Gear Guide: 4 Snow-Season Essentials
Are you ready to tackle the best of the snowy season? Here are our picks of four wintertime essentials to help you take on the snow better:
GSI Highland Flask — $6
This lightweight and collapsible flask makes it easy to bring a tipple into the backcountry. And that’s key, because while a swig may not actually take the chill off a cold evening, its fiery burn always tastes good at the end of a long day. Just pour nine ounces of your chosen poison into the widemouth — good for filling and drinking — and seal it with a twist of the easy to open lid. You can even sling it around your neck, St. Bernard style, with the included lanyard. GSI
Mountain Hardwear Compulsion Glove — $170
Warm, dry and dexterous — what’s not to like about these gloves? Doubling down on warmth, the wool interior is wrapped in a layer of Thermal.Q, a synthetic fill that mimics down. Backing the all-leather exterior is OutDry and Q.Sheild, two proprietary waterproofing membranes that make these the driest gloves we’ve tested. All of that has been carefully shaped into a glove that fits the natural curve of our hand, allowing us to fire up stoves and adjust bindings with the gloves on. Mountain Hard Wear
Ortovox Badger Shovel — $55
Whether building a palatial snow kitchen, cutting blocks for an igloo, excavating vestibule foot-room or saving a life, the voluminous blade, ergonomic handle and burly design of the Badger makes moving snow easy. Grooves on the business-end pierce the hardest snow and a lip on the top end provides traction for boot stomping. Pronounced ridges in the centre and sides of the blade reinforce the stiff, but light, aluminum. Ortovox
Vasque Arrowhead UD — $190
An ideal snowshoe companion or winter hiker, the Arrowhead UD (stands for UltraDry) uses a three-part recipe for all-day warmth. Two-hundred grams of Thinsulate insulation locks in heat. A waterproof membrane with a covered lace area keeps melting snow and water out. Both can make feet sweat, which often leads to cold toes later on, so Vasque added a wicking liner that pulls moisture from sweaty socks, keeping feet dry and thus warmer. Vasque
