I’ve gotten a bit lazy about blogging the past few days — yesterday I had an excuse: my morning hike was so much fun that I need to rest up from it today — so with no further ado, check out these links from our favorite blogs:

WildeBeat profiles The Year in Gear.

Gadling adores the photography of Buck Forester.

Yosemite Blog adores the photography of George Hsia.

Simplehiker lists all the cruelty-free New Balance shoes. (I can see the salesman now: “And for those of you who insist on cruelty in the manfacture of your shoes, we present our all new, low-cost SweatshopsInc. line, painstakingly hand-stitched by Malaysian 10-year-olds because, you know, their hands are so supple at that age …” ).

GoBlog tells how to help victims of the Pakistani earthquake. (Maybe if we’re really nice they’ll rat out Osama bin Laden).