Best Of The Best… ‘Top Gear’ Of The Year

It’s the end of 2014, and as is our annual traditional it is a time to look back at the best gear we tested this year. Of the hundreds of products GearJunkie staff and team athletes put through the paces these items stood out as some of the best.

Congrats to all the winners. From a new kind of suspension fork to a rechargeable camp lantern, to “floating” tents, this gear represents the state of the art in outdoors equipment and product design today.

—Editors and contributors Stephen Regenold, Sean McCoy, Tom Puzak, Jason Magness, Chelsey Magness, Steve Graepel, Jeff Kish, Patrick Murphy, Mike Santi, and Amy Oberbroeckling contributed to this article

Click to View “Top Gear Picks” Products:

• Floating Tent (Tentsile Vista)

• New Take On Suspension (Lauf Fork)

• Active Insulated Jacket (Patagonia Nano-Air)

• Camp Lantern Charging Station (Goal Zero Lighthouse 250)

• Backcountry Bed (Sierra Designs)

• Hyper-Fan Avy Pack (Black Diamond Halo JetForce)

• Gravity Filter Upgrade (Katadyn Base Camp 10L)

• ‘Performance Downs’ (Columbia and PrimaLoft)

• 360-Degree Action Camera (VSN Mobil)

• Trail Butter (Squeezable Energy Food)

• Top Choice Survival Knife (Vulture Equipment Cholera)

• Auto-Adjust Ski Boot (Scarpa F1 Evo)

• ‘The Best Bike Lube’ (Finish Line Ceramic Wax)

• Beer From Gel Packs (Pat’s Backcountry Beer)

• Gourmet Dehydrated Camp Food (Good-To-Go)

• ‘Built In USA’ Hiking Boot (KEEN Durand Mid WP)

continue reading

Next page