GearFlogger

Grayl Geopress Water Purifier

The old rule of threes is still (roughly) accurate: three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food. But! Some people are particularly freakish/motivated/genetically gifted, as in 22 minutes without air, 18 days without water and 74 days without food (thank you sciencealert.com). Human beings are generally pretty good at avoiding airless situations, and lots of people keep extra food on hand, but for some reason a lot of other people seem to overlook the whole access to water thing.

Stockpiling water is one answer: keep a WaterBOB around for big disasters where you can shelter in place, a Lifesaver jerrycan for when you can GTFO, and things like Datrex pouches, Lifestraws and purifier tablets for everything else. And don't forget the difference between water filters and water purifiers: filters catch the bigger microbes, i.e. protozoa and bacteria. Filters catch those and also viruses, which are much smaller and harder to filter.

If you're looking for a true portable purifier solution that works for everything from foreign travel to backpacking to prepping, the new kid on the block is Grayl with their Geopress. It consists of an outer sleeve that you dip into your water source, then just insert the inner part, press down and you have 24 ounces of purified water at hand. It's easiest when you place it on the ground and use your bodyweight to do the work, but work it does and very elegantly. Remember to turn the cap 1/2 turn to vent before you press.

The $30 filter is easily replaceable after a rated 350 cycles, which should be good for 250L of purified water. Because the outer sleeve separates from the filter insert, it's easy to avoid cross-contamination. Just don't freeze the filter (OK, they say you can do it once), put extremely hot water in it, use soap on the filter cartridge or put any of it into the dishwasher. Aside from those simple caveats the Geopress is plenty tough enough and should last you through many an epic adventure.

$89.95 at Amazon

Arc'Teryx Covert LT Pullover

If you're going to buy a pullover, in our opinion it should pull triple-duty: on the trail, about town and even in the casual office - does anyone go to a non-casual office anymore? If that's you, so sorry!

Arc'Teryx understands the trail-to-town philosophy and expresses it perfectly in the Covert LT pullover. It's a classy fleece top that layers under a shell for just the right amount of shoulder season insulation. The subtle ribbed knit lets it pass muster at the water cooler, if you must, and otherwise it just wears everywhere all the time. It took us a bit longer than normal to get to writing this review because the Covert LT was on our body day in and day out that past month.

If we have one ding on the Covert LT it's the price, but if you can find it on sale it's a bomber piece that does a lot and looks good doing it.

$99.00 at Arc'Teryx

Therm-a-Rest UberLite Sleeping Pad

Therm-a-Rest pretty much dominates the sleeping pad category, and for good reason. It's not that there aren't a number of other good pads out there, it's just that the NeoAir series of air pads is so freaking good there's not a lot of motivation to look elsewhere. The new NeoAir UberLite does nothing to change that situation, to Therm-a-Rest's credit.

The UberLite is billed as the lightest air pad out there. We didn't do an exhaustive comparison, but we have used and own a lot of air pads from a lot of different companies, including most of the NeoAir line, and at 8.8 ounces for a 20x72 inch size regular the UberLite sets a new standard. For all the 2.5 inch thick regular size pads in the NeoAir line, here is the comparison chart we know you all so desperately desire:

• UberLite: 8.8oz, R2.3, packed size 6x3.6in, 15D nylon
• XLite: 12oz, R4.2, packed size 9x4.1in, 30D rip HT nylon
• Women's XLite (66in length): 12oz, R5.3, packed size 9x4.1in, 30D rip HT nylon
• XTherm: 15oz, R6.9, packed size 9x4in, 70D nylon

You can see the UberLite uses a lighter nylon which shaves off a few ounces and packs up significantly smaller than the XLite, at the cost of a bit of R value. This will make the XLite the new favorite for through-hikers and gram-counters everywhere, no doubt, but how does it sleep? Like the other NeoAir pads, it sleeps just fine. The UberLite is, if anything, a bit quieter (less crinkle noise) than the XLite. The lighter fabric means you'll want to be extra careful with your new investment, but it's pretty durable all the same.

Like all the NeoAir pads the UberLite comes with an effective repair kit, stuff sack and the excellent pump sack, which has an open end to scoop air and a rubber tube that goes around the valve: just scoop and press to save your breath, with the added benefit that you won't introduce moisture into the pad, which can degrade the insulation value and cause general skankiness.

The WingLock valve is a two-stage setup, where the main collar opens and closes the valve while the "winged" valve activates and deactivates the one-way function. No more pressing your tongue against the valve to prevent air from escaping while taking another breath. The valves are oversize which makes them easy to manipulate with gloves on or for those who might not have full use of their hands, a nice touch. Unfortunately it also makes the valve somewhat incompatible with our old Camp-Tek Microburst inflator. Maybe the NeoAir inflator (same exact product last time we checked) works? You tell us.

The UberLite rocks, and with its smaller packed size it's our new go-to air pad. For colder climates - hey, we're based in Alaska after all - we usually double up with a Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite SOL anyway for extra insulation as well as redundancy. Check it out for yourself with a test lie-down at REI, the UberLite is hard to beat.

$146.19 at REI

Suunto 3 Sports Watch

Hold the phones, stop the presses and insert your own archaic exclamatory reference here, ladies and gentlemen! The biggest complaints about sports watches are price, size, price, weight, price and features in that order. OK, we totally made up that "data" but it's right-ish. The Suunto 3 sports watch knocks all those reasons right down in a stylish, compact package that's as easy to use as it is easy on the eyes, and with heart rate monitoring to boot!

The first thing you notice about the Suunto 3 is that it's a good looking sports watch, with clean modern lines and a little smaller and sleeker than your average sports watch. It comes with an attractive and very comfortable silicone strap available in a nice palette of colors that match the body color you choose. When you pick it up you'll be surprised at how light it feels, and by how clear and clean the default display face is. So first impressions: very good, and you know it because you immediately want to start using it, and so do all your family members who saw you unbox it.

To charge it up use the included USB to proprietary four-prong connector (same as the higher-end Suunto Ambit) and make sure the firmware is up to date, which you can do through your phone app or computer. All navigation is done using the three buttons on the right and two on the left - no touch screen here, but frankly we didn't find that to be a big minus. One of the very few things we did count as a minus is that you can't adjust the brightness of the backlight, and it is on the dim side to our eyes. Once you get used to it it works well enough, but if you really desire a bright backlight this will not work well for you. We understand it was a battery life decision, but c'mon Suunto, give us back the power!

In terms of features, all normal sports watch functionality is there and works well. Some of the things tracked, like steps (the whole 10,000 steps thing is basically BS anyway) and sleep (relies on movement, which is very rough data compared to the only really reliable indicator of tracking brain waves) - but we'll just discuss what we found most interesting: heart rate monitoring, GPS functionality and activity tracking. So HRM first: the wrist HRM is conveniently accessed with a single click. We tested it against our pulse oximeter and it was within 2-3 beats per minute, which is plenty accurate enough for training purposes. It's definitely more convenient than a chest strap, which is more accurate but a pain to carry around and wear, so wrist HRM FTW.

On to GPS, the magic satellites in the sky. The Suunto 3 actually uses your phone's GPS, and it is enabled with activity tracking and by opening the Suunto app on your phone. You can quickly select an activity like hiking and head down the trail. It does uses a bit more battery life, but it's not a huge hit and we were pleasantly surprised by how economical it was to record a track for a few hours. If you're doing a through-hike over a week or so you'll want a solar charger anyway, but for half-day hikes or a bit longer it's not a problem if you start out with a full charge. The track displays on the app with data on calories, HR etc. in a very easy to browse format. You can use your finger to drag over your track and see the data at different points, and you can name your track as well, e.g. biking to work or whatever. Overall we found this to be very handy and easy to use. Even when we went indoors and lost the GPS signal, it picked right back up when we went back outside.

Finally, activity tracking. With or without the GPS the app gives you a lot of truly useful data, including speed, altitude, heart rate and perhaps most importantly heart rate zones. Training by HR zones is the way top athletes do it. It takes the rough and mostly useless time-based advice you see all the time (walk for 30 minutes a day!) and translates it into useful quality based data: e.g. you can do intervals in a specific zone to achieve specific training goals. Start by finding your resting and max heart rate and go from there.

So, the bottom line: the Suunto 3 is the most affordable way to get into data-driven activity tracking using actionable data about your heart rate combined with speed, distance and other variables. It's also a fashionable and easy-to-wear device with good battery life and relatively simple button-based navigation. For many of us, we'll likely never need more than what the Suunto 3 can give us, so it's a great investment no matter how you measure it. If Suunto gives us control over the backlight, it will be simply perfect.

$179.00 at Amazon