The Essential Outdoor Gear Manual: Equipment Care, Repair, and Selection

Rating:
Summary: Truly essential
Review: This is a comprehensive and thorough guide to caring for, and to a lesser extent, buying, backpacking and paddling gear. There are also short sections on climbing and ski-touring gear. The authors have a distinct bias towards repairing rather than replacing gear, which leads them to give less info about what to buy than "Rock and Ice Gear" by Clyde Soles.

The book is full of clear and useful drawings and photos. The lists of essential tool kits for different trips are invaluable.

The pun-filled prose and the Getchells' earthy-crunchy, smarmy preaching quickly grow tiresome if you spend a good deal of time with the book, however.