Gourmet Gearlist for solo tavel through the woods
Pack-Golite Breeze-12
Garbage Bags-.25
Sleeping bag-summer-Western Mountaineering Iroquois
fall-WM Badger
Water Bottle x2-2 oz from grocery store
Shelter-Homemade sil-nylon-15
Groundcloth-Tyvec-10
Pad-Z-rest cut down-8
Fishing Pole
Windshirt-Patagonia Dragonfly-3
Rain jacket-TNF diad-9
Wind pants-Golite-5.75
Warm hat-Thriftgear fleece-1.25
Headlamp-Zippka-2
Stakes-3.75
tights-smartwool-2.5
Warm Jacket-Micropuff-11
Socks -15
Warm Shirt-Capilene-6.5
Medical kit-2.75
Windscreen-1.5
Pot handle-1
Stove-Esbit-3
cord-1.75
Cup-Thrift-1
Pot/cozy-1 liter-5.75
Fire/emergencyKit-3
Gloves-TNF powershild-2
123oz=7.68Lbs
I have found as many have, that a basic ten pound base weight is easy to achieve without any undue risk or deprivation. It is gained primarily via a reduction of tent-backpack and sleeping bag weight, although everything really does go together as a kit. I want to emphasize what many know but what I think some may still be concerned with, which is safety. If your worry is bugs and you don't camp in a jungle, then I can't help you and your a weak american
This kit is for three season, sleeping below treeline, and without continuous snow.
However, there is a certain amount of common sense and skill that must be followed (I believe rigorously (my wife might say facistically) in order to assure safety.
1) Drink enough water throughout your hike. Either be sure you can find water easily ( as in a wet year) or carry a little weight penalty to make sure you have some if you make some wrong designs) Not only does an extra liter of water greatly extend your chances of survival, but, it helps your mind relax to know that you can just sit down and heat some water for tea or coco.
2) Have the ability to start a fire in the rain. This means that a little extra weight in the form of dry tinder, matches, a lighter and some third means in a third area of your kit is needed. Remember, this is for that river crossing where you slipped in, your bag is dunked, your cold, and it starts to hail, all in a matter of ten minutes. This is not unusual or unlikely. I have found that in addition to carrying tinder, it is worth the effort to carry a fanny pack full of dry sticks (I use this as a support for my belt-less pack) up to an inch and a half in diameter if there has been or may be bad weather. If the weather is clear dont sweat it. If it begins to rain, pick up some dry skicks and carry them with you- Esbit tabs make the best wet weather tinder in my experience.
3) Keep a set of warm clothes in a dry (garbage) bag in your pack,and DO NOT remove them until you have a shelter up. This can be a difficult rule to stick by, but I think it is critical. Your hiking along all day in the rain, and are getting a little cold. You know that you could get some more mileage if you just warmed up a bit with your warm shirt or jacket. My rule would make me throw up my tarp between some trees before I take out the insulated jacket. I can then brew up in the dry with some warmth. If then I decide to continue, I put the micropuff back into its bag, take down the tarp and venture back out. My warm (kept dry) cloths are of course dependent upon the geography and season, however it includes at least a light weight fleece shirt, synthetic or down pullover, socks, fleece hat, and usually although not always long underwear. Of course a sleeping bag can be considered part of this kit. There are those who would argue, not without merit, that the sleeping bag could serve this purpose alone. This however is my personal margin of safety and weight penalty for my skill level and confidence. Also, having a good synthetic jacket and extra dry clothes is the reason I can carry down for sleeping while knowing that I would survive if the bag did get soaked. (Put up tarp, put on dry clothes, build fire) You can see that keeping your sleeping bag in its own garbage bag separate from dry clothes (and for me also inside a silnylon stuff sack) adds to redundancy in two areas, and demonstrates the importance of dry warm insulation.
4) Not imperative but useful: When stopping in bad weather to eat, take the time to put up your tarp, and put on warm clothes. There is something to the diligence of this approach that is useful.
As you can see, none of the above rules have anything to do with carrying a heavy tent versus a lightweight tarp. In fact, as many others have said, carrying less weight enables you to perform several important activities.
1) move up, over and off a pass, to below treeline before bad weather hits.
2) be less exhausted, therefore more focused and creative in the face of changes
The only difference between a tent and a tarp is the need to camp below treeline in a storm. Clearly that is were you should be anyway, but I will emphasize here that I agree with many on this. Sleep above cold katabatic air but in the shelter of trees, preferably in the soft duff of pines. However, do be careful of very dry pine duff in downpours, as if you are in the wrong place, the water will run right off and under your tarp. You need either absorbant soil or a high spot for a safe tarp pitch.
Garbage Bags: You notice I have already mentioned two, one for my sleeping bag, and one for my dry clothes. I usually have two more. These can serve as sleeping bag covers, vapor barriers, ponchos, and can be filled with dry or partially dry duff to serve as insulation. Point is, always have a few large glad bags.
So, you see, the weight I save by going ultralight actually allows me to be more cautious and to have a greater, not a smaller, margin of safety. I don't fret about two pound or extra water (although I try to avoid this by planning) three ounces of sticks, an ounce of plastic bags, or even an extra warm shirt. I never go out with the thought that a change in the weather would be dangerous. In fact, I expect it, and in my heart of hearts, hope for it.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Taking a kid camping
It seems that for many people, backpacking ends when children come, and doesn't start again until the rascal reaches about 7 years old. I have found that ultralight technique is well suited to camping with little kids who can't carry their own gear. the following is a little description of our current approach to camping with our three year old. We first took our daughter to Desolation Wilderness when she was 4 months old, and in many ways that was the easiest time because she didn't complain much, was still light enough to carry, and I could use my clothing as her sleeping gear, saving more weight. I think on that first trip she slept in a Patagonia puffball jacket, while I was in my Western Mountaineering Iroquois under our Tarptent Rainshadow. I carried her in front in a large piece of fabric called a Didymos http://www.didymos.de/english/index_e.htm and on my back carried my Golite Breeze. My wife carried the G4. The Rainshadow is still our shelter of choice. Henry Shires http://www.tarptent.com/ makes perhaps the best ultralight shelters in my opinion, and the Rainshadow is his three person tarptent. I have been thinking about a large pyramid however, given my now three year old daughters propensity for jumping up and down in the tent, and her utter lack of concern for things like mud and wet tent walls. My current approach for her sleeping bag is a north face beeline which I pull to shorten from the inside, giving her a 19 oz bag with an entire extra two layers over her (three layers total). She sleeps on a car windshield reflector and never complains. I know, my wife thinks it's cruel, but kids don't really need padding, their bones are still soft. Because she sleeps in pajamas she is never cold, although I bring along a little down suit just in case. My concern when she was younger, that she would slide out of the bag and get cold at night is no longer a problem. for those with infants and kids under two, I think a nice down suit is a great option for ensuring their warmth. Someone needs to make some nice kid size Polarguard and Qantum suits! My wife and I share a Western Mountaineering Badger used as a quilt, with a piece of Epic fabric pinned along the zippers to decrease drafts and give us something to lay on. We also have a Golite Fuzz-2 that I like, but it's heavier and not as warm as the Badger, so...it ends up staying home. We started sharing a sleeping bag with pinned in fabric on the JMT using a Mountainsmith Vision, which is a great bag that is no longer made, giving us easy 25 degree comfort at two pounds.
Carrying
This is a bit of a work in progress, and my dream of a single wheeled sled a-la Bob bicycle trailer meets snow Pulk (see the pictures above) is in the works. In the meantime however, My wife carries all of our gear in a GVP G4, www.gossamergear.com at about 25 pounds max. I carry our daughter and the food in a thriftgear Snugli backpack carrier which has a big integrated bag. On our most recent three day 32 mile trip this worked relatively well, although I was carrying 40 pounds in a crappy bag. More reason to get to making my land-sled.
So, backpacking with a slow moving kid means carrying her if one wants to make any distance. She did alot of running and then "carry me" which was fine. My approach was basically for her to have fun the whole time, and for us to learn how to have fun within a new set of contexts and expectations. In both domains we were successfull.
So, backpacking with a slow moving kid means carrying her if one wants to make any distance. She did alot of running and then "carry me" which was fine. My approach was basically for her to have fun the whole time, and for us to learn how to have fun within a new set of contexts and expectations. In both domains we were successfull.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Dirt Floor
Dirt floor is the name given to a movement whereby I'm attempting to understand, articulate and generally theorize about life simplification. I enter this pursuit with the presumption that my life, and I believe many others, is incredibly complex and an interest in understanding why, and how that may change, toward simplicity.
Beginning with an inquiry into material culture, I am attempting to locate my need for and pursuit of comfort. The premise is that comfort very quickly becomes psychological and emotional after ones physical needs are met, and that these needs are insatiable after one begins to pursue them.
Dirtfloor essentially asks then, at what point am I physically OK, and when is any additional material comfort simply a layer of psychological and emotional comfort-er.
While I am an avid (occasional) ultralight backpacker, who is highly influenced by the aesthetics of minimalism, Dirt-floor is primarily about drawing the simplification of ultralight backpacking to the domestic sphere.
I live in a house proud culture, where one is judged, or judges himself, upon his ability to create and maintain a ship size environmentally unsustainable home. Even someone who spends months backpacking along a pristine trail, likely has an expensive home, car, and computer to return to. I do ( Well, my car is not expensive, but I wish it was).
My thoughts and experiments:
What would happen to me, in all of my domains (psychological,emotional,spiritual,intellectual) and to the world, if I turn off the power to my home one evening a week? So many people around the world have no power for much of the day, and yet instead of thinking how we can emulate them, understand how they manage, and how this experience may be beneficial. We seen only interested in demonstrating to the world that more comfort is better.
Beginning with an inquiry into material culture, I am attempting to locate my need for and pursuit of comfort. The premise is that comfort very quickly becomes psychological and emotional after ones physical needs are met, and that these needs are insatiable after one begins to pursue them.
Dirtfloor essentially asks then, at what point am I physically OK, and when is any additional material comfort simply a layer of psychological and emotional comfort-er.
While I am an avid (occasional) ultralight backpacker, who is highly influenced by the aesthetics of minimalism, Dirt-floor is primarily about drawing the simplification of ultralight backpacking to the domestic sphere.
I live in a house proud culture, where one is judged, or judges himself, upon his ability to create and maintain a ship size environmentally unsustainable home. Even someone who spends months backpacking along a pristine trail, likely has an expensive home, car, and computer to return to. I do ( Well, my car is not expensive, but I wish it was).
My thoughts and experiments:
What would happen to me, in all of my domains (psychological,emotional,spiritual,intellectual) and to the world, if I turn off the power to my home one evening a week? So many people around the world have no power for much of the day, and yet instead of thinking how we can emulate them, understand how they manage, and how this experience may be beneficial. We seen only interested in demonstrating to the world that more comfort is better.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
What is Thrift-Gear?
Thrift-gear is dedicated to the discovery and creative use of lightweight and ultralight outdoor gear found at thrift stores.
There are three primary veins of gear development and distribution for lightweight and ultra lightweight outdoor gear. First there is the cottage industry, which through individual creativity defines the cutting edge of lightweight possibility in terms of design, typically utilizing highly technical materials. Next, homemade gear, often related to the cottage industry, and owing thanks to the generosity of those designers who provide either inexpensive patterns and materials or open source design often leads to new cottage companies, or simply to an inexpensive albeit laborious access to cutting edge gear. Finally, there are mainstream companies that utilize their technical advantage and access to economy of scale materials and expensive talent to sell high end gear at the very top of their product range. Typically these companies also offer a huge range of less than cutting edge gear, which may support the "top shelf" equipment. However, the larger companies often are a season or more behind the cottage companies in producing the most cutting edge gear.
There are problems with the above approaches to lightweight and ultralight gear acquisition.
Although often a great piece of gear can be found from any one of the above designs outlets, all of them use new materials, which are typically newly manufactured petroleum products (with at best a small percentage of recycling) and are typically shipped from overseas of diesel powered barges.
Even the most inexpensive home made equipment then, is not as low impact on the environment as one might hope.
The cost of homemade high quality gear, while far cheaper than retail, is still expensive, with a kit costing around two hundred dollars, and many hours of sewing.
I support all three of the traditional design outlets. I especially think that the time spent on home made gear is not wasted, and puts an outdoors-person in touch with their equipment in an important way.
However, I wonder if some of the creative verve of making ones own gear can be found through thrift-gear, with a much lower cost to the environment and the pocket book.
A second purpose of thrift-gear is to help me, and anyone else who becomes involved, in moving away from the type of gear fetishization many of us currently occupy. Clearly it's only another type, but my hope is to strip myself back, not only to light weight, but to simplicity. Starting at zero, what does one actually need to have fun (maybe a new kind of fun) in the wilderness? What strange preexisting gear will satisfy my safety needs? I think the industry has in a sense been good to us, and offered some really fun items. Thrift-gear this is just another way of accessing some of the creative impulse involved in intimate participation in gear.
There are problems with the above approaches to lightweight and ultralight gear acquisition.
Although often a great piece of gear can be found from any one of the above designs outlets, all of them use new materials, which are typically newly manufactured petroleum products (with at best a small percentage of recycling) and are typically shipped from overseas of diesel powered barges.
Even the most inexpensive home made equipment then, is not as low impact on the environment as one might hope.
The cost of homemade high quality gear, while far cheaper than retail, is still expensive, with a kit costing around two hundred dollars, and many hours of sewing.
I support all three of the traditional design outlets. I especially think that the time spent on home made gear is not wasted, and puts an outdoors-person in touch with their equipment in an important way.
However, I wonder if some of the creative verve of making ones own gear can be found through thrift-gear, with a much lower cost to the environment and the pocket book.
A second purpose of thrift-gear is to help me, and anyone else who becomes involved, in moving away from the type of gear fetishization many of us currently occupy. Clearly it's only another type, but my hope is to strip myself back, not only to light weight, but to simplicity. Starting at zero, what does one actually need to have fun (maybe a new kind of fun) in the wilderness? What strange preexisting gear will satisfy my safety needs? I think the industry has in a sense been good to us, and offered some really fun items. Thrift-gear this is just another way of accessing some of the creative impulse involved in intimate participation in gear.
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