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From mid-ride hydration mixes to ride-saving tools to simple storage solutions, we’ve gathered a selection of the best bike accessory needs and wants to make the most of your next ride. Looking for a new kit that will keep you airy and comfy over hundreds of miles? An activity tracker that delivers real-time ride data? A handheld massage tool for post-ride recovery? You’ve come to the right place.

At a Glance

• and
• How We Test
• Meet Our Lead Tester

All gear in this guide was tested by multiple reviewers. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

SpeedSleev Ranger 2.0 Saddle Bag

Pros and Cons
⊕ Sleek design
⊗ Only space for the essentials

Self-sufficiency on the bike isn’t a must, but we highly suggest riding with enough gear to get you home in the event of a flat tire or worse. SpeedSleev’s Ranger 2.0 saddle bag offers a minimalist approach to carrying just enough gear to get you home in a pinch. With the capacity to fit two tubes, two C02 canisters, an inflator, tire levers, plugs, and a multi-tool, we found ourselves prepared for the all too common roadside tube swap.

Whoop 4.0 Activity Tracker

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Pros and Cons
⊕ Easy-to-use
⊕ Barely there feel
⊗ Inaccurate measurements when not properly fitted

Whoop’s 4.0 band provides an informative look into heart rate data with clear, easy-to-interpret graphs available through the Whoop app. The 4.0 will track heart rate day and night, providing users with valuable data like resting heart rate and heart rate variability to help athletes customize training and recovery routines. Bonus: The Whoop can also pair to a cycling computer via Bluetooth to broadcast live heart rate data on the road.

Feedback Sports Velo Hinge 2.0 Mounting System

Pros and Cons
⊕ Space-saving design
⊕ Simple installation
⊗ Vertical mounting only

Feedback Sports is best known for its array of tools and quality cycling equipment. At $40, the Velo Hinge is the brand’s most affordable wall-mounted bike storage solution, offering multiple vertical hanging positions. Installation is quick; just three screws are needed to mount the system to a stud. It’s proven to be a favorite thanks to its space-saving, compact nature.

Craig’s Tool

Pros and Cons
⊕ Minimalistic design
⊗ Magnetic bits get stuck in bolts

Craig’s Tool is the product of a lifelong industry engineer looking to capitalize on the minimalist desires of gram-conscious cyclists. At 32 grams, the multitool provides the six most common bits (2.5mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, and T25) you’ll need for road and gravel bike adjustments or repairs. Its sleek, high-strength aluminum L-shaped handle and additional tire plugs provide a simple yet effective set of tools that served us well for unexpected roadside stops.

Roll Recovery R8 Plus Deep Tissue Massage Tool

Pros and Cons
⊕ Ideal for big muscles of the leg
⊕ Adjustable pressure
⊗ Springs wear out over time

Like many athletes, cyclists are big on post-ride recovery massages, and the Roll R8 Plus allows us to administer our own deep tissue massage at home with a 360-degree squeezing action. An adjustment knob allows for easy tension selection to dial in various levels of force to target one’s glutes, quads, hamstrings, and more.

Q36.5 Dottore Clima Jersey and Dottore Clima Bib

Pros and Cons
⊕ Highly breathable
⊕ Premium quality chamois
⊗ Delicate

A quality kit can have a seemingly high sticker price, but your body will be grateful for the investment down the road. Produced in Italy, each piece of Q35.6’s Clima collection oozes quality craftsmanship and remarkable breathability. In the jersey, the use of graphene yarn—alongside a blend of 60 percent polyester, 28 percent elastane, and 12 percent polyamide—enhances cooling with its inherent thermoregulating properties. In the bibs, a proprietary chamois provides a highly breathable cushion for the longest rides on your calendar.

We tested the kit over 100 miles at California’s Tour de Palm Springs and were pleased with its all-day comfort, and, after six months of hard riding, it retains much of its original elasticity and grip. Bonus: Q36.5’s warranty policy covers the practical lifetime of the product and offers repair services for a small charge.

Garmin Edge 540 Solar GPS

Pros and Cons
⊕ Great tracking with no battery anxiety
⊗ UI has a steep learning curve

A cycling computer, while not an essential accessory, is one of those nice-to-haves if you’re looking for navigation assistance and extensive data on your rides. The Garmin’s Edge 540 is our favorite thanks to its mid-ride solar charging capabilities which gives it up to a claimed 32 hours of battery life (and 60+ in battery saver mode), making it ideal for an all-day adventure without the worry of battery anxiety.

A multitude of sensors pair with its ANT+ and Bluetooth connectivity, and multi-band GNSS provides class-leading positioning data.

Oakley Sphaera Sunglasses

Pros and Cons
⊕ Wide coverage
⊗ Expensive

Oakley’s Sphaera is the latest sport-oriented release from the eyewear giant. A lightweight, half-wrap frame and a wide lens pair for a modern fit that falls in line with the oversized glasses trend of recent years. We appreciated the breathable central vent, polarized lenses, and rubber-covered arms that added comfort. For $271, the Sphaera is on the high end of the eyewear price spectrum, but we find Oakley’s consistently high quality helps justify the price tag.

Tailwind Nutrition Rapid Hydration Drink Mix

Pros and Cons
⊕ Light
⊕ Easily digestible
⊗ Not enough calories for long rides

Whether you’re taking a quick spin through the park or spending a day in the mountains, staying fueled is one of the simplest steps any cyclist can take to improve the quality of their ride. Colorado-based Tailwind Nutrition produces a variety of refreshing, easy-to-digest drink mixes, from calorie-packed to calorie-light.

The brand’s 45-calorie Rapid Hydration mix is available in five flavors: orange, strawberry lemonade, lemon lime, raspberry, and berry. Testers found these did the trick for shorter, sub-two-hour rides, but felt the need to fuel with additional carbs for longer days in the saddle.

How We Test

• Number of products tested: 15
• Number of miles collectively ridden during testing: 11,000
• Biggest ride: 102 miles
• Number of Testers: 6

Our group of testers, made up of men and women across the country, put more than a dozen cycling accessories to the test on various rides and races during diverse training schedules. Some were preparing for marquee road and gravel events while others were more concerned about the weekly coffee ride.

Each product we tested earned a grade based on qualitative and quantitative characteristics like functionality, simplicity, and usefulness. The bike gear and gadgets on this list impressed our crew in all departments.

Meet Our Lead Tester

has been riding road and gravel bikes for 15 years and has been writing about the latest tech in the sport since 2017. He’s toed the line at premier road and gravel events nationwide, including the Belgian Waffle Ride San Diego and the Unbound 200. When he’s not writing or riding, he’s pulling apart bikes at his local shop and connecting with the diverse cycling community around his hometown of Los Angeles.

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We Don’t Need Another Spork

By Miyo McGinn, şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř assistant editor

Lobster-claw gloves are the spork of cold-weather apparel: hybrid gear that accomplishes none of its tasks as capably as the standalone equivalent. A spork is a leaky spoon with tines too short to spear anything; the lobster claw is—take your pick—a chilly mitten or a glove with lousy dexterity. Where skiing is concerned, I want a full-finger design when I know I’ll be doing stuff (ripping skins, swapping layers), and mittens when warmth is paramount. What I don’t want is a mashup that nods at both without delivering on either.

I also see no need for a single glove or mitten to cover both scenarios, since I always tour with two pairs of gloves anyway—one for the uphill and one for the down, when the first is too sweaty to keep my hands warm. If I’m already carrying multiple pairs of gloves, it makes sense for each to suit its intended use.

I prefer lighter gloves while skinning (my go-tos are ). The energy I’m burning means I don’t require a lot of insulation to be comfortable, and they offer better dexterity when transitioning. At the top, I switch to hefty mittens—preferably something waterproof and generously insulated. Bulk isn’t an issue, since the only task my hands have on the way down is holding on to my poles.

If you want warm hands, wear mittens; if you need nimble fingers, go with gloves. Sporks are better in theory than in practice.

These Gloves Are the Perfect Combination of Dexterity and Warmth

By Jake Stern, şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř digital editor

I’ve spent most of my career arguing against compromise when it comes to gear. If something’s labeled hybrid, almost always it’ll disappoint you twice. Take hybrid skis—neither light enough for going up nor stable enough on the way down. So I like my backcountry skis to weigh about two pounds, and if I had my way, my alpine skis would weigh fifty. Compromise is fine when you’re a student, when you have young kids, or in other instances when good enough will see you through. But it’s never better than the real deal.

It may come as a surprise then that I’m climbing up on my soapbox to tell you about my lord and savior come wintertime: the “Aren’t lobster claws a hybrid?” you ask. No, they’re a paragon of sensible design, warmth and dexterity made manifest in a tidy leather package. Whether you’re riding chairlifts, booting couloirs, or (God forbid) snowshoeing, you’ll inevitably need to reach into your pack or futz with a buckle or maybe even open a beverage. Lobster claws won’t hinder your motor skills, thanks to the free index finger, and will keep you warm while you wait for your partner to catch up.

Lobster claws are the preferred accessory of ski patrollers and mountain-warfare divisions. Why? Because they work better than five-finger gloves or full-blown mitts. My hands stay just as warm in a lobster claw as in a standard mitt, and I can just as easily buckle my boots or strap into my crampons as I can while wearing gloves. The claw’s trigger-finger design is unfazed by zippers or clips, and by keeping the majority of your fingers together, they trap more heat. What’s that? Your index finger is cold? If Tommy Caldwell doesn’t need one, neither do you.

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Last Christmas, my younger sister, who lives in Bozeman, Montana, gave fleece beanies to my brother and his fiancée, who live in New York City. If you’ve been to a mountain town lately, you know the kind: plush, cozy, and shaped like a regal crown. The design is hot right now in a lot of ski destinations, and while I’m not sure how these hats play in Manhattan, they looked great when the happy owners recently visited my parents in Lake Tahoe, California.

The beanies were made by , a tiny Bozeman company, and they’re a good example of a recent trend: clothing and gear created by outdoor startups at a remove from design and production hubs like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Portland, Oregon. Sophski is run by Sophie Hewitt, a 25-year-old skier from Maine who started making her own neck warmers several years ago to save money. She migrated to Bozeman, added hats to her line—the beanies described above, which go for $35, are called King and Queen—and now moves about 50 of them per month online and in stores.

“Once I started selling them in Bozeman, they became something that traveled by word of mouth,” Hewitt says. “They’re easy to sell in ski shops, and it’s easy for me to advertise on Instagram.”

Tiny businesses like Hewitt’s are thriving in small, outdoorsy locales across the country. According to Kelly Davis, director of research at the Outdoor Industry Association, based in Boulder, Colorado, trends are readily sparked in communities like Bozeman because the population is close-knit. During the pandemic, more young people than ever flocked to these places, holed up, and were ready to create.

“I am seeing innovative brands making all kinds of products and trying to do business in a different way,” Davis says. “Mountain towns in particular have attracted lots of talent in the past two or three years.”

Some of these small businesses are already well established, and they’ve benefited from small-town spirit. Lane Willson, the founder of a bike-bag brand called , says she never would have had the confidence to start her Leadville, Colorado, company back in 2012 if it weren’t for the local support she received. Each bag is custom-made—options include models for frames, handlebars, and seats—and range in price from $50 to $175. Initially, Willson and her husband made the bags for themselves, but friends persuaded her to sell them.

“This style of bag had become harder to find,” Willson says. “There were maybe two people doing it—one was going out of business, and the other had a nine-month wait.” Then a friend who owns a bike shop in town told her he could sell them with ease. Eleven years later, Willson’s team of 12 employees produce their bags in a factory located 60 miles south, in Salida. She says Oveja Negra has thrived because it listens carefully to feedback from the user community.

, based in Richmond, Vermont—a mountain town just outside Burlington that’s famous for ski touring and mountain biking—also uses customer feedback to determine new designs for technical apparel. It’s run solely by its founder, Caroline Patten, who started the business in 2020 after she noticed that locals lacked clothes that suited the humid (but not rainy) Richmond environment.

“In Vermont, we get a specific kind of weather—not quite as wet as in Washington or Oregon,” Patten says. “So I started making pieces that were a little more tailored to specific needs.”

One example is the ($104), a base layer specifically for ski touring. It’s breathable in the back and sleeves, and a little less porous in the chest, which is helpful for staying warm and dry in freezing temperatures. Recently, customers requested thumb loops, so Patten added them.

The hoodie might not work as well in wetter regions, but Patten doesn’t need it to. The focus on purpose-built products allows her, and other mountain-town makers, to thrive, and gives us tools to do the things we love in our favorite places. That’s the essence of mountain culture.

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In February 2010, I was pedaling a touring bicycle somewhere near Hatch, New Mexico, in a tenacious crosswind, when I realized the flag on my B.O.B. trailer had disappeared. It had been there in the morning when we left, and now it wasn’t. It could have blown off at any point in the past four or five hours, and I had no idea where. I didn’t like the feeling of creating trash, but there was no way we were going back for it.

I’m pretty careful in the outdoors, making sure to never leave bags of dog poop, wrappers from gels or energy blocks, or even coffee grounds. But sometimes, you just lose some stuff.

A pair of sunglasses slipped off my head into Lake Powell in 2015. I set a watch down on a rock while mountain biking in Buffalo Creek in Colorado in like 2008 and somehow just got up and rode off without it. I definitely failed to remove at least a couple pieces of rock climbing protection placed by my partners between 2008 and 2016, and I once accidentally dropped a camera about 300 feet off a rock climb and never found it.

I had a hunch that a few other people might have similar experiences, so I put out a request on Instagram last week asking if anyone wanted to share their stories. And wow, did I underestimate the response. I got well over 1,000 messages from people, most of whom have accidentally lost sunglasses, phones, camera lenses, whole cameras, hats, wedding rings, multi-tools, pocket knives, spoons, sporks, and other small items.

But the best stories, I thought, were the ones where the lost item came back to the person, through their own persistence, luck, or a Good Samaritan. So I collected those, and am sharing them here, with their permission (and sometimes even with their full name). I hope they give you a chuckle, and/or some faith in humanity, or the universe.

My wedding ring slipped off my finger playing inner-tube pond football. The pond was just deep enough that I couldn’t swim to the bottom, so I had to leave it behind. I’ve always been sentimental so that was a tough decision. A couple months later, I realized there was a scuba rental shop 30 minutes away, so we chose a weekend, drove 4 1/2 hours back to the pond, and I suited up and dove in with a cheap underwater metal detector from Amazon, full of confidence. Immediately my confidence evaporated as the visibility was so poor I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, and the water was cold enough to turn my lips blue. But I persevered. After 1 1/2 hours with about 10 minutes of air left in the tank, my metal detector vibrated and lo and behold, my flashlight revealed a sparkle of gold in my palm. Not my most glamorous adventure, but one of my proudest. I also realized I am most definitely not an expert scuba diver. —Steven Vogel

In 2014 I did my first 14er, Bear Creek Spire in the Eastern Sierra. My boyfriend at the time (now husband) told me I would need to train for it, but being the stubborn person I am, I didn’t train. The climbing isn’t challenging but the terrain made it very challenging for an off-the-couch climb. We made it to the summit and I hadn’t drank anything or eaten anything. I was very dehydrated and hungry. I rappelled down first and found a banana fruit leather at the base. Like it was just waiting for me. I inspected it and it was unopened. As my boyfriend was rapping he saw me opening it and yelled “DO NOT EAT THAT!” But I had already eaten it like a too-fast toddler.

The winter of 2015, I was working on Mammoth Mountain ski patrol and a fellow patroller by the name of Ben Traxler was telling everyone a story about how he had led a group of climbers up Bear Creek Spire and was so bummed when he got back to the car because he had lost his banana fruit leather and he was always so careful about not dropping things. I let him know that I found his fruit leather and ate it. I had wonderfully underprepared for that adventure and he basically saved me from myself by dropping that fruit leather. We cross referenced the dates that he guided the trip and I verified the brand of fruit leather. To this day it’s one of my weirdest and coolest backcountry finds. —Trinity Wickenhauser

I hiked with girlfriends and we had a naked photo shoot at a glacial lake. That evening after returning home I realized I didn’t have my DSLR camera. The next day I repeated the 15-mile hike (this time as a run) to retrieve it but it was nowhere to be found. A few days later I thought to call the police and sure enough it had been turned in. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had scrolled through photos trying to identify the owner but instead just got an extensive photo shoot of four naked American twenty-somethings standing on glacial icebergs. —Rebecca Sharar

My younger brother and I were hiking Mt. Timpanogos in Utah (11,700-foot summit). This was the late ’90s so our mom insisted we take her fancy giant cell phone in case something happened. We summited uneventfully and when we stopped for a break on the way down at a shelter that sits on a glacial lake we realized we lost her phone somewhere along the way. Horrified, we finished the hike and reluctantly told her that the phone was gone. Two weeks later she gets a call from the sheriff’s office that they have her phone. Turns out the day we were hiking someone injured themselves badly glissading down a snow field off the summit. The injured person’s friends found a cell phone and used it to call search and rescue to help evacuate their injured friend. Our mom got her phone back and someone was able to be rescued after suffering a bad injury! —Seth Gunderson

I hike with a group of friends and we have a retired military member named Jim, who is very old-school, and he uses a GPS with a stylus. He loves the stylus, and he lost it on the hike of the black forest trail in the Pennsylvania Wilds two or three years ago. We were section hiking the trail and returned the following week to do the next section, and met some hikers who were camping for the night. Sitting at the campsite was the stylus. They had found it on the trail. He still has the stylus. â€Äâľ±ł¦łó±đ±ô±đ

I lost the zip off part of my pants once. Well, just one of them. So the next day I hiked in half-short, half-pant things. Someone had found the other leg and carried it until they saw me and handed it over. Not sure what was more embarrassing, that I owned zip-off pants or how I looked with only one leg. I lost them at Vogelsang up in Tuolumne Meadows. They were graciously returned on the hike to Merced Lake. —Bryce Funk

I used the bed of my truck to prop up my (very nice) camera to snap some photos moments after getting engaged in the Uinta Mountains. In my post-engagement bliss, we drove off with it still on the bed of my truck. Arrived home 40 minutes later and the camera was nowhere to be found. Drive back, search in the dark, no luck. Drive back the next morning, search again, found it 20 feet from where I had last seen it, set in the perfect “won’t see it unless you’re searching for a lost camera” spot by some Good Samaritan. ‼·±đ±ą´Ç˛Ô

A friend lost his Light My Fire striker on one of our trips. We couldn’t remember when or where it was lost. The first night into a repeat traverse of the Bailey Range, we set about making camp. He went to get water and I began setting up the stove to boil water. On the ground right next to me was his striker. Same spot we left it two years prior. Now we have two strikers. —Justin McGregor

In 2001 I left my GoLite “Ray Way” pants somewhere along the PCT. In Bishop, an eccentric woman on rollerblades (tight painful ones, apparently) chatted me up and learned about my loss. She owned the local secondhand store and had recently gifted a friend the perfect pair of replacement pants. She drove me to her friend’s home, asked for the pants back and gave them to me free of charge. It made me feel very uncomfortable, but it was kind and thoughtful. A week later another hiker caught up to me and returned my old pants. Then I lost my hat. —I±ą˛ą˛Ô

A few of us were climbing Cat in the Hat at Red Rocks. My buddy has our camera in his pocket, lanyard girth hitched around his gear loop. At this point, we’re waiting at the p5 anchors.Ěý Another party pulls their ropes and the knot snags on the lanyard, breaking the lanyard and pulling the camera out of his pocket. We see the camera fall hundreds of feet. It’s gone though. No way we can possibly find it. We’re devastated because this camera has all our pictures from the last two weeks of this road trip.

About a year later, a friend gets a Facebook message saying they found an SD card. Apparently they recognized the ASU outing club sticker on a helmet, and messaged people there who recognized someone climbing with us. Eventually they sent us the SD card and a cute little map showing where they found it. Apparently it was about 5 canyons over from where we were, on Tunnel Vision. No idea how they found it. —Brian Fane

I left a camera next to a cave in Washington state. I drove away and only realized it was left behind the next day. I was 500 miles away and it was raining at the cave and so I figured it was toast. A month later, I received a call from the local police. They had found my camera. I had no identifying information on the camera nor a picture of anything useful that would identify me. But, it must have been a slow day at the office, and their considerable detective prowess was put to work. They found a picture of a puppy on my camera. It was a friend’s puppy, living hours away from the cave. The name tag was visible, as was the phone number. The detective called the puppy’s owner, described what my other pictures looked like, and she identified me as the likely owner of the camera! —Chelsea Heveran

I left my retainer in RocktownĚý (Georgia) while eating lunch at Hueco Simulator. Three years later, I came back to that same spot and found it again, buried in a pile of leaves. â€Äâ´Ç±ô±ô˛â

My wife and I both used to be Traveling Trainers for Leave No Trace—which maybe makes this worse? Or just means that none of us are perfect when it comes to LNT. We were hiking a peak outside Seattle and had just gotten back to the car when we realized we left our entire snack bag on the ridge. It was getting dark so we said we would come back next weekend to get it. But then it snowed, and kept snowing, and kept snowing, so we never had a chance that season to go back for it.

Next summer, once everything melted out, we went back to see if we could find the snack bag. After a few minutes of searching around we actually found it! Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, wildlife had gotten to most of it. But! The only thing completely unscathed was a mint chocolate Clif protein bar, which is apparently gross even to winter starved chipmunks. —A˛ą°ů´Ç˛Ô

I lost my favorite hat about 100 miles into my thru hike of the Colorado Trail. Someone I met picked it up, tried to find me but couldn’t, so gave it to another hiker to carry through the trail and back to Denver. My hat completed a thru hike without me and now it’s my prized possession! —K˛ął¦˛â

My brother set his pocket knife down on a rock by a remote lake in the Wind River Range and forgot it. Years later, he sat down on that same rock and found his knife again. —Emily Sim

My dad and I went on an epic fishing trip in 2013 while he was driving me to Colorado for college. We spent seven days fly fishing throughout New Mexico and Colorado and on one particular day, he hooked into a huge rainbow and fought it for 15 minutes and it snapped off right at the net. We were super bummed to leave the flies in its mouth. The next day I hooked into a massive rainbow and lo and behold as we netted it we realized it had his flies in its mouth from the day before. It was great to free the flies from the fish’s mouth! —London Krapff

My wife and I and our two kids borrowed my in-laws trimaran once and sailed to the island Cao Costa, a state parkĚý in Florida, which is about a 20-mile sail. It was pretty windy sailing there and we were barely in control. On the way there, my favorite hat blew off and was lost in the water. It was a loss but wasn’t worth trying to turn the boat around and look for it. We stayed at the island a few days, and had really bad weather the last day. On the way home, the wind died at one point and we were sitting still in the water. My daughter, who was five at the time, turned to me and said, “Dad there’s your hat.” Sure enough there was my hat floating right next to the boat. Picked it up out of the water and a few minutes later the wind picked back up and we sailed away. It was kinda weird, through all the tough weather we went through on the trip that everything stopped for that one moment for me to get my hat back from the ocean where it had been lost days before. —Brian G. Nicholson

One fall day my friends and I were in the Desolation Wilderness in California. We hiked out as the first snow of the season started. When we got home to San Francisco I realized I left my camera behind. So, we took off work on Monday and went back. It had been dumping all night. But we dogged with little avy shovels in the parking lot. Nothing. I figured we tried, and that was that. Fast-forward to the next spring and my friend is back there and there’s a handmade sign that says, “Do you know these guys? We have their camera.” It was a picture from the day we hiked out. We met up and I got the camera back. It was a fun one. Camera was a Canon G10. Workhorse. —Jonny Burhop

My friend Jeremy had an Apple watch that fell off in Queen’s Bath on the north shore of Kauai. It was probably 40 feet under. We could see it and Find My iPhone was still working, but it was too deep and the ocean was too rough to get it. A few weeks later, he got a call from a local who found it. They scuba in tourist areas and look for stuff. They return things they can identify, list the rest on various sites for owners to find, and eventually they sell or keep stuff that can’t be returned. They mailed it back to him and it still worked. After at least a month underwater. —Eric Russell

Fall 2000, Backcountry of Fort Campbell, Kentucky: We were on an exercise for like three weeks. My driver and I were pretty independent due to the nature of my job. Had my Humvee decked out as a relatively comfortable living space. Well one morning I was getting out and noticed that my wedding ring was gone. Just gone. Looked inside, in my gear, nothing. Oh well. We left and went to a different location for the day but came back to our cozy little spot with a view that evening. My driver got out of the truck, bent over and picked up my ring off the fall leaves scattered around. It was a miracle. Until a few weeks later and it seems my asshole cat brushed it off of the desk into a trash can. Never found it. —Mike Curtis

My husband lost one of his go-to pieces of gear, a North Face fleece, on a local trail during a ride. Unbeknownst to us, our friend JT picked it up and it became one of his go-to pieces of gear. No one knew till I snapped a selfie with JT at a winter race and my husband recognized the tell-tale orange zipper. In any case, this fleece has some serious mileage on it. —Katie Benzel

Back in the 2000s I was a fly fishing guide working in Idaho and Montana in the summer and fall and in Arizona in the winter and spring. In Arizona I was working out of Lees Ferry on the Colorado. Every morning before my trip I’d get up early and take my dogs out on a 2.5 to 3-mile hike out to the edge of the Grand Canyon. In 2008, I had just gotten a brand-new pocket knife before heading to AZ for the winter. On my very first hike of the year, I lost said pocket knife. I looked everywhere for it with no luck. Over the next two years I went on that same hike probably 80 times and never found the knife. Fast-forward to 2010 and I’m on one of the last hikes of the season. As I was getting back to my truck I happened to look down and see the partially covered knife sitting in the dirt not 6 inches from my truck tire. I have no idea how many times I’d done that hike (or how many others had as well) in the two years since I lost the knife but I always thought the odds of finding it like that were extraordinarily low. I still have that pocket knife and still carry it today. —A˛Ô´Ç˛Ô˛âłľ´ÇłÜ˛ő

My dad lost a small Tupperware of salt and spices in the Jasper National Park backcountry in the late ’80s or early ’90s. Unfortunately, my mum is one of those people who always knows where their Tupperwares are, who they’ve been loaned out to, and makes sure to get them back. Growing up, there was only one small Tupperware of the set in the house because “your dad lost the other one.” In 2011-ish, my dad and I went on a backcountry trip through Jasper for a month, doing remote fisheries work (we’re both fisheries biologists). Two weeks in, we go into the cupboards of the backcountry warden cabin where we were staying and THERE IS MUM’S TUPPERWARE. It had been there for 20+ years (spices had gone stale), but it was in good shape and we brought it home. Mum was pleased to see the Tupperware (and hopefully us after a month in the backcountry) but mostly scolded Dad for having misplaced it for 20-odd years. —Sierra Sullivan

I once found a guy’s driver’s license within the first couple miles of a 20-mile backpacking trip in New Hampshire and sometime towards the end of the day we were climbing up a steep trail and I looked up and two guys were hiking down and I recognized one of them from the license picture! I was winded so I was just like, “Frank!” He was so confused until I could explain further. —Erin Donovan

I accidentally lost my car key while trail running. Getting back to the trailhead parking lot, some Good Samaritans drove me AND my pup back home (one hour back to the city). When my friend drove me back to the trailhead with my spare key, I find a note on my car from someone who found my car key on the trail. They put it on top of my passenger side back wheel. This person realized the key matched my car and could have even driven away with it but they were kind enough to keep it discreetly hidden for me to find again. Two sets of Good Samaritans on the same day and my friend who graciously drove me to the trail. I’m very grateful. —Vivian Tang

I found a worn baseball cap with a patch of a trout sewn on the front in Tuolumne Meadows (Yosemite NP) near the south end of Matthes Crest in 1979. I wore that hat a LOT because I love found objects. I lost it two summers later—it flew off my head while sitting in the bed of a pickup truck on Hwy 395. Two years LATER, I’m in Mammoth. I see a guy wearing it in a grocery store, explain to him how I lost it, and he simply hands it to me.

PS: I lost it again the next year but I’m still on the lookout. If anyone who reads this has my trout hat—no questions asked. —Even Handy

I was tubing on the Poudre River in Fort Collins in 2014. Shooting with a waterproof point and shoot camera, I flipped off the tube and slammed into a fallen tree in the river. In my attempts to get free, the camera departed my hands and was lost in the river currents, I assumed forever.

In summer 2022, I received two Facebook messages from people who saw an ad on Facebook marketplace by a person who, while hanging with their kids by the Poudre River, found a camera! The FB ad had pictures they recovered from the memory card and one of them was a goofy selfie of me! So my friends pointed me to the ad, I reach out to the family (who lives in Utah) and they emailed me the memory card. All photos intact. In eight years, the camera migrated five miles down a river, and was found by some kids. —Colin Gould

I was climbing the First Flatiron with my buddy and we were simul-climbing as far as we could. I was running out of gear, so I placed one of my approach shoes and slung it as protection. My buddy got to it, cleaned it, and then we later discovered he accidentally left it and didn’t clip it to his harness. So I did the descent in one approach shoe and one TC Pro. Months later he was out simuling in the flatirons and he ran into someone who had seen the shoe! She said she could show him where it was. Believe it or not, we were reunited months after losing it. —Scott Guinn

When I worked wilderness therapy, my pee rag fell off my backpack. I texted a friend who was operating in the same area that week, asking if she had seen it. Turns out, she was guiding a boys’ group who had found it and were flying it like a flag. She sent me a photo of the flag—then, she told the boys what it was.—Louise Halaburt

Not proud of this, but I once left my waders on an environmental study trip in high school. We were specifically told not to wear waders to the marsh, and to wear wading boots instead. I wore waders and got stuck trying to jump from one bank to the next. I had to be cut out of the waders. Leaving me only in my boxers (another mistake) for the three-mile walk home with my high school classmates. We tried to pull what remained of my waders out of the marsh so as to not litter and effectively create an environmental issue out of an environmental studies trip—but the pieces kept ripping off, as they were cheap rubber waders, but we were able to get most of them out of the mud. We were supposed to be studying the crab population, but spent the entire time dealing with me and my waders. Not my proudest moment. My wife now teaches at this school and almost 20 years later, she says it is used as an example every year. —Sebastian

I once left my glasses resting on a balsam fir branch as I changed into dry gear near the summit of Camel’s Hump. I then popped on my sunglasses and forgot my glasses on the fir branch. Life got busy and I wasn’t able to return in a timely manner. Figured it was a loss. Winter came. Winter went. I returned seven months later to find my glasses waiting patiently for my return on the same fir branch I’d first set them on. —Quinn Keating

In my earliest days recreating in and appreciating wilderness areas, I set my camouflage day pack down on the ground and walked up the ridge to a lookout vista. Came back to retrieve my pack and couldn’t find it, as it did what camouflage is made to do. Spent 35 or 40 minutes searching as it had my phone, wallet, keys, other necessities. Finally found it in an embarrassingly small area between a ridgeline and lake. —J±đ´Ú´Ú

In winter 2012, I lost a GoPro while snowshoeing up in Nome, Alaska. Went back up in near darkness to look for it but couldn’t find it in the snow, so I cut my losses and eventually got a new one. The following summer, I was back in Nome for work, and saw a message on the local listserv about a GoPro that a family found on the tundra while they were out berry picking. I got in touch with them, and they brought it over so we could see if the SD card still worked. Sure enough, it was my old GoPro with all my winter footage on it. Since I had already upgraded, I gave the GoPro to their kid (who was STOKED!). It turned out his mom was a local artist, and a few days later she brought me a gorgeous painting she made of the spot where they found the GoPro. —A˛Ô»ĺ°ů±đ˛ą

The post Wild Stories from the Backcountry Traveler’s Lost and Found appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

In the exhilarating setting of Sun Valley, Idaho, 32 top-tier skiers, not professional athletes but experts from across North America, convened for our annual SKI Test in early March 2023. Their mission? To determine which skis would earn the prestigious “Skis of the Year” title for the 2024 Winter Gear Guide. It was a formidable challenge, with over 150 pairs from 27 brands to evaluate.
To aid their quest, we partnered with select brands to provide the ideal gear on and off the slopes, ensuring our testers stayed protected and energized for the task at hand. Here’s a roundup of the top-notch gear and products these dedicated testers utilized to enhance their testing experience:

Sweet Protection Connor Rig goggles

The Sweet Protection Connor Rig goggles provide a generous field of vision without the need for an excessively large design. They achieve this through a toric sculpted lens with understated style and ample side vision. Testers found them to offer a “medium-sized fit with large-sized vision,” greatly enhancing peripheral vision on the slopes. The lenses are easy to swap and perform well in various light conditions. Additionally, the goggles feature comfortable foam against the face.

Strafe Hayden Jacket

This jacket offers a cozy and comfortable experience. It has a soft quilted interior lining that smoothly slides over midlayers. The stretchy wrist gaiters are effective at keeping out cold and snow. The hand pockets are fleece-lined, and the jacket’s outer shell and insulation are made from recycled materials with four-way stretch. Testers found it to be non-restrictive, even during active movements. The jacket provides substantial warmth and can be customized with a detachable hood and hidden vents for heat management. One tester remained warm down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit with two baselayers underneath, and described the Hayden as feeling like a weighted blanket in terms of comfort.

Auclair A-Peak 2-in-1 Mitt

The Auclair A-Peak 2-in-1 Mitt is a high-quality solution for women facing cold winters. It features a durable goatskin leather shell with a powder cuff to keep out the elements. Thinsulate insulation and a soft liner provide warmth and comfort. The standout feature is the removable inner mitten, made of butter-soft fleece with added durability features. This inner mitten can be easily reattached to the shell glove, preventing it from coming out when removing the mitten. Note that sizing may run slightly small, so consider sizing up for a better fit, as per the tester’s experience.

YETI Yonder 1L / 34 oz Water Bottle

These plastic water bottles are a skier’s ideal companion, offering eco-friendly, leak-proof, and lightweight design. They’re made from BPA-free and 50% recycled plastic, ensuring both gear and skier stay dry. The exceptional lightweight feature allows for carrying more water without added weight, making them perfect for sustainability-conscious skiers seeking convenience in their outdoor gear.

CamelBak Powderhound 12 Hydration Pack

The Powderhound 12 Hydration Pack is perfect for experienced mountain enthusiasts and those seeking quick day trips on the slopes. This pack features a 12-liter storage capacity and a 2-liter reservoir, striking an ideal balance between functionality and convenience. Designed with winter sports in mind, it ensures your gear stays secure while offering easy access, minimizing downtime, and maximizing time on the snow. This compact pack ensures you’re fully prepared for any snowy escapade, whether a day at the resort or an excursion into the sidecountry.

Pine Ridge Vineyards 2021 Black Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon

What would a week-long ski test be without indulging in a little après while we ice our knees? Pine Ridge Vineyards’ wines, specifically the 2021 Black Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon, offer skiers a taste of luxury and relaxation after a day on the slopes. This wine, hailing from Red Mountain, Washington, pays tribute to the spirit of adventure, named in honor of Pine Ridge Vineyards’ founder, an Olympic downhill skier. Opening the bottle reveals an enticing bouquet, and the wine’s floral fragrance sets the stage for an exhilarating flavor journey. It combines dark chocolate and acai compote with hints of cassis and lavender candy. The wine’s smooth entry leads to an explosion of pomegranate juice and cherry cordial flavors, akin to carving down a mountain. The finish is lifted by mouth-watering acidity and balanced tannins, with hints of cocoa powder and cassis lingering—a perfect après-ski indulgence.

Goodr Sunglasses The OG

Goodr Sunglasses are ideal for skiers seeking a blend of style and performance on the slopes. These non-reflective lenses effectively reduce glare, ensuring optimal visibility while navigating the snowy terrain. Designed to fit medium-sized heads comfortably, these sunglasses offer just the right fit. Their customizable frames allow for precise adjustments, accommodating various users. With a sleek design, Goodr’s sunglasses provide essential eye protection and make a fashionable statement. Their motto, “Look good, ski goodr,” encapsulates their commitment to blending style and functionality.

Decked Drawer System

While in Sun Valley, we had the chance to test out the Decked Drawer System. This burly storage solution offers full bed-length drawers and convenient side access pass-throughs to the wheel wells, providing massive and highly customizable storage space.

What truly stands out is the almost zero wasted space, making the most of your truck bed. It’s as if they’ve managed to achieve a 100% increase in the utility of your truck bed—a dream come true for those of us who need to haul skis, sleds, and other gear to the slopes.

But what really sets this system apart is its customization. Decked encourages you to “customize your Drawer System like a boss for just how you use it.” It’s like the perfect pairing of peanut butter and chocolate but for your gear-hauling needs, and we guarantee it will make your winter trips smoother and more organized. Highly recommended for anyone looking to maximize their truck bed storage for winter activities.

Read More About the Best Gear From the 2024 SKI Test

The Best All-Mountain Skis
The Best Powder Skis
The Best Carving Skis

The post Gear We Used to Test the Skis of the Year appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

For years, I’ve been searching for the best water bottle for travel–one that lets me avoid plastic and single-use materials at every leg of every journey. This elusive bottle of my dreams needs to be leakproof and insulated. It needs a wide-mouth for easy filling and cleaning, but it also needs to be easy to drink from without dousing my face.

It needs to be compatible with cup holders. And it needs to be versatile–sometimes I want water, sometimes I want coffee, and sometimes I want a cocktail or glass of wine on the plane. One thing I never, ever want: to drink from a single-use container that will end up in the landfill shortly after I empty it.

In order to achieve thisĚýgoal, I’ve historically had to pack two containers: an insulated bottle for water and coffee and a cup for in-flight beverages.

But no longer. ($52, 1 pound, 5 ounces) is the bottle I’ve been searching for.

Things I Love About the CamelBak MultiBev

It holds 22 ounces, making it the perfect size for me. Not too big to lug around, not so puny I need to refill every 20 minutes. The slim profile means I can slip it in the side pocket of my pack and every cup holder I’ve encountered. According to my tests, it keeps tea hot for 12+ hours and water chilled for 48+.

Still, you might say, many bottles do these things.

The clincher for the MultiBev is that the bottom screws off and becomes an elegant 16-ounce cup–perfect for a cocktail or glass of Merlot at 40,000 feet or ideal for a bedtime peppermint tea in my hotel room. Speaking of that peppermint tea, the cap of the MultiBev hides another neat feature: a foldable silicone sipper lid that fits neatly onto the cup for dribble-free drinking.

On a recent campervan trip in new Zealand, I discovered that the cup also doubles as a coozie for a beer can! I like a nice cold beer on occasion, and when I slip a can into the cup, it keeps it cool for a good long time, even in the hot sun.

I also like the little details: the easy-to-carry to handle, the non-slip rubber base, and the fact that the whole shebang is dishwasher safe.

The Impact of Using the CamelBak MultiBev on a 3-Day Trip

On a recent business trip from Boston to Boulder that involved air, bus, and Uber travel, I packed the MultiBev. I estimate that it allowed me to refuse about 34 single-use containers in 72 hours: six coffee cups and lids, probably 20+ plastic water bottles, and eight plastic airline cups.

Aside from travel, the MultiBev has become my daily bottle for around town as I try to avoid putting any single-use plastic to my lips. We all know plastic is everywhere these days. I’ve written about some of the sneaky ways (like through laundry detergent and cutting boards) it gets into our environment and our bodies. Plastic is even .

But one thing’s for sure. From now on, I won’t be drinking it.

Doing right by the planet can make you happier, healthier, and—yes—wealthier. şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř’s Head of Sustainability, Kristin Hostetter, explores small lifestyle tweaks that can make a big impact. Write to her at climateneutral-ish@outsideinc.com.

The post I Finally Found the Perfect Bottle for Plastic-Free Travel appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Piecing together the right snowboard gear is like forming a rock band. Snowboards are the obvious frontmen: flashy, attention-grabbing, soaking up more limelight than they’re due. But even the best boards are nothing without boots and bindings, the underappreciated drummers and bassists that keep the jams cohesive and the crowd dancing. Below, you’ll find the makings of a killer rhythm section, no matter if you’re headlining the resort or touring the backcountry. These are our picks for the best snowboard accessories of 2024.

How We Test

Number of testers: 40
Number of products tested: 25+
States tested in: California, Nevada, Utah, Alaska, Washington, Wyoming
Countries tested in: Canada, Japan, Sweden
Number of Broken Boots: 2
Heli Days: 4
Lost Snowboard Bags: 1

This year, şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř’s Snowboard Test returned to Sugar Bowl, an unpretentious mom-and-pop Tahoe resort with some of the best freeride terrain in the Lower 48. Mother Nature cooperated with a deep snowpack, and the park crew responded with a fun, flowy terrain park, while ski patrol opened up the fabled Palisades, a spiny cliff face reminiscent of Alaska. During the week of the test, we had all sorts of conditions on tap–exactly what we look for while testing–ranging from light powder and Sierra cement to slush, corn, immaculate groomers, and crusty crud.

We couldn’t have asked for better testers, either. A crew of 40 riders joined the fray, ranging in age from early 20s to early 50s, and skill levels from solid intermediate to expert. Testers were mostly locals, including a splitboard guide for Blackbird Mountain Guides, several members of the Sugar Bowl park crew, a snowboard buyer for a local shop, banked slalom podium regulars, and a handful of snowboard coaches. While a ton of new blood kept the test fresh, the core of the crew consisted of test veterans, several of whom have been reviewing snowboard gear for şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř for nearly a decade.

Especially when it comes to boots and bindings, it’s important for testers to break in gear, test durability, and gather feedback beyond our weeklong test at Sugar Bowl. As such, we put this season’s new offeringsĚý to the test as much as possible before and after our test week. The gear you’ll find listed below was put through the wringer inAlaska, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, the Eastern Sierra, and even places farther afield like British Columbia, Canada and Japan.

After test rides, our gear nerds filled out feedback forms on all boots and bindings to assessĚý everything from comfort and longevity to ideal applications and target audience.Ěý At the end of the whole process, our test director sorts through those feedback forms, crunches the numbers, and compiles the final reviews. Rest assured,the gear on this list is the best of the best.

Meet Our Lead Tester

Drew Zieff

Drew Zieff is a Tahoe-based freelance writer and a lifelong snowboarder. In addition to directing şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Magazine’s snowboard test, a role he’s handled since 2016, he directs Backcountry Magazine’s splitboard test, waxes on the Natural Selection and snowboard culture for Whitelines Snowboarding, and nerds out on snowboard gear and travel for REI, Gear Junkie, Gear Patrol, and Popular Mechanics, among others. He spends his winters testing snowboard gear in his backyard backcountry zones or up at Palisades, as well as chasing stories and storms to snowboard meccas like Alaska and Wyoming, British Columbia and Japan. His summers? They’re mainly spent at his desk, sifting through review forms and spec sheets, compiling our snowboard reviews—although he occasionally disappears in his custom-built 2006 Chevy Express for a few days when there’s swell on the coast.

The Reviews: The Best Snowboard Accessories of 2024

Editor’s Choice: Rome Katana Bindings ($400)

Size Range: S, M/L, L/XL

Buy Now

If you like to tweak your bindings as much as you tweak your grabs, peep the Rome Katana. This high-performance binding is ultra-adjustable thanks to Rome’s PivotMounts—modifiable ankle strap mounting hardware that enables riders to swap between eight ankle strap positions per side, yielding a total of 64 possibleĚý configurations. Raising the ankle strap provides more rapid-fire responsiveness, while lowering the strap position translates to increased range of motion and a surfier ride. Additional adjustability comes courtesy of composite highbacks that pivot and cant for a more ergonomic, fine-tuned fit.

“Experimenting with different strap and highback configurations will enable you to find what works best for you,” commented test director Drew Zieff, impressed by the versatility of the Katana system. “And if you’re swapping one pair of bindings between multiple boards in your quiver, or like to cruise one day and bomb everything in sight the next, the Katana allows you to make the most of your setup.”

Adjustability wasn’t the only reason the Katana sliced through the competition. All-mountain riders appreciated its versatility—it proved responsive in technical lines yet playful in the air, a balanced approach that comes courtesy of the Katana’s mid-flexing highback and asymmetrical chassis. The board’s cold-resistant, closed-cell foam padding beneath the baseplate also offers unreal shock absorption.“Great dampening,” reported snowboard guide Andrew Alissandratos. “I took them to Mach 10 and had no chatter.” Additionally, testers loved the geometric-patterned toe and ankle straps, which expand as you tighten the binding, providing a fit one Katana convert called “damn-near vacuum-sealed.”

Bottom Line: With more cushioning than the pillow aisle at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, the Katana is easy on the ankles of aging airtime addicts. Hyper-adjustable, these Rome bindings are also ready to rock’n’roll on damn near every board in your quiver. If you want our testers’ advice, pair them with the Editor’s Choice-winning Lib Tech Apex Golden Orca for the slay-anything setup of your dreams.

Ride Torrent Boots ($570)

Size Range: 7-13

Buy Now

There’s no braver gear tester than a boarder with blisters willing to shove his feet into fresh, foreign footwear. Cody Buccholz, a ripping rider, gourmet chef, and longtime board tester, did just that with Ride’s new Torrent boots, and his reports hint at the immediate comfort on tap. “These boots helped me forget about my blisters because of how well they lock your foot into place,” he said. While a dual-BOA lacing system is somewhat standard these days, Ride uses lacing guides centered on the tongue and forefoot that help maintain even lace tension. “I loved that I could keep the base of my foot tight and release pressure by popping the upper BOA on the lift,” gushed Buccholz. Wasatch backcountry hound, Kordell Black, echoed his sentiments: “I loved the inner liner’s lace system with the clip to the liner–it prevents pinch points.”

In addition to the lacing dynamics, a structured Intuition liner with cored ankle pockets and J-bar supports helped keep testers’ heels locked down, while supportive insoles and a cushy foam midsole ensured out-of-the-box comfort. Testers also dug the overall profile of the boot– “slim profile, perfect for big-footed riders,” reported Black–and the aggressively lugged Michelin rubber outsole, which Buccholz reported crushed steep bootpacks and icy sidecountry scrambles. Ride ranks flex at a 7 out of 10, which our crew found to be accurate. As a result, we recommend them for all-mountain chargers and freeriders as opposed to the freestyle contingent.

Ride also equipped the Torrent with a velcro flap on the calf, an addition billed as a means to fine tune the fit and accommodate both smaller and larger calf shapes. Bonus: OneĚý tester found that the flap also functioned as an “unintentional walk mode” while splitboarding. However, another rider with thin calves who loves to crank his boots extremely tight relayed that the velcro popped and released before he could reach his preferred level of snugness.

Bottom Line: Next-level ride quality make these new Ride boots a top pick for our testers. Next-level focus on sustainable materials, like an EVA midsole derived from sugarcane and plant-based reinforcements on the toe and heel, make them a top pick for our planet.

Ride Duffel Bag ($150)

Volume: 80L

Buy Now

“Before testing this Ride bag, I thought the perfect snowboard duffel didn’t exist,” said Zieff. “Now I know better, and I don’t go on shred trips without it.” The 80-liter duffel is masterfully compartmentalized by the board nerds at Ride: the main section stashes clothes and outerwear, the burly bottom compartment is a perfect quarantine for rank, wet boots, a fleece-lined zippered pocket protects your goggles, and several smaller gear pockets and partitioned see-through mesh compartments allow for the organization of easy-to-lose items like chargers and sunscreen. The size isn’t overkill if you’re carpooling with friends on a powder day, and we happily used it on day trips and weeklong missions alike. Lug it like a duffle or deploy the shoulder straps for backpack mode.

Bottom Line: A sleek, well-designed duffel that’s purpose-built for shredding, you’ll probably end up using this radical piece of luggage year round.

Jones Orion/Aurora Binding ($350)

Size Range: M-L (Jones Aurora available in S-M)

Buy Now

Back for its second season, the Orion binding caters to all-mountain cruisers and creative freeriders who crave a responsive, reliable ride with an adjustable, mid-soft flex. And new for this season: Jones launched a women’s version, the Aurora, of this tester-favorite, doubling the overall size range to be more inclusive of riders with smaller boots.

Both the Aurora’s and the Orion’s highbacks are stiffer at the heel cup and softer towards the calf, offering a great balance of performance and play. “When transitioning from edge to edge, the highback gives you all the support you need,” reported one rider strapped into the Orion. When you start playing with other directions—off-axis tweaks, contorted carves, nose or tail presses, et cetera—the softness toward the top of the highback lets you twist like a yogi.”

This edge-to-edge prowess also comes courtesy of Now Snowboarding’s revolutionary SkateTech, introduced by the British Columbia binding builder in 2012, which is at the core of all of Jones’ bindings. A baseplate pivots around the disc housing like a fulcrum, efficiently leveraging rider weight and transferring energy to four bushings at the corners of each binding. Not only does this system yield what our tester called “instantaneous response,” but the rubbery, dampening bushings also “absorb more chatter than the NSA.” Between the bushings and a thick EVA foam footbed, the Orion is so comfortable it fits the bill for “first-to-last-chair riding called for by late season powder days and closing weekend festivities.” And if you like to customize your setup, the bushings can be swapped out for a stiffer or softer ride feel. What’s more, the flexy-yet-supportive ankle straps are customizable, too: swap the left and right ankle straps to bounce between freeride and surf modes. Freeride-mode locks in the ankle for straight-lining steeps and tackling technical faces, while surf-mode frees up range of motion for slaying side hits and flowy pow days. Pro tip: If you’re looking for a slightly stiffer all-mountain binding that utilizes the same NOW Snowboarding SkateTech, check out the .

Bottom line: The Orion is a customizable, comfortable, and approachable binding that can cruise one day and charge the next.

Union Atlas Pro ($450)

Weight: 2 lbs. per binding (M)
Size range: S-L

The versatile, bombproof, all-mountain is one of our all-time favorite bindings, so when Union debuted the Atlas Pro for 2023, our testers were damn near salivating. This drool-worthy build sports the same responsive highback (but stiffened for 2023) and Duraflex baseplate as the Atlas. However, the Atlas Pro is 15 grams lighter per binding and more responsive thanks to an ultra-reactive carbon footbed, streamlined toe cap, and more rigid, hypersensitive ankle straps. “The Atlas Pro is a notch stiffer, lighter, and more responsive than the Atlas. Pair it with a big mountain board or beefy all-mountain shape and the carbon gas pedals let you approach light speed,” said a tester who spent the majority of last season on the Atlas and this season on the Pro. His recommendation: “Intermediate and up all-mountain riders who appreciate a balance of comfort and response will prefer the cushiness and canting of the Atlas, while aggressive freeriders and slow-sign-ignoring resort rippers will fall in love with the streamlined, elite build of the Atlas Pro.”

Bottom line: A top-of-the-line binding for advanced riders who crave quality and won’t compromise on response.

Bent Metal Binding Works Stylist ($280)

Size range: M, L

Shred the mountain, not your budget with the women’s Stylist, an all-mountain binding that’s as capable as it is affordable. Performance stems from a boot-hugging, asymmetric highback; soft-flexing, compressible ankle straps; and a medium-stiff magnesium and EVA foam Drive Plate. Bent Metal’s technical riff on a traditionally simple binding tech, Drive Plates are swappable, padded, energy-transferring footbeds crafted using the same layering and lamination techniques as modern snowboards. “The Stylist Drive Plate is responsive yet cushy. They have enough padding underfoot for comfort on hard landings, but enough structure for high-level performance and quick response,” testified a snowboard coach who felt the design could take on anything from “street-style rails to bumped-out chutes.” While she lamented the lack of an adjustable heel cup, overall impressions were through the roof from the jump, and that surprised her. “I am picky about bindings, and even when I get a new pair of the bindings I’ve had for years, they take a few days to break into where I am happy with them. So I was stoked to like these by my second run,” she said. She recommended the Stylist for women who demand “high performance as well as high comfort levels” from their kit.

Bottom line: Bent Metal’s affordable, all-mountain Stylist suits riders who want to rip the entire mountain without breaking the bank.

Thirtytwo TM-2 Jones ($425)

Size range: 6-13

If you don’t have space in your board bag—or budget—and need a single pair of boots that can handle touring and resort riding alike, check out the TM-2 Jones. This boot is capable of pinning it down Palisades’ fabled fingers one day and skinning deep into Desolation Wilderness the next, thanks to an articulated calf and rugged outsole that allows the otherwise downhill-oriented boot to tour and scramble comfortably. The TM-2 is a softer, more versatile, and more approachable option than the beefier, ultra-stiff, mountaineering-ready Jones MTB. Still, a Sierra-scaling splitboard guide rated them high on traction and backcountry utility. He dug the “Vibram sole and crampon-compatible heel, combined with a reinforced toe for kicking steps.” A lack of breakable lacing parts was also appreciated. “I love laces and found the tension strap to be super utilitarian as a splitboarder,” he said, although he did wish the laces went higher on the tongue. All told, he called the TM-2 Jones his “favorite backcountry boots,” and noted that snowboarders who can justify multiple pairs of boots may reserve the TM-2 exclusively for touring applications. While he appreciated the ride feel in-bounds, he admitted to preferring more streamlined but still responsive boots like the or in pure resort scenarios. However, on shred trips that involve both the front and backcountry, the decision is clear.

Bottom line: A versatile, stiff boot for riders who alternate between touring and tearing the resort to shreds. It has mountaineering chops, but it’s still a snowboard boot at heart.

Burton SLX ($670)

Size range: 7-13

Burton’s SLX is more overflowing with tech than Christmas stockings in Silicon Valley: a welded backstay, a Dyneema-wrapped shell, and a Carbitex-buttressed ankle zone give the boots their backbone. Usually, boot builders reserve such bells and whistles for ultra-stiff, freeride-focused boots, but the SLX plays the middle ground with grace, and the resulting flex is responsive enough for technical charging and still tweakable when airborne. “I tested these boots on sled laps and a steep heli day in Alaska, spring storm and corn cycles in Tahoe, and resort days in Utah, riding everything from pow to ice to side hits,” relayed an all-mountain tester. He appreciated the workable yet reliable flex, found Burton’s proven yank-to-tighten Speed Zone lacing simple, secure, and easy to adjust on the fly, and reported: “the nominal outsole footprint makes toe and heel drag a thing of the past.”

One point of concern: after 20-plus days of testing this spring, we did notice a slight crease forming where the upper meets the lower, and we’ve read a few customer reviews citing newer construction doesn’t last quite as long as older SLX iterations. Also, Burton has plenty of cheaper boots in a similar medium stiffness profile—we’re big fans of if you want to save some dough. That said, if you’re an advanced all-mountain rider who spends more than 30 days annually on snow, the high-performance SLX is well worth the high price tag.

Bottom line: A premium all-mountain boot that’s maxxed out with tech and boasts a minimal footprint.

How To Buy Snowboard Gear

Shopping for snowboard boots, bindings, and accessories can be overwhelming. Here are a few tried-and-true tips to make the process as smooth as possible.

If possible, shop for boots before you shop for boards and bindings. Some boots, like the Burton SLX, have compact footprints, which means you’re less likely to have toe or heel drag on a narrower board. If you end up buying a boot with a bigger footprint, or you have a size 10.5 boot or higher, you may want to consider a mid-wide, wide, or volume-shifted board.

Invest in insoles. Even high-end snowboard boots often sport garbage insoles (as reported by a tester who fits boots for a local shop), and one of the best ways to improve fit, comfort, and performance is with an aftermarket insole. We’re partial to Green Superfeet. Oh–and don’t forget to heat mold those new boots, too!

If you can, support your local snowboard shop. If you prefer to shop online, buy from a reputable online retailer like REI or Backcountry, that has a decent return policy.

More 2024 Gear Guide Reviews

• The Best Snowboards of 2024
• The Best Splitboard Gear of 2024

Back to the Winter Gear Guide

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It’s going to be a huge big-water season here in California, thanks to the snowpack, and I’m excited to try river rafting with my friends. We already have a weekend trip planned to the Kern in June, but I feel like there are so many fun essentials to buy beforehand that I can’t find on Google’s packing lists. Help?
—Aspiring River Runner

Dear Aspiring: River rafting is one of the most exhilarating activities you can do, right up there with bobbing for apples, but it can also be dangerous, like shooting heroin. I’ll get to the good stuff in due course—but first, let’s have the obligatory SAFETY WARNING.

Who are you going with? Do your friends actually know what they’re doing, or are they college-age hooligans, as I suspect? Or maybe you’ve hired a guide? That’s not a bad idea, because the Kern serves up whitewater that’s as serious as it gets, so you don’t want to be in over your head.

Your chances of dying increase exponentially if you’re not wearing a life jacket. So buy a U.S. Coast Guard–approved Class III or V personal flotation device suitable for your weight. A legit local shop will set you right. And when you’re on the river, wear it. A whopping 84 percent of drownings occur because the person wasn’t wearing a life jacket, according to that same Coast Guard. You can still have a good time while wearing a PFD, but it can’t save you if you don’t have it on.

OK, now back to the fun stuff!

Wait, no—a few more safety points. The number of sunburned folks you will spot at a busy river take-out rivals the beaches of Cancún, Mexico, during spring break. Skin cancer is no joke, people! News flash: getting splashed with water all day might mean you need to reapply sunscreen several times. Please don’t be like that roasted Boston College bro I once saw whose inner thighs were literally peeling off—use a lot of high-SPF sunscreen (preferably with zinc, for staying power) and reapply it every two hours.

It also helps to cover up. Those wide-brim straw hats are de rigueur with river guides because they’re cheap and they work. Look for one with a string to secure under your chin. Remember: you’ll be outdoors, where the wind tends to blow. And speaking of retention, don’t forget a pair of shades, along with some means of holding them to your head—most sunglasses don’t float.

I also recommend a UPF-rated hoodie, so you don’t have to slather your whole body with lotion; if you can’t afford one, a thrift-store Hawaiian shirt will at least help you cover up, and it looks steezy. And if it’s hot, cotton holds water better than polyester and will keep you cool.

Footwear is also crucial. What type of highly stylish sandals are you going to choose? As long as they strap to your feet (no flip-flops!), you should be good to go. Bedrock, Chaco, Keen, and Teva all make solid footwear with soles designed to provide grip on wet rocks.

But rafting isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Just like the wind, precipitation tends to rear its head, even in sunny months. So it’s wise to pack a thin, synthetic midlayer, in case you catch a chill (fleece is great here), and a solid rain jacket or poncho.

As for the fun part: get out there and go rafting—just please don’t drown!

Send your questions to deargear@outsideinc.com.

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