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5 Questions to Ask Before Trying That New Outdoors Adventure
By Michael Lanza We shuffled silently up the Grand Canyon’s South Kaibab Trail in the last hour of a 42-mile, over 21,000-foot, one-day rim-to-rim-to-rim run across the canyon and back. Following the beams of our headlamps—night had fallen a few hours earlier—exhausted but knowing we had the... -
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5 Expert Tips For Buying a Rain Jacket For Hiking
By Michael Lanza Choosing a waterproof-breathable rain shell for hiking, backpacking, climbing, or other outdoor activities can seem daunting. Prices range from under $100 to over $500, and weights from less than half a pound to over a pound. Some are loaded with features, others so minimalist... -
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Tent Flap With A View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites
By Michael Lanza An unforgettable campsite can define a backcountry trip. Sometimes that perfect spot where you spend a night forges the memory that remains the most vivid long after you’ve gone home. A photo of that camp can send recollections of the entire adventure rushing back to you—it... -
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Expert Tips For Buying the Right Hiking Boots
By Michael Lanza Boots are the most important piece of hiking or backpacking gear you will buy. You can live with a mediocre pack or a cheap tent (as many of us have), but poorly fitting boots are often a trip killer. Trouble is, boots are also the most difficult piece of gear to get right... -
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Video: Hiking Utah’s Slot Canyons Peek-A-Boo and Spooky Gulch
By Michael Lanza Send four kids age 10 to 12 through a tight slot canyon where they have to pull themselves over short pour-offs, duck through natural arches, and twist and contort their bodies to squeeze between wildly curved walls that frequently narrow to just inches wide, and they hardly... -
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The Best Backpacking Gear of 2025
By Michael Lanza Utah’s High Uintas Wilderness, Montana’s Beartooths, and Colorado’s Weminuche. Glacier National Park and the Tetons. The Grand Canyon (repeatedly). The Canadian Rockies. Southern Utah’s Owl and Fish canyons. The Wind River Range. The John Muir Trail and Wonderland Trail... -
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How to Choose Trekking Poles
By Michael Lanza You want trekking poles for backpacking, dayhiking, running mountain trails, ski touring, or other backcountry activities, but the abundance of models and designs out there can seem overwhelming. Collapsible or folding, ultralight or heavier and sturdier, adjustable or... -
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The Top 5 Ultralight Backpacking Tips
By Michael Lanza I field a lot of questions from readers about gear and backpacking, and I find the conversation often boiling down to one issue: how much weight they have in their packs. The biggest lesson I’ve drawn from more than three decades of backpacking—including the 10 years I spent as... -
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The 30 Nicest Backcountry Campsites I’ve Hiked Past
By Michael Lanza It is one of those unfortunate inevitabilities of life, like death and taxes: Occasionally on backpacking trips you will hike past one of the most sublime patches of wilderness real estate you have ever laid eyes on, a spot so idyllic you can already see your tent pitched there... -
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The Best Trekking Poles of 2025
By Michael Lanza One of the most immutable truisms about hiking is this: Backpackers, dayhikers, climbers, mountain runners, and others who start using trekking poles almost never hit the trail without them again. No matter how much weight you’re carrying—from an ultralight daypack or running... -
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5 Reasons You Must Backpack the Teton Crest Trail
By Michael Lanza On my first backpacking trip on the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park, camped on Death Canyon Shelf, a broad, boulder-strewn and wildflower-carpeted bench at 9,500 feet, I awoke to the sound of heavy clomping outside my tent. I unzipped the tent door to... -
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The 10 Best Family Outdoor Adventure Trips
By Michael Lanza As a parent of two young adults who’s taken them outdoors since before they can remember, I’ll share with you the biggest and in some ways most surprising lesson I’ve learned from these trips: Our outdoor adventures have been the best times we’ve had together as a family—and... -
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New Year Inspiration: My Top 10 Adventure Trips
By Michael Lanza I often get asked the question, “What’s your favorite trip?” And I don’t have an answer. To pick just one from all the amazing adventures I’ve had the good fortune to take over more than three decades feels like an impossible task. Instead, I’ve just updated this list of my 10... -
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How to Dress in Layers for Winter in the Backcountry
By Michael Lanza If hiking, backpacking, and climbing from spring through fall teaches us the fundamentals of layering our clothing for comfort in variable weather, the backcountry in winter confers a graduate degree in layering. In mild temperatures, getting wet with perspiration or... -
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Review: Patagonia Black Hole Pack 32L Travel Pack
Travel Pack Patagonia Black Hole Pack 32L $169, 32L/1,831 c.i., 1 lb. 12.6 oz./810g One size backcountry.com If you’re like me, whenever you’re flying somewhere for a few days, maybe a week or more, you ask yourself the same question: Can I do this without checking luggage? Not only do I... -
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17 Photos From 2024 That Will Inspire Your Next Adventure
By Michael Lanza How was your 2024? I hope you got outdoors as much as possible with the people you care about—and you enjoyed adventures that inspired you. I’m sharing in this story photos from several backpacking and hiking trips I took this year, from the Grand Canyon in April and southern... -
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Review: Rocky Talkie Mountain Radio
Two-Way Radio Rocky Talkie Mountain Radio $110 each/$220 per pair 6.1 oz./172.9g (one radio only), 7.9 oz./224g (including carabiners and leash) rockytalkie.com Over more than 30 years of climbing and skiing in the backcountry, I’ve had a few close calls, some directly due to the inability of... -
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Review: Black Diamond Fineline Stretch Shell and Pants
Rain Jacket and Full-Zip Pants Black Diamond Fineline Stretch Shell $180, 10 oz./283.5g (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s XS-3XL, women’s 2XS-2XL Men’s: blackdiamondequipment.com Women’s: blackdiamondequipment.com Black Diamond Fineline Stretch Full-Zip Pants $155, 9 oz./255.1g (men’s small) Sizes... -
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The 12 Best Backpacking Trips in the Southwest
By Michael Lanza We all love the majesty of mountains. But the vividly colored, sometimes bizarre, often incomprehensible geology of the Southwest canyon country enchants and inspires us in ways that words can only begin to describe. And while you will find very worthy dayhikes and even... -
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10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit
By Michael Lanza Backpackers planning a trip in popular national parks like Yosemite, Grand Teton, Glacier, Zion, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, Great Smoky Mountains, and others have one experience in common: A high percentage of them fail in their attempt to reserve a...