Sometime a superior piece of serious gear or clothing for climbing or hiking can come from a less than likely source.

Here are two of my favorite gear "secrets"!

* Pants
A company called RailRiders makes a product they call "X-Treme Adventure Pants". They are by far the best pants I've ever had for climbing or wilderness hiking. At $95, they're a little on the high side but worth every penny IMO.

* Boots
Lot's of companies make good hiking boots, some of which are very expensive. My personal all time favorite hiking boot is the LL Bean Cresta Hiker at $179. I just bought another pair to replace a pair I've had for 16 years.

What are some of your Gear Secrets?

I wear large size pants (L) and have a very big issue with pant inseams. I have short inseam of 78cm and most of the pants are in Large 84cm.

Only few companies in North America make short inseam pants and just a few models (I like Marmot and The North Face short inseam pants). If you have the same issue look for that. Arcteryx make short inseam pants too but price is outrageous.

Buy from Ebay and Craigslist.

OJ Loenneker wrote:Buy from Ebay and Craigslist.

^^^This iz korrekt.

(And Steep and Cheap and clearance sales.)

Alpinisto wrote:

OJ Loenneker wrote:Buy from Ebay and Craigslist.

^^^This iz korrekt.

(And Steep and Cheap and clearance sales.)

^ This iz alzo korrekt.

Everyone loves the SAC.

I wear Cabela's neoprene fishing wading socks during back country snow excursions. Since I'm a believer in vapor barrier clothing, it was a no-brainer for me. I bought a pair of XL's so I could wear a thin/liner sock if I wanted to. Wader socks: $26

Also; I took a roll of black nylon material with DWR coating on the outside and silver aluminum material on the inside (To help deflect body heat back in) and made a VB shirt/jacket. Which is also for the snow. It's highly windproof and highly waterproof (Not seam-sealed). I wear it over a med. weight poly long sleeve baselayer AFTER a long days hike and camp is set up. As the temp. drop I usually just put on a heavy weight fleece hoody and I'm good to go until bed time! Material cost: $33

I use my Arc'teryx Alpha SV Bib as both an outer-wear pant/bib as well as a VB pant/bib mid. layer pant/bib. Since Gore Tex doesn't breathe very well (Really!), I've found that I can use the bib during the day as designed and then after camp is set up I can just put on an insulating pant like Mountain Hardwear Compressor PL Pant and I'm good to go!

Dear god, bigfoot, I would be scared to come within 10 meters of you after those VBs come off

hamik wrote:Dear god, bigfoot, I would be scared to come within 10 meters of you after those VBs come off

I use them during the down-times; (AKA) simply existing.



The wading socks on the other hand.... !