WHY?

[Ashley Brown]

I suspect most (all?) here are backpackers first, and lightweight backpackers second. If gear was heavier we'd still be out there doing the same thing. That should tell you something.

IMHO lightweight backpacking is fun, interesting and challenging. But it ain't the main game.

The main story for me is being an explorer, adventurer, nature-lover. Lightweight is a footnote.

[Kent C.]

+1 Ashley.

We all (me included) hike because we like it (for whatever specific reason)! Fewer *things* and less *stuff* make it all the more satisfying.

For me, previous trips were always about being with my brothers and, the "payoff" – the view I would have from a summit or fantastic vantage point. I just endured the grind with a heavy pack to get there.

I have only gotten fully involved in lightweight over the winter, but I was just thinking yesterday (funny timing), that now, with lighter weight, it'll be about so much more. With, and because of, my light load I'll actually enjoy walking in the woods again!

And with less stuff and its inherent reduction in fiddle factor/attention stealing, what are we left with?…more time and attention for what really matters…the friends we're with and the natural and wondrous world we went out to experience!

[Roger Caffin]

> Why? Because carrying a heavy pack just plain hurts and is no fun at all.

Yup.

Cheers

[John Haley]

For many years the long hikes I took were while carrying heavily loaded packs. I was younger then and it seemed that the effort and pain involved were part of the experience. As I grew older and the rigors of life took their toll on my body, I began to cut down on pack weight and the so-called luxuries on the trail. Finally, at the age and body stage I'm at now, a light pack is a necessity if I'm to continue on long hikes on a regular basis. Spine compression, arthritis, and foot problems are major issues at this juncture, but won't stop me heading out for a month or more. Thanks to a very light pack weight I'm still able to enjoy the long treks I've come to love. To a great extent, the ability to keep hiking is related to my life itself, and when the hiking ends………

[Robert Bryant]

Because it is f***ing easier. Its just that simple.

[ben wood]

nick-
i was thinking about how you were talking about duplicate peices of equipment. we stive to take the minimal we need for a given trip, yet we have overflowing gear closets, that's kind of funny. and no, i don't think there is anything wrong with that either. i too have capitalistic tendencies (don't tell anyone), in a free market efficiency is very important. having worked in manufacturing for several years, the lean manufacturing principles you mentioned can apply to any business, hobby or family for that matter.

[Mike Clelland]

The lighter my load – the more liberating it feels to be outside – the more liberating the more I can loose myself to the mountains – I get a deeper metaphysical fix from the wilderness.

Less material stuff = More spiritual rewards

[David Passey]

For me, the reasons are:

1. Simpler is more enjoyable, and lightweight generally translates to simpler (multi-use gear, fewer items to keep track of).

2. I feel more connected. The emblematic moment for me was sheltering from a thunderstorm in the Wind Rivers under a spinntwin tarp. I was dry and protected and cooking dinner, and the storm was literally at my fingertips–absolutely awesome. My companions were zipped away from the experience in their tents.

3. I enjoy the challenge of fine tuning my gear for different trips–enough, but only enough. The gear is slightly different for each trip.

4. Less fatigue means more enjoyment, though I've never packed heavy enough for this to be a major consideration.

[Aaron Zuniga]

It brings with it a heightened clarity that inspires me. Im able to focus on things that are important-and eliminate those that are not from my life and pack!Im able to be more
intuned with my surroundings and find it easier to escape my everyday busy life. I can enjoy longer, easier days, and focus on my skills, maximizing every minute out there!

[Lynn Tramper]

For me it's a purely practical approach. Lighter pack = easier walking = more enjoyment of an activity I would be doing anyway. I would compare it to upgrading from a 5 litre V8 gas-guzzler to a modern modest hybrid car. They both can get me where I'm going, but one is easier on the pocket and environment. (Actually I upgraded from a 2.8 litre diesel to to a 660cc 5 door hatch…!).

[. .]

Because you can hide a watermelon in your pack and bring it out on the 4th or 5th day…for the kids, of course.

[Art Sandt]

I like to be outdoors, but backpacking is a reality check for me. In order to avoid forgetting that life is about more than being a part of human society, I need to occasionally remove myself from society as such that I can live a while away from people.

As far as how does lightweight translate into that: it hurts less. Obviously.

[Jesse Glover]

The number of posts in the punk rock loving ultralighters would indicate that some people are just attracted to the sub culture of whatever they are into. I go against the grain with almost everything I do (its a curse) and I think that is a big reason that it was easy for me to move to UL.

[Paul Smith]

Min/maxing

Having spent time playing rpgs, the comparison to ultralight bping is impossible to deny. Collecting and accumulating the best gear while exploring new places. Both can be addicting.

The difference is, of course, obvious.

I very much enjoy the reminder of how little that I really need to survive.

[Sean Walashek]

I haven't read others posts so don't know if others feel the same.

Its the Tao of it. There is a pursuit of perfection and art in a pack. The part of our nature that strives to bring order to our world and from that order derive beauty. The pack, in itself is a symbol for the uncarved block. It represents the limitless potential of what is capable. In its outer appearance it is a pack, what resides inside however is a reflection of its wearer. Through trail, error, practice, consistency and time it is refined and becomes a masterpiece in the eyes of its wearer. It can tote spare shoes and snorkels or a wooden bowl and bivy. To me there is no denying the art of pack. The importance of being unencumbered allows me to be more like water. The pack acts to remove distraction, bring flexibility, and embodies wu wei. Action through non action. I am free to answer the call of spontaneity and follow a path, knowing that wherever it should take me I will have the energy to carry myself out (which I have done more often than not). The pack can become a mantra and through our repetition of use we can master aspects of ourselves.

[Michael Wands]

There is something primal about existing in the "Wilds" with just a few well-chosen essentials.

Call it getting in touch with you inner primate.

[Matt Lutz]

@Sean: Art. I never thought of it that way, but I like it.

[cary bertoncini]

[Steven Hanlon]

after suffering over a roller coaster of hills on the AT in the pouring rain one trip, i took refuge in the dry comfort of a shelter. since i was cold and wet and tired, i sat in a daze for about an hour and i just stared at my pack. i really had no thoughts, i was completely transfixed as the rain came down in heavy sheets. then it happened, i realized something very important… i had way too much

this was a watershed moment for me – it didn't stop at my pack, i came home and spent a good deal of time looking at all the "stuff" i had. my tax deduction was enormous that year – the clutter of stuff in my life was weighing me down and it became obvious that the need for "stuff" followed me out on the trail.

now i'm able to enjoy life instead of passing out exhausted from the burden of my "stuff"

[Diplomatic Mike]

Why?
I'm in my late 40's, and have been hiking in the hills since i was a kid. My 'sleeping gear' on an overnight fishing trip then was 2 garbage sacks. I would pull one over my legs, and another over my head to protect me from rain. A hole was torn near my head for ventilation.
My 'cooking gear' was whatever can of food i had brought. I simply opened it and lit a fire beneath it.

As i became an adult, i had spending power, and of course i started buying stuff that i thought i needed. The 2 garbage sacks and 'hobo' stove became a heavy tent, heavy backpack, heavy stove etc, etc.

I had what folk jokingly call a mid-life crisis. After a divorce, i was forced to re-evaluate my life. I was intrigued by the 'less is more' message in Buddism. As well as losing the wife, i then started deliberately losing all the unnescessary clutter from my life. My backpacking gear was obviously included.
I guess i was sub-consciously aiming for that childlike freedom from my childhood.

I can't see myself surviving with just the robe, sandals and bowl of a Buddhist monk, but the closer i can get to their state of mind on the trail, the happier i am.
For myself, the more i can leave behind when i hike, the closer i feel to 'the nature'. :)

[Richard Gless]

> Why? Because carrying a heavy pack just plain hurts and is no fun at all.

When I first looked into lighter weight backpacking gear about 15 years ago, I noticed that it seemed like a lot of 50ish guys were doing all the posting. I've been backpacking since the 60s and with a UL pack and gear I can still do the hikes I used to do then with a 50 lb pack. No way I could hike with a 50 lb pack now – if I wasn't UL I couldn't backpack.

[Steven Hanlon]

being able to afford new stuff is a problem, but for me, it was no longer just "making do" with what i had on hand, i could go out and buy purpose specific items. i blame Madison Ave for shifting my perspective – one item CAN have multiple uses – sometimes a stick is a hammer! it's so easy to get caught up in the items and forget the reason you need it.

[James Dubendorf]

Hello,

I've enjoyed reading this thread. The "why" question feels particularly relevant to my current situation as I contemplate various life decisions and evaluate how my interest in the outdoors might fit into those decisions. Whether one approaches their relationship to the outdoors in practical or spiritual, pragmatic or religious, individual or communal terms, priorities are always at stake. To be in the outdoors is to NOT do something else- and of course there are only so many days in a lifetime.

Something that has not been mentioned, but which I think is nonetheless important, is that being in the outdoors involves not just personal choices, but the very availability of those choices, and opportunity to make them in the first place. This tells us that the evaluation of personal motivations or preferences will never be, by itself, sufficient as an explanation for who ends up in the outdoors and why they do so. For many, venturing into the mountains or desert is simply not an option, and has little to do with whether they might "choose" to do so. The question "why," therefore, is as much political as psychological. We do not live lives solely of our own making. Even categories like "nature" are not neutral, universal, and self-evident. Few landscapes on the planet are not, in some way, anthropogenic, and the opposition between nature and culture/civilization is culturally specific, and by no means shared by all people everywhere.

As for my personal motivations, I think much of it has to do with the clarity of purpose and focus which comes with being outdoors. A schooner captain once told me there were journey people and destination people in the world. Sailers were the former, and power boaters the latter! My guess is that most hikers have a fair bit of the journey in them. Something special happens, for me, on the journey. There is a clarity in determining my next task, or my next step, and in staying attuned to my surroundings. If daily life is characterized by so much ambiguity and distraction, the journey clarifies where I am and what I am doing. Daily life seems to require mid-range vision, neither focus on what is immediately at hand or what is most distant. The journey, however, allows me to simultaneously appreciate the smallest details and meditate on the horizons.

And since I live in Boulder, garments possessing superior moisture management properties are a potent aphrodisiac with the ladies (hee hee).

James

[Luymes Ted]

I just returned from an overnight solo in the mountains above L.A. I was enjoying the inner calm I feel after such an adventure. I stopped for a burger near the TH and watched the city people exiting their cars. A 6 yo child trailed her mom and dad, who both carried daypacks and were determined to get hiking. A butterfly foated past the family. For a moment the girl became radiant, looping about the butterfly for the joy of it. The parents thought she was lagging behind. They didn't see a butterfly.

Going lightweight helps me see the butterfly.

[Justin Chaussee]

I'm a simple man with simple needs. Having a lightweight pack helps me enjoy nature more by letting me focus more on the natural beauty found in nature rather than the load I carry on my back.

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