Don't Forget the Duct Tape: Tips & Tricks for Repairing & Maintaining Outdoor & Travel Gear

* What to include in your hiking or travel repair kits
* Duct tape dos and don'ts
* New sections on caring for technical wool garments and repairing softshell fabrics, single-wall tents, hydration systems, and more

Whether you need to remedy a leak in your tent, repair flapping boot soles, nurse a cranky stove back to life, unclog a water filter, or revive gunked-up Velcro, you'll find the solution here. And it can all be done with an inexpensive 12-item repair kit that, once assembled, won't weigh more than a pound or two-worth its weight in gorp!

As you'd guess, this pack-it-with-you pocket guide includes many ingenious uses for that most versatile of tools: duct tape! Here's just a few of many tips:

Tip: Make a sturdy zipper pull by threading a thin strip of duct tape through the slider, then wrapping the tails with more duct tape.
Tip: For a more stable stove, cut a square of old closed-cell foam pad sized to fit the base of your backpacking stove. Wrap the foam generously with duct tape for insulation and you have a stable cooking platform that works great in the snow.
Tip: When re-gluing a boot or shoe sole, a few turns of duct tape can keep the toe
area secure while the glue dries.

KRISTIN HOSTETTER is a former gear editor for Backpacker Magazine . She writes a bi-weekly column on gear for The Seattle Post Intelligencer .

ISBN: 9780898869552
Format: Paperback
Pages: 96
Publisher: The Mountaineers Books
Published: March 05, 2007

"Don't Forget the Duct Tape offers all the tools one needs to be a gear fix-it guru." “This book could save you a lot of grief.” "Don't Forget the Duct Tape offers tips and tricks for repairing and maintaining outdoor travel gear, and your composure. And duct tape is a major player." This book could save you a lot of grief …Of course, you could always cover it with duct tape and use it for a hot pad for your stove. "Duct Tape, by Kristin Hostetter, has practical and handy advice on ways of making emergency repairs to such gear-related calamities as broken zippers and non-working stoves as well as tips on how to re-glue boots or shoe soles." "The real magic here isn't duct tape, it's the amazing amount of information Hostetter has managed to pack in one tiny tome on every aspect of repairing and maintaining outdoor gear… This one's a must-have for anyone like me whose outdoor gear gets loved to death on a regular basis."