Spring is for pretty much every outdoor activity out there—skiing, camping, biking, running, climbing—you name it. Outside’s editors put the season to good use this year, camping out next to raging rivers, skiing late-spring lines at our local resorts, and running those favorite trails that are finally accessible thanks to melted snow. Below are the pieces of spring gear that we’re obsessing over in 2025.
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Hyer Leawood Boots
These boots might just be my most versatile pair of footwear this spring. I work at a horse ranch in Montana on the side, so I need a sturdy pair of boots that can hold up to manure, mud, and wayward hooves. I chose a boot with goat leather because I wanted it to be more flexible, since my work requires a good amount of mobility. This boot feels like the perfect weight for hoisting myself up into a saddle or chasing down a rogue mare, but it also has held up to heavy work. The 13-inch shaft is a great length to protect my calves while riding, and the practical cutter toe fits the classic aesthetic I’m going for.
Not only do these boots do the trick for my ranch work, but they also look great enough to wear in more formal settings. I have a wedding coming up in Zion, and I’m planning on giving these boots a quick clean and wearing them to the ceremony under a dress from Reformation. I also wore them to a pig roast, and got endless compliments on their classic style and design. Bonus—Hyer is a fifth generation and family-owned brand (they even claim to be the originators of the cowboy boot in 1875). They’re also the official boot of The American Rodeo, so you know they’re legit. —Kelly Klein, gear editor
Yeti 24 Hard Cooler
Yeti is a premium outdoor brand, and it’s no secret why. Like most of Yeti’s products, this cooler’s pressure-injected polyurethane and its freezer-quality gasket means you can expect your food and drinks to stay cold for hours on end. But what stands out to me about the 24 Roadie is its size. When I’m going car-camping alone or with one other person, I don’t need a full-blown 65-liter cooler. And I also have a much harder time handling a cooler of that size by myself. The 24 Roadie is way more travel-friendly thanks to not only its size (though it can still fit about 26 pounds of ice), but also its super-strong strap and handles keeps my grip solid when I’m carrying the cooler solo. I expect to use this cooler for years to come. —K.K.
The North Face Women’s Freedom Insulated Jacket and Bibs
Bibs: $200 The North Face Jacket: $130 The North Face
My wife is cold. Wait—let me rephrase that. My wife has a hard time staying warm, especially when we’re having fun outdoors. Our favorite activity together is skiing, but her ski days usually end early on cold days. One ride on a chilly chairlift usually sends her indoors for a cup of hot cocoa. We’ve tried a variety of base layers, wind shells, and insulated bibs, but we have yet to find the right kit for her. That changed this past March when she tested the North Face’s Freedom insulated jacket and bibs. The Freedom Insulated Jacket boasts 80 grams of recycled polyester (60 grams in the hood, arms, and bibs), and the combination of all that insulation was enough to cut through the chilly breeze. The kit kept her heated for the entire ski day, even when temperatures were in the low teens that morning. We hit the slopes from first chair until mid-afternoon, when we left for the lodge early. But it wasn’t due to the cold—we were exhausted from all of the turns. —Fred Dreier, articles editor
Helly Hansen Elevation Infinity 3.0 Jacket and Shell Bib Pants
$375 at Helly Hansen $325 at Helly Hansen
After a few years of testing ski apparel, I can say with plenty of confidence that the Helly Hansen Elevation Infinity jacket/bib combo is the ideal kit for my body type and skiing style. I say this with the full disclosure that I am a warm-blooded skier who occasionally sweats through my baselayers, even when the temperature is in the single digits. But I’ve yet to encounter this problem with the Infinity 3.0 jacket.
Full credit goes to Helly Hansen’s proprietary Lifa Infinity Pro, the company’s answer to Gore-tex, which has proven itself to vent my body heat with ease and keep water and snow out. There are plenty of other details to love about this kit: the oversized pockets on the jacket, including a “life pocket” that will prolong the battery life of your phone, the sizable vents on the bibs, the sealed seams on both pieces, and the heavy-duty zippers. I also love the mobility that the jacket and bib offer: articulated sleeves, a crotch gusset, and seams at the knees make the kit flow and bend and slide with my body’s every movement. On a balmy day in late February I took the Elevation Infinity kit on a four-hour tour of bump runs at Colorado’s Keystone Resort. By the end, my legs were searing from the repeated efforts. My head was damp from perspiration. But under the Elevation Infinity kit, my body stayed dry. It’s been my go-to throughout the 2024-25 ski season, no matter the temperature, snow conditions, or terrain. —F.D.
Maxtrax Xtreme
It’s not surprising that the Maxtrax Xtreme works well at extracting stuck trucks from mud, sand, and snow given that the Australian brand practically invented the recovery board category. We used it countless times over a season of off-roading through door-high sludge without drama. What is surprising is just how durable the Xtreme model is. When our rural snowplow—a four-ton John Deere tractor with a front-mounted blower—slid off into a snow-filled ditch, the nearly four-foot-long reinforced nylon Xtreme gave it the grip it needed to crawl its way out. Better yet, none of its grip-giving 88 hard-anodized “teeth” showed any wear, even after getting crushed and cranked on by the tractor’s massive, snow-chain-wrapped tires. —Benjamin Tepler, senior gear editor
Atomic Four AMID Pro Snow Helmet
I don’t care what your reasoning may be; wearing a helmet while skiing should be a non-negotiable. Last week, I took a fall and ended up hitting the back of my head pretty hard. I was wearing the Atomic Four Amid Pro Snow Helmet, and I walked away unscathed. Had this helmet not fit as well as it did or performed at a lower level, I would have likely had a nasty concussion. Wearing any helmet is better than not wearing one, but if you’re in the market for a new one, I highly recommend this one from Atomic. —Jamie Aranoff, digital editor SKI
Ignik Flipside Heated Bed Cover
Is Ignik listening to my private conversations? Because their new Flipside, a plug-in layer of heat that fits over a sleeping pad, has been the key ingredient to keeping my wife happy during chilly spring car camping adventures. Spread the fleece-sided topper out, plug it into a portable battery like a Goal Zero Yeti 500X, and you have up to 48 watts of heat emanating from your bed for up to 12 hours. Spring is here in the Southern Appalachians, but night time temps still drop into the 30s, so a portable layer of heat like the Flipside is the secret ingredient that allows me and my wife to enjoy a few car camping excursions before summer hits in full. It packs down to the size of an ultra-light sleeping bag, so it’s a no-brainer to pack in your kit regardless of the weather. —Graham Averill, Outside gear and travel columnist
Roka Barton 2.0 Sunglasses
Earlier this month I was trail running on tired legs when all of a sudden I found myself flying through the air, face first, after tripping on a rock. Milliseconds later I hit the ground, scraped the entire right side of my body on kitty litter rocks and came to a screeching halt. With bloodied hands I brushed myself off, tried not to look too embarrassed, and kept going. Another quarter mile down the trail I realized that even though I’d hit the ground hard, my Roka sunglasses were still firmly planted on my face and hadn’t budged an inch.
I credit that to the two, ultra-sticky, one-inch rubber grippers that Roka inlays along the part of the frame that fits over your years, as well as rubber grippers that comfortably sit on your nose. The proprietary material they use for these grippers (which they call “Geco”) is by far the most comfortable and stickiest material I’ve ever come across on a pair of sunnies and a big reason I’ve become a Roka convert. I’ll also be honest and tell you that I love the design of the Barton frames. Thanks to a modern take on the classic wayfarer style, the frames look good on almost any face, including mine which is punctuated by a long forehead and big nose.—Jakob Schiller, Outside correspondent
Asics Novablast 5 Running Shoes
Goldilocks has nothing on runners when it comes to being picky. With dozens of high-quality kicks to choose from, we can spend weeks, years even, trying to find the shoe we like best. I’ve been on that search for months now, and after cycling through well over ten pairs, I’ve landed on the Novablast 5 as my number one go-to shoe. For me, the medium-thick stability sole packs the right mix of padding and energy return without being too squishy, wobbly, or sloppy. I’m regularly putting in 25- or 30-mile weeks with a variety of different runs and the Novablast 5 is up for anything, from faster workouts on the track to slower cruises around the local golf course. I know that conventional wisdom these days says that we’re supposed to rotate through a couple different shoes so that our feet stay adaptable, and I follow that advice by using a more neutral shoe once in a while. But every time I slide the Novablast 5s back on I feel like I’ve come home.—J.S.
The post The Gear Our Editors Are Loving This Spring appeared first on Outside Online.
