Gear

Shopping
For new gear, we troll the usual suspects for the best prices: Backcountry.com, Campmor.com, SierraTradingPost.com, REI.com, etc. A more efficient way is to sign up for deal-of-the-day e-mail alerts from sites like TramDock.com (skiing), ChainLove.com (mountain biking), BonkTown.com (road biking), and SteepandCheap.com (everything). Prefer to support local shops, even on the road? Find them at GrassRootsOutdoors.com. Of course, if we’re just in the mood to ogle cool stuff, we head to Uncrate.com. Our favorite snow-gear site is EvoGear.com. Bikers can comparison-shop for the cheapest goods at Nashbar.com, PerformanceBike.com or BackCountry.com's two new bike-specific sites, which will launch this March: RealCyclist.com (road) and BigRingKing.com (mountain). Runners, buying perfect-fitting shoes online is less harrowing thanks to the expert phone support and no-risk return policies at RoadRunnerSports.com and RunningWarehouse.com.

Employment
And for those of you who dream of working in the outdoor industry, bookmark Snewsnet.com. A subscription is required to read all the wonky news, but you can browse the classifieds for free.

Rental & Repair
Need to rent gear for an upcoming trip? LowerGear.com rents everything from bear canisters to GPS units to tents. Our favorite piece of gear is past warranty and needs to be repaired? RainyPass.com is licensed to repair Gore-Tex fabric—they’re the only guys we’d trust to repair a blown gasket on our drytop.