Camping Gear Reviews

Whether you're weekending at a sport crag or backpacking into a remote alpine crag, you need camping gear. Climbing magazine reviews tents, sleeping bags, insulating pads overnight packs, stoves, bivy bags, and many other types of gear for both car camping and mountaineering ascents.
  • Biolite-Campstove-660

    Wood Power

    The BioLite CampStove ($129.95; biolitestove.com) seemed like an impossible paradox at first: a wood-burning stove (outdated) that charges your electronics (futuristic), but after a fall season of car-camping trips, our testers were sold. One Joe’s Valley tester was able to brown a pound of ground beef and vegetables in just a few minutes on a 40°F night. But because it’s real fire and not a regulated gas stove, boil times for one liter of water depended largely on the outside temperature, ranging from 6.5 to 14 minutes.

  • First-Ascent-Tent-660

    High-Altitude Home

    Take a bomber four-season tent and make it comfortably livable, and there you have the First Ascent Katabatic ($599; firstascent.com). Our seasoned tester and guide put this tent at the top of his all-time-favorites list after taking it to 26,000 feet on Everest and braving 40 mph winds in it. He then rounded out his testing with another high-altitude stint in wind-whipped Peru.

  • Versa-tent

    This tent was perfect for car camping, yet light (4 lbs., 6 oz.) and packable for backcountry adventures like my twoweek stint in the Cascades of Washington. For the hot and dry eastern side of the range, it had large doors on either side, with a fully open option or a nice screen for bug protection. For the soppy western side, double-wall construction, vents in the fly, and those large screened doors meant no morning condensation buildup.

  • First-Ascent-Karakorum-660

    Sound Sleepers

    A good night's sleep is imperative for all climbing objectives. Whether you're attempting the Nose in a day or just car camping for a weekend of sport climbing, your bag can make or break your climb, not to mention your mood. Climbing magazine teamed up with Backpacker magazine to round up a dozen three-season down sleeping bags that were new for 2012.

  • MSR Whisperlite Universal Camp Stove

    Multifuel Stoves

    Climbing tested five new stoves so you'll know which one to take out on your next rock climbing, mountaineering, or camping adventure.

  • Pocket Power

    Enter the Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus Mobile Kit ($129.95, goalzero.com), a nifty way to literally recharge the batteries in all the gizmos you take rock climbing.

  • Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2009

    Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2009

    The Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, is madness this time of year—the reason is the summer Outdoor Retailer Trade Show, a massive gathering (over 20,000 people, I've been told) of outdoor gear and apparel companies, retailers, media, and athletes.

  • THE NORTH FACE MINIBUS 23 - 2009 Gear Guide

    THE NORTH FACE MINIBUS 23 – 2009 Gear Guide

    For a rest station after a marathon day of cragging, battling steep approaches, or dodging spraylords, you can’t get much more soothing than The North Face Minibus 23 (thenorthface.com), a user-friendly, two-person, three-season tent new for 2009. The Minibus 23 — with two exits and two big vestibules — comes with a host of innovative features that add up to a tent experience of a different sort. Click here to buy now from MountainGear.com

  • Gearing Up For Winter - No. 245

    Gearing Up For Winter

    Sub-zero temps, brittle ice, horizontal snowfall - if terms like that get your adrenal glands revving and your hands grasping for tools, then it's time to check out what's new in gear for this season.

  • Sleeping Bag Review - No 228 - March 2004

    Sleeping Bag Review – No 228 – March 2004

    The decision to climb with a sleeping bag is an easy one since most of today's ultralight bags weigh in under two pounds and pack down smaller than a bread loaf.

  • Sleeping Bag Review – No 215 – September 2002

    This review excludes bags with synthetic insulation because down is warmer and more compressible for its weight than man-made fibers — crucial considerations for any alpinist.

  • Western Mountaineering UltraLite - Sleeping Bag Review

    Western Mountaineering UltraLite – Sleeping Bag Review

    Western Mountaineering’s meticulous attention to detail is evident in the UltraLite, an open-baffle sack filled with conservatively rated 850-fill down.

 
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