Trail Things I’m Not Falling in Love With in 2026: Zippers

My 2025 hike on the Arizona Trail (AZT) really exposed the durability of my gear.

With the constant onslaught of dust and dirt, my tent’s number 3 zippers quickly began to fail. When I arrived at the Terra Sol Hostel in Patagonia (a must stop on the way!), I could no longer close one of the doors of my tent: the zipper could not fully connect the two sides.

As I pondered how to attack the problem (trying to repair with a pair of pliers by squeezing the handle and cleaning the track with a toothbrush) without success, another hiker mentioned that there was a resident of Terra Sol, Linae, who could help me.

In fact, Linae pulled out some sturdy thread (much better than the ridiculous hotel sewing kit I’d been lugging around in my medicine cabinet for years), and a needle, and taught me how to sew a simple blanket. Over the next few hours (hours I wish I could have spent with the AZT hikers I had met), we sewed up the entire door. Now he would have to rely exclusively on the other door.

It wasn’t until we exited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that the gate on that side also failed. And just before some of the windiest nights, no doubt.

As I lay in my tent high on the Kaibab Plateau, listening to the two sections of the tent flap ridiculously loudly and uncontrollably, I thought: There has to be a better way.

I soon discovered that Zpacks sells a double hook device that you can attach to a stake that would keep your tent doors secured to the ground in a pinch (assuming there are loops in the corners of the door where the zipper attaches). Or even simpler, a piece of rope could be used to hold the corners of the tent together. But that wouldn’t solve the problem of the long cut between the rack rail.

Shop manufacturers recommend replacing the zipper pull after so many miles, but I tried and was unsuccessful. Fortunately, I was able to send the tent after I finished my hike to do so, but once again I began to experience failure on the Colorado Trail (much wetter and higher impact than the AZT).

So by 2026, I’ll ditch the zippers and opt for a Zpacks shelter. The shelter omits zippers entirely, instead attaching and overlapping with the aforementioned hook device – a pretty cool design, in my opinion. Getting out of the shelter can be a little trickier – having to reach forward and unclip the door flaps from those hooks – but I think the peace of mind of not having a faulty tent door is 100% worth it.

TL;DR no zippers = no zipper failures.

Broken Store Door I had to figure out how to close it before continuing my 800 mile trip on the AZT.

A beautiful moonlit afternoon at Terra Sol Hostel, in the AZT. If one is lucky, they may hear or see the local Javelina!

My shelter 2026 with zipperless entry system. Instead, the doors overlap and secure to a double-sided hook.

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