Backpacker The Complete Guide to Backpacking: Field-Tested Gear, Advice, and Know-How for the Trail

by Backpacker Magazine, John Burbidge

Backpacker Magazine’sThe Complete Guide to Backpacking combines and distills the most useful and relevant skills necessary for backpacking in one easy to use guide, from the most respected authority on backpacking— Backpacker magazine. From detailed descriptions of what to pack and how to pack it, to navigation and campsite cooking, to managing outdoor hazards and more, The Complete Guide to Backpacking is the definitive resource for Backpacking-related know-how.

Genres: Nonfiction, Outdoors

352 pages, Paperback

Published October 30, 2016

Reviews

[Sjors · Rating 4 out of 5]

The “Complete Guide to Backpacking” provides a pretty thorough introduction to this outdoor sport. Its ten chapters cover the topics of: equipment & clothing; trip planning; hiking & navigating; setting camp & cooking; hazards & weather; and first aid & survival.

I found this a pretty valuable and rounded reference to the sport, if a bit uneven.

For example, the important topic of first aid & survival gets 61 pages, while camp cooking on its own gets 70 pages - most of these recipes. While dire emergencies are as rare as, say, hikers baking bread on the trail, I would have liked to read a bit more on blister and hot spot treatment than the one page devoted to it. Also, there is no practical advice on how to deal with common annoyances such as chafe or prickly heat for example, which, in my opinion, would be much more valuable than the recipe for Mediterranean Stuffed Trout offered on page 189 or Mushroom-Asiago Veggie Burgers on page 193. I was going to make a wry comment about how the camp cooking chapter was showing mostly female hikers engaged in cooking while the first aid / survival chapters showed mostly guys in trouble - but on a re-check that simply wasn’t true :-).

I did appreciate the bit on weather and weather prediction, which is presented in a more practical format than I have seen in other texts. There is also quite a bit (perhaps a bit too much) of info on travel in “Bear Country” and I liked that the (very) cautious best practices presented initially are counter balanced with a more common-sense approach to the bear hazard in a later chapter.

In any case, I think that reading this book will give you more than enough understanding to be embarking on your first hike. Special topics such as navigation, dealing with difficult terrain, and first aid & survival are covered at length in dedicated books of their own which can be picked up as experience grows. As for advice about up-to-the-minute equipment & clothing, there is no shortage of review (and opinion) on this on the internet, and this book gives you a baseline to head into those discussions (if you wanted to). Now go outside!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good intro material, has some confusing typos, not very in-depth.

[Pete Gachot · Rating 3 out of 5]

To quote an earlier reviewer, good intro material with some confusing typos. I will add: beautifully illustrated and generally enjoyable to read.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good information all in one place which helped to prepare me for my first backpacking trip! I'll be keeping this one around.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too bear focused! Bears and bear safety are addressed in more than one chapter and seemed to occupy space vastly disproportionate to their importance.

There is some useful beginning backpacker information, but I don't think many people with even a little hiking or backpacking experience would find it helpful. I was disappointed.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for the beginning backpacker.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reference books can be so difficult to rate, especially if you're reading it as a borrowed item from the library instead of something you've bought and placed on a coffee table or, in the case of this book, your backpack. Other readers may be the type to read a book like this, and know everything necessary after a single reading for traversing the Rockies and Death Valley. My idea of hiking is a few hours and, maybe, an overnight stay. My advice would be to read the book, but then get a guide or a seasoned friend for the long trips...or at least get some physicalized training. 5 stars for the detailed information, 2 stars at most for how much I'll be able to make use of it.