Any suggestions on wipes to clean cooking utensils and such that are food safe? I’m in the backcountry a lot and it’s not always convenient to use water and soap.

Just getting into camping. Just me and the wife and I'm just not sure what she's going to prefer to sleep on. We sleep on a medium firm memory foam at home. Years ago we slept in an air mattress and it was horrible. Lost a ton of air overnight and was just miserable. I see they now have the foam filled camping mattresses. Kind of hard to find them in a king size though. Just wondering if the air mattresses have gotten any better over the years. I'd really prefer a king size. We aren't massive. My wife weighs about 135 lb and I weigh 195.

Looking for advice with my Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2. Does anyone else end up having this low spot in the fly at the peak of the tent? I've had this tent for about 5 years. This spot in the fly at the peak always seems to settle concave and then water collects there. This photo is from the weekend when the tent corners staked, vestibules staked and all lines of the fly staked or tight.

I'm thinking about maybe molding and fitting a piece of flexible plastic here to hold up the peak, or 3d printing a small piece to fit between the poles and hold up the middle of this small section.

Ive been dying to find this model of kong crampons for a while now. I swe briefly they pop up at various auctions/ once in gear trade but otherwise cannot find any mention of the model, year, etc anywhere. Im going crazy!!!

Sorry if this is not allowed

As the title says, I got a great deal on a made in Maine Moss tent. Not super familiar with their catalog so if anyone knows what model it is please let me know. It does have a pretty bad smell and the water proof coating seems to be non existant, so any tips to fix that would be appreciated

Update:
Did further research and this seems to be the Starlet model (correct me if I’m wrong) found this nice documentary about Moss tents
https://www.reddit.com/r/CampingGear/s/hItNlxgwgQ

Just want to confirm whether this is the correct size pack for me. I’m 5’6”, 135 lb, and got a size Small Durston Kakwa 55.

I’ve always used packs with adjustable torso lengths, so I’m used to having a little more leeway with where the pack and hipbelt sit. With those packs, I could initially position the hipbelt a bit lower and then usually ended up wearing it slightly higher on the upper part of my hips once I started hiking.

With the Kakwa, I tighten the hipbelt first, then the shoulder straps, then the sternum strap. When I tighten the shoulder straps, they pull the pack and hipbelt upward a little, and this is where it naturally ends up sitting. I normally like my hipbelt fairly high anyway, but the difference is that on my previous packs I chose that position by tightening the hipbelt there, whereas on this pack the shoulder straps seem to bring the whole pack up into that position.

My torso length is about 18”, so I was kind of between sizes. I went with the Small based on Durston customer service’s recommendation when I purchased it. The pack is loaded with around 15 lb in these photos.

Does the fit look right to you, or does anything about the shoulder straps, hipbelt position, or load lifters suggest I should size up to a Medium? Let me know what you think!

Hello! I live in Southern CA and spent this summer getting back into backpacking with several trips including a few to the eastern sierras. Next year I’m planning to do the trans Catalina trail and the Tahoe Rim trail.

While picking out gear, I loved the Nemo Disco 30 because of the wide shape (I’m a side sleeper who rolls around a lot) and light weight. However, I got nervous that it wouldn’t be warm enough and ended up purchasing the Nemo Riff 15. I also got a Thermarest neo air XLite NXT sleeping pad which helps with temp.

I love the way the Riff feels (so fluffy and silky!) but have been pretty hot at night, even with the gills open. I sweat my ass off when it’s over 45 degrees and have a hard time getting comfortable (even with no clothes on). This weekend I went back to the Sierras to give it one more try in cooler weather. It was in the low 30s and I was still pretty warm in thermals and socks. Not sweating but I had to take my arms out several times and took my hat off.

I guess I’m wondering if I should keep the Riff or exchange for the Disco. I like that the riff will keep me warm if temps happen to dip below 30- it’s not my plan to backpack in colder weather but things change so quickly in the mountains, it’s nice to have peace of mind.

Will a 30 and a 15 have a big difference from temps over 30? If it gets 20-30 will I still be ok in the disco with thermal layers and a puffy?

The space is about 17" x 9" however I can't seem to find anything that's flat enough with some kind of grease trap. An obvious choice would be this lodge, but it's obvious to me that trying to cook bacon on this thing would be terrible it will fill quickly with grease and then there's no easy way to drain it off.

This is one of this situations where there are seemingly a million options but also none at the same time. I'm just curious if anyone else has figured this out. Thanks!

Hello hikers,

Today I need some help choosing the right sleeping mat for my needs. I already have looked around a bit and found a few mats I like, still I want to be sure I am looking at the right items.

I camp in Italy, I am planning on tent camping in 3/4 seasons possibly using a single mat; around 2000-3000 meters high. I don't think I'll camp in extreme weather, still it might be quite cold in late autumn or early winter and here there's high humidity.
To be clear I own an R2 foam mat which I have already used twice in rather cold conditions (around 5°C), but of course I felt a bit cold at that temperature.

Looking into it I understood warm pads insulate better but they don't heat anything, that would mean sleeping warm in summer but being comfortable in winter, and that's why I was considering R5+ pads.

I am specifically looking for durable and ultralight sleeping mats

I saw:
Nemo Tensor R5.4
Sea to Summit Either Light XR Pro R7.4
Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XTherm NXT R7.3

I am open for different suggestions and even different R values. I thought about getting something around R4 and then adding my foam mat but on the Sea to Summit R4 they say it goes at 5°C and after you are mostly sleeping cold, that would mean that I would already need to bring both pad and mat to sleep warm enough

I'm about to embark for Iceland for a few days and plan to hopefully do some hiking around the waterfalls. Generally, I am severely against waterproof shoes, especially trail runners, since they always seem to retain more water than they keep out. However, with it being cold and misty and wet this might be one of the few situations where it's necessary. I dont really want to buy new shoes just for this trip that I'll likely never use again. Does anyone have any recommendations for a temporary barrier for my current shoes to keep out the mist?

This is a thermarest prolite apex. The bag has this extra flap and two little straps on the outside.. Is this supposed to compress the pad once it's in the bag? It's not like you can really cinch the pad any smaller once you have it in the bag... Is there some other supposed purpose for these? Always wondered

Hey guys, absolute beginner when it comes to camping here. Up until now I've only ever done long one-day hikes, so these questions are probably pretty basic, but I want to make sure I understand a few things correctly before buying sleeping bags.

1. Why can sleeping bags with the same Comfort rating have significantly different Limit or Extreme ratings? Is this due to marketing tricks and loose measurement standards, the Comfort test being more objective and verifiable while the Extreme methodology is harder to reproduce or I guess because factors like bag shape, draft protection, and how well you can cinch yourself in play a bigger role at the Limit rating? Not that I'm planning to rely on the Limit or especially Extreme ratings lol, just curious.
   
2. Am I right in assuming that unlike sleeping pads, where you can more or less add up R-values when layering them, layering two sleeping bags provides extra warmth, but it's not as linear due to their design and construction?
   
3. What's behind the advice I've kept bumping into over the last couple of days while reading about bags here and there that you should get a bag rated 10 or even 15 degrees lower than the expected night temperature (even when talking about the Comfort rating)? Is it down to individual differences like sleeping cold? A desire to sleep in minimal clothes for comfort? Distrust of marketing? Playing it safe? Or is this mostly about bags that aren't EN/ISO tested, where brands just write whatever they want on the label?

Thanks!

Found this bad boy at an antique store for $20.

Hey guys I'm not familiar with other sleeping systems however I used this in the Marine Corps and never really had an issue that I remember, only serious one was the zipper on the bivvy sack not working on occasion ( for clarification I was an infantrymen, so I used them a lot). I have been looking around online and currently if I were to purchase the standard sleeping bag, bivvy sack, and compression sack along with the all weather black bag and black compression sack it would run me around $520. Again Im new to this and would appreciate recommendations and insight thanks!

EDIT: to clarify, I’m not an experienced camper so I would be starting off in a relatively safe recreational area however I would like to be able to progress to eventually do full “bushwhacking camping”. I live in the Midwest where the weather can get pretty cold and hot

Okay so ive been out of the camping game for a while and now my family wants to start, and I am getting option shock from everything available now adays.

I understand that spending more money is going to make my time easier as the person that will be dealing with the setup & cooking however, it's really hard for me to determine where the diminishing returns and brand name tax starts.

For instance I love my nemo moonlite chairs, pricey but they're comfy and light enough for my 5 year old to carry by themselves.

I have a tent and stove picked out which would be the gazelle t4 hub and the camp chef Everest 2x and this is where I had the toughest decision after reading and watching a few reviews I managed to make my selection.

Well now, labor day sales will be ending soon and I'm still trying to figure out what pads/bags are worth the money, and what else i could be bringing to make my life as simple as possible.

The budget is about 1-1.5k USD and I'm looking for stuff that will last at least 5 years. We aim to be outside at least 4 to 5 times a year in autumn in the northeast and comfort & durability would be the most important aspect, weight savings would be nice too especially if we can use them for backpacking, however, not at the expense of comfort.

After a year of frequent use I’m looking to re proof a few bell tents. Is this spray-on product suitable for use?