Spring Hiking Favorites

Winter in northern Utah came and went with a whimper, and spring snuck in on its coattails. Late snow showers at altitude combined with valley rain have kept a pristinely thin, white blanket on the local peaks and kept the crowds at bay. On an early season hike into the picturesque cirque beneath Deseret Peak in the Stansbury Range, the Wasatch's neighbor two ranges west, I saw nary a soul. Solitude and snow provided a great opportunity to put some new hiking gear through its final paces. In this review, we've got two all-mountain masters and an all-around wizard of a hiking shoe.

The theme of this review is comfort... Read on...

Camelbak Pursuit 24L & Spire 22L

Available May 2014, the Pursuit (men) and Spire (women) are CamelBak's entry into the world of comfortable alpine hydration. Both feature a 100oz. reservoir that stores in the lower part of the pack, against the lumbar rather than along the upper spine. You can access the reservoir by unzipping a pad in the back panel. The effect is miraculous. Even with the Pursuit loaded with a day's worth of snacks and layers and with snowshoes strapped to the outside, it carries like a much lighter bag.

Pursuit 24L (Men)

Spire 22L (Women)

Both the Pursuit and Spire have the kinds features you'd expect from one of the oldest hydration pack makers. Two zippered outside pockets hold everything you need for an extended day hike, and internal pockets keep small items organized. The outside of the pack has an expandable, buckled overflow pocket, two stretchy water bottle pockets on either side and tool attachments easily hold trekking poles or ice axes. A pocket on one of the hip pads makes a handy spot to stash some calories, lip balm or whatever else you might need to have at hand.

My impression of this pack after having used it on several hikes in both the desert and the mountains is overwhelmingly positive. The comfort afforded by the lumbar-positioned water reservoir is unlike anything else in the category. The suspension is airy, and in cooler weather, you could stuff a light jacket or baselayer between it and the mesh back panel. Zippered and stretchy pockets make organization easy, and tool attachments are intuitive–if you've used tool attachments. For the record, the straps on this bag aren't designed specifically for carrying snowshoes, but with some coaxing, they worked OK for me. The pack's main compartment runs the length of the pack, so smaller stuff should be kept in the smaller zippered pocket (or one of the internal pockets) unless you want to dig. A few picky hikers will will complain that the hydration hose is only deployable from the right side.

Overall, I love this bag and expect to get a lot of mileage out of it. I expect CamelBak to expand its alpine line of packs in the future because of the success they will have with these two models.

(MSRP: $150, camelbak.com)

Leki Micro Tour Stick Vario

Leki's Micro Tour Stick Vario appear a pricey proposition. But consider: they do everything. This single set of collapsable carbon fiber/aluminum poles will take you from the ski slopes to the desert to the mountaintop. The secret: interchangeable pole baskets. And their comfy grips and light weight will beg you to take them out again and again.

The poles are essentially a five-piece design. The top three sections nest within one another, while the bottom two detach for folding and storage. A Kevlar-reinforced cord that keeps everything together. Deployment and adjustment are a cinch, and you can easily do both while walking. To assemble, you just pull the middle section out of the one it nests in until you hear a click. That's the sound of a small metal button locking the poles. To collapse the poles, just press the button and shove the middle segment back in.

If you are a pole user, you know how valuable it is to be able to adjust pole length to account for terrain–shorter for uphill, longer for down. The roughly 45" to 53" deployable range is handy I have found the carbide steel tip to work great on every surface on which I've used these, which includes most kinds of stone we have here in Utah, loamy forest soil, packed dirt, sand and snow (with ski baskets). The tips are barely worn, so I expect them to last for quite a while before needing to replace them.

These poles come with a storage bag and a set of ski baskets. I have not tried the other available baskets, but you can order them online or wherever else you buy Leki pole parts. I'm extremely pleased with this set of poles, the first I've used from Leki. They seem to be of super high quality, and they're versatile for just about any use. Brand new, the length adjustment is a little stiff, but I expect that will loosen to a reasonable degree. 

(MSRP: $199, leki.com)

Ecco Men's BIOM Ultra Plus

Ecco has always been known for its high-quality dress footwear, but they are nothing to scoff at in the land of sport. Out of the box, the BIOM Ultra Plus by Ecco is the most comfortable shoe I have ever worn. That is not hyperbole.

The BIOM Ultra Plus is the yak leather cousin of Ecco's BIOM Ultra Quest, which is billed as a trail runner–more on that later. Let's talk materials. That's right, I said yak leather: exotic, exquisitely comfortable, and practically bomb-proof. I tend to wear shoes until the midsole peeps through the bottom, so I love it when uppers outlast soles, which appears will be the case with this shoe. And it's one of the reasons the $180 price tag is palatable. Buying gear that lasts means buying less gear over time.

But the big story here is comfort. BIOM is what Ecco calls the last upon which many of its shoes are built. It's derived from 2500 foot scans, so that BIOM shoes end up being shaped more like feet and less like–well–shoes. For me, the Ultra Plus required virtually no break-in time. No stiffness, no hotspots, no weird rubbing. Just a comfy oh-there-you-are-shoe feeling on the first lace-up.

Yes, the Ultra Plus looks and wears like a "luxury" hiking shoe, if such a thing exists. But don't worry: it's more Jeep than Escalade. It's plush, but it's an off-road performer. The tread pattern works equally well going uphill and down and on all kinds of terrain. Some shoes get sloppy in the toe box on steep downhills, but this one does not. Up and down angled slickrock in Snow Canyon State Park, this shoe stayed snug and grippy. As a side note, the Ultra Plus is great in sand, the bane of most trail runners because it seeps through mesh like water. The leather uppers of these shoes kept my feet dust-free through several miles of mushy sand stepping.

Now back to the bit about these being related to the non-leather, trail runner Ultra Quest. I suppose the Ultra Plus could be used for trail running, but mostly in colder weather or dusty environments. My opinion is that these are best seen as a do-anything, long-mileage hiker. I would backpack in these in a heartbeat. Probably will this summer, actually.

[A note on sizing: You may need to go down as much as a full size in Ecco shoes. For example, I wear a men's 11 (45 Euro) in almost every shoe, but in Ecco I wear a 10 (44 Euro).]

(MSRP: 180, eccousa.com)