Keep going when the going gets tough by Craig Macartney

Rating: ***

This article explains how to repair parts of camping gear-on the spot. It’s horrible when you are in the middle of a thunderstorm, and your tent zipper breaks, or what happens when your buckles break on your backpack? Macartney gives his tips to help campers get out of those sticky situations.

I found this article very useful and kind of funny because our class experienced almost exactly what he was describing in the article. Some groups ripped their tent door zippers, and many people broke their buckles during the hiking trip. Maybe we should have read this article before we headed out.

He recommends bringing nylon repair tape patches, plastic grommets, a McNett field repair kit and last but certainly not least, duct tape. These items aren’t very expensive, and can easily fit into a backpacks pocket.

One of the pointers that Macartney shared was very interesting to me. He said, “You can cure a sticky zipper by rubbing a bar of soap up and down it as lubricant. Avoid oil, which may stain fabric.” This is such a good idea! I would have never thought about that.

This article was very informative, and gave me very good ideas to help make simple repairs. I recommend reading this brief article; it gets you thinking ahead…before your backpack rips.


Macartney, Craig. “Keep going when the going gets tough”. Ottawa Outdoors, spring/summer 2010.