Utah backpacking and camping gear

ULA has cut and sewn packs in Logan since Brian Frankle started it there in 2001, and the business only left his garage after Sally and Chris McMaster bought it in 2009. Pa'lante sewed its first 100 or so packs in a Utah basement in 2016. Most are made in Vietnam now, and the company says plainly that one should last a thru hike, not a lifetime. Outdoor Vitals started in Cedar City in 2014 on $500 of its founder's own money.

The first Springbar tent, in 1962, weighed 60 pounds and cost $83. The Traveler has been in production since the mid 1960s and costs $1,499 now, still cut and sewn in Salt Lake City. Kodiak Canvas in Layton sells its own 10 by 10 canvas tent for less than half that, made in China. Going the other way, the Outdoor Vitals Cirq uses your trekking poles as its frame. In 2009 Klymit was showing reporters a vest filled with argon. Air is what stuck.

Goal Zero began with solar kits tested in the Congo in 2008 and became a business in 2009. The Nomad 20 is the backpack size of that idea, and it stores nothing, so bring something that does. Black Diamond's Spot 400 runs on its rechargeable battery or on three AAAs, which means a dead headlamp is a problem a gas station can fix.

Ty Measom started Camp Chef in Logan in 1990. The lid on its 12 inch Dutch oven has a flange to hold coals on top. The Explorer is a single 30,000 BTU burner standing 31 inches tall, so nobody cooks on their knees. Grand Trunk started in 2001 selling a travel hammock from Illinois and is run from Bountiful now. My Medic says it builds its kits at its North Salt Lake headquarters, and its kit is the pick on this list you hope goes unused.