Built by a hiker. Powered by data.

I'm James — a cybersecurity engineer in New Hampshire who spends as much time as possible in the White Mountains. Lincoln Woods at sunrise, Hancock Campground with the tent half-frozen, the ridge over Franconia when the wind decides the plan for you. That's where RidgeNote comes from.

Researching gear online is worse than it should be. Marketing copy instead of specs. "Best of" lists nobody tested. Prices that change the day after you buy. I wanted the tool I couldn't find: every spec that matters, side by side; honest trade-offs instead of hype; a link out to the retailer so you can check the price yourself; and a pack builder that tells you what your kit actually weighs before the trailhead does.

So I built it. RidgeNote tracks manufacturer specs and list prices for hundreds of tents, bags, pads, packs, and jackets, compares them honestly, and turns them into trail-ready pack lists — starting with the routes I know personally, in the Whites.

What I can and cannot tell you about price

I publish the manufacturer's list price, and nothing else. I do not have a licensed live-price feed, which means this site does not compare current retailer prices and does not track price history. Treat the price here as a reference point, not a quote: use it to see where a product sits in its category, then follow the link and check what the retailer is charging today. Sales and closeouts are real and often large, and they are exactly the thing I cannot see. I would rather say that plainly than paint a stale number green and call it a deal.

Where the numbers come from

Weights, dimensions, materials, and list prices come from manufacturer sources, and product pages show which ones — that is what the "Image source" and "Price source" fields are for. Temperature ratings are shown as manufacturer claims and labelled as such, because I have not independently confirmed which test standard was applied. Where a rating genuinely is ISO 23537 tested, it says so. An automated gate blocks a product from publishing if its price cannot be verified, if it sits above list price, if it has no retailer link, or if a temperature rating carries no attribution.

Some links on this site are affiliate links — if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no cost to you. That never changes a ranking or a verdict: the numbers are the numbers. Reviews on product pages will come from real users when accounts launch — never invented, never purchased.

Questions, corrections, or a trail I should cover next? Say hello.