Link Backpacker

It looks like link is missing, and some comment would be great, by the way. Don't just rely on the Subject line.

I have a subscription that was a gift. This issue arrived in the mail yesterday. Looks like lots of stuff that junior writers Googled then passed on to the layout department. Plus, Bear "I'm a Fake" Grylls is the guest senior editor.

Not real useful.

It is interesting that they have made Survival a section within their magazine and have certainly made survival a more common topic than it was say 4 years ago.

Don't have a subscription, but I would read it when I worked in a bookstore. Last one I read had "Tips from the Pros". Amounted to stuff I learned a long time ago in the Scouts. Really no new useful information iirc.

For years I had a subscription to Backpacker magazine, however by the late 90's to early 2000's their focus slowly changed to its current state, which Izzy correctly observed of catering to the high end and expensive (and not necessarily knowledgeable) crowd.

That said. If you want a real trip back in time when BP magazine was at it's best and in an era when backpacking and hiking was in it's modern infancy, Google Books has scanned archives going to 1973. These old magazines contain a lot of great info that was just as relevant then as it is today...and perhaps more so in many aspects. Reading the stories of that era and seeing the old gear that was state of the art back then, sure gives a great perspective and pause for thought on how easy we have it today in terms of gear selection and technology.

Too true.

A better model for a well equipped BOB might be the sort of pack a wilderness SAR member would assemble and keep ready. It would be the sort of item you could pick up, walk out the door, and keep going for about three or four days. Very often you would e departing on a mission at highly inappropriate times - as the gathering storm builds, at high noon on a hot day in the desert, etc. The gear packed within needs to be versatile and comprehensive, rugged, versatile, and yet reasonably light weight.

In most environments, a SAR pack is not something one can assemble and forget. It needs constant adjustment through the seasons. I did SAR in southern Arizona - in summer, the pack was essentially "a giant water bottle," as one of my colleagues phrased it. In the winter, clothing and rain/snow gear received more emphasis (the winter pack was typically a bit lighter). There was plenty of medical gear,proably more than one would carry in a BOB.

There were plenty of times where I picked up the pack, left, and came back about two days later, having used just about everything in it.

Infancy in 1973? Backpacking has roots going way earlier, easily into the 1930s, at least in the Sierra Nevada. I think backpacking and trekking got a significant push from the mounds of army surplus post WWII, and the development of staples like the Kelty packframe and significantly light, warm down bags.

By the 1970s, companies like Patagonia, North Face, and REI were beginning to amass significant sales, although tiny compared to what they have become today.

Note that I mentioned modern backpacking in the 1970's. And as you mentioned, those companies certainly helped and contributed to get more people to get out and backpack which then over the years has lead to much better gear and technologies developed.