I learned the value of a real ABC watch the hard way. Three years ago, on a wet late-season climb in the Cascades, my phone died at 11,400 feet and I had nothing but a paper map and my wrist to gauge the storm rolling in. That day I bought my first serious altimeter watch, […]

I spent the last 90 days testing six of the best autopilots for small boats aboard a Catalina 27 sailboat, a 19-foot center console, and a 22-foot bay boat. I wanted to know which marine autopilot systems actually hold a course when the wind kicks up, which install cleanly on a tiller, and which break […]

Choosing the best marine radar for small boats used to be a frustrating exercise. Most antennas looked like they belonged on a 60-foot sportfisher, and price tags routinely pushed past $3,000. After installing and testing 10 compact radomes and MFD combos over the past 90 days on our fleet of 18 to 24-foot center consoles, […]

I spent the last three seasons swapping transducers across my Garmin, Lowrance, and Humminbird units while fishing everything from 12-foot-deep bass ponds to 400-foot saltwater reefs. If there is one thing those trips taught me, it is that the transducer, not the screen, decides what you actually see below the boat. This guide breaks down […]

Clearing a trail with the wrong saw turns a 20-minute job into an hour of frustration. Over three seasons of volunteer trail maintenance, our crew has cut through everything from thumb-sized saplings to eight-inch blowdowns across the trail corridor. We learned the hard way that the best pruning saws for trail work need to handle […]

I have been carrying some form of hatchet into the backcountry for over a decade, and the debate around the best backpacking hatchets has only gotten louder since ultralight culture went mainstream. Our team spent the last three months hauling eight different models across the Sierra Nevada, the Adirondacks, and the Cohutta Wilderness, weighing every […]

Carrying firewood by the armful leaves your clothes covered in bark, your floors scratched, and your back aching. If you heat with wood or just love a winter fire, finding the best firewood carriers changes that daily chore completely. Our team tested 10 of the most popular firewood carriers and log totes over a full […]

I learned the hard way that the wrong boot can ruin a winter trip in under an hour. On a guided hike through Montana's Bridger Range, my partner laced up a non-insulated pair and within forty minutes his toes went numb, our pace collapsed, and we cut a planned 8-mile loop to just 2. That […]

After logging over 800 miles on trails from the Appalachian foothills to the slick-rock canyons of Utah, I can tell you the best hiking sandals for men are no longer just a camp shoe afterthought. Today's adventure sandals deliver serious traction, arch support, and foot security on technical terrain while still draining water at river […]

Choosing the best approach shoes for scrambling changed how I move through technical terrain. After burning through three pairs of hiking boots on Sierra granite and one disastrous trail-runner experiment on Class 4 talus, I switched to approach shoes and never looked back. Approach shoes sit in the sweet spot between hiking boots and climbing […]