Sherpa is a free program that can help organize and manage camping equipment, rock climbing equipment, fishing equipment, basically any kind of equipment that has something to do with trips to the great outdoors. You can create lists of equipment that you have and also create lists of things that you’re missing which have to be bought. Old equipment that is of no use to you anymore can be sorted to the for sale category, so that it’s not overlooked next time that you’re selling your equipment.
What you see above is the main window of Sherpa, next to the My Inventory tab is a rounded plus sign, that’s where equipment can be added to the list. Once it’s added, it will show up on the My Inventory list, but also on the Dynamic lists below, where they can be sorted more easily in the previously mentioned groups, Wish list, Unused, To change/To sell and Clipped items.
Adding equipment to the Inventory list
To add your outdoor equipment to the list you need to click on the previously mentioned red rounded plus sign next to the My Inventory tab. This plus sign will reveal the following windows where you can enter your equipment, piece by piece:
Start with the blue bar at the top, by clicking on it, you’ll be presented with a selection of what kind of outdoor equipment you’d like to add, since I’ve added a jacket to the inventory I selected Clothing. Brand field can be automatically filled as you type, Sherpa comes preprogrammed with the names of some of the more famous outdoor equipment brands. Fill in the rest of the fields, weight being one of the more important ones, since weight of the item will determine the weight of your bag, when you’ll be planning for your nature trip.
How to plan for outdoor expeditions with Sherpa
Planning for nature trips and expeditions, whether they be hiking, camping, hunting or climbing Mount Everest ;), can be very demanding, especially if you have a lot of equipment to take care of. Arranging equipment is an easy chore with Sherpa, just click on the My Configurations tab and click the green plus sign next to it in order to start a new configuration:
This will create a new configuration to which you can assign equipment from the Inventory list. The configuration basically represents a bag, put the appropriate amount of equipment inside it by simply dragging items with your mouse to the list on the right. Watch the weight of the bag and once you’re done filling up the bag, you can export the bag configuration to either a HTML, CSV or JPEG file.
You can also check out inventory management tools reviewed by us.
Exporting equipment configurations to a file
This can be done by clicking on the export icon in the upper right corner of the Sherpa outdoor equipment management program:
Select the directory where you want the file saved, and then click on the file format that you want to save in. All that’s left after that is for you to print the file and start sorting your equipment in real life. Sherpa is very helpful little tool and if you have a lot of outdoor equipment, make sure to try it out.
