An ultra-long spoon is one of those things you don’t think you need until you try it. But once you do—and realize you’ve eaten an entire meal without getting chili on your hands or stretching to scrape the bottom of your meal pouch with your puny spork pinched between your thumb and forefinger—you’ll never let it go. I’ve used this particular one everywhere from Swedish Lapland to the Canadian Rockies, and it’s upped my comfort at mealtime more than I ever expected. The anodized aluminum handle has survived the rigors of international travel without so much as a scratch, and the spoon’s angled Tritan bowl made it easy to scoop everything from oatmeal to stews without dripping it or having to contort my wrist. Bonus: It made an excellent ladle, and a passable spatula, while cooking a gourmet group meal of chickpea-flour pancakes and vegetables in tomato sauce. —Adam Roy, Executive Editor

I’ll never be an ultralight fanatic, but balancing comfort and weight is the name of the game to keep me happy on the trail. When I need to slim down my load, nothing helps shave ounces and space like packing my Spark. The 850+ fill ultradry down compresses to the same size as my sleeping pad (about the volume of three Nalgenes), making it the envy of all my trail companions. At 665 grams, my 18°F bag (it also comes in 40°, 28°, and 5°F, with the warm weather bags packing even smaller and lighter) offers the warmth of a mummy bag at the weight of an ultralight quilt. I’m a cold sleeper, but on a recent hike of the Art Loeb trail in western North Carolina, the Spark kept me toasty even when fall temps dipped toward freezing. Despite the light weight, the cut still feels roomy enough for a sleep-sprawler like me. This bag will surely be the first item I reach for on many backpacking trips to come. —Zoe Gates, Senior Editor 

In the world of Ultralight shelters, every ounce counts. Durston’s X-Mid Pro 1, the Dyneema version of its already popular X-Mid tarp-style shelter, just might be the most spacious, lightest-weight tent of its kind, weighing in at just 16 ounces. Thanks to an offset pole design and funky parallelogram mesh inner, you get a few square feet of extra room on either end of the insert to stash your clothes and ditty bag—a rarity in a one-person tent—and vaulted headroom at both ends of the shelter. And with two trekking pole peaks and steep sidewalls, the X-Mid Pro 1 offers better protection from wind and sideways rain than most ultralight shelters, especially when fully guyed out. It hardly budged in 25 mile-per-hour winds on an exposed sub-alpine ridge in Northern Vermont. Smart details like magnet door fasteners, carbon-fiber top vents, and an internal mesh pocket (luxurious!) elevate the simple Dyneema design beyond much of the competition. Our biggest beef? Despite a seemingly easy setup (stake out four corners, add poles, voila!) there’s a good bit of tweaking and adjusting required to get a perfect pitch. But for a storm-worthy one-pound shelter with a full mesh insert, we can’t complain. —Benjamin Tepler, Senior Gear Editor 

If you were in a San Diego Home Depot at the beginning of the month, you might have seen me try on every glove on the shelf and slide my hand up and down the wall to test the grip. I was a week out from hiking Half Dome and needed something to help grip the cables because I knew my palms would be sweaty (from nerves and exertion). I was imagining myself slipping down the 45- to 60-degree granite slope with my gloveless sweaty palms lubricating my slide. Cue this trip to Home Depot where I shifted my palms up and down the wall, seeing which gloves could best arrest the motion. The Husky Micro Armor rose to the occasion. On the steepest cable section, I could feel the grip keeping me secure when I’d otherwise be wasting energy grasping tight. As grippy as the Micro Armor gloves were, they were just as breathable: They didn’t lock in heat and create a greenhouse of humidity like some gloves do. They’re packable, too. When rolled up, they’re about the size of rolled-up crew-length socks, so they fit nicely in my pack for the rest of the hike. — Emma Veidt, Assistant Editor

From 2023