Are Hiking Umbrellas a Gimmick or a Gamechanger?

If you’ve spent time on any long trail, especially one in the desert, you’ve seen them: silver umbrellas, tucked into a stuff pocket or carried in a hand. Since the first hiking-specific models hit the market in the late 1980s, umbrellas have amassed a serious fan following among backpackers, who use them to keep sun and rain off their skin without the clamminess of a jacket; when we asked 2026 thru-hikers about their favorite pieces of gear, at least two pointed to their umbrellas.

Still, going Mary Poppins mode on the trail is still a controversial move among some backpackers, who counter that toting an umbrella on the trail is unwieldy and unnecessary. We sent Will Brendza, Backpacker‘s associate editor and an umbrella skeptic, out on the trail with an ultralight umbrella in tow and asked him to come back with a final ruling. Here’s what he said.

Transcript

How many different ways can a hiker use a hiking umbrella? We got a hold of the umbrella king to find out. Now, I was a little skeptical. I’ve always been a rain jacket guy, and if it’s sunny, I just wear a hat. But Whitney LaRuffa, the head of sales at Gossamer Gear, might have changed my mind. He walked me through the many different ways that he uses his ultralight umbrella. Here were some of our favorites.

Obviously, if it’s raining out, the umbrella keeps you dry. If it’s sunny out, you can kind of carry your shade with you, which is really nice if you’re hiking in desert environments or some place where there’s a lot of sunshine and not a lot of shade cover. But as Whitney explained, you can also use your umbrella for privacy if you’re camping in a tarp tent. You can use it to shade yourself from the moon if you’re sleeping outside cowboy camping.

There were even instances of people who’d been hiking near volcanoes who used their umbrella to shield themselves from volcanic ash raining from the sky. Most hikers won’t encounter that on your typical day hike or thru-hike, but it’s good to know it’s an option if you need it.

Brands like Gossamer Gear make ultralight umbrellas that weigh next to nothing and will fit easily in your backpack. But you can pretty much use any type of umbrella if you’re not too worried about weight. The nice thing about umbrellas that are designed specifically for hiking is, often times, they’ll have this really reflective material which blocks sun entirely and doesn’t let any UV light through. So it really makes a difference in temperature whether you’re just in the sun or under the umbrella.

Some hiking umbrellas will come full-sized like this. Others are collapsible and get to a little bit smaller size, it just depends on the brand. This one from Gossamer Gear I think is just 5.8 ounces, so it weighs like almost nothing. The biggest thing is making sure that you have enough space somewhere on your pack for this large of a piece of equipment.

I recently tested this hiking umbrella, hiking on a totally cloudless, 99-degree day, and it made a really big difference. There are attachments that you can put onto your backpack so you don’t even have to carry it while you’re walking, freeing up your hands to use trekking poles and that sort of thing. Super nice.

One thing to note, durability on these ultralight umbrellas can be tricky, and if you’re not careful when you open them up… s**t! …they could be liable to break. So just be careful out there.

I would say umbrellas are probably best for backpackers or hikers who are spending a lot of time in environments where there’s not a lot of shade. They’re really popular on the southern part of the PCT, or for people who hike in places like Arizona or New Mexico. Specifically in those types of areas, they’re great. But also, if you’re hiking in the Pacific Northwest and it’s raining a ton, these are a great thing to use in tandem with your rain jacket, because you can stay better ventilated and they’ll keep you drier while you hike.

So that’s it. Hiking umbrellas have a lot of uses, more than I would have thought they did. If you’re an ultralight hiker who wants some shade or some rain cover, check them out. They might be for you.