Decent gear is one of the important things on the trail. I’m not a materialistic guy. Over the years I have evolved from buying cheap gear many times to buying sturdy, qualitative gear once and taking good care of it – much of the gear I’m using, I have been using for several years already. So these are my all-time favorite gear.

Icebreaker shirts and jackets

Icebreaker is currently my favorite clothing brand. My Icebreaker Softshell Ice Jacket is one of my favorite jackets ever, for both hiking and casual jackets when I’m at home. Their wool underwear is brilliant for multiday hikes. And I’m just in love with their purpose and oneliners like “Plastic against your skin? Really? We believe there is a better way and nature has the answer”.

Sea-to-summit e-vent compression bags

Sea-to-summit e-vent compression bags (my review). I dedicated a whole separate post on these works of genius. Compression bags do not only keep your clothing, sleeping bag and tent dry but also compress its size to a minimum. Two hyper-super essential qualities for multi-day hikes in one.

Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork trekking poles

For many years, I thought trekking poles were for older men and women doing Nordic Walking (how was I wrong). But during my solo hike of the Kumano Kodo in 2016, when a host of a local ryokan handed me a bamboo hiking pole and assured me it would make hiking easier (and I indeed experienced that),  I truly started to appreciate hiking with trekking poles. After hiking the Amalfi coast (when my kid brother Sem first laughed at me but later made a make-shift trekking pole out of a branch) with its many climbs, I was sold. Since then, I have been testing different poles and pole-setups (I only took one pole when hiking the Laugavegur trail), before settling on the Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork for my Jordan Trail hike from Dana to Petra.

Sleeping pad Thermarest Xtherm. 

Sleeping pad Thermarest Xtherm. After a long hike, I usually feel I could sleep anywhere, but that is the moment I appreciate a good sleeping pad even more. The Xtherm is not only super comfortable but also really light, sturdy and has great isolation – something, I only realized after most of the people on the Laugavegur trail were complaining about the cold during the nights, something I had not experienced (because of the great isolating qualities of the Thermarest Xtherm).

Other gear

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