Reviews

Gert Boyle sporting the Born to Nag tattoo featured in Columbia Sportswear’s 1980s ad campaign.. Gert Boyle, the 86-year-old matron of Columbia Sportswear isn’t just tough – she’s crafty. When a would-be kidnapper forced his way into her home in West Lynn, Oregon, on November 10, Boyle set off a silent alarm under the pretense...

Are your RV fantasies undermined by your small car reality? Same here. One possible solution: the Utilitoy, a simple, lightweight camping trailer that can be pulled by most 4-cylinder cars.. The base model of the trailer weighs 962 pounds and has a tongue weight of 80 pounds (the weight that pushed down on the hitch)....

Sprinter vans, with their spacious insides, have always seemed like a perfect adventure vehicle, except for one detail: no four-wheel drive. Mercedes-Benz has now remedied that issue by releasing a 4×4 Sprinter in Europe — they will hit the market in 2014.. The company is planning to release the 4×4 models in the United States...

Evolution leads to some odd places. The dodo. The blind cave-dwelling shrimp. The Bellyak.. Manufactured in the North Carolina, these oddities are basically kayaks that you paddle like a surfer heading to the line up. Bellyak offers a cruising boat, the Frequency ($749), and a freestyle-type boat, the Play ($699).. Who knows? Could be the next...

Here’s another item to add to your wish list for things over 50 . grand. Mario Donovan, of Prescott, Arizona, has developed a camper that . mounts on 4-door Jeep Wranglers. Given the Wrangler’s off-road . capabilities, this means you can reside in style in lots of out-of-the . places.. The 440-pound Action Camper has...

Don Starkell, a legendary adventurer who held the record for the longest canoe trip in history, died of cancer January 28 at his home in East Kildonan, Winnipeg. He was 79, according to the Winnipeg Free Press.. Starkell’s story is one of redemption through energetic communion with nature. Neglected by his parents as a child and...

If you’re looking for a . spirited conversation, go chop some bolts off a famous mountaineering . route. And by “spirited,” I mean prepare for a verbal smack down.. Case in point: the recent ascent of Patagonia’s jagged peak, Cerro . Torre, by 21-year-old American, Hayden Kennedy, and 24-year-old . Canadian, Jason Kruk. The pair...

How about a camp stove that cooks food AND charges your smartphone? Please meet the CampStove from BioLite, a company that started out making clean-burning wood stoves for people in developing countries, but has now turned it’s attention to a more affluent, but still resource-constrained population — outdoors enthusiasts.. The $129 CampStove, about the size...

Fluid Kayaks, the South Africa-based kayak manufacturer, plans to start producing a sit-on-top whitewater kayak for beginning boaters next year. Dubbed the “Do It Now,” the boat will be made of the same pastic used in Fluid’s skirt-enclosed boats. The founder of Fluid, Celliers Kruger, says the boat will be in production in the United...

If your still on the lookout for stocking stuffers, here’s another nifty — and cheap — piece of outdoors gear. Rescue Bands makes bracelets, key holders, rings and dog collars out of parachute cord — that gear mainstay of all survivalists.. When you need some strong cord — to stake a tent, hang a bear bag, lash down...

If you kayak or canoe regularly you’re probably familiar with dry bags, waterproof vinyl sacks used to store electronics, food, clothes and other items that you don’t want to get wet while paddling.. Recently, though, I’ve been looking for a general use backpack that I could use in both dry and wet places.. I bought an expensive digital...

As you walk down a busy street in Boston or Denver on a sweltering summer day, with your cell phone ringing, cars zooming by, and the smell of exhaust permeating the air, have you found yourself wanting to take John Muir’s advice and “climb the mountains” so your “cares will fall off like autumn leaves?”. That desire...

After a close call last summer with getting stuck outdoors in the wilderness, I’ve been slowly but surely piecing together an emergency survival kit. One item on my list of basic survival gear is a simple tarp to provide shelter.. I’ve found a number of options, from simple blue tarps to rain ponchos that unfold...

I like to feel the earth beneath my feet. Luckily for me, barefoot or “minimalist” running is all the craze in the running world.. A number of companies are already producing “barefoot” running shoes, including Nike, Newton and Vibram, and the popularity of this back-to-nature version of running has now pushed running shoe giant, New...

Looking for a college where the average GPA is less important than the average snowfall? U.S News and World Report has your number.Famous for helping students pick colleges through its yearly rankings, the magazine has released a college list for snow enthusiasts – skiers, snowboarders, mountaineers – of schools in close proximity to world-class mountains.. Here’s the...

Ski and snowboard season has arrived and with it the cool, crisp air, the snow-kissed pines and the gorgeous mountain views. A few winter gear manufacturers have embraced the beauty of the winter landscape by using recycled or renewable materials to produce high-performance gear with less environmental impact. If this is the year to replace...

Kiwi college student Nick Eaton won New Zealand’s Best Product Design Gold Award for developing snowboard boots that easily convert into crampon equipped mountaineering boots.. Designed with backcountry snowboarders in mind, the DuoTrek boots feature titanium plates in the souls that can be flipped to hide or expose crampon teeth, depending on whether your boarding or climbing.....