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How to Plan a Backpacking Trip—12 Expert Tips
By Michael Lanza Wilderness backpacking opens new worlds to us. While dayhiking can bring you to many beautiful places in nature, walking for days through the backcountry, carrying all you need on your back, inspires a liberating sense of self-sufficiency and solitude as you escape the crowds... -
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5 Reasons You Must Backpack in Glacier National Park
By Michael Lanza Create a list of the attributes that constitute a great backpacking trip and the chances are very high that you will describe Glacier National Park. There’s the incomparable landscape, where the remnants of glaciers hang off craggy mountains, vertiginous cliffs tower above... -
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America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips
By Michael Lanza What makes for a great backpacking trip? Certainly top-shelf scenery is mandatory. An element of adventurousness enhances a hike, in my eyes. While there’s definitely something inspirational about a big walk in the wild, some of the finest trips in the country can be done in a... -
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Pro Tips For Buying a Backpacking Sleeping Bag
By Michael Lanza Finding a sleeping bag that’s right for you may be the most confusing gear-buying task. Getting the right one is critical to sleeping comfortably in the backcountry—and in an emergency, your bag could save your life. But with the myriad choices out there, how do you tell them... -
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The Best Backpacking Trips in Zion National Park
By Michael Lanza If you invited all of the major Western national parks to a big family dinner, Zion would sit at the kids’ table. At a bit over 148,000 acres, Zion is dwarfed by the iconic wilderness parks that are the most sought-after by backpackers, like Yosemite (which is five times... -
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The Best Mittens for Winter 2025
By Michael Lanza Let’s start with two truths about mittens: 1. We know they’re warmer than gloves. 2. We often choose gloves over mittens, anyway, for some reasons that make sense and some reasons that, well, don’t make much sense. Whether you need them for resort skiing or snowboarding... -
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Hiking Angels Landing: What You Need to Know
By Michael Lanza Thrilling, scenic, and enormously popular, an impressive feat of trail building, an intimidating and exposed scramble—these are some of the descriptions commonly given to Angels Landing in Zion National Park, all of them accurate. It also has a reputation as one of the scariest... -
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The Best Gloves For Winter 2025
By Michael Lanza Looking for winter gloves that keep your hands warm and dry and are made to last for years? As a professional gear reviewer who gets cold hands easily and spends many days outside in winter, from downhill, backcountry, and Nordic skiing to trail running, biking around town, and... -
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Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail: The Ultimate, 10-day, Ultralight Plan
By Michael Lanza Are you planning to thru-hike the John Muir Trail? “America’s Most Beautiful Trail” should be on every serious backpacker’s tick list. After hiking it in a blazing (and slightly crazy) seven days, I became convinced that—while that was quite hard—the traditional itinerary of... -
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How to Get a John Muir Trail Wilderness Permit in 2025
By Michael Lanza Sometimes it can seem like everyone who’s ever carried a backpack through mountains somewhere wants to thru-hike the John Muir Trail—especially when it comes time to reserve a JMT wilderness permit. And why not? “America’s Most Beautiful Trail” earns its nickname and ranks... -
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Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail: What You Need to Know
By Michael Lanza For many serious backpackers, a thru-hike of the John Muir Trail looms as a sort of holy grail. But every JMT aspirant inevitably faces the question: How do you plan a 221-mile hike of “America’s Most Beautiful Trail?” Besides preparing physically for it, a JMT thru-hike poses... -
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Backpacking the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wildernesses
By Michael Lanza Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon national parks loom large on the radar screens of most backpackers. But savvy Sierra aficionados know that the two major wilderness areas that sprawl over nearly 900,000 acres along more than 100 miles of the High Sierra between those parks... -
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5 Expert Tips For Buying the Right Backpacking Pack
By Michael Lanza If you’re super fit and strong, hike with a pack of any weight 50 or more days a year, and have never known any sort of injury or ache in your body, then don’t bother reading this article. But for everyone else, knowing how to find the right pack for backpacking and other... -
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The 10 Best Hikes in Zion National Park
By Michael Lanza At a bit over 148,000 acres, Zion comes nowhere near America’s largest national parks in sheer immensity. Zion could fit inside Yosemite National Park five times, inside the Everglades 10 times, inside Yellowstone 15 times, and inside our largest park, Alaska’s Wrangell-St... -
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My Most Scenic Days of Hiking Ever
By Michael Lanza We can all remember specific places that we consider the best days of hiking we’ve ever had. I’ve been exceptionally fortunate: I have hiked many trails in America and around the world that would probably make anyone’s list of most-scenic hikes. From numerous trips in iconic... -
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Where to Backpack First Time in Yosemite
By Michael Lanza Ready for your first backpacking trip in one of America’s greatest national parks for backpackers? Having backpacked several times all over Yosemite, my advice for a first-time backpacker who wants to hit highlights like Yosemite Valley, the Mist Trail, and Half Dome is nearly... -
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How to Get a Yosemite or High Sierra Wilderness Permit
By Michael Lanza Ah, the High Sierra. Yosemite. Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. The John Muir Wilderness and Ansel Adams Wilderness, Mount Whitney, and countless other, less famous but equally beautiful spots. Every backpacker who has ever walked for days through any of these wildlands... -
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The 10 Best Backpacking Trips in Yosemite
By Michael Lanza After more than three decades of exploring all over Yosemite on numerous backpacking trips, I’ve learned two big lessons about it: First of all, few places inspire the same powerful combination of both awe and adventure. And Yosemite’s backcountry harbors such an abundance of... -
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Review: Himali Men’s Endeavor Fleece Hoodie
Hooded Fleece Jacket Himali Men’s Endeavor Fleece Hoodie $180, 15.5 oz./439.4g (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s S-XL himali.com On January days of backcountry skiing in Idaho’s Boise Mountains and Galena Summit area, moving constantly between cold shade and warm sunshine, with temps ranging from... -
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5 Reasons You Must Backpack Mount Rainier’s Wonderland Trail
By Michael Lanza There are many good reasons the 93-mile Wonderland Trail encircling Washington’s Mount Rainier ranks among the most popular backpacking trips in the country. And yet, backpackers who’ve never attempted this loop around the third-highest peak in the Lower 48 may have questions...