Honest, field-minded reviews of outdoor and safety gear.
Twelve stainless spikes per foot on an elastomer harness that stays stretchy to -22F (-30C). Why microspikes are the first winter purchase that changes what you can safely do, and where they stop.
When your hands are cold and the wind is up, nothing beats a match that simply will not go out. UCO Stormproof Matches burn through wind and rain, and even relight after being dunked in water. New to fire-building? See our guide to building a fire for how to have tinder ready before you strike….
A hot meal and a hot drink do more for morale in the backcountry than almost anything you can carry. The MSR PocketRocket 2 is the stove we point most hikers to first: it is tiny, it is fast, and proven after years on the market. For simple boil-and-go cooking, it is hard to beat.
The Victorinox Huntsman is a 15-function Swiss Army knife with two blades, scissors, a wood saw, openers, an awl and tweezers, at 3.4 ounces (97 g). It handles the small cutting and repair jobs of a camping trip; the blades do not lock.
In a surprise bear encounter, a cloud of deterrent you can deploy in a second beats anything else you’re carrying. SABRE Frontiersman is a maximum-strength bear spray with a 35-foot (11 m) range, the kind of insurance you hope never to use. Heading into bear country? Read our guides to wildlife encounters and protecting food…
The default backcountry heat pack: cheap, feather-light, air-activated warmers giving up to 10 hours of heat with nothing to charge or refill. Why they earn a place in every pack and first-aid kit.
We tell every hiker to carry two ways to treat water, and water-purification tablets are the lightest, cheapest insurance you can add to any kit. Potable Aqua with PA Plus is the classic: a tiny two-bottle set that treats water when your filter clogs, freezes, or gets left at home.
A first-aid kit is the one piece of gear you hope to never open. The trick is carrying enough to handle real problems without so much weight that you leave it behind. The Adventure Medical Kits Ultralight/Watertight .7 hits that balance about as well as any kit we know — comprehensive, genuinely waterproof, and light enough to live in your pack.
If we could put one water-treatment tool in every day pack, it would be the Sawyer Squeeze. It is light, simple, needs no batteries or wait time, and filters as you drink. For most North American backcountry travel, it is close to the perfect balance of weight, reliability, and cost.
Most people who die in the backcountry die of exposure, not injury. A 3.8-ounce (108 g) emergency bivvy that reflects most of your body heat is the cheapest insurance you can carry against a cold, unplanned night out. Planning for the worst? Pair this with our guides to emergency shelter and staying warm on a…
The century-old French folding knife with a locking collar and shaving-sharp blade — the everyday carry anyone can enjoy. Our field review of the Opinel No.8.
An insulated stainless bottle that keeps water cold for a day or from freezing in winter, with pure taste and no leaks. Our field review of the Hydro Flask 32 oz Wide-Mouth.
Sleep is safety gear. A cold, sleepless night in the backcountry saps your judgement and your body heat, and the pad under you matters as much as the bag over you. The Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol is the pad we recommend to anyone who wants something that simply will not fail — closed-cell foam, nothing to puncture.
Everything in an open boat gets wet eventually, and the one thing that must not is the dry layer you will need if you go in. The Earth Pak roll-top is the workhorse dry bag: heavy PVC tarpaulin, a simple roll-and-buckle closure, and enough sizes to match the job. Ignore the phone case it ships with.
The cheapest and most frequently purchased of the Coast Guard-approved ration bricks: 3600 no-cook calories that sit in a pack or car for five years. Our value pick.
Getting back into a swamped kayak is only half the job, because a boat full of water is still unstable and still trying to tip you out. A bilge pump is the other half. Canadian rules require a bailer or manual pump in most paddlecraft, and the Pelican floating hand pump is the one that turns a twenty-minute bail into a two-minute one.
Almost nobody who drowns from a canoe or kayak was wearing a life jacket. The ones found in the boat were usually bought, worn once, and left off because they were hot, bulky, or rode up into the wearer’s ears. The Onyx MoveVent Dynamic is the entry-level paddling vest that solves that problem: a ventilated, inherently buoyant vest approved by both the U.S. Coast Guard and Transport Canada, cut high in the back to clear a kayak seat, comfortable enough that it stays on.
The best-tasting and most temperature-tough of the ration bricks: a Halal and Kosher certified 3600-calorie brick built to ride out a car trunk.
The cheapest, lightest piece of safety gear you own may also be the one that saves your life. A whistle and a signal mirror weigh almost nothing, never need a battery or a subscription, and let you call for help when your voice is gone and your phone has no signal. Everyone who goes outdoors…
A thin, stretchy fleece glove with a grippy palm and touchscreen fingertips. Our pick for the liner, cool-day glove and dry spare pair every cold trip needs.
A phone is a map, a camera and a call for help until it gets wet, at which point it is a paperweight. The Pelican Marine pouch keeps it dry and floats if you drop it, which is more than most pouches manage. One change we would make before taking it paddling: the neck lanyard has no breakaway, and a cord around your neck is the wrong thing to wear in moving water.
The lifeboat classic: 3600 calories in 18 individually wrapped 200-calorie bars, for anyone who wants to ration a survival brick into small, exact portions.
A full waterproof jacket-and-pants suit that weighs about 13 ounces (360 g) and packs to nothing — the ultralight emergency backup for every pack. Our field review of the Frogg Toggs Ultra-Lite2.
