is woven with that same blend, rather than the usual stretch mesh, further boosting durability. Even after a season spent section-hiking the Colorado Trail and brushing through rocky gaps on peak-bagging missions, the Pro remains scratch-free. Its 3.5-millimeter spring-steel perimeter frame is lighter than that…

LIGHTEST Gossamer Gear Fast Kumo 36 $190 Compact, comfortable, and featherlight, the Kumo 36 is a fastpacker’s dream. Weight savings come from stripping nonessential features and using high-end PU-coated Robic nylon (70 denier in the body, 100 in the boot). In lieu of a frame, the pack relies on a removable foam back panel that supports up to 25 pounds and doubles as a sit pad. The Kumo is designed to go fast, from the easy access to four chest pockets and dual-zippered hipbelt pockets to the wide, vest-style shoulder straps, which spreads loads evenly across the upper body. Through-hiking testers also appreciated the removable hipbelt, trash-stash pocket, and D-rings. The Kumo’s feature set made it easy to log long miles: a tester who wore it for an 118-mile section of the PCT…

Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm NXT $240 Therm-a-Rest’s NeoAir XTherm was already a bit of a unicorn in the backpacking world when it came out in 2012: crazy warm, packable, and lightweight. The new Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm NXT must be a flying unicorn, then, since it’s better in nearly every way. This pad sports an impressive bump up in R-value from an already winter-ready 6.9 to 7.3, which is unheard-of in the one-pound weight class. At the crux of this extreme warmth is an additional layer—the pad now has five—of Therm-a-Rest’s proprietary coating, a thin metallic film woven into the pad’s interior that reflects heat back at your body and reduces heat loss. The extra layer also softens the crinkly potato-chip bag noise this pad’s predecessor was known for. The pad’s thickness has increased…