Review: Pelican ProGear Elite Cooler

For those extended summer road-trips deep into the Montana backcountry, you need a reliable ice-chest—when the fishing’s good and the sunsets are even better, the last thing you want is a mandatory town run. Stay afield as long as you want, with as much cold beer as you can drink, with Pelican’s ProGear Elite cooler. Like an up-armored Yeti, this beast is rated for 7-10 days of ice retention regardless of ambient temperature. Just load a few blocks of ice on the bottom, pile in your perishables, and worry not—it might as well be stacked in a restaurant’s walk-in. Like all Pelican products, this cooler is built to take a beating, with heavy-duty thermo-molded plastic, burly carrying handles, and rock-solid, press-and-pull latches to ensure a tight seal. The ProGear Elite is pricey, for sure; but as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for. Sizes and prices vary; I chose the 150-quart, which is humongous and thus allows me to use it for hunting trips, too. $250-$530; pelican.com.