rucksacking

Tres Belle Mont Bell

Mont Bell hasn't officially released their 2005 line yet, but things are looking good in the lightweight warmth category. They've already done a pretty good job of catering to the UL crowd with their Nine Pounds to Freedom line (though their pack is still inexplicably heavy). Perhaps the finest piece in the line-up is the 8.2 oz U.L. Thermawrap Inner Jacket.  BackpackingLight reviews the 2005 model (which they keep referring to as the "Thermowrap"), which adds a hood and pockets for an additional 2 oz.

REI Getting Into the Game

We take a few months off, and the whole landscape of lightweight backpacking rucksacking changes. REI has introduced a new line of "UL" products, which, though still a tad on the heavy side by most standards (or at least by ours), are still a huge improvement over traditional gear and will probably start a much larger segement of the public down the path towards rucksacking. We're not exactly sure when they began offering in-house items like the poetically-named REI UL 30L Pack, but we'll leave finding out stuff like that to real journalists who do stuff like, you know, research.

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2005 Madness!

The good folks over at BackpackingLight.com have basically blogged this year's winter Outdoor Retailers convention in Brighton, UT, and posted an index here. There are even short, free descriptions for non-members. If we had to choose, we'd say we're most excited about this, but that's because A) we love Smartwool, and B) we're not so into winter backpacking, so a lot of these products fail to get our juices going.

Rain jacket review

This comprehensive review covers almost every lightweight rain jacket on the market, including the 8.8 oz/247 g Haglöfs LIM Ultimate Jacket and the Montane Hydra-Lite Smock (7.6 oz/215 g). (Backpackinglight.com)

Not content to wait for Spring to arrive to head outside? Check out this review of Go Lite's newest pack, the Delirium, over at BackpackingLight.com.

If you're seriously heading out there (we wouldn't), you'll also need a good soft shell to keep you warm. This article at Outside may just help.