The Best Outdoor Deals from the REI Anniversary Sale

It’s almost summer. Birds migrate, flowers bloom, and REI launches its annual anniversary sale.

It’s the biggest sale of the year for the outdoor retailer. This year’s REI sale begins May 15 and continues through Memorial Day, May 25. Many items are up to 30% off, but REI Co-op members save up to 20% on any full-price item and a additional 20% off any REI Outlet item. To benefit from the discount, add the promo code ANNIV26 at the checkout.

We’ve highlighted the best deals on gear we’ve loved over our years of testing. There’s something for almost all of our favorite summer activities: tents, stoves, sleeping bags and plenty of outerwear. Don’t forget to check out our outdoor gear guides, like Best tents, Best sleeping bags, Best Sleeping Pads for Backpacking, Best rain jackets, Best Backpacking Water Filters, Best Merino WoolAnd Best binoculars.

WIRED Featured Deals

• A power plant to get off the grid: Goal Zero Yeti 1500 Portable Power Station for $1,125 ($375 off)
• Charge your watch with the sun: Garmin Instinct 3 Solar for $400 ($100 off)
• The best value for money hiking tent: REI Co-op Half Dome 2 Tent with Footprint for $197 ($132 off)
• A comfortable sleeping pad for the backcountry: Therm-a-rest Neoloft Sleeping Pad for $195 ($65 off)
• The down jacket with the best quality/price ratio: REI Co-op 650 Down Jacket for $90 ($30 off)

Deals on Camping Gadgets and Gear

The new Goal Zero Yeti 1500 is one of the best camping and land power plants we tested. The new LiFePO4 chemical battery is rated for 4,000 charge cycles (approximately 10 years of average use) and there is a new high amperage output (30A) for connecting to van and overland configurations. Goal Zero also designed it to be able to handle the high-vibration environment of off-roading. With 4 AC outlets and USB charging at up to 140 watts, the Yeti 1500 can run your wired world for over a week, without requiring a network.

Yes, your phone has some features of a dedicated satellite messenger, but we still think it’s better to have a dedicated device. from Garmin the new inReach Mini 3 now offers some of these phone features— like voice and picture messaging — as well as emergency features and excellent service worldwide. It’s also still small, well-built, and has excellent battery life. The cheapest Garmin Inreach Mini3 (which lacks the new photo sharing features) is also on sale for $400 ($50 off).

The Garmin Instinct Solar is our favorite rugged and affordable outdoor watch powered by the sun. Its battery has a long life and, yes, it recharges every time it is in the sun. GPS is enabled and there are tons of sports tracking and navigation features. It’s cheaper than a Fenix ​​and just as reliable.

My favorite of Coleman’s current lineup, the Cascade 3-in-1 (8/10, WIRED recommends) features heavy-duty cast iron grates, comes with a cast iron griddle and grill, and accommodates a 12-inch skillet and a 10-inch skillet side by side. It’s sturdier and sturdier than other Coleman stoves, making it well worth the extra money if you’re I’m serious about camp cooking. That said, the much cheaper stove below will be enough for you if you only use it a few nights a year.

It is our favorite camping stove for most people. Technically, this version is a bit fancier than our top pick, with electronic ignition and a nice pale green paint job. Is it worth $30 more? It’s up to you. If not, get the less sophisticated version to $59 at Walmart.

The thing to keep in mind when shopping for REI-branded gear is the company’s basic proposition: You get 90% of the designer item for 70% of the price. It’s a strategy that works pretty well and has generated some really great, affordable hardware. This chair is a good example. It’s not as nice as the Nemo above, but it’s still comfortable (it wobbles a bit from side to side when you move) and almost half the price.

Whenever I can, I like cooking over an open flame using my fireplace stovewhich often means chopping wood. The best portable saw I have found is this Silky folding saw. It’s light enough to carry a bike pack (5.3 ounces) and it folds down to about 9 inches long, which fits easily into a pannier. This thing is razor sharp, be careful when using it in the backcountry.

The Tikka headlamp from Petzl is one of our favorite headlamps. It provides plenty of light for backcountry cooking, runs on three AAA batteries (we recommend Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries) and lasts more than 5.5 hours. It is also compatible with Petzl USB Rechargeable Core Battery ($30).

The thing to keep in mind when shopping for REI-branded gear is the company’s basic proposition: You get 90 percent of the designer item for 70 percent of the price. It’s a strategy that works pretty well and has generated some really great, affordable hardware. This REI chair is a good example. It’s not as nice as the Nemo above, but it’s still comfortable (it wobbles a bit from side to side when you move) and almost half the price.

Tent Deals

REI tents are some of the best deals on the market, even more so during sales. If you want to know more, check out our guide to best backpacking tents And best car camping tents.

REI Base camp tent East WIRED’s Favorite Car Camping Tent. It is extremely well designed and proved to be very weather resistant in our tests. The traditional dome tent design, with two cross poles and two side poles, resists wind well, and the tent floor is made of high-quality 150 denier (150D) polyester. There are plenty of storage pockets, double doors, great ventilation and huge windows, making it comfortable even in the summer heat.

The REI Half Dome 2 is the best backpacking tent for two people on a budget. I’ve carried it on many backpacking trips and found it to be very sturdy, quick to set up, and able to accommodate two people and their gear. It even comes with an indentation (which I never worry about, but it’s nice to have if you have to deal with biters or sharp rocks).

The Big Agnes Copper Spur series is our first choice for ultralight freestanding tents. This is a high-quality, well-designed tent that is lightweight, easy to set up, and roomy enough to be livable in the backcountry. The “canopy” design (where the front fabric is held aloft with poles or hiking poles) is a nice addition and the blend of 15D nylon and 20D ripstop, while fragile, has held up well over time. The 4-person version, which is one of the lightest 4P tents on the market, is also on sale.

Nemo’s Dragonfly tents are awesome. I really like the generous amount of mesh on top, which provides good ventilation on hot summer nights and is perfect for falling asleep under the stars when the weather permits. The Osmo fabric continues to live up to the hype, with much less water absorption than nylon tents in rainy weather, and there’s plenty of space to store all your stuff.

Deals on sleeping bags and sleeping pads

Whether you need an inexpensive car camping bag or something more sturdy for fall and spring travel, we’ve got you covered. Be sure to read our guides on best sleeping bags, best camping mattressesAnd best sleeping pads for backpacking for even more options.

REI’s Magma Downward Clothing line is some of the best offerings on the market. The Magma 15 sleeping bag has long been an affordable and perfect for mid-season travel when the temperature is potentially lower than you expect (the comfort rating is 21 degrees Fahrenheit). There are three lengths and three widths, making it easy to get something that fits your body just right, and the 850-fill-power goose down (Bluesign approved) packs down nice and small. If you don’t need coverage for the shoulder season, the Magma 30 is also on sale for $262 ($87 off)and makes an excellent summer sleeping bag.

I just spent a week sleeping under this duvet America’s Biggest Birding Week. The Magma duvet was surprisingly warm. I had a down jacket on, but managed to stay comfortable up to 30 degrees. Like the sleeping bag version above, this is 95% of what you get with much more expensive duvets. It’s lightweight (20.3 ounces for medium), folds up small, includes straps to hold it on your mattress, can be completely unzipped and used as a comforter or stored in a proper footbox on colder nights.

It’s one of my favorite ultralight sleeping bags. There are lighter duvets available, but when you need the warmth of a mummy bag on colder nights, this is what I use. It is also the smallest of all the bags I tested in this temperature range. With the included compression sack, this item is truly tiny. The padding is 850+ PFC-free hydrophobic down. The zippers are small, but they slide well and rarely, if ever, snag on the bag. I slept in this bag up to 20 degrees and never felt the slightest cold.

The Forte 20 from Nemo is a sleeping bag with synthetic padding. than 20 degrees, but the comfort index is 30 degrees. In my testing, this feels more like where you’d want to stay temperature-wise with this bag. The outer shell uses a 30 denier recycled polyester ripstop with a 20 denier recycled polyester taffeta interior lining. The padding is what Nemo calls Zerofiber insulation, which is made from 100% post-consumer recycled fiber. The Zerofiber is remarkably small: it’s the most compact synthetic-fill bag I’ve tested in this temperature range.

I had to give up my ultralight cred to Reddit mods to carry this sturdy pad, but it’s totally worth the improved sleep. The extra 6 ounces or so is more than offset by the quality of my sleep (rest and recovery is a key part of long miles, kids) on this mattress compared to all other backpacking sleeping pads. It’s so good. Alas, it’s also a bit expensive… which is why you should pick one up now on sale.

THE Tensor All-Season hits all the highlights. It weighs 18.2 ounces, is light enough, offers a good 3 inches of padding, and has an R-value of 5.4. (A sleeping pad’s R-value indicates its level of insulation; the higher the number, the warmer you stay, and 5.4 is sufficient insulation for colder spring or fall nights.) This corresponds to the best padding and R-rating for weight. It’s also thankfully quiet: none of those annoying crunching noises every time you turn around.

If you’re preparing for a winter trip, this is a great deal on a great winter mattress. The Tensor Extreme Conditions has the highest R-value of all the pads we tested (8.5), but somehow manages to shrink down to about the size of a Nalgene water bottle and weighs just 21 ounces (587 g).

This is my new favorite winter mattress. It doesn’t quite have the R-value of the Tensor Extreme above, but I find it more comfortable and when paired with the Therm-a-Rest Z-lite, I stayed toasty even on a minus 25 degree Fahrenheit night last winter. I love it so much that I bought a second one for anyone crazy enough to accompany me on such trips.

The large camping mat that started the large camping mat trend, the Megamat is a revelation. Trust me, you have no idea how comfortable tent camping can be until you sleep on a Megamat. The 4-inch-thick Exped MegaMat is soft and surprisingly firm thanks to the closed-cell foam inside, which relieves pressure and feels about as close to your bedroom mattress as you’re going to get into the woods.

When I sold my Jeep, I had to give up my earthly dreams and become a simple camper again. But this Megamat, which fits into the wheel arches of an SUV, has brought some of those earthly dreams back to life. I throw this in the back of my wife’s Rav4, and while it’s not a perfect fit (check Exped to see which vehicles are supported), it’s close enough that I can get a good night’s sleep in the car.