Review: The Helinox Chair Zero High-Back Actually Backpacks

When you’ve just humped 25, 35, 45 pounds 10 or more miles to that secluded spot by a high mountain lake, having a good place to sit is key. Yeah, you can lie down on your pack and that’s great, but just try eating dinner like that. Lots of backpacking sites have logs you can sit on, but that’s not particularly comfortable either.

What you want is a chair.

Helinox (and other brands) have been making ultralight backpacking chairs for many years now, but their new one is, by far, the most comfortable yet. Most of these little lightweight chairs are just the seats without a back but the high back has, well, a nice high back. It weighs just 1.8 pounds and packs down fairly small into a tube about 16 inches long and say 4 inches in diameter.

Sets up in seconds, nice and sturdy, holds up to 265 pounds. I’ll never daypack or backpack without it again. That simple.

• BUY $170

– Justin Housman