Gear for Grrrls: You’ve come a long way, baby

Butte - my feet rolled a bit in the sandal while climbing - but, to their credit - the soles were very sticky on the gritty sandstone blocks.

I carried the lot in MountainSmiths's women's Chimera backpack. A major gender-designed detail is the contoured waist belt. Since, unlike men, women actually have hips, this belt is designed to cinch the backpacks' weight evenly around a women's center of gravity, instead of pressing heavily down on the two protruding points of the pelvis. The shorter torso length was comfortable and prevented the neck aches I get from craning my head around a high-profile pack. Like the Diva pack, these shoulder straps are modified for narrow shoulders, and somehow manage to not bear down right on the breasts.

Sierra Designs Sahara sleeping bag kept me warmer where a woman needs it - by the feet and around the upper torso. Fecko says women sleep colder than men ("no shit," exclaimed my boyfriend, when he heard that, since I use his legs as a foot warmer). And I liked that the bag was sized for a 5'4 frame, so I didn't have to schlep around the extra weight that a tall guy would need, in a longer bag.

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