“At the end of our Gear Test this year, I asked newbie and Teton Valley, Idaho, resident Kailey McKenna what she thought of the week. ‘It was like a river trip, but we didn’t go anywhere,’ she said. After eight Gear Test Weeks, I’d never thought of comparing our organized chaos and the slowing of time with a flotilla, let alone a stationary one focused on catching up with friends. It gave me a new appreciation for my adult winter camp.” —Betsy Manero (from the 2024 Gear Guide Editor’s Note)
While this winter camp boasts the usual array of wild stories and fond memories, that’s just the bonus—or the core… I guess it depends how you look at it. Either way, by the end of the week, we tested 311 pieces of gear.
And so ended the “play hard” portion of the job. Next came the hard work. Writing, editing, rewriting and laying out the reviews (60 ski, 31 splitboard, 26 touring boot, 10 touring binding and 44 apparel reviews), plus curating all the imagery and determining what sets this slew of equipment apart from the rest.
The end product is 148 pages of expert-reviewed backcountry ski and snowboard gear, the 2024 Gear Guide. Here’s a sneak peek:
Get The 2025 Gear Guide
When the time came to tally the number of skis, boots, boards, bindings and apparel reviews in this year’s Gear Guide, you can bet we reached for the calculator. It’s best not to leave even simple addition to chance after weeks of proofing 140 pages. It’s also fair to say that as writers and designers, math isn’t exactly our strong suit.
The official calculator-assisted sum is 197. And that’s the distillation of 1,445 forms from 60 experienced testers; interviews with multiple brand experts; hours sifting through workbooks; and a summer’s worth of writing, editing and rewriting. The product is the 2025 Gear Guide.
Subscribe now to make sure a copy is coming your way 📬.
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