This year I put my new pair of Electric Tech One sunglasses through rigorous field-testing. I wore them on a month-long climbing trip to Colorado's Front Range, the Moab area and northern Arizona.

Coffee is as essential to climbers as ropes, sticky rubber and excuses why they don't climb hard. Whether it's trad climbing at Joshua Tree, alpine starts in the Tetons, or iced-coffee afternoons at Tonsai, coffee is essential fuel for climbers. The problem is that camp coffee methods are often sloppy and cumbersome.

I'm a wilderness camping minimalist, bringing just enough food and not bothering with extras or luxury items. I eat freeze-dried meals out of a bag, eliminating cooking, cleaning pots and other annoying dish duties. My no-cook system is not perfect, since I usually eat tasteless freeze-dried meals, but it's difficult to reach food deep inside a bag without spilling it.