Outdoor Vitals
206 episodes listed below
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The Live Ultralight Podcast is all about inspiring you to get outdoors and teaching you how to lighten your pack so you can go on more adventures. We largely focus on backpacking and things that are interesting to backpackers, but occasionally we delve into other adventure and travel topics as well. In addition, we aim to feature interesting and inspiring guests all around the backpacking, travel, and adventure space.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A practical bridge between backpacking experience and the design choices hidden inside packs, clothing, and trail systems.
Live Ultralight Podcast turns backpacking gear into a chain of field problems, design decisions, and plainly explained tradeoffs. Conversations move from remote desert travel and an injured hiker leaving the Colorado Trail to the construction of pants, a hybrid fleece, a down…
A titanium spoon can start a pack-pocket debate, if your trail brain works that way.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical gear Q&A that treats temperature as a use case, not a label.
Ask OV turns a fresh Mountain Pursuit launch into a straightforward look at how the piece holds up in real use. The hosts keep the focus on temperature range, activity level, and the basic idea that warmth is not a fixed number, which makes the conversation feel useful rather…
A practical pack-sizing conversation grounded in trail experience and seasonal use.
Ask OV makes backpack sizing feel concrete, not theoretical, by turning listener questions into a steady discussion of what is enough for summer trips and how that judgment shifts with experience.
A practical Q&A on stove choice, training timing, and the trade-offs behind simple gear decisions.
This Ask OV installment delivers a straightforward Q&A from the Live Ultralight Podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals, built around the questions the team says it keeps getting.
A reflective anniversary episode that turns big goals into smaller next steps.
This episode uses Outdoor Vitals' eleven-year milestone to focus on a plain but useful idea: progress usually comes from the next small move, not from trying to solve everything at once.
A clear look at why stockouts can be a planning problem, not a care problem.
This Ask OV installment looks at a familiar retail problem: why a company making high-end outdoor gear can still run out of stock. The answer is mostly operational, not careless.
A jacket deep dive that treats warmth, pockets, and trade-offs as real design decisions.
The Vantage Alpine Jacket segment sits in the useful middle ground between product story and design breakdown. It explains why Outdoor Vitals set out to make the jacket, what they tested, and how the finished piece took shape, with the focus staying on the decisions behind it…
A focused gear conversation that stays practical about fit, mileage, and how a shoe can change model to model.
Ask OV 5 is a practical gear check built around listener questions and an office catch-up. It uses the Hoka Speedgoat line as a tidy example: the 4s were a favorite, the 5s did not land the same way for everyone on the team, and the 6s are still getting a real test with a…
A desert hike recap that turns a navigation scramble, ankle pain, and a broken dog pack into a useful note on repair and preparation.
This recap keeps its footing by staying close to the outing itself. It follows a remote desert hike through a navigation scramble, then downhill ankle pain, then a broken dog pack, and lands on a simple fix: a sewing kit can keep the trip moving.
Outdoor talk from the camp table.
Trail miles, gear sense, and outdoor memory.
In their first Ask OV episode of 2026, Outdoor Vitals hosts Chad and Brigham recap a record-breaking 2025, field listener questions on Trump tariff impacts (predicting broad price hikes with Outdoor Vitals absorbing most costs), offline map reliability (Garmin Explore for dependability, Onyx Backcountry for features despite glitches, FarOut for established trails), mesh base layers (useful but overhyped), and the evolving ultralight philosophy around comfort accessories like camp chairs and shoes — arguing the goal is performance and experience, not chasing a pack weight number.
The hosts analyze five years of data from their OV100 hiking challenge to answer a crucial question for backpackers: how do you know if you're ready to consistently hike 20-mile days?
The host interviews lead product designer Brigham for a deep dive into the new Cirque trekking pole tent from Outdoor Vitals.
The episode follows the Carbon Evo 50 Backpack from design idea to launch.
They start by saying this hoodie is more than fleece.
Brigham is back for a listener-question session.
The show opens with another Ask OV episode.
This Ask OV installment stays in the monthly Q&A lane.
Craig Obrist joins the Live Ultralight crew after the Colorado Trail hike ends early for him and one other member of the five-person group.
The host opens with Outdoor Vitals' Founders Day sale and uses the company’s 11-year mark as a moment to pause and look back.
This is a shorter, a bit more casual Ask OV Q&A built around listener questions and direct gear talk.
The Live Ultralight podcast turns this episode into a design story for the Vantage Alpine Jacket.
Live Ultralight Podcast’s EP 199 focuses on Outdoor Vitals’ Zulu down jacket, a new static insulation piece positioned as the lightest down jacket in the lineup.
The show opens with a recap of a recent desert trip near the greater Grand Canyon area.
Live Ultralight Podcast’s EP 186: Ask OV answers listener questions on sleeping-pad packing, trail repairs, rain jackets, hard shells, and down treatments.
The hosts start with a Grand Canyon trip recap.
It is a Friday Ask OV round.
The episode opens on the Altura Dynamic Pant.
The hosts introduce the Shadowlight Carbon 60 as the next generation of Outdoor Vitals' best-selling Shadowlight pack.