Roman Dial’s The Adventurer’s Son is a deeply honest piece of writing. Dial, a hardcore adventurer, displays admirable vulnerability in this story of family-building and loss. He examines the heart of the adventurer, how it yearns to walk the knife edge cornice between life and death while simultaneously questioning that desire, especially when it causes others pain. He grapples with the guilt of encouraging adventure in his son—also named Roman—as adventure led ultimately to his death.
The Overlook: Othering in the Outdoors (Backpacking Light)
The Overlook is Backpacking Light’s new monthly column where hiker, writer, and thinker Ben Kilbourne will explore backpacking from many different vantages. He will try to climb up to a high place with a view, an overlook, where the myriad issues intertwined with backpacking can be seen. This column will challenge the reader to embrace complexity and engage in thoughtful dialogue with other readers. Join us at The Overlook!
An Encounter
After a long workday, I closed the computer, switched from jeans to running clothes, drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon just outside of Salt Lake City, and parked on the side of the road behind a long string of cars. On a Friday afternoon, hordes of people had the same idea as me: get some exercise in the woods. It’s a common pastime for Salt Lakers of all kinds, an activity with no apparent common denominator. The Wasatch Range is a place where different people are brought together through a shared love of the outdoors.
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Borah Gear Bug Bivy Review (Section Hiker)
The Borah Gear Bug Bivy is a reasonably priced bivy for use under a variety of tarps when there is mild to medium bug pressure. It can add a few degrees of warmth to your sleep setup and is also great for cowboy camping. It weighs between 5.5 – 6.5 oz, costs $85, and can add a lot of versatility to your shelter system. There are other similar bivies out there, but none of them hit such a remarkable price point.
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Six Moon Designs Haven Bundle Review (Section Hiker)
The Six Moon Designs Haven Bundle is a lightweight (34 oz), two-person, double-wall, tent that includes the company’s Haven Tarp and Haven NetTent. It checks a lot of the same boxes as comparable tents, and the price point comes in below many of them. The Haven Bundle is exceptionally easy to use, with effortless modularity and effective toggles for rolling back doors. These features paired with high-quality materials make the Haven Bundle a great choice for people who like the ease-of-use of traditional dome-style tents but want something lighter and more durable.
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Warbonnet Diamondback 0 Quilt Review (Section Hiker)
The Warbonnet Diamondback Quilt (stock model, sewn footbox, 0 degree model) is a very lofty quilt for use either in hammocks or on the ground. It has a 15D shell and liner, comes in a number of sizes, and several color configurations. With 19.36 oz of 850-fill down inside, it should be good for winter use or three-season use for cold sleepers. Personally, I have found it to be quite warm in temperatures ranging from 34 degrees F to 12 degrees F. The quilt’s pad attachment system left me wanting but is somewhat forgivable due to its excellent side-elastic system. It costs $375, which is significantly less than some comparable premium quilts.
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Western Mountaineering Versalite 10 Sleeping Bag Review (Section Hiker)
The Western Mountaineering Versalite 10 sleeping bag is the sleeping bag I would choose if I could have only one. It can be used very comfortably between 10 and 40 degrees and pushed a little further in either direction. I’ve taken it below 10 wearing some layers and have draped it over me quilt style when temps are warmer than 40. The Versalite is pretty pricey, but worth it if it’s going to be your primary or only sleeping bag. I’ve owned mine for six years, during which time I’ve owned a number of other sleeping bags, but the Versalite has remained in my possession for longer than any of the others. The reason I’ve kept it around is that it’s a truly versatile sleeping bag.
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Excerpt from Upcoming Book "Connection Prayer"
Usually I walk in canyons to particular destinations, to specific features. I walk where there is water. I walk where other people walk, where there are trails. This time was different. I would be walking a path no humans walk, at least in its entirety. Humans cross this path; there is Highway 89 and there are numerous dirt roads, but these lines of travel all run counter to the path I was about to take. Humans pass on human errands. A family on vacation crosses this route, speeding down the highway. A rancher crosses too, bumping down a dusty red road in the predawn light to check his tanks.
Colorado Plateau Shoulder Season Gear List
Updated 11/24/23
This gear list is tailored to Colorado Plateau trips in February, March, April, May, September, October, and November. The base weight here is will vary between about 10 and 12lbs but the higher end includes rainpants, fleece gloves, fleece hat, and other things that won’t be necessary during the warmer parts of these seasons. It’s pretty easy to modify the list to keep it lighter.
I updated this list in November of 2023 because a lot has changed in the last three years. If you scroll over to the right you’ll see my notes. I mention the items that used to be on the list, what they’ve been replaced with, and why I’ve made the switch. Some items have stayed the same. It’s certainly great when things work well enough to stick around for 3 years or more.
"Why I Walk" (Backpacking Light Blog & Podcast)
I pull my truck into a packed trailhead across the street from the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, park, and again look at my phone. I check my messages, scroll briefly through Instagram again, and then turn it off and tuck it under the seat. It’s four-thirty in the afternoon and I’m feeling a sleepiness only caffeine, napping, or walking can fix. English tea time. Spanish siesta. Utah amble.
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Seek Outside Divide 4500 Backpack Review
I’ve been using the Seek Outside Divide 4500 as my go-to load-carrying pack for about the last three years. A good example of an ideal trip for this pack is a five-day packrafting loop in Canyonlands National Park I did in 2018. I carried typical three-season equipment, five days of food, a 6lb 11oz packraft, an 18oz PFD, a 37oz paddle, a ton of water, and other packrafting gear. At my heaviest, hauling water from Spanish Bottom up 1000 ft in less than a mile to the Dollhouse and then through the Maze to Water Canyon, my pack was probably around 48lbs. I do not like carrying weights like this. But sometimes it happens, especially with boats, and especially in the desert where water is potentially scarce. When I have to, the Divide is the perfect pack for the job.
Seek Outside Eolus Tent With Nest Review (Section Hiker)
The Seek Outside Eolus Tent with Nest is a 36.9 oz-tent that pitches with two trekking poles. It is very large for such a lightweight two-person tent, making it extremely livable and comfortable, especially for taller individuals, or people who have to pack a lot of gear. The tent has a unique zipperless door that opens and closes by sliding it up and down a guyline. This design makes it perfect for desert environments where zippers often fail as a result of sand. As is usually the case with Seek Outside products, the design of this tent is above and beyond what anyone else in the industry is doing. I salute their creativity as it pushes the backpacking industry forward.
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Desert Water Purification (Section Hiker)
Purifying water in the desert can be a unique challenge. Often, it’s hard to even find any water to begin with, and when you finally do, it’s opaque with silt or full of swaying algae or tiny worms. Much of it is frankly unappealing. In this article, I will discuss pathogens, purification methods, challenges unique to desert environments, and solutions. Most of what I cover saying pertains to the dirty, filthy, sandy, silty, muddy water sources that transect the Colorado Plateau, including Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument, Bear’s Ears National Monument, Canyonlands National Park, The San Rafael Swell, and Grand Canyon National Park. Although the lessons learned can also apply to the Sonoran Desert, the Mojave Desert, and the Great Basin Desert, as well.
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Zpacks Pocket Tarp w/ Doors Review (Section Hiker)
The Zpacks Pocket Tarp w/ Doors is a one-person tarp weighing 6.1 oz with guylines attached. It is constructed from 0.55 oz/sq. yard Dyneema Composite Fabric (DCF), a fully waterproof material that doesn’t stretch or sag when wet. I purchased this tent primarily for use in the desert southwest where shelters aren’t often needed and where zippers often clog with sand. My hope was that the Zpacks Pocket Tarp w/ Doors would feel like almost nothing in my pack and provide enough protection for those short-lived summer storms or light spring drizzles. Read on to find out if it lived up to my expectations.
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Seek Outside Flight One Backpack Review
I’ve used the Seek Outside Flight One Solid Spectra backpack on three trips now including the Uintas Highline Trail. The Highline was 104 miles over the course of 6 days, making it a great test for this pack. I don’t know my exact starting weight but I’m guessing it was around 30lbs with a few liters of water and a grapefruit. It felt heavy with 50% of the weight on my shoulders, so I ate the grapefruit right away. But as much as I messed around with the adjustments I couldn’t get the weight distribution right. It remained between 55/45 and 50/50 hips/shoulders for the remainder of the trip, even at the end when my pack weight was below 20lbs.
Backpackers Should be Amateur Naturalists (Backpacking Light)
Out of my backpack, I pulled the small nylon sack that contained my tarp and began scanning the meadow for a flat place. My pack fell over and my pot and stove spilled out. I walked away from the mess toward a mostly flat, mostly rockless patch of meadow. Perfect. I pulled the tarp out of the sack and draped the rectangle over the grass and the tiny white and purple flowers. Before I pounded in a single stake I noticed a dead lodgepole about 50 feet (15 meters) away and 60 feet (18 meters) tall. Halfway up the tree split into a schoolmarm, one side bare and the other side impossibly supporting a mess of dead branches. The whole thing leaned generally in my direction. This spot will not do. I gathered the tarp and continued the search.
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The Elegy I Can’t Help But Write
I can’t sleep. The inflatable pad underneath me feels torturously unstable. I am tempted to push it aside in favor of the cold, lumpy ground. Hours pass and I wonder if I have been thinking about anything at all. I roll onto my other side again and listen to the tent fabric scrape against a dead finger of greasewood. I had reached the San Rafael Swell in central Utah just in time to start walking up a narrow canyon patinated with dark streaks of desert varnish. The deep sand slowed my pace as wind-broken rain scattered out of the orange west. I planned to walk for at least an hour and a half, but the storm clouds made evening arrive early. At the first sign of flatness I dropped my pack and listened as caterpillars dropped out of the cottonwoods above me like weighty raindrops.
The World Outside the Mind
It’s the fifth week? Tenth week of the pandemic? Who knows. I wake and put on water for tea and sit down at my computer again. The world is contained within the window of my screen every day now, separate from me. My friends call occasionally from their own separate windows. The window itself facilitates our stilted, delayed connections. Before all this it was just the eye which mediated, now it’s this window. There is no coming together, drifting apart, only separation. I’ve come to love my neighborhood. The magnolias, blooming pears, crabapples, and tulips are the only things that seem to me both separate from me and tangible. They’re right here. I believe they exist. They suggest to me that there might be more than just my own mind.
Mountain Laurel Designs DCF Duomid Long-term Review
When I set out to find a simple, stable, light, modular shelter in 2015 I pretty quickly landed on the Mountain Laurel Designs Duomid. It’s not the lightest shelter in the world, but something about it felt foolproof, reliable.
My Personal Use
I worked as a ranger in the High Uintas Wilderness during the 2013 season when I used the gear provided by the Forest Service. Most employees used Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 tents. At about three and a half pounds, these tents were not ultralight but they were pretty roomy for waiting out 48-hour storms while reading, listening to podcasts, or playing guitar. Yes, I carried a guitar. At four and a half pounds it was worth it considering how many nights I spent alone.
Packrafting Gear List (Section Hiker)
When the snow starts to melt on the high plateaus above the canyon country of Utah, intermittent rivers start to flow, and I start refreshing the USGS site every few hours looking for an upward trend that means it’s time to go boating. Often these rivers flow between February and May, so this gear list is a direct reflection of that. In the high deserts of Utah in mid-March anything could happen. You could see rain one year, snow the next, and even some 85-degree days that leave you squinting through the glare for a shaded alcove under which to hide. Because of this variability, the gear list I have made accounts for chillier spring weather scenarios. I will offer some suggestions for pushing this list towards summer…
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Nunatak Arc UL 20 Review (Section Hiker)
The Nunatak Arc UL 20 Quilt is a thoughtfully-designed, lightweight three-season quilt. While fairly expensive at $425, its features and execution make it worth every penny. There are a number of quilts out there that cost a good $150 less than this one, but many of them lack premium features such as a draft collar, differential cut, or an edge tensioning system. Nunatak quilts are also highly-customizable. They offer a variety of fabric, sizing, and pad attachment options. So, if you know what you want, and don’t mind waiting a couple of months for it, consider placing an order with Nunatak…
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