Every year, we poll our stable of core contributors to nominate the gear they actually go out and use most. We simply ask them: What was the best gear you used over the past year? What gear can’t you live without? What gear changed your life? Meet the gear we loved, beat up, and relied on out in the wild. That mattered more than ever during the pandemic when we faced so many challenges and found so much solace in the outdoors. Here’s the gear that helped us through. These are the winners of Elevation Outdoors’ 2022 Peak Gear Awards.

Why It Won: In a word: stability. This big, trusty SUP proved a great platform for fly-fishing and hauling gear around the lake. But unlike many other big boards, it still has some guts to it.

Where We Took It: The Colorado River, Gross Reservoir and Boulder Reservoir in Colorado; Fremont Lake in Wyoming; Wright’s Lake in California