-
UTTy Gear Storage Strap
We almost took a pass on reviewing the UTTy, and we'll be the first to admit that would have been a mistake. It just seemed too simple: a four-foot strap of one-inch wide nylon with four double hooks that slide up and down and lock in place. Seems like a yawner, right? It's not. The…
-
Kahtoola NANOspikes Traction System
One thing you can rely on in Anchorage, Alaska is frequent freeze-thaw cycles in the winter. It makes walking to school and work a challenge and sometimes outright dangerous. Also high on the suck meter is trying to get someone's car unstuck on an icy road while you're slipping around yourself. The solution is some…
-
Outdoor Research Alpine Onset Ubertube Top
Everybody say it with me now! What do we like? Merino wool baselayers! How do we like them? In cool colors with funky features! Yes, you've got it, and so does Outdoor Research with their funky and cool Ubertube top. The Ubertube comes in some classy monotones as well, but that blue camo, you know…
-
RNR Raider Ultra-Violet Locking Carabiner
Looking back in our personal gear history, our first memory of being fascinated by a shiny object, that eventually led to a lifetime of gear acquisition and abject poverty, was a humble carabiner. They are still in our minds the ultimate image of the climbing life. In some ways biners have come a long way,…
-
ORCA 12oz Whiskey Barrel Cup
We are not cool enough to be fashionable whiskey drinkers, but that doesn't mean we can't pretend, and the best way to do that is drinking from our new ORCA Whiskey Barrel double walled cup. Sure, underneath that handsome exterior the Orca Whiskey Barrel is a basic stainless steel, double-wall, vacuum sealed cup. It keeps…
-
Camelbak Podium Dirt Water Bottle
Fact: water bottles that live in a bottle cage on your mountain bike are going to get dirty. After one too many swigs on our basic model bottle that ended with us spitting dirt out, we decided it was time for a bottle with a cap on it. Looking around a bit, we saw the…
-
Bug Soother
Summer is pretty much over here in Alaska, but the last couple months we seemed to have more than our share of little flying biting critters – mosquitos, flies and god knows what else. The tiny flies were worse than the mozzies this year it seemed. Having grown up in the interior of Alaska, where…
-
MSR Guardian Gravity Water Purifier
We'll just say it up front, MSR has designed what may be the perfect water purifier for small groups, capable of purifying ten liters of "worst-case" water at a rate of about one liter every two minutes, and with a filter rated for 3,000 liters of lifetime service. We know you have questions, like, what…
-
Helinox Chair Zero
A place to rest our buttocks, that is all we ask. Oh, and it has to be lightweight, packable and hold all the buttocks. With decent back support. You get the idea. The Helinox Chair Zero pretty much ticks all the boxes. It weighs in at a flat and feathery one pound, packs up into…
-
Therm-a-Rest Vesper 32F Quilt
There's light, and then there is ultralight. And ultralight these days has gotten crazy-light, thanks to companies like Therm-a-Rest. Their Vesper quilts is about as minimalist as you can possibly get in features, and it doesn't give an inch on performance to get there. The idea behind ultralight is simple: the lighter your gear, the…
Thanks for your patience while we move 16 years of reviews over from gearflogger.typepad.com