Chris Mellott knows the benefits of outdoor activities. The 16-year-old talks knowledgeably about how backpacking, climbing and archery are great ways to stay in shape and explore the world. He realizes his activities in the Boy Scouts have molded him into a leader who wants to be a teacher. But down deep, what Mellott loves most about the outdoors is the gear.

When Out There launched a search for the region’s greatest gearhead, Mellott stepped up and was declared the winner.

A sophomore at Pine Creek High School, Mellott has been in love with gear since he first ventured into the outdoors. He picked up most of his skills through the Scouts, where he discovered the fun of backpacking and camping. His family is supportive, but his dad, Ken, says, “we really don’t camp or backpack much.”

Mellott’s sister Kelly, an eighth-grader, is active in softball and volleyball. Mellott runs with his dad, and his parents have been on Scout trips with him and help him with transportation.

Now a member of Gleneagle Troop 144 with 21 merit badges, he has gone canoeing in Canada, backpacking throughout the Pikes Peak region and hiking at Philmont Boy Scout Camp in New Mexico, where he completed a 63-mile trek.

“That was really the most exciting thing I’ve done yet,” Mellott says.

Mellott is known among younger Scouts for his outdoor skills. Ken Mellott is most proud of his son’s prowess in archery, boasting of his title at age 11 as National Field Archery Association indoor-outdoor champion. Chris Mellott is proudest of that long backpacking trip at Philmont last summer.

“You can’t really understand something like that until you do it. The way you bond, and the way you have to rely on your scouting skills is unlike anything else.”

He is experienced enough to know that the right gear can make all the difference. “I love to research something and decide what is the best thing for me. Then I talk with my mom and dad about it.”

CHRIS AND HIS GEAR

His most recent purchase: an REI Quarter Dome tent. At about 4 pounds, it fulfills his goal of lightening his load. His favorite way to gear up without spending much (or anything): Make it himself. His summer sleeping mat is a reed mat he got for less than $2 in Hawaii and reinforced with duct tape.

“It rolls up to the size of a Nalgene bottle,” he says.

Other inventions include a holder for his spork, which hooks onto a carabiner, and a lightweight wooden cutting board.

His backpack: REI internal frame.

His sleeping bag: 0-degree Coleman, but he would love to have an REI Kilo 0-degree bag he has researched.

His camp stove: MSR Pocket Rocket.

His hiking boots: Asolo.

His sleeping pad: An egg-carton pattern.

If he had $1,000 to spend on gear: He would buy a Miox water filter and that REI bag, and he’s sure he could find other stuff.

How he keeps warm in winter: Two layers of Under Armour, with a long-sleeve T-shirt, a hoodie and jacket.

Where he would like to test his gear: On the Colorado Trail and backpacking through Europe.

Mellott has started his gear collection early. Others who responded to Out There’s search for gearheads have had years of experience. Here are some more of the region’s gear aficionados.

BILL SLAUGHTER

Qualifications: A 45-year member of REI and current employee “whose paycheck rarely leaves the store.”

About his gear: Accumulated for 45 years; includes at least 15 backpacks, five backpacking stoves, one of them an Optimus from 1961 that still works; four water filters, two GPS units, four sleeping bags, three tents, rock- and snow-climbing equipment, backcountry ski gear, enough accessories for an Army division and outdoor clothing “to outfit a trip to anywhere in the world.”

Slaughter, who is chairman of the board of Barr Camp, has climbed all of Colorado’s fourteeners and Denali and is a member and trip leader for the Colorado Mountain Club.

ERIC HUNTER

Qualifications: Chairman of the Pikes Peak Group of the Colorado Mountain Club; hikes, skis, snowshoes, backpacks, mountain bikes, canoes, kayaks, rock and ice climbs, whitewater rafts.

Known to say, “I define a weekend as a hat and no razor,” and “I define a vacation as Gortex, not Gucci.”

About his gear: “The second room in my apartment is ‘the toy room.’”

He has 20 packs, including lumbar, day, travel and backpacks, along with skis, boots, poles, etc. for alpine, skate, classic and backcountry skiing; a titanium mountain bike and related gear; snowshoes and poles; three tents; three stoves; cooking gear; several first-aid kits; water filter; kayaking helmet and vest and related gear (but currently no kayak); rock harness, shoes, rope, rock protection, anchors; ice harness, crampons, ice tools, ice axes, ice climbing boots; freeze-dried meals and clothing specific to each of these sports.

Hunter is a project manager in the technology industry.

BEKAH WISHAM

Qualifications: While she studied toward her degree in kinesiology, she spent most of her time rock and ice climbing, snowboarding and skiing. She spent three years in California surfing, skateboarding and climbing.

About her gear: Several hundred pieces of climbing gear, surfboard, wet suits, snowboards, mountain bike, ski equipment. Bought more (unneeded) gear recently. Wisham is a firefighter in Colorado Springs.

GREG HILTBRAND

Qualifications: Gear addict “who doesn’t want help. It’s not uncommon to see my office piled with gear before each adventure.”

About his gear: Pegs on his home-office wall hold ropes, carabiners and cams. His “treasure chest” (his wife calls it a coffin) is filled with backpacks, stoves, base and midlayers, socks, gloves, GPS unit, compasses, first-aid kits, down and fleece clothing, soft shells and hard shells.

SHANE BURNS

Qualifications: Shane has acquired gear during the past 30 years. He has a gear room, complete with a board of pegs to hold his current cache, wife Stormy says.

He downhill skis, telemarks, takes hut trips in winter and summer, rock and ice climbs, gym climbs, hikes, bags fourteeners, runs the Manitou Incline, takes overnight canoe trips, cycles and more.

About his gear: “We could cover the walls a la Neptune Mountaineering with our older gear — leather Pivettas, woodenshank ice axe, woolen pants, lederhosen, you name it,” Stormy says. “The new stuff I can’t keep up on — for example, North Face Outlet sales, an Everest-level coat he plans to use in a couple of years but got on sale yesterday, dry gear, Gore-Tex . . . the list is extensive.”

Shane is a Colorado Mountain Club leader reading the 2005-06 Guide to Ski Gear as bedtime fare. He’s also a professor of physics at Colorado College, where he studies supernovae explosions.

DEBORAH SAPASHE

Qualifications: Deborah, of Durango, began studying to be a gearhead as a 5-year-old. For 17 years, she has toted her gear in a soccer bag.

“Today, she neither owns a dress nor pantyhose, no heels. Instead, she has a spare bedroom” filled with gear, say her parents, Mary and Bob Sapashe of Monument.

About her gear: She has waterproof jackets and pants, wool socks, Gore-Tex boots . . . everything she needs for biking, hiking, backpacking, camping and skiing . . . even a belly boat for fishing. Her Siberian husky, Maverick, is also suitably outfitted with a backpack. Deborah is a flight nurse for Tri-State Care Flight (for which she added a flight suit, helmet and boots to her gear cache) and a member of El Paso County Search and Rescue.