Top Tips From NOLS Pros
Featured in the March issue of Backpacker magazine, “33 Top Tips From Trail Pros” highlights five NOLS instructors and NOLS founder Paul Petzoldt who share their personal pointers about what they would never leave without before hitting the trail.
Adventure sports photographer and former NOLS instructor Jimmy Chin says he would never go without his Leatherman Wave, which helps him do everything from opening wine bottles to carving “sea urchin spines out of [his] heel.”
WMI grad and adventure photographer Tyler Stableford says that his backcountry tool of choice is a Lens Pen to clean his camera lens because “like most hikers, [he] doesn’t have a single stitch of cotton,” without which makes it hard to clean a camera lens.
Buck Tilton, co-founder of the Wilderness Medicine Institute and instructor, says a key component of his personal first-aid kid is a Kotex pad to press against bleeding wounds. “It’s a lot cheaper than real medicine supplies.”
Mark Harvey, former NOLS instructor and author of the NOLS Wilderness Guide, says that camp shoes capable of climbing boulders, a 5-mile day hike, and fetching water should be on your packing list.
And while cooking may not seem like a risky outdoor endeavor, Annie Aggens, former NOLS instructor, recommends cotton, wool, or silk gloves when lighting a campfire and handling hot cooking pots because “synthetic gloves can melt and leave nasty burns on your hands.”
And finally, Paul Petzoldt, the NOLS godfather, in the original Wilderness Handbook states, “For shear warmth and protection, nothing surpasses an old-fashioned wool stocking cap that can be pulled down over the ears.”
For more tips from the pros pick up an issue of Backpacker or visit the NOLS website to get your copy of the NOLS Wilderness Guide.
Paul Petzoldt ‘s Wilderness Handbook
Topics:
