GearFlogger

Brunton Eterna 10X25 compact binoculars

Brunton makes gear all along the full spectrum of price points, but we have a soft spot for what we think of as their "bang for the buck" gear; gear where you get a lot for your hard-earned money. Their Eterna series of optics exemplify this value, providing good quality and features for a reasonable price.

The Eterna 10x25 compact binocular is waterproof and armored. It's a weighty unit, just over a pound with the included neoprene lens covers and strap. The strap is wide and comfortable. There are snaps to snap the lens covers to, but that doesn't work out so well in practice because the strap is threaded through the covers so they just hang there when you remove them. It is nice having the thick neoprene there to add a bit of extra shockproofing for us sausage fingered types.

The 10x power is about as much as you want in a smaller unit like this, delivering a 260 foot field of view at 1,000 yards. Eye relief is 17mm, exit pupil 2.5mm. The Bak-4 prism and multi-coated glass provides a sharp picture, and the unit is brighter than you would think from a 25mm objective. Flip up eye cups accomodate eyeglasses, and focus is fast and accurate. If you're looking to spend a little less for a little more, check out the Eterna binos.

$195.14 at Backcountry

Brunton Eterna Monocular

I always thought that a monocular was one of those little round pieces of glass that evil villains wear in one eye. Turns out that's not it: the correct answer is monocle. Monocle. After getting over my initial disappointment that Brunton had not sent me some good villain kit, I discovered that the Eterna 4070W 6x30 monocular is nonetheless a great piece of gear.

The nitrogen-filled Eterna is water- and fog-proof, weighs only 10oz with caps and leash, and is compact at 6in long by 2in diameter. It's not the smallest monocular Brunton makes, but the tradeoff is an armored body with a grippy rubber rand that makes it easy to hold and point with gloves on. It's easier to maneuver and stow than a pair of binos, making it much faster to get into action.

The optics are very nice, fully coated with a sharp 341ft field of view at 1,000 yards. The 30mm objective outperforms its size, offering superb low light performance. A generous 19mm of eye relief means no mashing your eyeball against the lens. Overall the 6x magnification is great for mountaineering use such as scoping out routes, observing other climbers and other useful tasks. If you want a long looker for dedicated trail use, check out the Eterna.

$96.20 at Amazon

Brunton SolarRoll solar panel

While you're waiting for your Wonder Twin powers to activate (keep drinking that tequila!), it doesn't hurt to have a backup power plan. The Brunton SolarRoll is a flexible solar panel that is tough, lightweight, packable and comes in 4.5, 9 and 14 watt (15.4 volts, 900mA) versions.

The SolarRoll 14 puts out enough to charge a laptop, camera, or sat phone, measures 12x57 inches and easily rolls up to 3 inches in diameter. It maintains flexibility even after a long time in storage, and doesn't do too badly in the cold. The 14 weighs in at a pound even with the cigarette lighter adapter, one of three that come with the unit. The other two are a 4-prong DC (2.5mm, 3.5mm, 4x1.7mm and 5.5 x 2.5mm) and a 12V cable with alligator clips. Most people will probably want to charge laptops and smaller electronics, and there's a good chance that the included plugs won't work so be prepared with a car adapter.

In use the SolarRoll works great. Just unroll and drape over the tent, rock or backpack. With a little ingenuity you can pretty much hang it anywhere. Even on cloudy days you can trickle charge most batteries. The SolarRoll has reverse current protection so you can leave things plugged in overnight without worrying about overcharging. It's also waterproof and much tougher than glass panels. The included plastic case is quite useful for storing other small items; it's about 16 inches long and a little bigger in diameter than a quart bottle. If you need portable power, the SolarRoll is a great solution.

$342.68 at Backcountry

Brunton Gannett Grill

Brunton has a great tagline: "Why buy Brunton? No suits or ties were worn by anyone involved in the design, development or production of our products." Brunton makes a lot of reasonably-priced stuff, and a necessary decision in being a price leader is deciding where to put limits on features, quality or both.

The propane-fired Gannett grill is a perfect example. It does what a grill needs to do, which is cook, very well. It feeds gas and gets plenty hot. It has some added advantages in that it's light at 11lb and compact, about the size of a thick briefcase. The legs fold up and over the lid for portability. Some assembly is required, but the included instructions are good.

You'll notice putting it together that the metal is thin, some edges are sharp and the whole unit feels far from burly. The manual Piezo ignition on our unit generated a feeble spark yet never did ignite the gas, but using a long-neck fireplace lighter quickly fired it up, and once hot you're good to go. Bottom line: if you want small and light for a decent price, don't mind manually lighting it and treat it gently, the Gannett will pump out the brats and burgers to fuel your road trip.

$107.95 at Backcountry

Brunton Optimus Nova stove

A tale of two stoves: This little stove went to Denali. This little stove should have stayed home. This little stove wouldn't light at 17,000 feet. This little stove was returned.

In this case there were two of these little pigs. My climbing partner and I each bought a Nova multi-fuel stove. Long story short, they both began to fail intermittently starting at 11,000 feet and both failed completely at high camp. We tried everything we could think of to get them to go, until some Brits took pity on us and loaned us their MSR Whisperlite to melt snow for water. Kudos to the MSR, which got to a rolling boil in no time.

To shut off the flow of fuel you flip the fuel bottle over, and I suspect this mechanism was the cause of the malfunction. Nova means "it doesn't go" in Spanish, and that accurately describes this stove's high-altitude performance.

$129 at Backcountry.com