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| The Best Big Wall Hauling Devices
There is no part of big wall climbing reviled as much as hauling. To ease the pain we looked at the four top hauling devices and put them up against some monster El Cap loads. We evaluated each device on its ease of hauling, ease of setup, durability, ease of use, and portability. We found that all ...
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| The Best Climbing Camming Device Review
We took the 17 best spring-loaded camming devices (usually just called a climbing cam) and put them in head-to-head competition in hundreds of placements.
We scored them on how well they did in parallel cracks, flared cracks, tight placements, horizontal placements, free climbing, and aid climb...
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| The Best Women's Long Underwear
We took the best women's long underwear and put them in head-to-head tests. These are the shirts that can handle the rugged stuff, keeping you warm and cozy while performing from the tops of mountains to the depths of caves. Sure, you can wear them for a run or to a Yoga class, but you can also tak...
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| The Best Three-Season Down Sleeping Bag Review
We tested twelve three-season down bags in a head-to-head competition that assessed the following categories: fit, weight, warmth, packed size, and features. We pushed the limits of these bags by testing them for over two years in nearly every environmental condition imaginable. Dozens of people hav...
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| The Best Women's Insulated Jacket Review
These seven insulated jackets were run through the gauntlet of climbing, skiing, hiking, stuffing into packs, and battling the winter elements around town. They varied in thickness, warmth, and weight but they each functioned well in different ways. We paid close attention to the performance in the ...
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| The Best Men's Fleece Jacket Review
We took eleven men's fleece jackets and put them to head-to-head tests to figure out what was the best in the following categories: wind resistance, water resistance, breathability, comfort and cozyness, warmth, layering over, layering under, ease of movement, eco-groovy, and ease of care. We think ...
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| Crash Pad Review: The Best Bouldering Pad
We selected over a dozen of the best bouldering crash pads, lined them up, and fell on them repeatedly. Then we dragged them around, loaded them up, unloaded them, and fell on them some more. We found a big difference in all the pads when evaluated by foam, design, durability, and features. We put t...
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| The Best Nuts and Stoppers
We looked at 11 different types of nuts and tested them in a wide range of cracks in a mixture of rock types. We compared their ability to hold a fall in a full range of fissures, from pin scars to parallel sided cracks. We compared and weighed factors that we believed most appropriate for alpine, a...
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| The Best Anchor Chain for Climbing Review
What is the best anchor chain for connecting you to your climbing anchor? We look at three of the best options and test them head-to-head. We evaluated them on four criteria: fall absorption, ease of clipping, overall feel, and weight and bulk.
The first question you may have is, "What is an an...
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| The Best Climbing Slings and Runners
Climbing runners have come a long way from the archaic knotted bits of rope and webbing that climbing’s early enthusiasts had to choose from. In today’s climbing world, high-tech fibers stronger than steel allow slings to be skinnier than imaginable and still maintain a full strength rating. As wi...
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| The Best Big Wall Gear Sling
We took four big wall gear slings and tested them on Yosemite's big walls and in our Gear Lab. We scored each gear sling in five categories: comfort, adjustability, organization, ease of getting on, and overall bomberness. We scored each gear sling, added up the points, and then awarded our Editors'...
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| The Best Men's Down Jacket Review
We tested seven of the best down jackets in focused side-by-side comparisons, including one that left our chief tester standing in the snow for too long with only a T-shirt on. Other tests were on ice climbing and skiing in winter in the Washington Cascades and a month-long trip to Patagonia. We did...
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| The Best Handheld GPS Review
We tested seven of the latest and greatest handheld GPS units in a head-to-head competition that assessed satellite reception, ease of use, speed, display quality, and mapping software. Our testing occurred over a six-month period and included lots of outdoor recreation: from hikes under dense redwo...
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| Women's Fleece Jacket Best in Class Review
We took nine women's fleece jackets and put them to head-to-head tests to figure out what was the best in the following categories: wind protection, water resistance, breathability, comfort/cozyness, warmth, layering ability and movement. We wore them around town, to bed, while running, hiking, and ...
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| The Best Men's Insulated Jacket Review
These ten insulated jackets were run through the gauntlet of climbing, skiing, hiking, stuffing into packs, and battling the winter elements around town. They varied in thickness, warmth, and weight but they each functioned well in different ways. We paid close attention to the performance in the fo...
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| The Best Climbing Belay Device
We tested 13 top belay devices in the gym, up and down Yosemite’s walls and in our lab (our garage). We tested belay devices for efficiency in throwing rope fast to a leader, smoothly belaying a second, rappelling single or double ropes of varying diameter, and for overall durability. Then we select...
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| The Best Women's Barefoot Shoes
What is the best barefoot running shoe for women? To find out we reviews the most popular models in head-to-head tests to figure out what was the ideal for each activity. We took them to crossfit, stand-up surfing, gardening, sprinting, trail running, and just wore them around the house. We scored e...
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| The Best Men's Flip-Flop Sandals Review
We took the best flip flops and sandals and put them head-to-head in every situation they were meant for, and some they were not. We climbed mountains in them just so you won't have to. We wrote this review for people who want to wear flip flops all day and do just about anything. (If you just want ...
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| The Best Climbing Harness Package
When you are just starting to climb it can be hard to figure out what harness and belay device/carabiner to buy. Climbing companies package these items together with a chalk bag so you can get all the essentials in one place. We looked at the most popular climbing packages and rated them against eac...
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| The Best Men's Performance Shirt Review
We took six of the best selling performance shirts and put them through the paces to help you find the one that’s right for you. These shirts can be layered as any true base layer should, but they can also perform on their own. We hiked, biked, paddled, and climbed our way through nine different ca...
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| The Best Tape for Climbing
When approaching that meat-grinder of a hand crack and contemplating whether you’d actually like to see what the bones and tendons on the back of your hand look like…most of us will reach for the tape. While most tapes will do the job, we thought it would be cool to take a more analytical approach t...
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| The Best Women's Down Jacket Review
After rigorously wearing and comparing some of the top women's down jackets on the market today, we decided it was hard to make big distinctions between some of the top competitors. Some jackets have obviously different features and purposes, such as the Mountain HardWear Sub Zero SL being a big and...
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| The Best Sporks Review
Frustrated by the burden of carrying a specific utensil for every food medium? Looking for something versatile, something light, or something to add that extra bit of pizzaz to your meal? Look no further than the compound spoon-fork known as the spork. We brought together three of the best sporks on...
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| The Best Women's Rain Jacket Review
We took a selection of the top selling women’s rain shells geared for the outdoor recreation enthusiast and put them to the test, judging each on an array of factors and comparing them side-by-side. We chose a range of jackets from the most expensive to the most budget oriented; jackets with the mos...
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| Best Rope Bags for Climbing
We looked at the seven most popular rope bags on the market today. We compared them side-by-side in a variety of ways. How durable they were, how big their tarps are, how easy they are to roll up, how easily we could fit a 60m rope, a 70m rope, and a rope plus other items like shoes, draws, water bo...
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| Big Wall Climbing Harness Review
What is the best harness for big wall climbing and aid climbing? We took five of the best big wall harnesses and put them head to head. We evaluated these harnesses in five main areas: comfort, adjustability, comfort while sleeping, gear loops, and ease of free climbing. ...
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| The Best Climbing, Belay, and Rappel Gloves
What is the best way to protect your hands from climbing, belaying and rappelling? We answer that question by testing 16 of our favorite climbing gloves on big walls, crags, and at the gym. We belayed hundred of pitches, rappelled thousands of feet and climbed hundreds of aid pitches in Yosemite. We...
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| The Best Climbing Harness Review
We tested 19 of the top harnesses in a head-to-head comparison to find out which is the best. The fact is that there is no piece of climbing gear you will spend more time with than your harness. Climbing shoes come and go and ropes wear out, but your harness will last for years or maybe a decade. Th...
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| Finding the Perfect Big Wall Aider
We reviewed eight of our favorite big wall aiders and used them on more than 100 walls, from El Capitan to Baffin Island. We evaluated aiders using five main criteria: comfort, ease of walking up, durability, ease of use free climbing, and top-stepping. We then chose our top aiders in three categori...
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| Best Men's Climbing Approach Shoes
We looked at 13 of the best climbing approach shoes and put them through rigorous head-to-head tests. We scored them on smearing, edging, hiking, durability and their lightweight/compactness. We took them up El Capitan, to the sport crag, on long hikes, or just around town. In the end we choose a wi...
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| Helmet Cam Showdown: GoPro vs Contour
For our comparative test of the most popular mini-HD helmet cams on the market, Matt Gerdes set them both up on his helmet and went straight to 21,000 feet over the Swiss Alps for some wingsuit flying in -5 C temps. He then repeatedly wingsuit BASE jumped off many of the biggest and baddest cliffs i...
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| The Best Men's Rain Jacket Review
What is the best rain jacket to buy? To answer this question, we took a selection of the top selling men’s and women’s rain shells and put them to the test judging each on an array of factors, and comparing them side by side. We chose a range of jackets from the most expensive to the most budget ori...
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| The Best Women's Softshell Review
The soft shell is an interesting piece because it strives to do so much in one layer. It resists wind, repels water, and breathes well. Soft shells tend to be much more comfortable than hard shells, being more flexible, less stiff and noisy, and not as suffocating. However, a soft shell is not the j...
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| The Best Camping Stove Review
We enrolled nine of the best one-burner camping stoves in a back country cook-off that assessed control, versatility, setup, stability, durability, and wind resistance. We bruised and battered these stoves on trips all over the West Coast. From the High Sierra to Oregon’s dry desert to the rainy Pac...
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| The Best Women's Performance Shirt Review
We took nine of the best selling active base layer tops and put them through the paces to help you find the one that’s right for you. These tops can be layered as any true base layer should, but they can also perform on their own. We hiked, biked, paddled and climbed our way through nine different ...
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| The Best Nut Tools for Climbing
We took seven of the best nut tools and tested them at cleaning a variety of cams and nut types in all sizes and over a broad spectrum of rock types. We compared their weight, durability, ability to clean a nut, ability to clean a cam, the comfort level while pounding on the nut tool with our hand, ...
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| The Best Quickdraw for Climbing
What is the best quickdraw for rock climbing? We compared 13 of the best in a variety of tests to find out. We judged each quickdraw in the following five categories: ease of clipping, ease of unclipping, ease of handling, ease of grabbing, rope pull smoothness and portability. In the end we found t...
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| The Best Men's Long Underwear
We tested the long underwear that can handle the rugged stuff, keeping you warm and cozy while performing from the tops of mountains to the depths of caves. Sure, you can wear them for a run or to a Yoga class, but you can also take them around the world – skiing, climbing, biking, and just plain c...
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| The Best Softshell Jacket Review
We enrolled sixteen of the best softshell jackets in an abusive testing regime that involved skiing, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, showshoeing, and cycling. We lived in these jackets day-in, day-out, using a different one each day, for five months. Some went to the highest point in th...
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| The Best Women's Climbing Shoe
We took the top women's climbing shoes and put them to a hands-on…err…feet-on test to find the very best. We found that not all climbing shoes are created equal. Some are better performance shoes, others are better all-day shoes and still others are better for beginners. Find out how the climbing sh...
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| The Best Carabiners for Climbing
What is the best carabiner for rock climbing? We compared 15 of the best carabiners in a variety of tests to find out. Each carabiner was judged on the following six categories: ease of unclipping, ease of clipping, ease of handling, how many ropes fit, rope pull smootheness, portability . In the en...
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| The Best Backpacking Tent Review
What is the best backpacking tent? We tested eight of the best and most popular two-person, 3 season backpacking tents in a rigorous six-month tour of seven western states. We rated each tent based on its livability, ease of setup, strength, weight, and packed size. Testing brought us through the wi...
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| The Best Hiking Midweight Socks
Do you have yet to find the perfect mid-weight hiking sock? One that will fit like a second skin, wick moisture away, and keep you warm, wet or dry? To help solve this very problem, we’ve tested five of the leading mid-weight socks, in all types of adverse conditions. These socks have been put throu...
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| The Best Rock Climbing Shoes Review
We took 25 of the best men's rock climbing shoes and put them in head-to-head competition to find the very best. We evaluated these shoes on edging, cracks, comfort, pockets, and sensitivity. We did side-by-side comparisons both in our lab, the gym, coastal sport crags and on Yosemite's big walls. B...
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| The Best Climbing Chalk Review
Ahh…chalk. For some of us climbers it’s only necessary in the blazing heat when even a bag of dust would start sweating, and for others it’s a physical and mental crutch upon which we rely to grunt out those superhuman crux moves on our latest project. Either way, we all use it at some point and whe...
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| The Best 4 Season Tent Review
We tested thirteen of the best four-season tents in a head-to-head winter competition everywhere from the High Sierra to Chilean Patagonia. We assessed each tent based on its strength, weight, packed size, livability and features. Our rankings and awards identify the best overall tent, the best valu...
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| The Best Daisy Chain For Climbing
What is the best daisy chain for climbing? We look at seven of the best options and test them head-to-head. We evaluated them on four criteria: fall absorption, ease of hooking, durability, and weight. While daisy chains can be used for free climbing, in general, we recommend an anchor chain instead...
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| The Best Women's Climbing Approach Shoes
We took the top women's approach shoes and put them to a hands-on…err…feet-on test to find the very best. We found that some approach shoes excel as hiking shoes, while others are better at climbing and still others proved best for carrying heavy loads. Find out how the shoes stacked up when compare...
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| The Best Avalanche Beacon Review
What is the best avalanche beacon for the backcountry? To find out we took seven of the top models and put them in rigorous head-to-head tests in the Cascades, Sierra, and Alaska. We had both novices test them to see which is easiest to use and learn. We also put them in the hands of expert mountain...
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| The Best Cold Weather Down Sleeping Bag Review
We tested six of the best quality cold weather down sleeping bags in a head-to-head competition that assessed the following categories: fit, weight, warmth, packed size, and features. We pushed the limits of these bags by sleeping in them for five months in the Sierra Nevada. We camped in tents, on ...
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| Haul Bag Review - The Best Bags for Big Wall Climbing
What is the best haul bag for big wall climbing? While it would hard to climb with all eight of these bags head-to-head, I did use them all over 110-plus big wall ascents from Yosemite to Norway. Each bag was evaluated on five variables: durability, capacity, waterproof-ness, ease of access, and sus...
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| Picking the Best Ice Axe
We looked at 14 different ice axes and compared them head-to-head in the following categories: self-arresting, anchor digging, step chopping, use as improvised anchor, steep ice and snow climbing, and comfort to carry. We also looked at their advantages and disadvantages across different user groups...
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| The Best Barefoot Shoes Review
We took seven of the best barefoot shoes and put them in head-to-head tests to figure out what was the best for each activity. We took them running, hiking, surfing, climbing, weight-lifting and just wore them around the house. We scored each in six key categories: barefoot feeling, warmth, traction...
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| The Best Summer Weight Down Sleeping Bag Review
We tested six of the best quality summer weight down bags in a head-to-head competition that assessed the following categories: fit, weight, warmth, packed size, and features. We pushed the limits of these bags on summer backpacking trips, international travel, through hiking, and fast and light alp...
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| The Best Climbing Harness - Women's
There is no piece of climbing gear you will spend more time with than your harness. Climbing shoes come and go and ropes wear out, but your harness will last for years or maybe a decade. There are a lot of great harnesses out there. In fact, this is the first gear category where we are not yet able ...
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| The Best Women's Flip-Flop Sandals Review
This flip-flop sandals review is for you like-minded, open-air-footwear loving folk. We took five of the top selling flips and road tested them, dirt tested them, water, bike, and coffee break tested them. We looked at things such as support, durability, traction, and comfort. Also taken into cons...
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| The Best Portable Solar Panel Review
What is the best portable solar panel? To find out, we took eight panels and put them in head-to-head tests. We compared them on the following categories: output power, compactness, weight, and versatility. In the end we found big differences in the panels we tested. Some worked well for all our nee...
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| The Best Laptop Bag Review
We tested eight of the best backpack-style laptop bags in a eight-week head-to-head competition that assessed comfort, storage, versatility, laptop security, aesthetics, water resistance and durability. Our ranking and awards, reflect the average of eight testers- each of whom used each bag for a we...
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| The Best Travel Duffle Bags
We took our favorite burly travel duffle bags (or more properly "duffel bags" for the town of Duffel in Belgium that first manufactured them) and compared them head-to-head to help you decide which one to take on your next adventure. We tested them while running through airports in Chamonix, draggin...
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| The Best Messenger Bag Review
We tested eight of the best messenger bags suitable for carrying a laptop along with other items in an eight-week head-to-head competition that assessed comfort, storage, versatility, laptop security, aesthetics, water resistance and durability. Our ranking and awards- which reflect the average of e...
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| The Best Small Climbing Daypack Review
We searched out seven of the best small climbing daypacks on the market and put them through extensive testing; these packs went everywhere with us for over two months. From the high granite walls of Yosemite and Squamish to shorter trips up the Monkey’s Face at Smith Rock or the Bastille Crack at E...
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| The Best Locking Carabiners
What is the best locking carabiner for rock climbing? We compared 15 of the best locking carabiners in a variety of tests to find out. We judged each carabiner on the following six categories: lightness/compactness, ease of unlocking, gate hang up, amount of knots held, rope pull smoothness, and gat...
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| The Best Backpacking Backpack Review
We took five of the highest rated backpacking packs and tested them side-by-side for five months to pick the very best. We choose versatile packs meant for trips of two to eight days but also capable of going up to 22 days (yes we tested some on trips that long). These are load 'em heavy and charge...
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| The Best 3 Season Synthetic Sleeping Bag
We tested six of the best quality three-season synthetic bags in a head-to-head competition that assessed the following categories: weight, warmth, packed size, and features. We pushed the limits of these bags by sleeping in them continuously for over three months in nearly every environmental condi...
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| The Best Rock Climbing Rope
We got together 13 of the top climbing ropes and after lots of unwinding and flaking, put them to the test in a giant summer of climbing on ropes for comparison. Comparing ropes turned out to be much harder than expected. Obviously, all the ropes performed the basic functions of catching falls, bein...
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| The Best Slackline Review
Whether you are completely new to slacklining or progressing to serious tricklining or longlining, this review will help you select the setup that’s right for you.
Check out our How To Article and Buying Advice article to learn more about slacklining....
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| The Best Sleeping Pad Review
We enrolled ten of the best sleeping pad contenders in a rigorous testing regime to evaluate the following five categories: warmth, comfort, durability, weight, and packed size. Whether these pads came out of a pack or out of a car, we exposed them to everything from the jagged High Sierra, wet and ...
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| The Best Trekking Pole Review For Hiking and Backpacking
Editor's Choice:
The Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork is our favorite trekking pole because it was the most versatile. It is light, collapses very small, is durable, has great cork handles and an awesome locking mechanism. It is a pole that can do anything.
Best Buy:
The Black Diamond Trail...
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| Best Climbing Helmet for Your Dome
We chose eight top climbing helmets, dragged them through tight chimneys and up big walls, sport climbs, and long trad routes. We took the occasional leader fall and descended big climbs in the dark with a headlamp strapped to the helmet. In the end we ranked and rated each helmet on five key points...
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Recent Editors' Award Winners
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