I recently got the XA water filter from Salomon. The filter cap is sold separately, or bundled with a 490ml soft flask which fits perfectly in my Salomon pack. But how does it compare to the competition, namely the Katadyn BeFree that I’ve been using for the past couple of years?

In this post, I’ll compare the similarities and differences between the two filters, including the functionality, flow rate, and compatibility with other flasks.

The Tahoe Rim Trail forms a complete loop 165 miles around the Lake Tahoe Basin on the border of California and Nevada.

The main hiking season is from July through September, though lingering snow patches can often be found into August of high snow years.

A thru-hike of the trail typically takes 10-15 days. My friend Adam and I had planned on fast packing the trail over a 5 day period in late June of 2019. The only problem is that this happened to be a particular high snow year, with snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range at over 200% of average, and 33 times the levels of the previous year.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, we kept a close eye on the conditions, obsessively checking the snow reports from various snowtel sites along the trail. We debated a few alternatives objectives around California and Colorado, but the snow levels were equally high throughout the Sierra Nevada and San Juan mountain ranges. So we re-committed to our original plan.

While we expected the snowpack to significantly slow us down, we were optimistic that we could complete the trail. But we never could have anticipated just how much of a challenge that would prove to be.

The Sunshine Coast Trail is Canada’s longest hut-to-hut hiking trail, just 5 hours North of Vancouver, BC. It’s a unique and beautiful backcountry experience that stretches 180km from Sarah Point to Saltery Bay, along coastal shorelines, through old growth forests, and up to panoramic mountaintops.

Early June of 2019, my friend Adam and I planned on fast packing a large portion of the trail, starting from Powell River and running 115 km back to Saltery Bay. Our primary goal was to train and test out our ultralight gear for our upcoming 5-day fastpack of the Tahoe Rim Trail a few weeks later.

Puerto Vallarta is a beach resort city on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It’s a popular destination for those seeking sun, water sports, and nightlife. But it’s not exactly known for its trail running.

I had been to Puerto Vallarta many times over the years to visit my sister who lives in the area, but it wasn’t until a visit in 2018 that I discovered this little gem that has since become my favourite local trail.

Starting in Courmayeur, the 330 km Tor Des Geants follows two popular trekking routes in the Italian Alps. The course heads counter-clockwise on the Alta Via 2 along the south side of the Aosta valley for the first half of the race, returning along the Alta Via 1 back to Courmayeur.

There are 43 aid stations along the way, along with 6 major life bases, where runners can eat, sleep and obtain medical care if needed, with a cut off time of 150 hours.