On the first weekend of August 2026, wildfires around Spokane, Washington forced roughly 60,000 people from their homes and damaged or destroyed at least 600 structures. The smoke did not stay with the fires. It rolled across the Northwest, greyed…
I know a lot of hikers who worry their ankles will get hurt without the right footwear. I used to be one of them. While trying to find out if ankle support for hiking is a must or not, I…
If you look at photos of the Pacific Crest Trail, it seems like one continuous highlight reel. Alpine lakes and volcanic ridges and desert sunsets. It indeed is all of those things, which explains why so many people have this…
Every year we test footwear, talk to gear makers, and watch the ultralight backpacking market reshuffle itself. This report is where we stop reviewing individual products and step back to map the bigger picture: where the money is going, what…
Hiking with flat feet often becomes a problem only when the miles go up, and the pain starts. That pain may show up in the arch, along the inside of the ankle, in the shin, or even higher up the…
Last autumn, I was out with a group of friends in Austria. Beautiful weather, a light trail, nothing technical. We were simply enjoying the day. But one of us had mentioned he’d been dealing with shin splints, and somewhere around…
If you are a seasoned hiker, you already know the profound pull of the backcountry. You know the rhythm of boots on dirt, the burn in your calves as you push past the timberline, and the quiet awe of waking…
This April, I tested the Salomon Quest 5 GTX for the full from Altendorf to Neumannmühle, with a pack and enough climbing and descending to make fit, support, and heat show up properly. By the later descents, I had a…
The first time I tried a five-day hut-to-hut traverse, I carried what everyone said I needed: energy gels, a pile of protein bars, and three dehydrated dinners. By the end of day one I was flying. By the middle of…
