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Discover our top 10 best hiking accessories:
1 The backpack: the ally for your comfort while hiking
The essential accessory is the backpack, it is the element after the hiking shoes which is very important even primordial. Its choice will depend on your practice, small bedding and lightness for a day hike, big bedding to carry all the equipment for camping (tents, mattress, sleeping bag, stoves, ...) with reinforcements at the back, belt and straps for a hike over several days. There is a wide variety of hiking backpacks to suit all your needs, from day hikes to from day hikes to treks with camping and bivouac equipment.
2 Water bottles: the essential hydration during your mountain excursions
Having water during your hike is essential! So logically the water bottle is part of the top 3 in order of importance of your hiking equipment. There are different types of waterbottles to suit all your desires and your practice, in glass, stainless steel, plastic, softflask or with a filter to be able to fill it in a stream without worrying about what might be inside. You will also find different styles and colors depending on the brand to please all styles. You are bound to find what you are looking for among the many brands present on Alpinstore: Camelbak, Klean Kanteen, Picture, Sigg, Water to Go, Lifestraw... and many more.
3 The first aid kit: prevention for better healing in case of need while hiking
To prevent small or major injuries, we advise you to go hiking with a first aid kit or also called "survival kit", inside you will find everything you need in case of problem: bandages, sterile compress, survival blanket, guides for distress signals, whistle among others... There are ready-made kits at Care Plus, Ortovox, Arva, but you can completely make it up yourself where you can add for example a Swiss Army knife, a compass, a tick clip, special blister bandages from Compeed or an anti-insect gel.
4 Sunglasses: essential to protect your eyes
Sunglasses are a must-have part of your hiking gear. Protecting yourself against the sun's UV rays provides you with considerable ocular comfort. We advise you to opt for category 3 hiking sunglasses at the very least, and category 4 sunglasses should be preferred for high mountain areas, especially glaciers. There are different options to improve your vision and enjoy the scenery even more, sunglasses with photochromic lenses lighten or darken depending on the light and thus adapt to the changing weather in the mountains. Polarized lenses minimize reflections to avoid glare.
5 Hiking cap or hat: a protective barrier against sunburn
As for sunglasses, the protection of your head is also very important in the mountains, the sun and its UV rays are stronger, so if you want to avoid sunstroke and sunburn never very pleasant, we can only advise you to put a cap or a hat in your backpack to take it out as soon as the sun rises! There is a wide variety of styles of caps and hats with different materials, more or less breathable, more or less light, more or less versatile. It's up to you to choose from our selection of hats and caps to find the one that suits you best. The favorite of the team is the P-6 Logo cap from Patagonia. .jpg)
6 Hiking poles help you in your mountain climbs
If you're looking for more stability and performance on your hikes, you need hiking poles ! There are lightweight, compact carbon models for you to take anywhere and sturdier aluminum poles. Using a trekking pole will relieve the pressure on your joints from the weight of your body and your equipment during your outings. The longer your outing, the more essential the use of hiking poles will be for your joints (knees, hips, ankles, ...) to limit the risk of injury.
7 The headlamp or torch: to face the unexpected and to light up the beginning or the end of the day
A headlamp or torch really has its place in your hiking backpack, to leave in the early hours of the day for some or to finish the hike at night, to set up your bivouac site, to discover a cave on your way. In short, you will have understood that the headlamp is an essential accessory in the outdoor environment. You will find them with a very good quality-price ratio at emblematic brands like Petzl, Black Diamond or Ledlenser. Again, you can choose them according to your use, there are more or less light, with hybrid and/or rechargeable batteries, more or less waterproof, with more or less light intensity.
8 Freeze-dried food: a good space saving / taste ratio
In order to eat hot while avoiding cluttering up their backpacks, many hikers opt for freeze-dried food. Freeze-drying allows you to reduce the space taken up by your food by extracting the water so that it is contained in a bag. This allows you to feed yourself by varying the pleasures while minimizing the space taken in your backpack. You will find something for every taste, sweet or savory, to please you with a good hot dish, always appreciable, as they say: after the effort, the comfort!
9 The care kit for impeccable hygiene for mountain adventurers
If you are going to be away for several days, hygiene can become a problem. For adventurers, there are wipes or organic soap easily usable and biodegradable to make a quick toilet during your adventures, ultra light towels that dry quickly. Every gram counts, so small, ultra-light formats are a must.
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