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Rab Generator Jacket: Lightweight and Brilliantly Designed

For this past summer’s guiding season, I wanted a jacket light enough that I could carry it along, even if there was the possibility I might not need it. I found that this was a common situation in the Tetons–I would start summit days in shorts, convinced that the conditions would prove comfortable, but inevitably the winds would swirl and the temperatures would plummet to below freezing. So while guiding in the Tetons this summer, the lightly insulated Generator Jacket from Rab proved itself to be a brilliantly designed, key lightweight layer.

CLIMBING AND GLOBAL WARMING CONVERGE IN ANTARCTICA

“The sky was stunningly blue and clear and there was no wind; you only get a few days like this each summer on Antarctica’s highest mountains. Where we expected to encounter snow between the bands of rock we found hard, clear “water ice” similar to that on the frozen waterfalls we had climbed in Europe and North America. As its name would suggest, such ice is formed directly from water, usually running water. It is not the compacted snow or hard blue glacial ice that is almost everywhere else in Antarctica.”

RISK

“People say you shouldn’t jump off cliffs… But why not? You can.” Get a taste of why these New Zealanders continue risking their lives even as their friends die.

Black Diamond Firstlight Tent: Bombproof, Featherweight

Early this summer I began testing the Black Diamond Firstlight Tent, from the Vedauwoo desert to the alpine flanks of the Grand Teton. I was pleased with its versatility–it seemed the perfect tent for any summer conditions. That worried me. The ultra-lightweight, single-wall shelter is marketed as a four-season favorite, but I feared how it would fare against the wintry precipitation and cold so common from October through April in the Rocky Mountain West. Yet now, in the middle of November, having weathered significant snowstorms and cold rainstorms in the Firstlight, I’m eager to sack up in this dome no matter the forecast.