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Good for Backcountry The Amalgam isn’t quite as breathable as the Lobuche or as tricked out as the Free Thinker II, but it’s better priced and more packable. One thing it doesn’t compromise on, however, is weather protection. When a wet spring snowstorm near Winter Park, Colorado,…
Good for Backcountry Here’s a perfect spring pant. The ultralight Primo features Patagonia’s proprietary H2No waterproof-breathable stretch fabric, half-length side zips for venting, and three pockets. Minimalism at its best means protection without overheating. patagonia.com…
When it comes to sharp looks and uncompromising comfort, Blundstone’s slip-on boots are hard to beat. And when things turn muddy and/or slushy on that hot date, the grippy, cushy outsole of the 550 allows you to relax and enjoy the scenery. blundstoneus.com…
Packable Half-Zip “It’s as packable as it is practical,” observed one tester. That pretty much sums up the Zephyrus. While it has roughly the same amount of synthetic insulation as the Arc’teryx Atom LT Hoody, it was better at shedding light rain and snow, due to its more windproof (and…
Ironman in Training With this three-lens set, racing-bred Rudy takes the high ground—high performance, high quality, and, yes, high-end pricing that’s still sensible after you figure what three ultra-premium sport shields would run. Two of the three snap-in, single-piece lenses are photochromic: Clear took us from no light to pretty…
Even though communal yoga mats get cleaned, they still make us cringe a little. We love that this one’s free of toxic glues, and, unlike other mats we tested, it never let us slip in downward dog. manduka.com…
Breathable mesh and perforated palms kept riders’ hands cool. Plus, grippy fingertips helped slippage on shifters. konaworld.com…
Unfold the top of this flowy skirt and you have a dress. Testers gussied up this beachy item with espadrilles for dinners in Sayulita, Mexico. patagonia.com…
Technical This waterproof hard shell is stuffed with the same amount of synthetic fill as the Igniter (above), making it a bit warmer (and more windproof) but also, not surprisingly, not quite as breathable. Because it’s completely impervious to wet snow and sports a hood with a visorlike rain brim,…
FORCE FIELD If you’re often out in the wet conditions typical of places like the Pacific Northwest, a classic Gore-Tex shell like the Albaron is an indispensable outer layer. It’s cut from Pro Shell, Gore’s best material, so it’s the most water- and windproof piece here, with user-friendly pit zips,…
LEKI‘s SHARK CRUISER GLOVES are stylish and comfortable.
The waxed-suede Jillian zips easily over jeans, hugs your legs and feet with soft sheepskin, and grips icy sidewalks with a molded rubber outsole. It’s the perfect snuggly boot to make you feel put together after a day in baggy ski clothes.
KINCO‘s insulated PIGSKIN LEATHER SKI GLOVES are as tough as they are well priced, but you’ll have to waterpoof them yourself with a coating like Nikwax’s Glove Proof ($7; nikwax.com).
USER-FRIENDLY RIPPER Top pros like Bruce Irons, Joel Parkinson, and Luke Egan all ride Aussie shaper Jason Stevenson’s designs; the 6’5″ 300KW thruster we tested is identical to the one Egan surfs on in competitions. The bottom features a speedy, single-concave shape that transitions into a double-concave section near the…
Though it’s more than a year old, the Jefe, like its Tsangpo-stomping predecessor the Gus, has no equal as a creek and expedition boat. The long waterline, medium chines, displacement hull, and heavily rockered bow allow the boat to accelerate, track through turns, climb out of holes, and get…
TWICE AS FUN, TWICE AS HARD How much do you really trust your paddling partner? How solid is your marriage? The Topo Duo may have the answers. It’s the only two-person whitewater boat in production. A strong paddler can right both the boat and an accompanying novice, but beware: There…
GET UP, STAND UP Last year saw stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) move from the wacky fringe to the pages of Us Weekly, as seemingly every celebrity picked it up. With the fad still on full burn, shapers are racing into the SUP market, which is what makes the C4 special. It…
Like the cushy longboards that initially bore the Bing name, the single-fin Lovebird is gorgeous, with a gloss coat, fabric-inlaid deck, and pigment-colored bottom and rail wrap. But this isn’t some artsy old-school replica. (The brand was relicensed in 2000.) We tested our 9’2″ model in a variety of…
Top Touring Boat Paddle the nearly 18-foot-long Infinity as a day boat and it's fun if a bit cumbersome. Load it and head out for a week or more and it really shines. Serious paddlers looking for a comfy boat will love the Infinity's large cockpit and raised foredeck, which…
When you start gearing up to cling to walls of ice in the dead of winter, it’s no time to skimp, and PETZL‘s versatile and redesigned QUARK ICE TOOLS are a good place to start.
A harness is more than just something to hang by. You’ll want it to be durable with plenty of gear loops for carabiners, like the featherweight (only 11.2-ounce) R-280. Sure, it might look paper-thin, but its strength-dispersing technology uniformly distributes your body weight for maximum comfort.
1. This is simply the most adapt-able winter-specific storm shell we tested. The key is Schoeller’s new waterproof-breathable fabric with c_change technology, a membrane with a polymer structure that opens up when you get hot and contracts when you cool down. Translation: Testers didn’t overheat when their buddies did…
Why It RulesThe Airjet’s two-minutes-flat pitching saved me when I was hustling to beat some sleet: Thread two cross poles and a brow pole through the sleeves, then stake out six points. Done. » The Airjet stood taut as a kettledrum—even under two inches of wet snow. » Thanks to…
Talk about kids in a candy store. Contemplating the 20-surfboard quiver we assembled for Buyer’s Guide testing this year, our wave riders felt as if they’d been given the keys to Wonka’s brand-new surf factory. We had longboards, guns, funboards, thrusters, and fish—yet there was one stick our testers…
Ready to go pro? Then you already know that tricks are for kids—and success hinges on huge air. Enter Dagger’s Crazy 88, our Gear of the Year selection. This boat is a masterly equation of length, width, weight, and volume distribution, all of which pull together when the time comes…
The slow but steady First Need uses a three-stage matrix to draw out and starve viruses. Forcing water through the unit takes time and elbow grease on the pump handle, but the end product is virus-free and ready to quaff, with no need for additional chemical treatment. And because the…
1. The Stratocruiser 25 is a chameleon. It’s stylish enough to wheel inconspicuously through swanky hotels, but still tough enough for epic-trip abuse. After 18,000 air miles and a half-dozen rattling safari drives in South Africa, it posted a perfect unscathed score: no tears, breaks, or blown zips. Credit…
Why It’s CoolCuddling up to the two-pound-two-ounce Sub Kilo definitely took the edge off a few damp, chilly nights in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Two curvy lines stitched down the length of the bag to prevent the 700-fill goose down from clumping worked as billed: No cold spots arose…
1. The Aura is downright spacious (35 square feet), with two doors and two big vestibules. It’s plenty sturdy, easily withstanding 50-mph winds without guylines. And light: The Aura flirts with the four-pound barrier, the two-person freestanding tent’s equivalent of the four-minute mile. 2. Talk about usable space:…
Why It’s CoolThe canister version of MSR’s liquid-fuel SimmerLite shares its twin’s huge burner head, with similar pot supports that rotate into place and double as the feet. The legs endow the WindPro with the second-largest pot platform of all the cookers we tested, and the steadiness of a cast-iron…
1. Remarkable for its smart blend of features, capacity, ergonomics, and durability, this 9.9-pound duffel hits the sweet spot for most travelers. Its shell—420- and 630-denier nylon, with 1,680-denier ballistic-nylon reinforcements at crucial wear points— is a suit of armor. Add a tough back panel, bumper, and wheel…
If you think even a three-pound tent is heavy, but snoozing sans roof seems iffy, the NightHaven is for you. More than a tarp, less than a tent, the shelter sets up with two trekking poles. Lack of ventilation meant the silicone-treated nylon walls got clammy when the NightHaven…
It used to be that sleeping bags’ degree ratings were determined in various ways, so conventional wisdom dictated that you buy a bag with a temperature rating at least 10 to 15 degrees lower than the lowest temperature you’d expect to be camping in. That’s starting to change. For…
LOVABLE ODDBALLWith a slide-in pad replacing ground-side stuffing, the Crystal is one strange bird. But it’s also hosted some of the deepest slumbers of my life. Coziness arrives courtesy of an insulation-layering scheme called Dualmax, which intersperses slabs of Primaloft with batts of 650-fill down. As I flipped in sleep…
We’ve tested plenty of snowshoes with serious bite, and others that are extraordinarily comfy, but what makes the Mountaineer so impressive is how well it performed in both those categories. Thanks in part to two independent toe straps, the binding perfectly cradled every boot we jammed in it, from…
BEST ALL-AROUNDER Pardon our bluntness, but testers were unanimous: This tent has its shit together. How? The weight-to-space ratio is outstanding, the design simple and effective, and the protection bomber. With a quick-pitching hubbed pole design, two doors, and a spacious 36-square-foot interior, the Mesa was the most sought-after tent…
ULTRALIGHT SUMMER BAG You tend to pay more to carry less in the rarefied class of one-pound, down summer sacks. That’s why the barely-over-a-pound Flash is such a surprise: For packability, weight, and warmth it rivals bags that cost much more. And there’s nothing cheap about its silky shell and…
Of all the headlamps we tested, the Lucido TX-1 sends light the farthest (a whopping 345 feet), and its beam never wavered, even over a weeklong back-packing trip, thanks to three AAs. 5.8 oz; mammut.ch…
ULTRALIGHT AND COMPRESSIBLE Testers liked Big Agnes’s almost entirely recycled synthetic sack (the Skinny Fish; $180) just fine but were blown away by the down-filled Zirkel’s warmth-to-packability ratio. Like all the company’s bags, the Zirkel integrates the pad right into the bag via a sleeve on the underside, which, in…
EFFICIENT MOUNTAINEER Our most organized testers especially liked this tough, sensible 1,850-cubic-inch pack. Internal pockets hold snow-safety gear, valuables, and a hydration bladder. Outside, five more: two on the side, one in the lid, one on the hip belt, and one shove-it pocket on the back panel. The ski and…
Nothing is worse than being rudely awakened by rain when sleeping out sans tent, which is why testers had high praise for the 15-degree Shield. For starters, the 800-fill down is wrapped in a proprietary waterproof-breathable fabric that’s nearly as tough as Mammut’s burliest shells. And if it starts…
Ultralight and Packable The Vapor 15 is the lightest 15-degree-rated bag on the market; it stuffs down to the size of a Nerf football—and isn’t much heavier. Unfurl it, though, and you’ll find the high-end, 850-fill insulates like a bag that weighs almost twice as much. Of course, to make…
Swift Sticks Three things we look for in trekking poles: light weight, comfy grip, and easy length adjustment. The new Aergons hit the trifecta. At 17 ounces, they’re respectably light. The mostly cork grip is ergonomic, and the newly designed locking levers are strong and simple to use—even with gloves…
Because it’s two inches wide and has grippy rubber strips for added traction, Gibbon’s Jibline is the perfect slackline for beginners and kids. gibbonslacklines.com…
Fast and Light Designed to tackle the steepest Wasatch skin tracks and the deepest Utah powder, the three-year-old Switchback is still the lightest and least expensive free-pivot tele binding around. Testers gave props for its icing-resistant toe piece and its easy-to-operate, spring-loaded mode switch. “It’s not for driving big sidecountry…
NO SNOW TOO DEEP, NO ICE TOO HARD You’ll see old Gotamas, one of our favorite big-mountain skis of all time, with hundreds of days of abuse, still in liftlines everywhere from Taos to Fernie, but the current Gotama (new last year) is a worthy upgrade. Rocker (tip and tail)…
It’s true: Testers were first attracted to the Feenom simply because they look hot. But we also loved their ultra-wide peripheral vision and anti-fog vents. vonzipper.com…
Building off its success in mountain-bike helmets, Giro incorporates ample, switch-closable vents and a style-conscious but functional visor on this freeskiing lid. For $30 more get speakers built into the ear pads. giro.com…
A high cuff and fixed spine make the Shaman every bit as stiff as the best alpine freeride boots on the market. But because it comes with two soles—one ISO alpine and one rockered, ski-mountaineering sole—it's perfect for resort skiers who occasionally tour or boot-pack in search of better snow.
Women-specific gear should never be a softer, pinker version of the men's. That's why we love the four-buckle T1 Lady, which is as robust as the men's T1 but with a narrower heel fit and Scarpa's custom-moldable Intuition liner. 7.4 lbs; scarpa.com …
TAKE IT EVERYWHERE Good for Groomed Runs The most versatile frontside ski we tested, the brand-new 777 is less of a pure carver than the other skis on this page, making it an ideal choice for advanced skiers looking to step it up. Built to similar specs…
Obvious beer-goggle jokes notwithstanding, Scott’s new spherical, all-conditions Natural Light lens might be the most versatile in our test. Instead of a gray or vermilion field of vision, Natural Light shows the world pretty much as it is. scottusa.com…
Good for Big Mountain With features like a free-pivot touring mechanism, a reliable safety release, brakes, and the closest thing to step-in convenience in the freeheel world, the NTN (New Telemark Norm) binding represents a significant departure from conventional tele bindings. While it can be overpowering when matched with…
Although K2 calls the Lotta Luv an expert ski, it accommodates a wide range of advanced skiers. The wood core, topped by a layer of metal, makes for a quiet ride, while the integrated Marker system binding allows the ski to arc naturally through the turn. If that all…
STIFF AND STABLE On paper, the 154 demo model we were sent should’ve been too short for most of our testers. But this true twin proved to be surprisingly stable at speed. “It felt longer and stronger than it should have at top speed,” said one of our larger riders.
Instead of two straps, the new Essence has one big flap with four mini-ratchets. It’s a time-tested design, and testers loved this binding’s unparalleled feeling of security. flow.com…
Good for Resort Beginners, take note: This is the most forgiving board in our lineup. If you’re wondering whether rockered boards are really all that (and they are), know that the Angus is the most predictable and easygoing reverse-camber board here. This all-mountain, directional twin took on…
Good for All Mountain Are you rather large? Do wimpy skis piss you off? Go to Helldiver! Here’s an all-mountain ski with a big platform underfoot—90 millimeters—and no speed limit. While our biggest and fastest testers loved bombing groomers on it, our lightest testers found it a…
With its fog-cutting yellow-based tint, the Revolution has the most effective photochromic lens we’ve seen, capable of going from a milk-bottle day to bright sun. julbousa.com…
The tour mode still lacks the flexibility of traditional bindings, but the wide range of variously stiff, color-coded cables makes the NTN a good choice for skiers of all abilities. “This binding truly brings telemark skiing to a new level,” said one neophyte. 5.4 lbs; rottefella.com …
It doesn’t get much simpler than this. The low-profile Riot has a few small air vents, fleece-lined earflaps, a molded (read sturdier) brim, and that’s about it. The earflaps detach too easily. A nonadjustable liner means it either fits your head or doesn’t. TAGS: no frills, low-profile…
Telemark This year, SCARPA finally adds a walk mode to the powerful, smooth-skiing T-Race. Add that to its downhill chops—four buckles and the best power strap we’ve seen—and you’ve got, as one tester put it, “a full-tilt, full-shred crusher.” 8.6 lbs; TAGS: all mountain, new walk mode…
Like the original, only better. The leather uppers are now seam-sealed and waterproof. When combined with the nine-millimeter-thick felted-wool inner boots—rated to 40 below zero—this is a pair of kicks worthy of ice fishing in Minnesota. 5.2 lbs; sorel.com…
By laminating different materials to the frame (canvas and faux leather), Anon has constructed an impressively sturdy and cool-looking goggle. But we didn’t pick it just because it’s crafty. The Figment was also one of the most comfortable and fog-resistant goggles we tested this year. TAGS: new…
Why They’re CoolRockered Vibram soles endorse an effortless, natural walking motion. Why don’t more companies use ’em? » On a trek through Arizona’s White Mountains, the shallow, omnidirectional lugs gave me solid traction over dirt and needles, and excellent grip on smooth rock. » The polyurethane midsole is a step…
NO RATTLE, PLENTY OF HUM Another no-nonsense frontside carver, the new Strato 80 Ti is motorhead-fast right down to the flaming Troy Lee Designs graphics. But although you can push into sweeping turns at GS speeds and beyond, it’s not race-ski nervous. The wide-body tip needs only to be rolled…
Like the Energise, this pack’s air-cooled suspension prevents sweaty-back syndrome. Stretch-woven side pockets didn’t rip when caught on branches, and zipper finger loops made gloved entries a cinch. 2.6 lbs, 1,500 cu in; www.ospreypacks.com Crowd pleaser:It’s available in five different capacities.
BIG MOUNTAIN With plenty of snow to push around during testing at Utah’s Powder Mountain, people didn’t wait long to dig in with Scott’s fattest ski. The general consensus: Most felt its name is somewhat misleading. “Lively … Stay forward and let the rockered tips plow over anything,” said one…
When the going gets tough, the tough tighten up their Enigmas. Like an up-armored light hiker, the Enigma has the body of a sneaker and a Vibram sole shaped for cruising, but it plows through mixed terrain like a Hummer. Rigid support won’t wilt under a heavy pack, and…
Big Mountain Our women testers praised the Nemesis as “the go-to ski for anyone who seeks powder at all costs.” But, while the 98-millimeter waist says soft snow, when you hit the hardpack you can hang it way out there with the carvers. New this year, a “slow rise” in…
ONE TOUGH CUSTOMERThe Breeze Low keeps its cool in warm weather with ultrabreathable nylon mesh, deployed here on both side panels and tongue. But the Breeze is no featherweight: Bands of leather cradle the scuff-prone mesh, shielding it from abrasion, and a plastic armor plate below the midsole guards against…
Thanks to a neoprene toe box and ample cushioning, these are as close as you’ll come to skiing in a pair of bedroom slippers. But due to a forward stance and stiff flex, they performed well, too. nordicausa.com …
SPEED DEMON Can a running-oriented hydration pack double as a daypack? Yes, if it's designed as well as this one. During trail runs in the mountains above Santa Fe, the Riff's compression straps, foam back panel, and perfectly sculpted harness made for a stable, slosh-free ride. Yet on hikes the…
SPEED DEMON It’s rare for all of our testers to be on the same page, but everyone agreed: The new 888 is unquestionably the best ski the Slovenian company has produced in years. During several days of testing at Powder Mountain, these moderately wide planks (88 millimeters underfoot) effortlessly zippered…
THE PLAYER Instead of carrying your iPod in your jacket, stow it safely in the padded compartment of this 1,281-cubic-inch pack. The controls and phone jack mount on the ergonomic shoulder straps, and you can work the buttons with gloves on. Tunes or no, the Audex has ample room for…
GREAT ANKLE SUPPORT In a world of Honda Elements and Subaru Outbacks, the Ranger is a Ford Bronco: old-school and well-built but certainly not flashy. The crux of this classically designed boot is the collar. Leather strips on the outer surface offer stiff resistance to ankle rolls, while the inner…
Hard on your gear??If the answer is yes, the Deva is your friend. The rubberized bottom and 210-denier ripstop nylon were the burliest of the packs we tested. While the top compartment of this massive bag transforms into an over-the-shoulder daypack in seconds, the waist belt’s ratcheting system isn’t…
Made from recycled plastic bottles, this backpack keeps your surf stuff organized with thoughtful features like a seam-sealed wetsuit pocket, tarp-lined surf-wax keeper, and insulated cooler pocket. dakine.com…
With flat lace loops that don’t interfere with cinching snowshoe bindings, ample insulation, and a waterproof-breathable membrane, the Lynx can handle the wet and cold as well as any boot here. And with its trim and understated style, it blends nicely for urban use. 3.1 lbs;…
Why It’s CoolThe sleek new Platinum Pro holds up to 21 cubic feet of gear and opens from either side, but here’s the important part: I got this sucker out of the box and locked on the roof in less than two minutes, all by my lonesome. » The arched…