North America offers countless backpacking options. Without much fanfare, hiking and backpacking have become two of the country’s most popular outdoor activities. According to the 2022 Outdoor ...

The best backpacking sleeping pads aren’t just lightweight and portable to keep your pack weight down. They’re comfortable, too. Between hauling gear and trekking up different terrains, you need a ...

Personal cooking systems (PCS) such as Jetboils have the best efficiency due to their integrated design. But they tend to be ...

Beyond the innovative Sunflower X radiant stove/heater we looked at a few weeks ago, Fire Maple makes a full lineup of gear essentials that rank among the market's most portable. Another of its clever ...

Choosing a solid tent for when you’re trekking in the wilderness can be one of the most nerve-racking parts of getting into backpacking. Not only is it likely the most expensive piece of gear in your ...

Kitting out your backpacking gear closet for the first time is pricey. Just getting together the basics—tent, sleeping bag, and backpack—can easily run upwards of $1,000 if you aren’t careful. For ...

The backpacking meals you eat on the trail can make or break the experience, which is why trail food is one of my priorities when planning. Quality food is not only necessary to maintain energy and ...

Backpacking is just like day hiking. Except instead of finishing the day by going home to a shower and a home-cooked meal, you camp alongside the trail, don’t shower, and eat someone’s best attempt at ...

Discover the best camping tents of 2025 as we bring you the most popular and the most celebrated ones, all in one place.

What’s the best backpacking stove? To answer this question, I tested 29 stove models from six different brands, interested only in those that I’d be happy to carry for an extended outing in the ...

Alex Hutchinson is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist and Outside’s Sweat Science columnist, covering the latest research on endurance and outdoor sports. The results of these studies are ...

There’s nothing like getting away from daily life and embracing the beauty of nature on a camping trip. Arguably, the further you delve into nature, the more magical the experience. That said, ...