Citations
Sources & method
Thru Picks rankings are our own composites. We do not reprint other outlets’ articles, scores, charts, or photographs. We name the publications we read and link to them so you can check the original work.
What a Thru Picks score is
Each card’s large number is a Thru Picks score out of 10. It mixes:
- Published long-trail hiker surveys (carry rate and satisfaction)
- Independent test roundups (as one input, not a copied ranking)
- Live merchant star ratings when a shop publishes them
- Current street price relative to the other picks in the category
Badges such as Best Overall are assigned by that composite on this site. They are not OutdoorGearLab, Wirecutter, or REI awards.
Survey data
Qualitative standings printed on a card (for example “most common quilt”) and a handful of percentages come from Halfway Anywhere’s annual PCT Hiker Survey (Class of 2025, 790 hikers) and PCT Gear Guide. Those surveys belong to Halfway Anywhere. Facts such as a published percentage are not copyrightable; the articles, tables, and photos around them are. We summarize a few figures and link. We do not host their dataset or reproduce their charts.
Popularity weights inside the Thru Picks score are editorial. Only a figure printed on a card as a percentage or “most common / highest rated” is taken from a cited survey page.
Live prices and shop ratings
Prices and star ratings labeled as listed prices are read from publicly posted merchant product pages (schema.org markup and storefront product JSON). They are the merchant’s posted figures at fetch time, not a Thru Picks lab test, and they can change without notice. Availability is not guaranteed. We store price, rating, and URL — not review text.
Publications we read
- PCT Hiker Survey (2025) — Halfway Anywhere
Published carry rates and gear notes from 790 surveyed PCT hikers.
- PCT Gear Guide (2025 survey) — Halfway Anywhere
Category-level most-carried / highest-rated gear from the same survey class.
- OutdoorGearLab tests — OutdoorGearLab
Independent side-by-side tests. Scores on this site are Thru Picks composites, not OutdoorGearLab scores. We link to their tests; we do not reprint them.
- Best Ultralight Backpack (2026) — OutdoorGearLab
Their 2026 ultralight-backpack test. We cite the page as a source we read. Card copy and scores are original Thru Picks writing, not their awards language.
- Sleeping pad tests — OutdoorGearLab
Comparative sleeping-pad test used as one input. We do not copy scores, photos, or review text.
- Rain jacket tests — OutdoorGearLab
Comparative rain-jacket test used as one input. We do not copy scores, photos, or review text.
- Treeline Review
Long-form gear tests and thru-hike field notes.
- CleverHiker
Backpacking roundups and trail-oriented picks.
- Switchback Travel
Outdoor gear comparison reviews.
- GearJunkie
Field reviews and gear news. We cite, we don’t reprint.
- REI Expert Advice — REI Co-op
Public expert-advice articles and product listings. REI is not a partner of Thru Picks.
- Garage Grown Gear
Cottage-brand catalog, public product pages, and posted customer ratings.
- Wirecutter
Named as an independent test outlet (a New York Times company). We do not reproduce Wirecutter articles.
- Adventure Alan
Ultralight gear tests (quilts, pads, and similar).
- The Trek
Thru-hiker gear surveys and trail reports.
What we do not do
- Copy review text, charts, or photos from those publishers
- Use brand logos or imply a brand, shop, or magazine endorses us
- Sell a #1 badge — rankings are not paid placements
- Claim we personally thru-hiked every item on this list