The Evolution of GEAR

[jfb]

Actually, I'm looking to get a pair of wool knickers. Unfortunately, if I do, my wife says she will no longer hike with me.

I miss my Woorich knickers. Here's a place to get knickers: knickers

As far as the last 30 years go, I'll pick waterproof/breathable fabrics. Others are freestanding tents, headlamps, canister stoves, self-inflating pads, internal frame packs, SLCDs, wired nuts, climbing shoes that fit (with sticky rubber soles), improved baselayers (synthetic and merino wool), fleece and microbrews.

 

[Dugan]

Have you ever used a Svea?

Now THAT brings back some memories. When I first started doing overnights back in the early 80's, the stove I used was a friend's Svea. Her parents used it when they backpacked in the 60's. Worked beautifully, even in winter.

 

[MadRiver]

I miss my Woorich knickers. Here's a place to get knickers: knickers

Thanks for the link.

Although this discussion is somewhat limited to gear, if I were to mention one “tool” that I always use prior to venturing out into foreign land, it would be the Internet; specifically, hiking pages. The wealth of information that can be found by just doing a simply search on this page and others was unheard of 30 years ago. To receive up-to-date first hand knowledge of a particular area is undeniably one of the most important tools we can use.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Thanks for the link.

Although this discussion is somewhat limited to gear, if I were to mention one “tool” that I always use prior to venturing out into foreign land, it would be the Internet; specifically, hiking pages. The wealth of information that can be found by just doing a simply search on this page and others was unheard of 30 years ago. To receive up-to-date first hand knowledge of a particular area is undeniably one of the most important tools we can use.

I will agree, the internet is a tool and used as a convience, then it's a sin. Eveything in moderation. My two cents for the philosophical twist.

 

[timmus]

Thirty years ago I was not out there in the woods myself, but I remember seeing my father leaving for backpacking trips with his huge (probably 100 L) green canvas backpack, no hip belt but a leather forehead strap

He may did numerous adventures with his backpack (and still does), but I swear I would not even go for a walk in the park with this thing.

So yeah, I would go for hip belts.

 

[dclynch]

Leki Poles!

I had a great time climbing Mt Washington 37 years ago in cotton and wool clothes, a coated rain jacket, and sneakers with an aluminum canteen and a canvas pack. My gear gradually improved over the years, but, for me, the quantum change came when I discovered Leki poles about ten years ago. They have helped my now 58-year old body keep going and able to hike as long and as fast as ever. (That might not be saying much though!)

 

[BorealChickadee]

I could easily give up synthetics and go back to wool. Sometimes I do. When I need to absolutely know I have something to keep me warm, it's a piece of wool that goes with me.

I still use my external frame Kelty pack from at least 25 years ago.
But the shoulder straps on daypacks made now I wouldn't give up. Maybe my shoulders are just getting softer. All right, that's not a maybe, it's a definite.

But boots...oh my gosh boots.... a couple of years ago I came across back in the depths of a closet my about 28 year old Danners. They were like putting cement blocks on my feet and trying to swim! And to think at the time I thought they were just great. Why did I even save them? Maybe I'm just soft and spoiled.

Pete- I still have my SVEA stove. And you need the new fangled internet to find parts for the dinosaur stove.

But what makes it so much easier to get to a trailhead so much easier than it was say 25 years ago? Is it the cars? the roads? the vast amount of printed information in guides? no guessing where to go, just read and pick a trail from the comfort of your living room? purely time available? a different perspective on what we consider off time and how to use it? living closer to the mountains? or the ease of closing that distance? increased discretionary income?...I know that all of these have been factors for me.

 

[Neil]

Nowadays my old "cutting edge" winter clothing sits in a chest and my kids use it for school plays and hallowe'en.

The one thing that made the most dramatic overnight change for me was going from wooden snowshoes to aluminum.

Then, computers and all they can do (weather reports, trail information, buying gear, pics, mapping) and similar technology have totally changed the way I go about getting ready for a hike.

Greatly appreciated at age 49 is the lighter weight of all the stuff mentioned in the previous posts.

One bad thing for me. I like to winter camp in Canada where we can still have "real" fires. How'd you like to sit around a big crackling, popping blaze in a thousand bucks worth of synthetic clothing? Makes for some big pores in that gore-tex.

 

[slowpoke]

slightly off topic: the internet and hiking

I agree with mad River. It seems like it would have been quite difficult to get the info that I can now get on the web. Especially when I want to snowshoe and winter hasn't arrived yet in mid-January. It would be tought to figure out how far north to go if all I had was newspapers and word of mouth!

Also, eBay, so that I don't have to pay EMS/REI prices for all the other gear mentioned in this thread. I know there are huge fans of these places on here but I have the feeling that the markup on something like polypro longjohns is probably one of the highest in retail.

I know that a lot of other specialty items have high markup, too. It's not just hiking gear. But I do feel a bit ripped off in those places sometimes.

 

[bruno]

smartwool.

 

[Neil]

I agree with mad River. It seems like it would have been quite difficult to get the info that I can now get on the web.

To plan a winter camping trip we used to go to a store that had a huge wall covered in 1:50 000 topo maps and spend a lot of time searching. Once we found an area that seemed to fit our criteria we'd make some phone calls to the nearest towns for info on snowmobile and logging activity (ie. the lack of) and then call the train company for beta on passenger service, special stops, schedules and the like. Finally we'd go back and buy some maps. Nowadays, I can do most (but not all) of that with the PC.
Hey, soon I won't even have to go on the trip!

 

[Double Bow]

Wow! What a great thread! We certainly do sometimes forget how much having "the right gear" improves our enjoyment of the outdoors. I can't decide on one item so, I'll list my top five choices (in no order).

1.) polypro/synthetic fabrics
2.) waterproof breathable membranes
3.) padded framed packs
4.) computers

And the somewhat questionable one...

5.) hydration systems

For me, having a hydration system in my pack has made a huge difference. Before, I would just keep pushing and wouldn't want to stop to drink and so, I was almost never drinking enough. Now, (except in winter which IS now, though you wouldn't guess it) I can be drinking on the go without having to stop and take off my pack to get my water bottle or have a bota (or canteen) swinging all over the place and annoying me.

While it's not a revolutionary piece of equipment, it's changed things dramatically for me. I'm drinking much more on the trail and feeling even better!

 

[Neil]

I'm drinking much more on the trail and feeling even better!

I'm glad drinking makes you feel better on the trail but are you sure you should be driving afterwards?

 

[dudley]

I don't hike as often as most of you so I might look at this a little differently.

My first thought was nylon. But 30 years ago I had a nylon bag on my Xfame pack. A good waist belt too. My down bag had a nylon shell. My timberline tent was fairly heavy but much lighter than canvas. My primus stove was hard to light but is lighter in weight than many modern stoves. I threw out my danner boots a few years ago. After many sole replacements they didn't fit the same, but 30 years ago they were great.

The gear I had then I would use today.

The main difference for me is how I dress. The wool shirts, jackets and hats were fine. It's the blue jeans and cotton long johns. I always wore jeans, I think many people did. It was the uniform of the day. I paid the price a few times too.
Now we know better. Although some people go a bit overboard with the "cotton kills" BS.
So I guess I'd say;

Synthetics and information

Oh, I guess I should add that I sometimes wear nickers,.. but they're supplex

 

[KayakDan]

LED Headlamps-a great step forward for winter camping,or any camping for that matter.
My wife would tell you it's her "Roller-Roaster" fork.Now she can toast her marshmallows without toasting her gloves!

 

[Grumpy]

Biggest advance in hiking gear in the last 30 years?

Let’s see. That would date from about 1975, well after the time nylon replaced cotton poplin or lightweight cotton canvas as a premier tent material, and 60-40 cloth had become the shell garment material of choice, and elegant recurved aluminum pack frames with hip belts added to their suspension systems (by Kelty and others) had replaced earlier pack “sytems,” and the Nalgene high density polyethylene water bottles came into vogue . . ..

So . . . my vote goes to:

* Vastly improved hiking clothing, wrought by:

Development of waterproof-breathable fabrics and coatings and their increasingly sophisticated use in shell garments; effective “soft shell” materials and garments; wicking and quick-dry materials for other clothing.

* Vastly improved backpack suspension systems and pack-making materials.

* Trekking poles.

* Water filtration devices (even though I am saddened by need for them).

* High quality, weather resistant, downsized “accessories” like binoculars and cameras.

Folks who have tagged the internet as a very convenient way to round up information about places to go, etc., are making a great observation. But I’m not sure my computer is a piece of hiking gear.

For me, some things won't ever go out of "style" because it's just about impossible to improve upon them. Those include various (un-Smart) wool clothing items, my clunky Limmer boots, Nalgene water jugs, baseplate (Silva type) compass, a simple pocket knife, and cotton bandanas, all of which (except the Nalgene containers) have been available since I began hiking more than 50 years ago.

G.

 

[Rick]

Well, maybe I'm going back a little further than 30 years, but not by much. Plastics and nylon. My old canvas frame pack had a hip belt, but was canvas. Nylon tents are MUCH nicer than the old canvas things.. I never could afford the really expensive non-nylon tents.

And plastic? We take it for granted. Try keeping your bread dry without zip-lock bags. Plastic bags, which we take for granted, let us do a lot more than we used to.

R-R-RATS !!!
AS I was reading the thread, I thought I could be a smart guy and say "Pete Hickey voted for Plastics in the last New Gear Advancements type thread last year." but he beat me to the Punch and mentioned it again... (...sigh...)

OK, so I vote for the increased amount of the absence of dayglow gear. Anyone remember wearing spandex back in the 80's - those awesome rainbow colors of fushcia, turquiose and pink? Oh yeah, maybe when I was buff, but who wants a middle-aged guy that looks like Katz spilling out of his dayglow spandex????

 

[Pete_Hickey]

..... dayglow gear. ....... spandex back in the 80's - those awesome rainbow colors of fushcia, turquiose and pink? ...... but who wants a middle-aged guy that looks like Katz spilling out of his dayglow spandex????

You know, I have a couple spandex things in bright colors like that. I got them at an end of year clearance sale, and I wear them while winter cycling. I got them for $5.00 CDN. They're kind of big for me.... size 58, I think, but I wear them over a coat.

Why did I get them for only $5? What size 58 person would want to wear dayglow spandex??? But even worse, what DESIGNER thought that someone that size would?

 

[expat]

How about this

You're all forgetting about this:

http://www.rei.com/online/store/Pro...3&parent_category_rn=40003661&vcat=REI_SEARCH

 

[Mad Townie]

Biggest advance in hiking gear in the last 30 years?

Damn, didn't see that "30 years" part. Why do people have to choose such short time periods, anyway?