Knowledge Library

A lot of outdoor activities use a lot of similar gear. This is both a blessing and a curse. Hiking, climbing, backpacking, photography, trail running, and even kayaking all use packs of some sort. What are the differences between different packs and can you use the same pack for multiple activities? We’re going to focus on the climbing pack vs. hiking pack debate because the overlap is significant but the nuanced, technical differences are important to consider. Climbing Pack vs. Hiking Pack First of all, what is a climbing pack? In this recent article, we outline a few different types...

The details may change, but it’s a story as old as time: you’re joining a close-knit team of long-term coworkers from your new job this weekend on one of their regular alpine excursions. It’ll be a great opportunity to break the ice, they say, ha ha. The whole day Saturday is set aside for snowboarding, they say. They hope that won’t be a problem; they know you’re an avid skier because you included it in your résumé under Skills, but they suspect that snowboarding, like this office culture, is a little bit new to you. How different could it be,...

Congratulations! You've made the excellent choice of becoming a cross country skier. No matter if you're a beginner trying the sport out for the first time or a wily veteran looking to upgrade your setup, just by clicking on this article you've demonstrated that you have more intelligence, grace and are better looking than the average human. With your new membership in the cross country skiers guild, you'll get amazing benefits like avoiding long lift lines, having better cardio than most of your friends, saving a ton of cash on not buying a ski pass, and best of all not breaking...

Picture it: the off-season is ending. Winter is coming. You’ve got new skis, but what to do with your old pair? The obvious option is to save them for years and years until you have enough skis to make a stylish used-skis fence around your home. Fast-forward. Year eight. You and your partner have each stored one pair of skis per season in the narrow crawl space under your garage. Enough to crowd all your storage, not enough for a fence. Their presence haunts you. Eventually, you throw them into a lake. The next morning, in a guilty daze over...

Show of hands - how many of us climbed trees and rocks and fences and maybe even homes when we were kids? Come on, I know I’m not alone here. One of the reasons I love climbing so much is because it’s basically a grown-up riff on the original version of play that we can more often engage in as adults. Of all the different ways you can climb a rock, bouldering is one of my favorite forms because it requires so little equipment and skill to get started. The overhead to explore this type of fun and adventure can...