Summit Hut is a store unique in our experience: You walk in, and you want
everything. The goods are of the highest quality--you're dangling off El Cap, so you don't want an off-brand rope, now do you?--and even if you have no idea what you'd do with them, or even what they're for, they call to you with the promise of adventures yet to come. High-impact steel water bottle? Well, that's what you need. Technically advanced wool-blend socks? They're the best. Carabiners, tents, sunglasses, Patagonia standup shorts, river-running shoes, bandanas with maps printed on them, toys to mess with in your wonderful new tent while you lounge on your gorgeous new sleeping bag--they're what you want. The salespeople are low-key but knowledgeable, and the gear is just about irresistible. Consider yourselves warned.
Runners up:
2. Popular Outdoor Outfitters, 2820 N. Campbell Ave., 326-2520; 6314 N. Oracle Road, 575-1044; 6315 E. Broadway Blvd., 290-1644
3. Miller's Surplus, 406 N. Sixth Ave., 622-4777