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.<
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Truly Useful,
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.
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|Reads like stereo instructions.,
First off it is a fantastic book for those just getting into backpacking. It is packed (pun intended) with information. In fact, I now know more about goose down vs synthetic fill than I may have ever wanted to.
Overall, reading this book cover to cover is tedious. Andrew’s first hand accounts are few and far between, but when they do occur are like a breath of fresh air. His “Skurka’s Picks” are the highlight of the book. Everything else just reads like techno babble for the uninitiated. I was really hoping for more of his insight not indepth fabric specs that most of those with atleast some gear experience are already aware of.
Also, it is very short for an “ultimate” guide, less than 300 pages. If it was more entertaining I would have finished it in a few hours. I purchased the Kindle Fire version and I wonder if the book was even looked at by an editor. There are many errors in the text and the format doesn’t seem very professionally done.
For ten bucks I would still make the purchase again, there is a lot to learn here depending on your skill level. My expectations were just too high.
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|A New Benchmark,
I read, last year on Andrew Skurka’s webpage, that he was attempting to write an update to Colin Fletcher’s “The Complete Walker”. I was surprised at the audaciousness of his goal, but now I have read his new book and I feel that he has succeeded in setting a new benchmark for the first time since Fletcher. Whether a beginner or an experienced hiker, Skurka’s new book should be the next hiking-related purchase that anyone makes. It can save you years of trial-and-error and thousands of dollars in less-than-optimum gear purchase decisions.
“The Ultimate Hiker’s Gearguide” succinctly relates the current state-of-the-art in hiking gear and skills. Although he is not bound by it, Skurka is definitely a student of the “ultralight” school of hiking. Started 25-30 years ago by Ray Jardine (who is still active and still sells kits to make his excellent equipment designs; [link deleted by Amazon]), the history and current state of this movement is well documented in a recent series of seven essays by Ron Moak ([link deleted by Amazon– see the website for Six Moons Designs]). For those who wish to continue the “old school” (I am about half and half, myself), Fletcher and others are still available, and the outdoor industry is still selling heavy boots, double-walled tents, and zippered sleeping bags.
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