Dale Whitaker at his garage workbench, a 1970s green camp stove and an enamel coffee pot on one side and a modern lithium power station on the other.

Half the camping gear you own,
you never needed.

I sold all of it for forty-four years. I also took it back. Here is the list of what is actually worth buying.

Dale WhitakerWhitaker Outdoor Supply · Bend, Oregon · 1978–2022

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There was a bin under my register

Grey plastic, about the size of a milk crate. Anything that came back across the counter went in it until Thursday. I opened in 1978 with canvas tents and white-gas stoves on the shelves and sold up in 2022 with lithium power stations on the same shelves. Everything that did not work came back to that bin.

Almost nothing in that bin was broken. Nearly all of it worked exactly as designed. It just wasn't the thing that person needed — and nobody told them before they paid.

A magazine tests a tent for a weekend. I watched the same categories fail across four decades, in the hands of people who had paid real money. This list is forty-four years of that bin, written down.

Every item gets three answers

Not "the best gear." There is no such thing. For each of the forty items: the cheap way, the good way, and the exact line where one stops being the right answer. Here is one of the forty, in full, so you know what you are buying.

1. The sleeping pad

Sixty per cent of being cold at night happens underneath you, not on top. Your weight crushes the bag's loft flat, so there is no insulation under your back at all.

The cheap way $25

Closed-cell foam, the accordion kind. R-value about 2. Cannot puncture, lasts twenty years, and your hip will find the ground.

The good way $150–220

Insulated inflatable, R-value 4 or better, three inches thick. The three inches is not luxury — it is clearance for your hip.

The line. Over sixty, a side-sleeper, or camping below fifty degrees — buy the good one. Mine is nine years old at thirty-plus nights a year. That works out under eighty cents a night, which makes it the cheapest thing in my kit by the only measure that counts.

What is in it

Fifty-one pages. No brand names anywhere in it — the model I sold is not the model you can buy today, and the good companies have bad years. What does not change is the category, the construction, and which number on the tag actually matters.

The printed Whitaker List spread out on a truck tailgate — the packing checklist clipped to a clipboard, the scorecard page beside it, a pencil and an enamel mug holding the pages down.
Part Seven and the scorecard, printed and clipped to the tailgate. Both pages are built to be printed.
  1. ONEThe forty-item core kitSleeping and shelter, cooking and water, power and heat, clothing, tools, the vehicle. Cheap way, good way, and the line — for every one.
  2. TWOThe returns counterNine categories I would never buy new, what to check on each, and the four I would always buy new.
  3. THREEThe power station worksheetWatt-hours, not watts. Two worked examples, including sizing a battery for a breathing machine over two nights.
  4. FOURSleeping warm after sixtyThe four layers, in the order to fix them. Fix the last one first and you spend money and stay cold.
  5. FIVEThe cooler and a four-night food planThe forty-degree rule, block ice, the six things people get wrong, and what actually goes off on which day.
  6. SIXWhere and when to buyThe three weeks of the year when gear is cheapest, and the six rules for buying used.
  7. SEVENThe packing checklistOne printable page. Three tubs that stay packed, and the list you run before you pull out of the drive.
  8. BONUSThe should-I-buy-this scorecardSeven questions, one page. Score it before you hand over the money.

What one wrong purchase costs

Six mistakes this book is written to stop, and what people typically spend making them. These are retail prices, not a promise — but any one of them costs more than the book, and most people make two.

Typical spend on one avoidable mistake
Outfitting a trailer, then using a third of it
$2,200
A rooftop tent that doesn't suit how you camp
$1,400
A 12-volt fridge bought for four-night trips
$900
A power station sized on watts instead of watt-hours
$550
Buying the sleeping pad twice
$200
Replacing a bag bought on the wrong number
$120
The Whitaker List
$9.99

Bars are drawn to scale against the $2,200 figure. The book's bar is there — it is about half a per cent of the top one, which is the whole argument.

The Whitaker List

Buy-It-Once Camping Gear for People Over 55

Forty items. The cheap way, the good way, and the line where you switch.

  • 51 pages, seven parts, forty items — written plain, in large type.
  • The printable packing checklist and the should-I-buy-this scorecard.
  • Instant digital download (PDF). Read it on any device, or print the whole thing and put it in the truck.
  • No brand names, no affiliate links, nothing I am paid to recommend.
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One-time payment

$9.99

About what two cups of coffee cost. It is meant to stop a $300 mistake.

If it is not useful, tell me

Money back within seven days, no questions and no forms, and you keep the files. I spent forty-four years making sure people did not walk out of my store with the wrong thing. I am not going to start now.

Questions I get asked

Is this a physical book?

No. It is a PDF you download the moment you pay. You can read it on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and you can print the whole thing on ordinary paper if you would rather have it in your hand. Nothing arrives in the post.

I have been camping for thirty years. Is there anything in here for me?

Probably Part Two and Part Three. Part Two is the returns-counter list — which of the things you already own is most likely to let you down, and which categories never to replace with new ones. Part Three is the power station arithmetic, which is the one piece of modern gear that did not exist when most of us learned to camp.

Is it going to tell me to buy expensive gear?

The opposite, mostly. Three of the forty items I say to spend real money on. For the other thirty-seven the cheap answer is either the right one outright, or the right one until a specific condition changes — and the book tells you what that condition is.

Does it name brands?

No, deliberately. The model I sold is not the model you can buy today, and every good company has a bad year. What does not change is the category, the way a thing is built, and which number on the tag matters. That is what is written down.

Are there affiliate links in it?

None. I am not paid by anybody to recommend anything, and there is nothing to click in the book.

The print is small in most things. My eyes are not what they were.

It is set in large type on purpose — considerably bigger than a normal paperback — with plenty of space between the lines. It was written for people my age, so I set it for people my age.

Buy it once, folks.

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Instant PDF download · 7-day money back · you keep the files

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