The Gear Junkie

The Gear Junkie goes 'Outside'

Introducing “The Gear Junkie Scoop,” a new weekly column on OutsideMag.com that will cover news, hot products, and to-be-released gear and apparel from all corners of the outdoors industry. The column launched this week with the review of a 9-ounce sleeping pad purported to pack down to the size of a Nalgene bottle. . .

Forbes story on "Extraterrestrial Escapes"

This story is about a different type of adventure travel. Namely, “extraterrestrial tourism” is a broad term for any type of travel involving the weird, whacky and the unknown. In a story this week on ForbesTraveler.com, I highlight 10 top alien destinations, including a handful I have visited in person over the years. . .

Gear Review -- Luxury Camping Equipment, part II

A solar-charging messenger bag, a food box for Fido, and a watch that predicts when the fish will be biting. These products round out my coverage of luxury camp items this week. Oh, and don’t forget the motorized margarita blender with motorcycle handlebar grips. . .

Gear Review -- Luxury Camping Equipment, part I [4]

From portable hot-water spigots to tent pegs topped with pink flamingos, this is the first in a two-part column on luxury-oriented camping gear. None of this gear is essential, and roughin’ it this is not. . .

Arc'teryx going Aerobic in '09

Arc’teryx will release multiple collections of aerobic-oriented apparel and outerwear with its spring 2009 line. This is a sneak peek, from tights and running tops to a “skort” designed for mountain marathons. . .

Invent-a-Sport Contest

Horny Toad and Instructables.com have introduced the “Invent-a-Sport” Contest, a competition seeking descriptions, photos and video clips of real or imagined fringe sports or outdoors activities. . .

Miles Per Gallon

Cord Lock Light [1]

It’s a cord lock. It’s a light. It’s the Cord Lock Light, a regular spring-loaded cincher as found on backpacks and sleeping bags, just with a built-in tiny LED light source. . .

Gear Review -- The Jimi Wallet

I blogged on the Jimi last month, the so-called “wallet for people who hate wallets.” But here is my full review of the credit-card-size clamshell case, which comes in nine colors and has a removable money clip in case you want to go even more minimal. . .

Pole Positions

In one of my more strange assignments ever, last week I covered a rising form of aerobic workout that takes its cues from erotic dancing. “Strip Fitness,” as the class was called, is advertised as a way to “tone your booty, legs, arms and abs with style.”

New York Times -- Devils Tower story

Devils Tower is a 1,000-foot-high thumb of rock in northeastern Wyoming, a geologic wonder and one of nature’s most ultimate works of art. It’s also a mecca for rock climbers. Today, in New York Times, I chronicle my recent ascent of the Tower, a four-hour evening climb timed to allow us to see a sunset at the top of the world. . .

Hash House Harriers

The Hash House Harriers are a “drinking club with a running problem.” This tradition, started nearly 70 years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has its roots in a group of British expatriates who wanted to exercise and imbibe after work once a week. This is my story of a run with a local HHH club, exercise, competition and imbibing included. . .

Gear Review -- Hydration Bladder Test [4]

Hydration in the great outdoors for me now rarely involves a water bottle. Instead, the hose-sucking efficiency of a water bladder in a backpack gets me the H2O I need—and fast. Here’s a roundup review of three bladders I’ve been testing as of late, a standoff to see which reservoir best performs on the mountain, trail and on the bike. . .

Feature Story: Canicross [1]

Run with your dog. Let him pull. That’s the premise behind canicross, a dog-sledding derivative that milks maximum propulsion via a canine-connected cord to rocket human-dog teams down the trail. . .

Gear on the Wall

Car racks can get your gear from home to any given adventure destination. But what about keeping things straight and racked up at home? Here are two quick options for easy at-home gear organization. . .

Gear Review: Fresh Bath Travel Wipes [2]

Fresh Bath Travel Wipes are a “sponge-bath solution for the adventure set.” Clean your dirtbag body dreads to toes with these aloe vera/potassium sorbate-infused towelettes, made to cleanse and “moisturize” skin while you’re traveling or deep in the woods along with taking care of the de-stink. . .

11-year-old Climbs Denali

Jordan Romero. Age 11. On his way to becoming the youngest person ever to climb the Seven Summits. Last week: Denali. Five summits down, two to go. That’s right, and he’s not even yet in junior high school. . .

Shaman in an Office Park [1]

I went in for a physical assessment. I got crystals and magic instead. This is my story on Chris Frykman, a chiropractor who cracks backs, wields crystals and sends thought energy in his customized version of an alternative medicine called applied kinesiology. . .

Horny Toad Acquires Nau

Apparel maker Nau Inc., which went out of business last month, has been resurrected with the help of a certain other apparel maker in Santa Barbara, Calif. They’re calling the new brand, to be launched Aug. 1, “Nau 2.0” . . .

Adventure Kid Club

Do you worry that your kids spend too much time indoors or in front of the TV? Adventure Kid Club is a web site that sells a series of downloadable PDFs, each of which contains a collection of “fun, funny, gross, surprising, nasty and amazing nature tips” to get kids and their grown-ups out-of-doors together.

Kathy Fredriksson, founder of Adventure Kid Club, started the business with her two young sons and two nephews as an excuse to take a walk in the woods. It soon grew into a “club,” which grew into the web site that Fredriksson launched this month.

Adventure Kid Club adventures are brightly-colored, kid-illustrated, downloadable PDFs that lead kids and their parents through quick nature lessons on topics ranging from dandelions to “Under a Rock.”

Ever wonder why pill bugs roll up into a ball when you touch them? Or, how can a slug defend itself against a toad? These are a few of the questions you’ll answer for your kids as they poke under a rock, learning and listening to earn Adventure Kid Club points.

Download a free trial PDF by signing up here: http://www.adventurekidclub.com

MSNBC / Forbes Summer Gear Story [1]

From gas-powered margarita blenders (no joke) to watches that predict the weather, my story today on MSNBC and ForbesTraveler.com, “The Ultimate Summer Gadget Guide,” is as over-the-top as it comes. And that’s not to mention the tent from Eureka with fans, lights and outlet plugs. . .

Gear Review: Petzl SiGNAL light

The bottle-cap-size SiGNAL light from Petzl is a “multidirectional performance safety light,” according to the company. It’s a backup light source and blinker made for keeping in a backpack or stored stuffed away in the seat bag on a bike. This is my review of the product, a tiny, triple-bulb L.E.D. that may well have saved my life last week. . .

Handlebar-Mounted Map Holder [1]

Handlebar-mounted map holders are one of those esoteric outdoors items that only complete cartographic nerds and adventure racers can wax silly about. Since I fit both molds, the Rotating Map Holder from Adventure Racing Navigation Supplies caught my eye. . .

Shop5 Rates Gear Junkie No. 1

Someone likes us. A new site, www.shop5.com, rates blogs and web sites based on, ostensibly, an actual human reading content. TheGearJunkie.com was rated No. 1 in the category of “Outdoor Blogs” on the site, beating out my buddy Rocky and his Goat blog + the guys at GetOutdoors and Outdoorzy. Not that this means too much. But cool to get the props, nonetheless.

Here’s the site’s assessment of what I do. . .

The Gear Junkie is the epitome of comprehensive. It boasts quite a bulleted list of attractions. The “Daily Dose Blog” caters to gear reviews from apparel to electronics with miscellaneous, featured tid-bits like “The World’s Weirdest Footraces” or “International Adventure Girl—Bria Schurke.” Site sections here are smartly organized, with a video page that’s especially noteworthy for fans of cycling and a diverse collection of still-photo slideshows. The “Adventures” section is no slouch either, lots of different adventurous activities to peruse.

And since they gave me some ink, here’s what their site is all about. . .

Shop5 is a new web service that gives you the Top 5 websites for almost anything—as decided by users and our editors—along with full profiles and reviews of every site. The Top 5 list is dynamic and will change as ratings and reviews come in from Shop5 users.

Gear Review: Jetboil Helios

In my test of the Helios High-Performance Cook System—Jetboil’s latest camp stove creation—the burner produced a “10-inch-tall dancing blue genie” of a flame. It also boiled a liter of water quicker than almost any stove I’ve ever seen. This is my full review. . .

New York Times -- Big Bog Story

In today’s New York Times I write about northern Minnesota’s Big Bog, a spongy, hard-to-access wilderness on the bed of the long-gone glacial Lake Agassiz. This is a story on my trip to the bog last month, a place where “wolves and moose roam on soft earth, plants eat bugs and otters live in rivers thick with ooze. . .”

Rogaine Orienteering Race Feature Story [4]

In this feature story on the Minnesota Orienteering Club’s annual Rogaine event, I chronicle a six-hour backwoods race involving swamp swimming, flag finding, brush crashing and constant map and compass utilization in the thick and buggy Chequamegon National Forest of northwest Wisconsin. . .

Gear Review -- Thule Setup on a Small Car [7]

My goal was singular and precise: To outfit a small stationwagon with maximum equipment-carrying capacity. This included a rack, bike mounts and a cargo box on a car that can often qualify for “compact” spaces in a parking garage. . .

Case Study: PLB in Action [1]

A mountaineering accident last week prompted Bill Becher, a writer friend of mine from southern California, to deploy a personal locator beacon (PLB) in hopes of rescue. This is a Q&A with Becher on the incident. . .

Testing Blood Lactate Threshold [3]

This feature story details my experience undergoing a blood lactate threshold test, where a fitness trainer put me on a treadmill and pricked my fingertip repeatedly for blood samples. The goal was to determine my lactic acid threshold, the point at which I start to “feel the burn”. . .

Gear Review -- Corsair Inc. Flash Survivor [1]

Need to protect those secret GPS coordinates? This USB flash drive saves data in a CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum case that’s waterproof to 600 feet under the sea. . .

Gear Review -- d30 + Spyder MTB Suit [4]

This is my review of a $620 mountain biking suit from Spyder. The D3O Armored Crew and the D3O Ultimate Chamois Bike Short both employ their namesake d30 gel—a top-secret material made with “intelligent molecules” that flex under normal situations then lock together to absorb energy once a force is imposed. Say a crash on your mountain bike, for example. . .

Gear Review -- Adventure Lights Inc.

I blogged on Adventure Lights Inc. of Beaconsfield, Quebec, earlier this year. Now, after a couple months of playing with the company’s line of esoteric emergency lighting products, this is my full review. . .

Green Gear 2008 [3]

Going green is not a new phenomenon in the world of outdoors gear. But today’s eco-friendly gear is a far cry from the hemp hoodies and low-tech “earth gear” of yore. This is the first in a three-part blog on gear that touts a good eco story plus performance for use in the field. . .

Trip Report -- Big Bog, Minn. [3]

Just got back from an odd one. This weekend I traveled to northern Minnesota and the Red Lake Peatlands, a spongy, hard-to-access wilderness that is the lower 48 states’ largest bog.

Gear Review -- Crazy Creek HexaLite camp chairs

I blogged on the HexaLite camp chairs from Crazy Creek a couple weeks back. Now, after some more in-depth testing ‘round the campfire, here is my full review of the two roll-able, stash-able HexaLite models made for the ultra-light backpacking crowd. . .

Trip Report -- Devils Tower [5]

Just got back from Wyoming and Devils Tower, a 1,000-foot-high thumb of rock in the northeastern part of the state and my favorite rock climbing area in the country. Here’s a quick trip report on the route we went up, “El Cracko Diablo,” and a few images from our climb. . .

Gear Review -- BPA-free Water Bottles [1]

BPA is dead. After years of dragging its feet, Nalgene Nunc International has dropped the controversial chemical from its entire line of water bottles. Oh, and CamelBak did, too . . .

Gear Junkie AWOL in Wyoming [1]

Signing off from the Daily Dose blog—and life in general—for a few days here as I pack my bags and jump in the car to drive to Wyoming, where Devils Tower awaits. The plan is simple: climb the sheer-sided 5,112-foot monolith using an arsenal of new gear. . .

The Jimi Wallet [3]

After riding a self-proclaimed “Frankenbike” around the streets of San Francisco for several years, Mike O’Neill designed a new take on the stodgy old “Costanza” wallet. Indeed, the company slogan is “The Wallet for People Who Hate Wallets” . . .

Gear Review -- Reclaimed Material Messenger Bags

In a world often bogged down by waste, outfits like FREITAG, Relan LLP and Recycling is Rad have created a cottage industry of designing messenger bags out of reclaimed materials, including sources as diverse as vinyl sheeting from billboards, highway signs, old clothes and animal feed bags from the Philippines. . .

NASCAR with Pedals

The NSC Velodrome is a 250-meter bike track made with wood planks from African afzelia trees. Its banks provide a medium where riders pedal laps at the natural lean of a bike, eliminating skidding and defying gravity in the process. This is my story about trust, inertia, speed, centrifugal force and faith in physics the first time I rolled onto the track. . .

Lux Eco Resorts Story

My story on eco lodges is up at ForbesTraveler.com (MSNBC.com and the Today Show’s website also picked up the story). This article focuses on high-end resorts with an eco angle, from environmental conservation to light-on-the-land building techniques to the embracing of local culture.

Going green is not a new concept in the world of travel. For decades, resorts like Maho Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Turtle Island in Fiji have demonstrated that eco-awareness and sustainability can coexist with tourism. But in the past five years, the “eco” buzz has been amplified within the travel industry—and throughout popular culture as well.

If you’re going to spend the cash for a lux getaway, you might as well do it with some conscious. This Top 10 list includes resorts with thatch-roofed huts on a beach to cabins afloat on raft foundations in fjords. Their structures are influenced by sources as diverse as Robinson Caruso and Renzo Piano.

Go here for the full story: ForbesTraveler.com

Field Test -- Norway's Romsdal Alps (part II)

The Norway gear hash-out continues. In this column yesterday I covered the hard goods employed on a ski touring trip last month in Norway. For today’s review, the focus is on apparel, specifically the outerwear and base layers I wore on a mountain called Kvitfjellet . . .

Field Test -- Norway's Romsdal Alps (part I) [1]

In this blog last month I wrote trip reports on my journey to Norway’s Romsdal Alps, where I skied the peaks above the fjords near the city of Molde. Today’s column, the first in a series of two, digs into the gear I used while touring said epic peaks in the alpine bliss of fjordland. . .

'Large Fella on a Bike' [17]

In 2004, Scott Cutshall was a freelance jazz drummer, a husband and a father. He was 38 years old, though not sure if he’d live to see 40. He wore size XXXXXXXXXXL pants and could not tie his own shoes. Breathing was sometimes difficult. That was before he started riding a bike. . .

Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat

Function definitely trumps form for this outdoors hat, a wide-brimmed cap with 360 degrees of solar coverage and some sort of Asian peasant aesthetic thing going on. . .

Gear Review -- Dream Island Sleeping Bag

The Dream Island sleeping bag from Big Agnes—when used in tandem with the company’s unique pad system—can feel like the simulacrum of a mattress and quilt in your tent. Plus, it’s a double-wide, meaning two bodies fit side by side to keep the Island extra cozy and warm. . .

Life, Death and Altitude

A death on a high peak—plus personal failures in performance at altitude—prompted Mike Farris, a 52-year-old college professor, to write a book, “The Altitude Experience,” due in May from Globe Pequot Press. This is my profile on Farris’ life in the mountains and a peek at the 80,000 words he wrote to answer some of his own hardest questions on performance, sanity and risk in high-altitude mountaineering. . .

Gear Review -- CamelBak Podium Bottle [1]

I wrote a preview blog on this product last month. Now here’s the official Gear Junkie review, a full testing of a bike bottle CamelBak is touting as an update to technology that’s been around since the 1950s. . .