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How to Decide Where to Go Backpacking
By Michael Lanza You can find abundant information online offering advice on how to plan a backpacking trip (including my 12 expert tips)—some of it good and some, frankly, not very thorough or simply clickbait created by sites lacking any expertise in backpacking. But there’s little advice out... -
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Ultralight Backpacking Tents: How to Choose One
By Michael Lanza Switching from a standard backpacking tent to an ultralight tent can shave pounds from your total pack weight—which for many backpackers will be the biggest step they can take toward a lighter pack. But it can be confusing to sort through the various ultralight tents out there... -
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Review: Flylow Baker Bib
Skiing and Riding Bib Flylow Baker Bib $430, 2 lbs. 2 oz./952g (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, with tall and short sizes backcountry.com Skiing in Utah’s Wasatch mountains virtually every single time it snows exposes me to a wide range of inclement weather conditions: from subzero... -
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The 10 Best Backpacking Tents of 2025
By Michael Lanza A good backpacking tent not only makes your trips more comfortable by keeping you warm and dry in foul weather—it’s critical safety gear and one of the heaviest and most expensive items you’ll carry. Those facts alone are motivation enough to find the right tent for your style... -
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Bear Essentials: How to Store Food When Backcountry Camping
By Michael Lanza On our first night in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park on one of my earliest backpacking trips, two friends and I—all complete novices—hung our food from a tree branch near our camp. Unfortunately, the conifer trees around us all had short branches: Our food stuff... -
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10 Great, Big Dayhikes in the Tetons
By Michael Lanza The Tetons stand out for many reasons, most of all that iconic skyline of jagged peaks and spires that invites comparisons to cathedrals—although these cathedrals reach over 12,000 and 13,000 feet high. But while backpackers flock to the Teton Range for multi-day hikes and... -
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The Hardest Dayhike in the East: The 32-Mile Pemi Loop
By Michael Lanza Our long day of hiking began at 6 a.m., shortly after first light, under a gray overcast that would rain intermittent light showers on us over the next several hours and, at times, envelop us in pea-soup fog. When our day ended 15 hours and 59 minutes later—we could officially... -
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Review: Deuter Aircontact Ultra 50+5 and 45+5 SL Backpacks
Ultralight Backpacks Deuter Aircontact Ultra 50+5 $250, 55L/3,356 c.i., 2 lbs. 15 oz./1.33kg Deuter Aircontact Ultra 45+5 SL $250, 50L/3,051 c.i., 2 lbs. 11 oz./1.21kg One adjustable size in both models Aircontact Ultra 50+5: rei.com Aircontact Ultra 45+5 SL: rei.com To put Deuter’s... -
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How to Plan Food for a Backpacking Trip
By Michael Lanza You’re planning food for a backpacking trip—maybe for yourself or perhaps for your family or a small group of friends—and you have questions about how to do it. How much food do you need? What food should you bring? How complicated or simple do you want to make it? How do your... -
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The First 5 Things I Do in Camp When Backpacking
By Michael Lanza I doubt that I had any typical routine when arriving at a campsite on my earliest backpacking trips; like many backpackers, I probably just dropped my pack, shucked off my boots, and kicked back until motivated to move by the urge to eat, drink, get warm, or go to the bathroom... -
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Mountain Lakes of the Wind River Range—A Photo Gallery
By Michael Lanza We followed the Doubletop Mountain Trail as it rolled over open plateau country above 10,000 feet in the Wind River Range, crossing one gorgeous lake basin after another where wildflowers still carpeted the ground in the week before Labor Day. In the distance, peaks along the... -
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The Best Hikes in Yellowstone
By Michael Lanza Yellowstone National Park is a place where the earth comes alive, with more than 10,000 hydrothermal features and 500 active geysers—that’s more than half the world’s geysers—as well as 290 waterfalls, not to mention having some of the greatest diversity of wildlife remaining... -
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Mountain Lakes of Idaho’s Sawtooths—A Photo Gallery
By Michael Lanza I may be risking an impassioned debate here, but I think there are very few mountain ranges in America with as many drop-dead, gorgeous high mountain lakes as Idaho’s Sawtooths. Yes, a few mountain ranges clearly outnumber the Sawtooths in that department, like the High Sierra... -
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How to Pitch a Tent in Rain and Keep It Dry
By Michael Lanza It’s a situation all backpackers eventually encounter, no matter how hard you try to avoid it: You reach a backcountry campsite in a steady rain and must try to pitch your tent without soaking the interior. How successfully you accomplish that will greatly affect how warm and... -
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15 Awesome Fall Backpacking Trips
By Michael Lanza The imminent end of summer always feels a little melancholy. After all, it marks the close of the prime season for getting into the mountains. But it also signals the beginning of a time of year when many mountain ranges become less crowded just as they’re hitting a sweet zone... -
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‘Let’s Talk Water:’ Backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Gems
By Michael Lanza The April sun seems to dangle just over our heads like a giant grow light—or perhaps a very, very big and hot interrogation lamp—as we hike down the Grand Canyon’s South Bass Trail, a steep path littered with enough ankle-rolling stones to keep pulling our eyes from the... -
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10 Pro Tips For Staying Warm in a Sleeping Bag
By Michael Lanza Head into the mountains in summer, or almost anywhere in fall or spring, and you can encounter nighttime and morning temperatures anywhere from the 40s Fahrenheit to well below freezing. That’s more than cold enough to pose a real risk of hypothermia or, at the least, result in... -
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Mountain Lakes of the High Sierra—A Photo Gallery
By Michael Lanza It seems a fool’s wager to guess how many mountain lakes exist in the High Sierra, the range that reaches heights over 14,000 feet and spans some 200 miles through eastern California from Lake Tahoe to south of Sequoia National Park, including Yosemite and Kings Canyon national... -
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10 Awe-Inspiring Wild Places in America’s West
By Michael Lanza Over more than three decades of backpacking adventures throughout America’s West, I’ve been fortunate to explore deeply into our most cherished national parks, wilderness areas, and protected backcountry. All of them are special. But some places rise above the rest, inspiring a... -
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Review: Nemo Hornet Elite Osmo 1p Ultralight Tent
Ultralight Solo Backpacking Tent Nemo Hornet Elite Osmo 1p $550, 1 lb. 7 oz./657g backcountry.com From the Grand Canyon’s Gems Route to Montana’s Beartooth Mountains, Nemo’s top-of-the-line Hornet Elite Osmo 1p solo ultralight tent withstood winds gusting to around 30 mph/48 kph and shrugged...