What to carry, what to leave, and what fails.
Gear & Kit
Outdoor equipment is expensive and much of it lasts far longer than one owner. But some items carry invisible damage, and those you buy new, without exception.
Gear & Kit
Weight reduction has a clear hierarchy and most people work at the wrong end of it, sawing handles off toothbrushes while carrying a pack that is a kilogram heavier than it needs to be.
Gear & Kit
Batteries lose a large fraction of their capacity in winter conditions, screens stop responding, and the device you were relying on for navigation goes dark at the worst moment.
Gear & Kit
People buy expensive jackets and then get wet inside them and conclude the jacket failed. Usually the jacket was working exactly as physics permits.
Gear & Kit
A broken binding, a torn shelter or a split boot sole ends a trip only if you cannot bodge it. A small kit and some imagination usually gets you home.
Gear & Kit
Almost nobody sets out intending to be in the dark. A significant fraction of mountain incidents involve people who are, and who did not bring a light.
Gear & Kit
Audit a pack after a long trip and the pattern is consistent: a handful of items used constantly, and a surprising mass of things that never came out.
Gear & Kit
Two packs with identical contents and identical weight can feel entirely different on a long day. The difference is where things sit and how the load transfers.
Gear & Kit
The device is not the hard part. Modern transceivers are excellent. The variable that decides outcomes is how many times the person holding it has done a real search.
Gear & Kit
The most expensive boot in the shop is worthless if it does not match the shape of your foot, and the shape of your foot is not something a review can tell you about.
Gear & Kit
The classic three-layer model was designed for standing around. Aerobic mountain travel produces enormous amounts of moisture, and managing that is a different problem.
Gear & Kit
A rope has more specifications printed on its tag than almost any other piece of climbing kit. Most of them are quietly ignored, and two of them genuinely change how safe your system is.
Gear & Kit
Helmets are tested against specific, narrow scenarios. Knowing which scenario your helmet was designed for tells you a great deal about when it will help you and when it will not.
