Gear I Should've Bought Sooner: Best Gear of the Year

after several decades spent backpacking I'm still learning new things and discovering new and better ways to go backpacking every year I get to test a huge amount of new backpacking gear sometimes things don't go so well but the benefit of these trials is discovering new gear that really improves my experience this year is no different so I've compiled a list of gear that really stands out gear I should have bought sooner [Music] sleep is one of the most critical parts of the backpacking equation and it really stinks when you just aren't getting it right I've spent literally hundreds thousands of nights Outdoors at this point in my backpacking career and this year I finally found a system that actually works the best for me because it feels the most like a bit that my friends is the Zen bivvy light bed the zenbivi light bed really changed the game for me this year I spend so much time outside that you'd never want to have a bad night's sleep if you're only spending like one night out a year or something like that you can get away with not having the world's greatest system with saving some money however if you're spending significant amount of time camping hiking backpacking you really want an awesome system and this year I tried out this new system from Zen baby honestly I was blown away by it it's so good it's different than your typical sleeping bag in a lot of ways it is a glorified quilt but it also comes with a sheet attachment that you actually wrap around your existing mattress or you can get zenbivi's mattress that is made for it which is awesome too the thing that really makes this great is that it feels like a bed so on the sheet itself is basically a pillow Barn that you can really tuck your head into it's got insulation it's warm and it feels amazing this is also very versatile it is actually just a big rectangular quilt but it's got all of these different Little Hook points throughout the whole system all around this is like the foot and it's got multiple points that actually connect to the sheet that wraps around your mattress connecting it and then you can also cinch this up down on the bottom and really create a nice foot box as well as an additional system around the neck or the head so you can really have that cozy feel that I find elusive with quilts why are quilts even popular well you're not spending a bunch of insulation and bulk and material on what's underneath you that ultimately when you sleep on it you compress it it doesn't really insulate you from underneath people in the ultralight Community thought well let's just ditch that part all together and just focus on what's above you and let the mattress really provide that insulating value beneath you which honestly makes a lot of sense however the downside for me with most quilts is that you just don't have that cozy experience they're functional they're warm and I sleep pretty good but they don't provide that I'm settling in for a good night of sleep and this changes that for me this is that coziness that I require or require that I really desire out of a good sleep system this one right here is Zen Babies 10 degrees system and honestly I'm kind of on the fence with what I recommend it is very warm if you're going to be doing shoulder season backpacking spraying into fall then the 10 degree system is great because you can be very comfortable in a very wide range of temperatures including when it's pretty warm you can just keep these things unhooked and have it pretty open and Airy and use it like you would a blanket in your bed and just kind of have it half open as you cool off throw back over you the downside of the 10 degree version is that it's just a little bit heavier and a little bit bulkier than I'd probably like to carry this weighs in at three pounds with the sheet and that's just a little much I think for a general summertime bag or a three season bag but when you get into that shoulder season it's it's like the perfect thing so I think I still like the 10 degree version but I'm kind of tempted to see if the 25 degree version might be better suited for just your your general backpacking situation if I were to go with that 25 degree bag I can shave a full pound off the system which is pretty awesome in summary this is just the closest thing that I've encountered to the experience of sleeping in a bed look forward to every night of sleep that I've had with this thing thanks and bivvy for that one moving on I've got the copper spur from Big Agnes this is the two person this is the HV Mountain glow and it's all fancy speak for Ultra Premium tent the cover spray has just been my drop dead favorite tent that I've ever used and I keep coming back to this tent over and over again for a number of reasons mainly this doorway as you can see here the what I'm filming into is huge I've got this massive door space because I've got a zipper here and a zipper here that allows me to fully roll this completely off it's got one on the the other side too so if I want I can just create this amazing Breezeway I can pitch these out into an awning it's got some drizzle some rain or even if I just want shade from the Sun I'm going to take you off the tripod for a second you've got this generous amount of storage way up here you also have an additional one here so there's tons of ways to get gear and stuff off the ground and stored especially if you're backpacking with two people you know that this space can get really premium and it can be tough to find enough room for everything the other thing that's great about this tent is just the amount of Headroom that there is for a two-person tent it's completely ample it's not the biggest tent I've ever used but for an a lightweight borderline ultra light tent the amount of Headroom in here is awesome some of the ultralight tents out there on the market are like this tall and you have to army crawl in lay down there's almost no room you feel like I'm me in there and that's just not very fun all around here are LED lights that at first I thought would be gimmicky lame I would never use them turns out I use them all the time and so you've got this little toggle switch here that just rests at the top of the tent and you can just click a button and you've got lights so I think because of the added bulk of this and then just the battery management I probably wouldn't do the mountain glow again but at the same time that uh Mountain glow is very pleasant this is the most expensive tent I've ever owned this is a 600 tent it is really stinking pricey but I will say that it is the best tent I've ever owned this weighs in at two pounds and 13 ounces so just shy of that three pound Mark I think most people here on the internet when they think of ultralight they're thinking of much closer to two pounds this tent performs really well I've used it in a ton of different situations I took it down to Peru I've done a lot of big treks with it and this has some of the best ventilation that I've experienced it's withstood many storms in its career and I just find it to be the bomber tent that I keep going back to over and over and over again okay this next one I know I'm gonna invite some criticism some backlash and I don't care uh I did a video last year about how I'm ditching the jet boil and I I did I did ditch the Jeb oil because I was developing bad habits I was relying on that Ultra fast boil time and I just wasn't cooking creative meals and a lot of people have commented on that video that hey Jeff oil makes other things so I actually got one of them I got the mini Mo and the skillet this is made to connect with the flux ring you kind of have that standard jetboil classic ultra fast boil times if you're just doing a lot of boiling Aid type dehydrated meals freeze-dried meals still killer for that however with that I have now added in this Skillet support and that means that I have made some of the most creative meals this year than I have really in a long time are you excited this Skillet is 45 it weighs 10 ounces some people just aren't going to go for that but the thing is is that for certain trips I really like to focus on food and comfort and this system has really allowed me to do that this year and I've just really had a lot of fun kind of coming back and falling in love again with food in the backcountry eating good food eating fresh food it's got that PSO lighting which is really nice you can really crank this up and get that super fast boil time or you can actually bring it down and just have that simmering heat that is really great for being able to cook nice food I have the pot stand on it right now but you can drop that off and have it connect in with the flux ring that's kind of like the main pot system the jump oil does this is basically a 200 cook setup because I've got the 40 Skillet the minimo pot with the stove is 165 dollars so that's pricey I have enjoyed just your simple pocket rocket and a simple pot which is really like a hundred dollar setup but you've got the efficiency you've still got the ability to cook great food and honestly it's just been a playful fun really falling in love with food again and thanks to the minimo for that next up on my list is the LifeStraw Peak series squeeze water filter I have used a lot of really bulky water filters over the years I've really enjoyed Grail I've used rapid pure system one of my favorites of all time is the MSR Guardian but the MSR Guardian is like the the classic overbuilt super beefy water filter it's great for where I live because you have a ton of sediment in the water and it cleans it out but for General backpacking especially up in the mountains with cleaner water sources and I love the price point it's right around forty dollars I think this one's forty four dollars now this is the filter right here and this is just a water bag you can just scoop up the water this one is actually more durable than the B free which is why I like this system a little better some people complain that because of the design of this you can't get all the water out but I haven't really found that to be the case granted if you are just trying to filter like this then yeah the water line stops here and this amount of water doesn't come filtered but it's really simple solution you just fold it like that and then you can drink the rest of the water the downside for me is the back flushing system LifeStraw recommends having the syringe with it and like in making this video I don't know where the syringe is and it's definitely a good idea to actually backpack with that syringe because if it gets clogged then you're kind of stuck and you back flush it regularly this system will last a long time you can put like 2 000 liters of water through it which is a lot of backpacking for most people out there this is just going to be the way to go fanny pack I had a funny experience backpacking in the Grand Canyon about a year ago I went with like seven other guys and I was literally the only one out of everybody that didn't bring a camp chair I just have been a non-chaired non-stool user for years I went on this trip and everybody busted as soon as they got to Camp they bust out their chairs and I was literally like the social Pariah because I couldn't sit with the fun kids so I just kind of sat in the middle of them all awkwardly every night around camp and it was just weird so I decided you know what this year I'm gonna actually go and try out some chairs some stools and this one from grand trunk has been my favorite so this is the 360 degree swivel stool it's got some mud from my last trip okay got a lot of dirt here that's built up whoops the 360 degree swivel stool from grand trunk has been one of my favorite additions of the year because it's just fun it's actually added so much comfort to my backpacking experience and at one pound sixty dollars this has just been a great find Dan Becker thinks I'm silly when I just spin around and around and around on the thing but I can't help myself it's actually very useful especially when you're got something cooking over here and maybe something happening over here turn back and forth and not just have to like lift your chair up it's a great value at 60 bucks and it has like a really high weight capacity rating at 330 pounds so pretty impressive at one pound it's about as light as a lot of the other good quality ultralight chairs out there I think in the next year if I can predict in the future what my next year's gear I should have bought sooner it's going to be a lightweight chair with a back to it but for now I'm working my way up and the stool has been a big upgrade and I've really liked it so ease up everybody the back with the chair is coming but uh this I'm baby steps everybody I'm getting there okay man that is a lot of dirt that I imported next up is the event compression straps from sea to Summit space is always at a premium in a backpack and just having the ability to really minimize the amount of room that your sleeping bag takes up or your clothes your jackets or something like that is awesome so I can really crank this thing oh okay nothing happened this is my 10 degree seating bag which has been pretty bulky I have now compressed it down into this very manageably sized item the other thing that makes this really cool is that as you squeeze this the air will escape out but it's waterproof if you've got a lot of moisture you're hiking in a bunch of rain or something like that then this is a great way to make sure that your sleeping bag stays dry the event compression straps are a little pricey but kind of in line with a lot of compression bags this system costs 50 bucks and it weighs 5.9 ounces this is the bigger one this is a 20 liter bag you can obviously spend a little bit less and have it be a little bit lighter like the 15 liter bag or the 10 liter bag but it's awesome especially for winter bags or really bulky sleeping bags just being able to get this thing way down there in size I definitely should have bought this sooner because I really like it a lot okay there might be a theme for the next few items here but it's kind of like storage items and organization items but here I have the eight liter flat pack dry bag from Matador this is a very simple item but I use this as my bear hang a lot for getting food up off the ground or keeping food away from rodents hanging it up in trees and things like that I also use this as a water hauling device sometimes and the thing that makes this different for me is the flat bottom it's called the flat pack for a reason most dry bags don't have this or if you try to put water in it they'll just awkwardly roll over and will start leaking even if you've got this thing rolled up and this thing I can literally fill it with water and just set it on a table or on the ground and it won't just tip over it's got nice little handy carrying spot a place to put a carabiner or I put the Carabiner on this d-clip and you can also see your food in here which you know not a big deal but I really like it so you can use it for clothes you can use it for a lot of things but I found it to just be my ditty bag my Food Bag satisfying shape and space for my backpack costs 40 bucks and it weighs 2.3 ounces I don't have to overthink this one it's a food bag next on my list is this fleece that I'm wearing right now this year I came across a company called Appalachian Gear Company it's kind of like a cottage industry company based here in the US that makes great clothing and different fabricy things textile things out of alpaca wool now alpaca wool is really interesting because it's one of Nature's Best most efficient fibers that means that it makes great clothing this has been my favorite mid layer and the thing that's unique about alpaca wool is that you don't need a lot of it in order to keep you pretty warm it's very efficient so this is fairly thin even though my studio is actually like just barely hovering above freezing I'm pretty comfortable in this sweater it's versatile you can wear it in warmer temperatures and it'll keep you cooler and you can wear it in colder temperatures and it'll keep you warmer this gives you a much bigger Zone to be comfortable in from warmer temperatures down to colder temperatures alpaca will even will insulate you and keep you warm even if it's wet alpaca fiber is naturally odor resistant so I wear this thing all the time I've literally worn this so much for a year I think I've washed it three times maybe my fiance might not be happy to hear that but yeah you don't really need to wash these very often so they don't stink they feel clean all the time even under heavy constant repetitive use this fleece sweater is kind of expensive at 165 bucks for what it is it's actually well worth the money in my opinion using Nature's Best materials is really amazing so alpaca oil is great side note if you are thinking about purchasing this this is a small and the sizes definitely run large definitely size it down a full size under what you might normally purchase last on my list is another piece of clothing the Keb agile trousers from I'm gonna have to ask my Swedish or Finnish friends how you say that but I really have fallen in love with these pants these are the most expensive hiking pants I've ever worn you can see that a fair bit of the gear that I've fallen in love with is a expensive and pricey but when you see the how much I spend outside these things actually are prove their value over and over again a good pair of hiking pants are no different I love the weight uh the weight and material of this they have a little bit of stretch and give they're reinforced around the ankles they're reinforced at the knees and so they're going to be more durable more long lasting than most hiking pants out there field Raven has been making great clothing and gear that can withstand that tough Scandinavian weather these pants are no different I really like these these are a little bit more breathable than the regular kebs and so they're better suited to me for where I am although I really do like the Cubs as well these have ventilation on your thighs and it is so nice if you're getting warm to be able to vent out your pants and stay cool because you don't really want to start sweating so these have become a true favorite of mine they've got you know your four Pockets one thing to note there's no butt pockets on these so great for making your butt look good if you do wear them around town you can't put a wallet in your back pocket these have a little bit of elastic around the kind of Gator spot or on your ankles keeping debris out of your boots and things like that so they've gotten a lot of details right with these pants it's pricey I know that 200 hiking pants might be out of a lot of people's range but they're some of the best hiking pants I've ever worn that's it's my clothing list and I just love them so hey check them out if y'all Raven Keb agile trousers and you get to say trousers like you're like a proper you know uppity person for something a little bit more economical to add to my list a new favorite piece of gear is the pack stack Pro from Hill sound now this is a very simple thing it's basically an organization bag but there's a couple reasons why I really like this one it's waterproof the other thing that I really like is that I found multiple uses for it such as using it as my camera bag now in the past when I've gone backpacking I've had to bring a specific camera bag to carry and protect my camera equipment whereas with this I can actually double it up I can one drop that really bulky camera bag and I can take this where I can literally just carry extra clothes or the clothes that I'm already taking and stuff it in here and then just create a soft little cocoon that is easy for me to get in and out of it's got a waterproof zipper I don't think that this is submersible style waterproof in my opinion one point of vulnerability and that's right here where the bag closes there's just the smallest little Gap so if this were to like fall off of a boat it's going to get water inside at some point it is a great way to keep your gear dry especially if you're really just mostly concerned about rain or precipitation you can see how it's shaped it literally is designed to fit the curvature of your backpack so that you can create these modular systems if you wanted to I typically only carry one of these but just for clothes and cameras it's a really great way to keep my stuff organized so because of because I often backpack with cameras it's become my camera bag I will have like extra things this is for microphone bones you know some just like little camera bits and Bobs as well as of course just my clothes the Hillstone pack stack Pro costs 29 carries 6.4 liters of capacity and weighs four ounces every year is an experience learning new things and these have been the pieces of gear that I've loved so much I wanted to tell you about them so I'd love to hear from you what are your favorite pieces of gear either from my list or things that I totally missed or just your favorite pieces of gear in general I'd love to hear your comments below and uh maybe trigger some ideas for me to add some new things into next year's list okay if you like this video please give it that thumbs up and make sure you subscribe to our backpacking TV I hope you enjoyed the video I'm Eric Hansen I'm gonna go shovel some snow I'll see you later [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: BackpackingTV

Views: 117,587

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Id: iV1QVu9rZWs

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2023