Conor McElyea, Senior Product Guru with Cairn, told his outdoor and professional story (hint: it involves a lot of mosquitos, a search for snow in a drought, and a smidge of tricking friends into the backcountry).

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Conor explained the careful process that he and the product team use to choose products for the box. They follow a theme and ensure that every item in the box is genuinely useful.

Items from past Cairn boxes that I’ve loved:

The Firebiner (carabiner, multi-tool, fire sparker). It’s a really cool, multipurpose item that replaces a traditional carabiner on your pack.

LightMyFire’s Grandpa’s FireGrill. A grill basket that goes on a stick. I used mine on the Winding Stair episode. It worked really well and adds a minimal amount of weight to your pack.

UCO 150-Lumen headlamp. Rechargeable headlamp, decent battery life, and a simple control interface all add up to an awesome, reliable headlamp.

Reminder: You can save $5 off your first Cairn box with the code “NATURE5“.