5 Bits of Hiking Gear I Wish Beginners Would Use (But They Don't)

so i have with me here a couple of things that i think beginner hikers should always bring with them when they're going out to the mountains in fact even experienced hikers these are things that i think people either don't know about or they just completely forget to bring with them and this isn't life-saving things this is not a survival channel so please don't hit me with the where's your knife or where's your gun or your flares these are just simple things for regular folks going on a day hike and if you bring them with you you're much less likely to get in trouble and more likely to have a better time so let's get into it the first thing on this list is to do with water i think people tend to underestimate or not know how much water to bring on a trip but if you're going somewhere that has regular stream crossings or lakes or rivers you're going to be able to drink that water but it's not always going to be safe water in the mountains might seem like it's pristine and clear and perfectly safe to drink but a lot of the times it's not there could be bacteria there could be waterborne cysts like giardia and many other really harmful things in the water so it's important to bring a filter this one i have is catered in befree i've been using this for around about eight months and it's one of the top brands that's out there you can also look at sawyer as well both of those brands are from the us but the reason i like this one is because it's a built-in soft bottle it's easy to just slip into my pack i can have it on the side pocket and just whip it out whenever i'm going past your stream a lot of the time i'm not carrying much more than a liter of water unless i'm in an area where i know there's not going to be a lot of streams so this allows me to not carry too much weight i can move quickly and i can just sip as i go i can honestly say that this thing has saved my life at least once i was pretty close to being very dehydrated and i found just a tiny trickle of water and it was very very bad quality but i was able to get enough water to keep going because of this filter so super important highly recommended you get one of these the second thing is less about survival and more about the comfort and enjoyment of the wilderness for other people and yourself as a through hiker one of the things i notice when i come into an area that is really popular with day hikers is that i can start to smell that car park or popular trail and that's because in general people that are new to hiking don't know what to do with poo in the wilderness and the general rule around the world for what to do with poo is to bury it so what i recommend you do is bring a trowel and what this enables you to do is to dig a cat hole which is a little hole in the dirt around 20 centimeters where you can do your thing and then cover it back up that is going to prevent the smell it's going to look a lot nicer because there's really nothing worse than coming into a pristine wilderness and just seeing turds and toilet paper everywhere and i'm not saying this to be a gatekeeper and to rip on people that are new to hiking you know honestly you don't know what you don't know and if you're new to this it's okay not to know these things but if you do know them then you should be doing the right thing and paying attention to what the local custom is in the area it's worth noting that there are certain areas especially those that have delicate water catchments that don't allow you to bury your poop so it's always important to check out where the local rules are in the area that you're going to but i would say in general around the world it's pretty well accepted that burying your poop is the thing to do i'm not going to go into too much more detail there's plenty of videos on youtube about how to poop into the wilderness i don't have one but it's pretty self-explanatory you want to be away from people for obvious reasons i remember one particular moment where i was hiking along a trail and a guy stopped me and he said you can't go past there's a girl and she's going to the bathroom and i said what like on the trail we were on a really steep section of mountain so perhaps she wasn't comfortable going anywhere else but yeah please if you have a choice don't poop directly on the trail okay the third thing that i wish beginner hikers would bring when they go hiking is something that they already bring and that is a mobile phone i mean just about everyone hiking has one of these but there's something in particular that i think you should have on your phone and that is downloaded available offline maps i can't count the amount of times i've beat out on a trail and someone's come up to me saying do you know where the trail is to get to here or do you know what mountain that is or i'm lost i have no idea where i am can you help me get back these things happen because people don't realize that there's no internet in the mountains google maps is probably not going to help you on a hike as soon as you get out of range you're going to have no idea where you are or how to get back now of course bringing a map and a compass is useful and you should always have that as a general rule but those kind of things take time to learn and most beginner day hikers probably aren't going to spend a weekend learning how to do navigation on maps and compass especially when it's so easy to just download an app like maps me which is completely free but what i recommend you do whatever app you're using whether it's maps me outdoor active gut hook guides whatever download the maps for the region that you're going to and that way you're not going to get lost you're going to be able to see where the streams are you're going to know the names of the peaks and you're just generally going to have a much nicer time in the mountains having that information being lost in the mountains is really really scary now i know what the old school analog boomer audience is currently typing in the comments section what if your phone breaks or what if you get water on it and it doesn't work anymore well of course you need to be bringing a map and a compass but honestly the most likely thing is that you run out of battery so the fourth thing i'm recommending for beginners to bring is an external battery pack now obviously they don't have to be this big this one's 20 000 milliamps which is enough to keep me going for around four or five days that's charging my camera it's using my phone so you probably only need something for a day hike like two thousand milliamps something like that the one i have here is from anchor i've used a bunch of different types and anchor has been hands down the best one they actually do make a lot of really cool stuff for the hiking market especially to do with tech they make these great batteries as well as solar panels chargers a whole bunch of other stuff so go and check them out that's not a sponsored plug i bought this with my own money it's just in my experience anchor are far better than just about anything else so if you want a recommendation there it is before we get on to the final thing it's important to note that just having your phone with the offline maps and the charger is not gonna be any good if you don't bring your charging cable so make sure that's on the list so the final thing that i think beginner hikers should be adding to their hiking kit list is good quality socks personally i'm a fan of wool with a synthetic blend and for the ps3 resistance a little bit of silver that is anti-bacterial but wool in general is a much better fiber than say cotton cotton tends to absorb moisture it traps that moist environment within your foot which is probably going to cause discomfort at the least but ballistas maceration fungus all kinds of nasty stuff that you don't want so i'd really recommend that you stay away from cotton i tend to go for a wool synthetic blend like i said if you're a vegan i would recommend the bamboo root but aside from that there's some general things that i think socks should have and that is they should be seamless within that prevents rubbing against your toes that's going to be a recipe for blisters i also recommend that they're anatomically shaped you know your feet are inherently different so i would recommend looking for a pair of socks that is marked with the left and the right to make sure that it's going to fit your feet correctly good hiking shocks good hiking socks should also have a little bit of padding particularly around the heel and around the toe box that's there for comfort but also again for reducing blisters some of the brands i use and love are silverlight i've got a whole video about that sock i think it's hands down the best sock that i've ever used and everyone that i know of that's used that sock has said that it is the best hiking sock they've ever used go and check out the full video i'll link it up here that you can check out some other brands that i like are in jinji they make toe socks so if you are more into the barefoot style shoe and you want a sock that doesn't restrict your toes and enables them to really splay out giving you more stability more traction and more balance and control with your hiking then i would recommend checking out the injinji toe socks and for those people that had a lot to say on my silverlight sock video about the fact that i'm made in china i've got another recommendation for you these are from grip 6 that was sent to me recently i've tried them out on some day hikes i'm going to use them probably through the winter as things start to cool down here in spain so far they tick most of the boxes this really good quality merino wool very comfortable so if you really prefer something that's made in the us then check out group six the link is in the description oh hell yeah brother all right my new to hiking friends that does it for this video thanks for watching even if you are an experienced hiker i would love to know what you think in the comment section below and if you haven't already join my discord this is a really great group of people we'll get about 600 people in this little forum it's a place where we can discuss these things and a little more nuanced a little more detail i've got threads for all different types of categories of gear a little bit of body and mind as well if you have questions about how to prepare your body and your mind to get the most out of the mountains that's pretty much what this channel is about so if you're new here consider subscribing i'll see you on the summit [Music] you

Channel: Chase Mountains

Views: 744,951

Keywords:

Id: Xa7sZFltJks

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021