For years, I have gotten grief for hiking and backpacking in jeans and T-shirts instead of lightweight zippered shorts/pants and sweat-wicking shirts; eating M&Ms and PB&J sandwiches, rather than custom gorp or Clif Bars; and for cross-country skiing in the same jeans and T-shirt with old 75-mm three-pin bindings. As a white guy, I let this kind of derision roll off my back, but the interview with Sergio Avila makes clear that gear snobbery is harmful in ways I wouldn’t have expected. I am grateful to him for giving me the perfect rejoinder the next time somebody sneers at my clothes or gear: What you wear doesn’t make you more or less entitled to visit natural places. And if my presence as a fashion mistake makes it easier for others to get outside, awesome.
—Craig Jones, via email
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Backcountry Snobbery.
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