Ultrahiker Andrew Skurka's Nine Skills to Help You Pack Lighter

Photograph by Murfy Kristiadi, My Shot

When it comes to hiking lighter, we get our advice from the guy so serious about going fast and light that he uses a catfood can for a cooking stove—the master himself, Andrew Skurka. Skurka, our 2008 Adventurer of the Year, has covered more than 30,000 miles of long-distance trails, including the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide. Here Skurka shares nine skills you can learn right now to safely carry less and lighter gear on your next trip. These kinds of tips, plus much more, are covered in his comprehensive new book The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide (National Geographic Books), which comes out later this month. You can pre-order a signed copy from Andrew here.

Ultrahiker Andrew Skurka's Nine Skills to Help You Pack Lighter

1. Assess your true needs.
Where, when, and for how long you are going are the primary determinants of the conditions you will encounter. Research the temperatures, precipitation, sun exposure, water availability, snow coverage, hours of daylight, bugs, wildlife, and remoteness you will encounter. If you know the conditions you can realistically expect, you can pack accordingly. Uninformed backpackers justify poor gear choices on the grounds of unfounded “What if...” and “Just in case...” scenarios.

Outdoor Advice + Tips: Fast, Light, Delicious Backcountry Grits

By Contributing Writer Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin, faculty member and Diversity + Inclusion Manager at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS)

Whenever you travel into the backcountry, do you ask yourself: “Eat like a king but break my back with the weight; or eat like a squirrel and travel light and fast?” Well, you can stop asking yourself that question. Backcountry travel doesn’t involve a Hobson’s choice. Time and time again, our field instructors prove that you can have your cake and eat it, too.

This time, it’s breakfast. In the video below Casey Pikla and Amy Rathke show us that backcountry breakfast doesn’t mean choking down lukewarm flavored oatmeal—you can warm yourself with a savory cheesy spicy breakfast of grits and save some weight while you’re at it.

Gear Crush: Ice-Gripping Adidas Outdoor Libria Boot

I'm from Minnesota and grew up crossing slick oceans of ice in parking lots, on sidewalks, encompassing sledding hills, everywhere. Slipping on the ice was a mortifying prospect of growing up. It was just a matter of when. And it always bruised more than just the ego.

The Adidas Outdoor Libria is a lifestyle boot and light hiker with an antidote to ice slipping. Not only are they a flattering, water-resistant knee-high boot, but they're filled with cozy, water-resistant PrimaLoft. The outside is breathable softshell with a reinforced toe and knee cuff for extra warmth. But it's the outsole that really got us. It's made of gripping TRAXION and has strategically placed blue lugs (made of a material called Temperature Sensitive Compound) that actually harden when temps drop to freezing. So they really grip the ice. It's like having your light hiker sole transform into ice cleats just when you need them. We haven't tried them out yet (no snow here in New York City (boo)). But we're optimistic. Available in August for around $130. —Mary Anne Potts

Hiking with Andrew Skurka: Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail in 7 Days (Video)

This video feels like a hiking reality show (luckily the only annoying buzzing sounds come from mosquitoes, not Kardashians). Exhilaration. Exhaustion. Bugs. Sock issues. Witness a seven-day hike of the entire 224-mile John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney. Hiking guru Andrew Skurka guides Gerry Morton, President and CEO of EnergyFirst, an industry leading natural products company that is home to the world's best tasting, highest quality all natural protein shakes. They keep it fast and light, Skurka's style. But nothing is fast enough to keep away the bugs.

Andrew has a new hiking/backpacking book, The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide, out this month from Nat Geo Books. We've already been reading. It's comprehensive and full of hard-won tips that Andrew was kind of enough to share from his 30,000+ miles of hiking. You can pre-order a copy here (and Andrew will sign it!). 

Ski Touring the Tetons (Photos): Hiking Up, Shredding Down Teewinot, the Grand, Cloudveil Dome

Text and photos by Kim Havell, Salomon Freeski International Team

It was a slow start to winter for resorts in the U.S. In order to find snow in the early season, for many passionate skiers, it meant getting creative.

Based out of the Wasatch this season, due to drier conditions, I decided to drive north for four to Jackson, Wyoming, to poke around the Tetons for a few days. Jackson temporarily offered more promise with snow depths that prevailed over many other locations in the West. After some great days skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, it was time to go exploring for some fresh snow in Grand Teton National Park.

With soaring peaks, protected canyons, and endless terrain possibilities, the park holds great promise for adventure. The 40-mile-long Teton Range is the youngest mountain chain in the Rocky Mountains with beautiful, jagged summits and long, aesthetic runs. This is a bountiful area for backcountry skiers.

Luckily, I was able to meet up with some expert local friends who accompanied me on a few fun backcountry ski tours. Steve Romeo, professional skier and www.TetonAt.com honcho, and Greg von Doersten, professional adventure photographer, both had time for some missions in the park.

Our team encountered a variety of conditions on our adventures with cold temps (-20F), big winds (50 mph+ gusts), and changing visibility, but we did find great snow on each excursion and that made the journey worthwhile. We skied lines off of three different high peaks: Teewinot, the Grand Teton, and Cloudveil Dome. Averaging roughly six to eight hours per route, we invested good energy in getting up high to scout out the best options for descent.

The first adventure took us to Teewinot Peak, which at 12,325 feet is the sixth highest peak in the range. The name of the mountain is derived from the Shoshone Native American word that means "many pinnacles." With a 6 a.m. start, after climbing close to 5,500 feet, we dropped into its southeast couloir for some soft, silky turns down to the lower apron. The remainder of the ski we were gliding through fresh powder to the valley floor.

What's Your Adventure Personality Type? Artisan, Rational, Guardian, or Idealist?

By Steve Graepel; Photographs from top courtesy Steve Graepel, Andrew Skurka, Rebecca Rusch, Michael Tobin

The zodiac, your horoscope, tea leaves...people have been trying to make sense of human attributes since the dawn of dirt. Corporations pay big money to navigate these muddied waters and will train employees to better understand personality types to harness them for productivity. I recently revisited one such matrix, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which hypothesizes that it’s possible to distill human characteristics into 16 personality types. David Keirsey later mapped these types into four general temperaments: the Artisan, Rational, Guardian and Idealist.

I jokingly wondered if these metrics have ever been applied to an expedition setting; exhaustion, hunger, and cold, wet conditions can quickly strip insulate layers of city life, exposing our reptilian ids. What may seems like "character" over coffee can reveal itself in spades below the crux. I began to contemplate my past adventures and consider what I could glean from temperament theory to apply toward my own trips. Here’s what I found. Keep reading for discussions with ultrahiker Andrew Skurka, mountain biker Rebecca Rusch, and veteran adventure racer Michael Tobin about their "types."

Your Adventure Civic Duty: Vote for the People's Choice Adventurer of the Year (Last Call)

We are down to just a few days left to vote once a day for your favorite Adventurer of the Year. On January 18 at midnight, we will have a new People's Choice Adventurer of the Year. We'd be thrilled if any of the twelve nominees won. So far the race has been tight! It's possible that the standings could change over the weekend, if people really come out and rock the vote every day. As a member of the greater adventure community, it really is your civic duty to thrown down your ballot (once a day) until the voting is done.

As a brief refresher, here's a look at each adventurers' video clips. Hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis, who set a new overall record on the Appalachian Trail, and kayakers Jon Turn and Erik Boomer, who completed the first circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island, were so consumed by their challenges that they did not shoot video. That in itself is pretty bad ass. Mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner's footage will be shown in conjuction with an upcoming article in National Geographic magazine.

Who will be the People's Choice? You decide.

Vote Here

Microadventure 8: River Swim from Alastair Humphreys on Vimeo.

COLD - TRAILER from Forge Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

Danny Macaskill: Industrial Revolutions from Cut Media on Vimeo.

Brain Farm - The Art of Flight Trailer from Brain Farm on Vimeo.

SOLITAIRE: A Backcountry Skiing, Snowboarding, and Telemark Film from Sweetgrass Productions on Vimeo.

Outdoor Skills and Advice: The Ultralight, Eco-Friendly Backcountry Boiler

Text and photo by Ryan Hutchins-Cabibi, Senior Field Instructor and Lightweight Backpacking Pro at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS)

As a tinkerer of gear, I get really excited when someone decides to build something they want that doesn’t exist. In the case of engineer Devin Montgomery, that something was a wood-fired boiler small and light enough to take backpacking in an ultralight style. For people cooking one-pot meals, “just add water” meals, or “boil in a bag” food, the ability to travel without fuel is an unquestionable advantage in the field. The Backcountry Boiler is an efficient, eco-friendly (it burns renewable fuels!) stove system that evolves the lightweight kit to the next level.

The Backcountry Boiler is elegant in design and function. It allows a backpacker to travel without lugging petrochemical-based fuels by burning natural renewable fuels they find along the way. Weighing in at 8.8 ounces, the boiler is heavier than some alcohol stoves but is comparable to many other wood burners. But unlike other wood burners, the boiler can also be used as a water bottle with the included stopper! 

The boiler functions on the simple chimney effect. A small fire is built in the burner base using tinder. It’s easier to light the fire and then place the boiler on the base. Be sure that the stopper is not plugging the water fill hole, or the vessel could explode.

The Backcountry Boiler proves to be surprisingly fast. Boiling two cups (16oz./500ml) of water multiple times per day over six days on a NOLS Lightweight Backpacking Course, I consistently had boil times of five minutes or less at altitudes between 8,000-10,000 feet, often using frigid water. This volume of water is ideal for “boil in a bag” type meals.

It’s important to note that the boiler doesn’t actually boil your food in the boiler its self, but boils the water to be added to your dehydrated meal in either a bag designed for this, or another container, perhaps your titanium mug.

Trail Running Video: Founders of the Upchuck 50K on Making a New Cult Classic

Upchuck 50K Trail Race from Rock/Creek on Vimeo.

By Andrew Kornylak, The Blind Monkey

The Upchuck 50K is one of the toughest trail races in the country, and in just a few years has become a cult classic, and a sought-after hardman notch in the belt. It tackles some of the most wild and technical terrain in the Cumberlands. Race entires are limited, with an admission process. And race day is bare bones—no sponsors, minimal aid stations, just “you, alone in the woods.”

As with most things, it's best to spend some time with a subject, which in this case was both the trail runners and the woods itself. Rather than shoot any race footage at all, I gathered some stories and shot some interviews with some of the racers and founders of the Upchuck, then spent a few days along the trail with friend and photography student Jake Wheeler shooting black and white photography and some video of the course. It’s a different kind of race that attracts a wild and quirky crowd. Let me know what you think.

See more photos of the Upchuck 50K here.

Running: What the Fell? An Introduction to Hill Running

Ready for a lung buster? The southern Idaho foothills make perfect fell running terrain for our author. Text and photos by Steve Graepel

I had just moved to Boise and was training to climb Mount Fairweather in Alaska’s notorious Fairweather Range. Hardened legs and deep lungs are de rigueur for alpine climbing; the rolling Idaho foothills were the perfect crucible to prepare for the 15,000-foot giant. So each weekend I would shoulder a weighted pack and hump loads up and down our steep foothills. I’d climb for three to four hours, accumulating thousands of feet of elevation.

Fairweather was a bust—there’s not much you can do to train for chest-deep confectionery snow—but I knew I had tapped a new power supply with my off-piste training cirque. My legs and ankles were stronger, I had less knee pain, and my aerobic capacity was boosted. The following year I swapped the boots and pack for my running shoes and began to run my off-trail route.

What I didn’t know was that running hills was a tried and true sport. It's called fell running. The British have been doing this sort of thing for centuries (no surprise there, hey have a knack of wringing good sport out of hard efforts: Everest, the South Pole (Shackleton!), a 20-year Scotch...). What started nearly 1,000 years ago in an effort to find a royal messenger kicked off the Highland Games and eventually matriculated into a sanctioned culture of mountain runners, weaving a bit of trail running, orienteering, cross country and sometimes, grueling overnighters. The goal? To run the steepest hills as fast as you can!

Running is a simple sport and its best appreciated that way. But taking it to the highlands requires some slight modifications to your strategy. Here are some tips to help ease into it.