Snowshoe Sizing: How to Pick Your Perfect Length 

Aside from bringing a thermos with a hot lunch or drinks, one of the easiest ways to ensure a great time snowshoeing is to make the right choice when considering snowshoe sizing. One of your snowshoes’ most important jobs is to provide “flotation”, keeping you from sinking too deeply into the snowpack. The amount of flotation you need is what drives your choice of snowshoe length. A bigger snowshoe means more surface area, which, in turn, means more flotation. Generally speaking, the “right” snowshoe is one that delivers the flotation you need, while being small enough to keep you nimble on the trail.    Here are some quick tips to help you make the right choice in snowshoe sizing: First: The Majority Rule When considering the following variables, it’s easy to get bogged down in the thought that you want a snowshoe that does…

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The Ultimate Guide to MSR Fuel

You’re psyched. You just bought an MSR® camp stove—the undisputed gold standard for everything from expeditions and extended road trips to casual backpacks and a weekend of family camping. In that process, you likely considered what type of fuel you wanted your new stove to use: liquid fuel or canister fuel. Now that you’ve made that primary choice, you may find yourself wondering a host of questions, from finding compatible fuel away from home to basic use tips to make the most of your stove or stove system. So, here’s a soup-to-nuts compendium of the most common questions we receive about MSR fuel to keep you going no matter where you want to be. What is MSR IsoPro™ Fuel? MSR IsoPro fuel is the magic sauce inside our fuel canisters….

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In Terms of Backcountry Water Treatment, When is Water Considered Safe to Drink?

Brown, silty streams, tea-colored rivulets, even clear, ice-cold lakes—any backcountry water source can serve up a cocktail of contaminants. But not everything that’s present in an undeveloped water source is necessarily harmful, and only some things pose an immediate threat to your health. In fact, it’s impractical and unnecessary to remove everything, all the time. So in terms of backcountry water treatment, when is water considered safe to drink? First, what’s commonly in backcountry water? The types of contaminants that make water “dirty” depend a lot on that source’s surrounding environment. But most contaminants can be placed into these categories: Microorganisms- Simply put: tiny bugs or germs. Microbes are the primary focus of treatment devices because of their immediate and potentially serious risk to your health. The pathogenic ones include…

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