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Supreme long-distance hiker Andrew Skurka shares his hard-earned knowledge in this essential guide to backpacking gear and skills. Described by National Geographic as “one of the best traveled and fastest hikers on the planet,” and named “Adventurer of the Year” by Outside and “Person of the Year” by Backpacker, Skurka recounts what he’s learned from more than 30,000 miles of long-distance adventures, most recently a 4,700-mile 6-month loop around Alaska and Canada’s Yukon.
Whether you’re a first-time backpacker, an occasional weekend warrior or a seasoned long-distance trekker, you’ll love this guide. Learn exactly what you need to carry – both on your back and between your ears – for all seasons and circumstances through a show-and-tell of clothing, footwear, backpacks, shelter and sleep systems, and more, as well as through detailed articles on foot care, campsite selection and hiking efficiency. Skurka’s practical and priceless recommendations give you all the tools and techniques you’ll need to hit the trail.
- Sales Rank: #18745 in Books
- Size: Small
- Color: Paperback
- Brand: National Geographic
- Published on: 2012-02-21
- Released on: 2012-02-21
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.37" h x .50" w x 5.24" l, .75 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
Features
- Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide
Review
"[Andrew] Skurka, Outside magazine's 2010 'Adventurer of the Year,' packs his comprehensive guide with practical information about the best clothing, footwear, trekking poles, backpacks, sleeping bags, knives, shelter systems, and cooking gear that will help you plan your next trip."
--Scouting Magazine
About the Author
A graduate of Duke University, ANDREW SKURKA is a sponsored long-distance backpacker, paid speaker, and writer. He has hiked 25,000-plus miles since 2002, most recently on a 4,700-mile loop around Alaska and the Yukon. Named "Adventurer of the Year" by National Geographic Adventure (describing him as "a Gen Y version of Thoreau") and "Person of the Year" by Backpacker Magazine, he was also featured in Outside and Men's Journal. Skurka has appeared in numerous newspapers and television broadcasts.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I wrote this book from the perspective of an unapologetic Ultimate Hiker, which I define as a backpacker who simply loves to walk. We maximize our on-trail comfort by packing light; we move efficiently from dawn to dusk; and we consider the physical and mental challenges inherent in this style as part of our backcountry experience. Our antithesis is the Ultimate Camper, who hikes only a very short distance in order to do something else, like fishing, journaling, or birding. Neither approach is superior to the other—it’s simply personal preference—but our contrasting styles have major consequences for our gear, supplies, and skills.
My target reader is one who at least sometimes wants to be more like an Ultimate Hiker. You need not take this approach on every future trip or take it to the extreme that I do, but you must want to enjoy the hiking component of your back- packing trips more. This book may be most valuable for beginners and intermediates, who are too often relegated to the status of Campers-by-Default. These backpackers lack the knowledge and skills to pack lightly and move efficiently, which makes hiking more strenuous and less fruitful than it should be. To avoid a sufferfest, they instead opt to camp.
I have intentionally refrained from describing this text as a “lightweight backpacking” book. Although weight is an important consideration for the Ultimate Hiker, we must also be concerned with the comfort, safety, durability, efficiency, and best use of our gear. Moreover, it’s possible to go “stupid light,” whereby desperate weight savings can have adverse effects.
My hope is that this book will become the go-to manual for back-packing how-to, a modern successor to Colin Fletcher’s The Complete Walker. An original 1968 copy of that classic sat on the corner of my desk for inspiration while I wrote this manuscript. I wanted my book to be credible, informative, and occasionally just a good read. And while my recommendations are based on my extensive hiking experience, I’m not a backpacking guru—remember that you must always exercise your own judgment in evaluating the applicability and utility of the information in this book based on your own ability, experience, and comfort level. I readily admit that there are alternative tools and techniques that will achieve similar outcomes.
At the risk of outdating this text quickly, I felt that it was important to include specific brands, products, prices, and weights. On numerous occasions, I advocate the use of unconventional items—like frameless backpacks, tarps and tarp tents, and alcohol stoves—that are not made by conventional out- door companies or sold by conventional outdoor retailers. But by focusing on the gear type—not on the specific product—I hope that the information in this book will remain valuable long after the prod- uct itself disappears from catalogs and store shelves.
Most helpful customer reviews
163 of 174 people found the following review helpful.
Truly Useful
By Clarke Green
My first backpacking trip was a hike to a trail shelter in Shenandoah National Park in the early seventies. My brother and I carried frame-less canvas backpacks with webbing shoulder straps that my dad padded with upholstery foam. I don't recall the sleeping bags or much else about the gear we used because my brother and I were much more interested in the creek near the shelter.
Dad poured over Colin Fletcher's new book The Complete Walker and so did I. We studied his techniques and emulated them. We wrote away for catalogs and made a few pilgrimages to Vienna Virginia from our home in Fall's Church to a backpacking and camping gear shop (what was the name of that place?) to buy what we could afford and that wasn't much.
Forty years later we are inundated with a torrential stream of gear and advice making the `right' choice of either nearly impossible. Colin Fletcher's simple gospel has fractured into dogmatic schisms, each with their holy book, magazine or website. Now there are backpackers, lightweight backpackers, ultralight backpackers and many flavors in between. I've read many backpacking books, tons of articles and blog posts and have grown tired of their often circular logic, rehashed advice and wondered if advertising dollars skewed their opinions.
Andrew Skurka's new book The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide will change the way how we sling a pack on our backs and hoof it into the wild just as Fletcher's Complete Walker once did. Fletcher's first books recorded his monumental treks (The Thousand Mile Summer and The Man Who Walked Through Time) and these expeditions resulted in The Complete Walker. Skurka's stunning 30,000 miles of trekking over the past decade have resulted in The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide. His writing is as focused, practical and essential as his twenty pound pack - there's nothing in it you don't need.
Skurka's writing may lack Fletcher's prosaic warmth but it's a great counterpoint to a lot of outdoor how-to books that, in their attempt at warmth, become cloying and unfocused.
The first section of the book asks and answers the questions that many don't think to ask until they are out on the trail with too much and/or too little gear, blistered feet, and soaking wet with no hope of getting dry; why am I doing this? Skurka uses his first real backpacking experience (a through hike of the Appalachian trail!) to explain what you are getting yourself into. He offers direction and advice that, if heeded, will save readers a great deal of discomfort.
An extensive analysis of the construction, function and use of gear follows. Skurka explains why and how things ought to work in a way that makes choosing gear relatively painless. While he does mention of specific models and manufacturers he goes well beyond the model number. The final section of the book offers gear lists for several different environments.
If you don't think this sounds like anything new in one way you are right; there isn't much new information in the guide because you don't really need new information. When the Complete Walker was published forty plus years ago there were only a handful of books on the subject; now the amount of information out there can bring your trip planning and gear research to a standstill of indecision.
In this age of limitless information I value expert advice and observation presented between the covers a book. Those covers ward off distractions and focus our attention on information that really matters.
The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide is my new go-to resource for backpacking gear information: it's truly useful.
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful.
Worthwhile for both beginner and experienced hikers
By Michael Brochstein
I had my doubts when I first bought this book. My background is that I am an experienced hiker / hike leader (but not backpacker), long time avid reader of Backpacker magazine (and other relevant material), WFA graduate etc etc. I figured that the parts of this book that covered topics relevant to hiking would simply be review for me. I was wrong. While I was familiar with a fair amount of what is covered in the book, there was more than enough that I learned to make reading it worthwhile (and it is a fast reading book).
This book should not be thought of as a complete guide to hiking, the only book you'll ever need. It concentrates on gear and clothing (hence its name). It will not teach you how to read/use a trail or topographical map or a compass, GPS, Wilderness First Aid, physical conditioning, and plenty of other types of knowledge that could be worthwhile to know when one is hiking or backpacking.
One other reviewer thought that a lot of the text was like reading "techno babble" and yes, a fair amount of the text discusses the technical and practical attributes of various gear and clothing options. This is, after all, as the title says, a book about gear. Likewise, Consumer Reports doesn't simply say that item X is better than item Y, it also explains the issues that led to their ratings. I think that most people interested in learning about the various gear and clothing options for hiking/backpacking will find the level of "techno babble" to be both reasonable and worthwhile (but your mileage may vary). Overall I think the author is very very good at explaining in plain english the relevant technical aspects of the gear/clothing discussed. If you're making the gear/clothing decisions then the material in this book is quite relevant.
The author has strong opinions about clothing and gear (he tends towards the ultra-light end of gear preferences) and at times will share them with the reader while he explains various gear and clothing options. While the author certainly has more experience than I do and is quite reasonable and logical with his reasoning about his preferences I believe that while some of his preferences may indeed be best for him, there can be excellent reasons why someone else (including me) could make different choices. Fortunately, the author is good at fairly discussing the various options even if he seems to have definite preferences.
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
Sets a new standard for UL hiking books
By Dean F.
I'm an experienced ultralight hiker, which is important since I'm reviewing this book as a source for ULTRALIGHT hiking. And I have to say that it sets a new standard- it will probably come to be considered the UL version of Colin Fletcher's "The Complete Walker." If I were reviewing it as a hiking source in general it would probably only get four stars because it leaves out a lot of information on heavyweight gear. Nonetheless it deserves a place on any hiker's bookshelf.
In my opinion the previous standard-setting book for UL hiking was Ryan Jordan's "Lightweight Backpacking and Camping", which I have also reviewed on Amazon, and which oddly enough Andrew also reviewed here on Amazon! It is important to note that this is a very small field- I know of at most a dozen works on this fringe subset of hiking, and a large portion of those are small cartoon-style works by Mike Clelland and similar authors. (Mike's books are exceptional, actually, but limited in scope.) So this book certainly benefits from a lack of competition.
That said, it is excellent. Obviously, it is published by National Geographic. This is important because it means that it benefits from excellent editing, unlike most other works on the subject. The layout is quite superb and intuitive. Andrew became involved with National Geographic through some of his epic hikes, and it is important to understand just what kind of guy he is. He has hiked coast-to-coast. He thru-hiked across the Mojave then north up the PCT to catch the PNW trail east to Glacier NP, then south down the CDT back to his start point- this is the hike, known as "The Great Western Loop", that earned him a spot as a National Geographic Explorer of the Year. (Because just hiking the triple crown wasn't enough for him.) Most recently he hiked a large loop around the state of Alaska and the Yukon. Google him and check out his website. He isn't just some hack writing a book.
Early on Andrew lays out that he differentiates between hikers and campers. Hikers like to move, they like to hike long hours and the only thing they really do in their shelters is sleep. Campers on the other hand like to make an elaborate "base camp" and spend time there, go fishing, or do day-hikes from it. Clearly Andrew is a "hiker" and his book is thusly biased. (This entire discussion is included in the Amazon "Look Inside" feature.) He very forthrightly and honestly states that his way is not the only "right" way to hike, and that backpackers who are more on the hiking end than the camper end of the spectrum will find his book most helpful. He does endorse his philosophy of Continuous Forward Progress but again, he acknowledges that other people will have different goals. It is in this way that he differs from Ray Jardine, who to give credit pretty much started the ultralight movement and is probably a genius and polymath, but whose writing can be pedantic and arrogant.
Above all this book is an excellent overview of the state of the market in ultralight equipment and a discussion of ultralight techniques. It is NOT so detailed that it, for instance, gives instructions on how to pitch a tarp using trek poles- such things usually have dozens of variations and are easy to Google. Occasionally specific products are mentioned, mostly as examples and because people always ask Andrew what he uses. A more general discussion always dominates a given subject so that he book won't be obsolete in a few years as product lines are discontinued. He isn't just regurgitating the UL "party line" either- for instance he defends fleece as an insulation layer, saying that the benefits outweigh the extra weight penalty in most conditions (the exception being very cold and dry conditions, in which down is unsurpassed).
I will say that this isn't really a book meant for an experienced UL hiker- the truly experienced hiker already has his own opinions on these subjects- though I did enjoy it. It is best for hikers who are trying to learn a bit about this weird UL thing, or for beginners so that they don't fall prey to marketing hype. Even for experienced hikers, though, the discussion of waterproof/breatheable (WPB) membranes alone might be worth the purchase price. He also goes into some detail about fabric choices and down vs synthetic fill for sleeping bags and insulating clothes. Some reviewers thought that this was too detailed and weren't interested- perhaps they just wanted a list of products and brands that Andrew endorses- but these are areas where a little knowledge goes a LONG way and I urge them to educate themselves a bit. You probably don't need to know minutiae of ripstop vs Dyneema for making packs, but learning a little about fabrics, fills, and WPB membranes is not onerous and very helpful in guiding your purchases.
All of the typical subjects are covered- shelters, sleeping systems (not just bags but also pads, bivys, fill materials, etc.), food and cooking, hydration and water purification, footgear, trek poles, clothing and fabric choices, raingear, headgear, packs, etc.
Yes, you can probably learn almost all of this book's content by spending a few months digging through websites like BackPackingLight, but the book presents it all in a neat and well formatted form. And, frankly, you could probably learn a lot about most subjects on the internet if you invested enough time, but you would find yourself saddled with a LOT of hyperbole, grandstanding, and outright idiocy from such sources. No one can doubt Andrew's credentials, and he knows what he is talking about. That said, he writes in a very direct mode so if you are expecting flowery expositions like you get from Colin Fletcher you will be disappointed. I disagree that the book "reads like stereo instructions" as one reviewer put it, but it certainly isn't flowery.
So, currently this book is the pinnacle of a very small field.
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