American backpacking gear specialist Zpacks already has one of the world's lightest lineups of tents and shelters, with some single-sleepers that flirt with a mere half-pound (227 g). Its new Duplex ...

Backpacking backpacks are undergoing a sea change. Huge 70-liter, heavily padded, fully-featured models are on their way out, and the minimalist packs pioneered by thru-hikers are in. Today’s ...

For a lot of hikers, the secret to a good trip is simple: carry less. Over the past decade, we’ve seen ultralight backpacking go more and more mainstream, as major gear manufacturers have dived into ...

Ultralight backpacking equipment manufacturer ZPacks launched a fully featured and high-performance waterproof breathable “Vertice” series of shells for the true trail-rat gram counters. The series ...

Over the years, ultralight backpacking has garnered an unfortunate reputation: obsessive, elitist, unsafe, prohibitively expensive. While we could debate the first three (obsessive is the only one I’d ...

When Michael and Melanie Tilton go into the wilderness, they each carry a backpack with a base weight of around seven pounds. That single-digit figure includes all of their gear — from sleeping ...

Since the 1930s, backpacking has progressed in leaps -- from 1930s wood-and-rope Trapper John pack boards, to World War II surplus gear, to external-frame, hip-belted Keltys, to today's internal-frame ...