Why hike ultralight?
Or, the better question to ask - why suffer if you don't have to? Why would anyone want to carry a 40 to 50 pound (18-22kg) pack? Yet, for the average hiker, this is about what they carry for a week long backpacking trip. (30 pounds (13kg) of pack and equipment, plus the standard two pounds (1kg) of food a day plus a little extra is about 45 pounds. (20kg)) This may be a conservative estimate for many.
A pack this heavy causes plenty of problems:
· Slow, tedious hiking
· Exhaustion, irritability, and low esprit de corps on the trail
· Increased chance of injury - sore back, sprained ankles, blown knees, sore muscles, bruised and blistered feet, sore hips and shoulders, etc.
· Tired, cross people make bad decisions, sometimes with serious consequences. Remember the guy who buried his hiking partner?
· Long hiking times mean less time for the fun stuff like relaxing in camp, fishing, staring at clouds, skinny dipping and side trips.
· When you get to camp, you're just too damn tired to do anything anyway.
Here a few other things you might try:
· Find out the horrible truth! Get all your stuff together and weight it. If you're like most conventional hikers, your equipment will weigh around 30 pounds (13 kg). Possibly higher.
· If you can, try to get individual weights for your heavier items. For stuff under a pound you may want to buy an inexpensive 10 lb. scale. Digital ones are nice but not essential.
· Look at my equipment lists (my list has a discussion of how I achieve my sub-eight pound pack) and the lists of other ultralight backpackers (see Links). This should give you a good idea of how you can reduce your pack weight and what type of equipment is available.
· If you can, put together a spreadsheet with all your equipment weights. This is an indispensable analysis tool.
· See what you can leave at home. Anything you don't bring is free weight reduction. Think hard about this one. Do you really need it?
· Try to figure out where you'll get the most "bang for the buck." E.g. figure out how much a new item costs and divide that by the amount of weight it will save you over your old equipment. Target the items that give you the most weight loss for the fewest dollars.
· If you can, don't try to do this all at once. Many items regularly go on sale or are closed out. Watch carefully over the course of a year and you could save 30 to 70 percent on your equipment.
To read more http://www.adventurealan.com/
Or, the better question to ask - why suffer if you don't have to? Why would anyone want to carry a 40 to 50 pound (18-22kg) pack? Yet, for the average hiker, this is about what they carry for a week long backpacking trip. (30 pounds (13kg) of pack and equipment, plus the standard two pounds (1kg) of food a day plus a little extra is about 45 pounds. (20kg)) This may be a conservative estimate for many.
A pack this heavy causes plenty of problems:
· Slow, tedious hiking
· Exhaustion, irritability, and low esprit de corps on the trail
· Increased chance of injury - sore back, sprained ankles, blown knees, sore muscles, bruised and blistered feet, sore hips and shoulders, etc.
· Tired, cross people make bad decisions, sometimes with serious consequences. Remember the guy who buried his hiking partner?
· Long hiking times mean less time for the fun stuff like relaxing in camp, fishing, staring at clouds, skinny dipping and side trips.
· When you get to camp, you're just too damn tired to do anything anyway.
Here a few other things you might try:
· Find out the horrible truth! Get all your stuff together and weight it. If you're like most conventional hikers, your equipment will weigh around 30 pounds (13 kg). Possibly higher.
· If you can, try to get individual weights for your heavier items. For stuff under a pound you may want to buy an inexpensive 10 lb. scale. Digital ones are nice but not essential.
· Look at my equipment lists (my list has a discussion of how I achieve my sub-eight pound pack) and the lists of other ultralight backpackers (see Links). This should give you a good idea of how you can reduce your pack weight and what type of equipment is available.
· If you can, put together a spreadsheet with all your equipment weights. This is an indispensable analysis tool.
· See what you can leave at home. Anything you don't bring is free weight reduction. Think hard about this one. Do you really need it?
· Try to figure out where you'll get the most "bang for the buck." E.g. figure out how much a new item costs and divide that by the amount of weight it will save you over your old equipment. Target the items that give you the most weight loss for the fewest dollars.
· If you can, don't try to do this all at once. Many items regularly go on sale or are closed out. Watch carefully over the course of a year and you could save 30 to 70 percent on your equipment.
To read more http://www.adventurealan.com/
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