One hiker’s hack is just another hiker’s smart idea. Backpack for long enough and you’ll find yourself with your own bag of tricks—smart moves that make things easier, lighter, cheaper, or just more ...

Books are a contentious item among ultralight backpackers. Sure, a little entertainment can help pass long hours in the tent during storms or help you settle into camp at night. But reading material ...

Fat Bear Week, the annual March Madness-style competition that lets viewers vote for the fattest brown bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve, starts early this year. Beginning on September 18, the ...

Pushing the SOS button feels like a big responsibility. We shoot a signal through the atmosphere, from wherever we’re sprawled out on the ground in the middle of nowhere. That signal triggers a ...

Grand Canyon National Park has closed more than a dozen miles of trails, shuttered lodging, and cut off access to water following a deadly flood that killed at least two people and destroyed key ...

After five years and over 100 stories, I’m moving on from my post as Backpacker’s ultralight columnist. There’s a lot I could say about the people I’ve met, the stories I’ve told, and the trips I’ve ...

The trail passes through the 3,000-foot-high Logar Valley cinematic as a Peter Jackson sequence: Gnarled apple trees and wildflowers line long, narrow fields of bright green grass, and forests of ...

I’m out on a quick evening hike tonight, and it’s a little bit of a bittersweet moment because tomorrow I’m writing my final installment of my ultralight column for Backpacker Magazine. I’m Nate ...

When a ranger showed up at the door of David Gregory’s cabin in Phantom Ranch and told him to start getting his gear together, he wasn’t worried at first. “She says ‘you might want to just kind of ...

Labor Day’s a sweet time to backpack. You’ve hopefully still got some summer sun, and cooler, crisper nights for comfortable sleeping. The lakes aren’t filled to the brim with stinging snowmelt, and ...

It’s not always about the weight: On some trips, especially ones with minimal mileage or multiple days at the same basecamp, comfort is king. With 45.2 square feet of floor space, 45.3-inch peak ...

A climber takes a whipper on a wall two miles from the parking area, breaking her right tibia. A hiker collapses in 104ºF heat six miles from the trailhead. A backpacker pushing through sunset ...