I grew up in Bend, Oregon, which means I had my first pair of hiking boots before I had my first bicycle. My father was a search and rescue volunteer for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, and my earliest memories of the outdoors are not of scenic views — they are of gear checks. Headlamps tested before every trip. Water filters inspected after every use. Bear spray on the hip belt, not stuffed in the bottom of the pack. That obsession with having the right gear for the right conditions has followed me onto every trail I have hiked since.

I have spent the last fifteen years testing outdoor gear in some of the most demanding conditions the Pacific Northwest and beyond have to offer — from the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula where gear either handles moisture or fails completely, to the exposed granite ridges of the North Cascades where wind and cold sort good equipment from expensive disappointment. I have also taken that obsession to trails far outside my home region — the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Wind River Range in Wyoming, the Dolomites in northern Italy, Patagonia, and most recently four days above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway where the gear either worked or the consequences were immediate.

Why I Started Summit Gear Guide

In 2019 I took a group of four friends on their first multi-day backpacking trip in the Three Sisters Wilderness south of Bend. Three of them had bought their gear based on Amazon reviews and YouTube unboxing videos. One of them showed up with a sleeping bag rated to 45 degrees for a trip where nighttime temperatures dropped to 28. Another had a pack so poorly fitted that she had a bruise on her hip the size of a dinner plate by day two. The fourth had a water filter that he had never tested and did not know how to backflush.

Nobody got seriously hurt. But it was a miserable trip for three out of four people who had spent real money on gear that failed them — not because the gear was bad, but because nobody had told them what actually mattered for the specific conditions they were walking into.

That trip is why Summit Gear Guide exists. Not to be another gear aggregator that copies manufacturer spec sheets and calls it a review. But to be the resource I wish those four friends had found before they drove to REI and bought whatever was on the end cap.

How I Test Gear

Every piece of gear I recommend on this site has been used on actual trips in real conditions. I do not review gear based on an afternoon walk around the neighborhood. My standard is simple: has this piece of equipment been on a trip where it could fail, and did it fail? If I cannot answer that question from direct experience I say so and I tell you what I do know instead.

My testing approach:

• Hiking boots get a minimum of 50 miles before I write about them — enough to identify fit issues, hot spots, and sole wear patterns that do not show up on a short walk
• Tents get tested in rain before I recommend them — a tent that has never been rained on is a tent I cannot vouch for
• Sleeping bags get tested at their rated temperature or below — I have spent uncomfortable nights in gear that did not live up to its rating so you do not have to
• Water filters get used on natural water sources, not tap water — the performance difference is significant and matters for real-world recommendations
• Backpacks get loaded to realistic trip weights — a pack that feels comfortable empty tells you nothing about how it carries 35 pounds for 8 hours

Trails and Ranges I Have Tested Gear On

What Summit Gear Guide Covers

This site focuses on three things:

• Gear reviews and comparisons — honest assessments of specific products based on real use, with clear recommendations for who should buy them and who should not
• Destination guides — trail-specific gear advice for specific parks and wilderness areas, because the gear you need for the Olympic Peninsula rainforest is not the same gear you need for the high desert of southern Utah
• Buying guides — answers to the questions people actually have when they are standing in a gear store or scrolling Amazon at midnight trying to figure out what they actually need

Everything on this site is written by me. There are no contributed posts, no paid placements, no gear that I recommend because a company asked me to. If I have a relationship with a brand I disclose it. If a piece of gear disappointed me I say so by name.

Get in Touch

If you have a question about gear, a trip you are planning, or a product you want me to look at, use the contact form. I read every message. I cannot promise a same-day response but I do respond to every genuine question, usually within a few days.

If you are a brand and you want to send me gear to test, read the disclosure policy first. I test what I think is worth testing. I do not guarantee a positive review and I do not accept payment for coverage.

— Cole