Gear guides and trail knowledge
Start here, then go outside.
Everything there is to know about hiking gear and where to take it. Picks ranked from specs and buyer reviews, never paid placement.
Latest guides
Hiking Sandals
Best Hiking Sandals of 2026
Only one maker here publishes a lug depth. Eight open- and closed-toe sandals ranked on tread, straps, footbed and toe cover.
12 min readRead the guide →
Budget Boots
Best Budget Hiking Boots of 2026
The top pick's 5 mm lugs match Merrell's far pricier Moab. Seven ranked on upper material, tread, membrane and weight.
12 min readRead the guide →
Gaiters
Best Hiking Gaiters of 2026
Most wet feet in a waterproof boot come in over the collar. Eight pairs ranked on height, membrane and the strap that fails first.
13 min readRead the guide →
From Basecamp
Trails, skills and the words everyone uses without explaining. No gear pitches.
Photo: Ocean Star — CC BY 3.0, cropped
Skills
Winter hiking for beginners in the Northeast
In winter the Adirondacks and Catskills go quiet, you can see out through the bare hardwoods, and the spruce on the high summits turn white with rime. Getting started takes skill more than toughness: traction matched to the ground, layers you don't sweat through, and a day planned backward from sunset.
19 min readRead it →
Photo: Cullen328 — CC BY 3.0, cropped
Safety
Altitude sickness on a hike, and the descent that cures it
Three illnesses wait for you above about 8,000 feet, and two of them can put a healthy hiker on the ground inside a day. What thin air is doing to you, how to tell an ordinary altitude headache from the two that end the trip, and why a thousand feet of descent beats anything in your pack.
13 min readRead it →
Photo: Ronnie Macdonald — CC BY 2.0
Destinations
Day hiking the Grand Canyon, and how far down to turn around
From the railing the Grand Canyon is a photograph with no scale in it. Twenty minutes down the trail it has heat and grain and a floor. Eight turnarounds on the South Rim's day trails, ordered by how deep each one takes you, with Park Service mileage and the rule that shapes the whole day: coming up takes about twice as long as going down.
15 min readRead it →
What we cover
The words on the box
Gear listings are written in a language nobody teaches you. Every term our guides lean on has its own page, with a straight answer at the top.
Browse the whole glossary →How we pick gear
Research-backed picks
We weigh published specs against Amazon buyer reviews, so you can see what actually works.
Trail focused
No gym shoes or car-camping bloat here, just what works on dirt, rock, and ridgeline.
No paid rankings
Picks are ranked on specs and buyer reviews, never on who pays us.
For every hiker
Side-by-side comparisons that show why one pick beats another for your kind of miles.