Podcast: Sub-3 on the PCT with Glen Van Peski

[Benjamin Smith]

Companion forum thread to:

Podcast: Sub-3 on the PCT with Glen Van Peski

[Phil Barton]

Great job, Carol. Listened to the podcast this morning. I hope that this becomes a regular feature here at BPL.

[Carol Crooker]

Thanks! Yes, podcasts will be a regular feature. Next week Andy Skurka from his northern Minnesota trek. Then lots of podcasts from OR.

[Sam Haraldson]

Nice work on the podcast, Carol. This will be cool hearing things "straight from the horses mouth" as these podcasts come out. The addition of photos, gearlists, etc to go along with the audio should make for a nice multimedia experience.

[Darren Christie]

Just talked to Podcast Bob over at The Outdoors Station and Backpackinglight.co.uk podcast fame, and he's been listening to these shows and has really enjoyed them. And also had these words to say "Congratulations and well done to the team. Hope to hear more from the 'Golden Throat' competition winner soon ;-)"

I've also enjoyed them very much and hope that you guys cover some of the UK scene as well. Maybe the TGO Challenge in May each year?

[Mary Simpson]

Hey Carol–I really enjoyed listening to you and Glen talking about his gear. Really pleasant. I got curious to see what my pack weight would be using gear I already own and following Glen's example. I came out at 5.3 lbs!! My total weight ended up lighter than Glen's because I eat less :) and I am 5' 3" not 6' 4" Mary

[Carol Crooker]

Yes, Glen is definitely at a height disadvantage when it comes to SUL bragging rights!

[Peter Sustr]

Thats crazy how little weight he is carrying. I tried weighting my equipment and it was over 9lbs and would have to work hard to get it lower. I was just at the GoLite office in Boulder and was thinking about Andy being out there and how he was doing. Everyone in the office was excited for him and I hope all is well. Can't wait to hear his podcast.

[Don Wilson]

Glen –

FYI, that's a harmless Gopher Snake in the photo. They can be excitable at times, but can't do much damage.

Don

[Carol Crooker]

Eeeuuuuwww.
My adrenaline sure would be pumping if I ran across that harmless little snake.

[Glen Van Peski]

Don –

Thanks for clearing that up. I'll have to take you along next time for on-the-spot identification!

–Glen

[BPL Subscriber]

As much as I like listening to Glen talk, I'm taken aback by the sudden prevalence of podcasts. To me, they just seem lazy, a way to avoid reducing raw material to effective text and photos, and I just don't click on them. I hope they won't become common at BPL, since I'll never start using them due to the amount of time they take relative to the benefits they yield, and when one appears in an otherwise useful information source, I leave with the feeling that I've likely missed out on some critical information due to a lack of editorial effort.

Sorry to podcast and video fans, but they're not very useful for most things, and are used way too much. It's pretty rare that they have something to convey that isn't managed more efficiently and effectively with text and photos. But this is from someone who only bothers to watch television for major wars and part of the Summer Olympics.

Let me try to make that sound more like a constructive suggestion. I find video and audio material to be more useful as illustrations, much as a photo or table would be used. Audio is appropriately used to illustrate such things as a musical example. Video might be used effectively to illustrate a complex manipulation of some object (e.g., "this is how I quickly turn my poncho into a shelter when it's time to bed down in the rain"), but it's probably nearly always a good idea to describe the operation in text as well (e.g., "first grab the edge of the poncho…"). The video or audio material can then be used after the reader makes the decision, based on the text, whether the described contents warrant the "multimedia" support and whether they wish to invest the time for that specific purpose at the decision moment.

[Carey Parks]

You are not wrong Bob, text is (for the moment) more searchable than audio. And many people learn/absorb information best when they can read it at their own pace – be that faster or slower than the spoken word.

But there are others who take up information best thru their ears. And others who don't have the 10 minutes to spend in front of their computer but who do have 45 minutes to spend driving or hopefully walking to work when they can listen.

Your point being a good one that ONLY a podcast or ONLY written text are less than ideal, and in a perfect world we'd have transcripts of the pod casts (maybe I should work on that software) like we have programs to read us our e-mail.

But, until we get to that perfect world, I'm glad most of BPL is text and that some of it is audio – much more emotion and inflection comes thru hearing the speakers words.

Thanks for the PodCast folks. When will it be out in braile ?

[Doug Johnson]

I LOVED the new podcast! It was very well put together- great job Carol- and Glen too! I know it was a lot to put it together.

A very cool addition to the site to supplement our bazillion words and images. I can't wait for when our reviews and articles are supplemented by video as well!

Doug

[Bill Fornshell]

I think the Podcast was great and with the photo's and gear list along with it how much more do you need?

[Greyson Howard]

The idea of the speeder belt is interesting, I have been thinking a lot lately about distributing weight more across the torso, rather than in the pack.
Would hip belt pockets, and water storage, waterbottle bungees on the sholder straps, and a pouch on the sternum strap allow for a lighter overall pack design?
Something like an U.L. version of a military harness system might be kind of cool.

[Brett .]

Greyson, about the speeder pouch.. A solution I used in the military when my main pack was full was to carry a smaller pack, worn backwards and put on after the main pack. I liked the feeling of balancing out the weight with some in front, but the sensation of having something there was annoying.
Has anyone else actually carried items up front with success?

[Douglas Frick]

>Has anyone else actually carried items up front with success?

I have the LuxuryLite front pack that I use with my LuxuryLite pack. I load it with a liter or two of water, snacks for myself and kids, and other small gear, as well as having the map readily visible. It noticeably balances out the backpack.

Also check out the Aarn bodypack.

(Oh yeah: great podcast!)

[paul johnson]

Sure. Two 24oz "sippy" (can drink on the move) water bottles mounted AR-style – one on each pack strap. Also, relatively small (supposedly) 450 in^3 fanny pack worn 180 degrees around from the lumbar region; therefore, in front of the waist/lower abdomen – 350 in^3 main coompartment and two 50 in^3 compartments (one on each side of the main compartment). I've tried a larger one, ~600 in^3, but it was annoying. The smaller one i have (bought from Eddie Bauer over 25yrs ago) is RARELY in the way. Can see past it. Can lift legs as high as they will go – only then do my upper thighs contact it.

I can fit a 1L Platy in it and a few other little things – 8oz "Honey Bee" or a couple of Clif bars; plus bug dope, Rain-X Anti-Fog, AqM, etc. in the side pockets. I don't do it, but it has two leather patches on the top for lashing a Spin/Sil-poncho or some other relatively small/light piece of gear.

Works for me. YMMV. HYOH.

[paul francis]

really enjoyed the GVP interview Carol. Listening to the backpacking podcasts on offer on the web, via my iPod, while I'm out for my daily walks beats reading stories in front of a computer any day of the week!
Podcasts will be a great addition to the features on offer at BPL and this was a great start, keep them coming!

[Ryan Jordan]

Thanks for all the great feedback. To answer BobOne and others about "where this is going":

1. We're expanding the podcast program to feature a variety of content types (not just interviews) on a regular basis.

2. We're using podcasting as both a complement for written content and standalone, in a way that takes advantage of the audio medium to present material better suited to audio (conversations, wilderness recordings, some types of essays, news reporting) as well as for convenience : "it's nice to have at the gym or on the commute". I don't think we'll use audio to describe how to pitch a tent or describe photographs.

Podcasts aren't replacing any written content at BPL, i.e., our word count will be maintained; consider podcasts complementary.

[John S.]

Is the mp3 file size correct? I get about 14 MB. Nice podcast.

[BPL Subscriber]

I've had decent luck with getting some weight out front but think that for my body, a truly satisfactory solution would remove or substantially reduce contact with the front of the body by carrying the weight of the front load on a structure that is hard-tied to the back load.

The front-loading project is worthwhile in my estimation, not only to reduce the fore-aft balancing effort, but also to allow lower-effort vertical axis rotation enabled by the reduced polar moment of inertia created by spreading the load around more of the body surface (thereby keeping more of it near the vertical axis) rather than cantilevering most of it farther in the rearward direction. All else equal, a longer cantilever should require more massive structure, and as Glen alludes, the structure needed in his circumstances for a full water load is wasted when the water load diminishes.

But I think there are some limitations for my body with soft front-loading arrangements. Reversed fanny packs and the speeder belt arrangement were of some use but I found that pressure near the front of the hips tended to induce ilopsoas spasms. Among other approaches, I tried twisted windbreakers loaded with various items, and a water bag held by straps sewn into a nylon casing. Body temperature regulation was also affected, sometimes for the better, but since there was a net reduction in flexibility of temperature regulation if the load was left in place, it was hard to count that as a positive. Heat input to the load was also altered. Finally, there was some sense of wasted effort as the front of the legs applied force to the load with each step.

I think the gym and commute applications for audio have some greater potential, but that it will take some time for that potential to be realized. It seems to me that we're in the very early days of providing a base of useful audio that can be informedly and selectively deployed on occasions when other information delivery channels are not available. Personally, the inability to get much utility from audio has led me to fairly strictly minimize transportation time (even at substantial direct career cost), and to long ago switch my cardio time at the gym to a recumbent stationary bicycle, which readily allows reading, at least up to a certain cardio output level.

I think it's probably helpful to keep the idea of illustration vs. alternative delivery mechanism in mind when preparing content, so as to produce both the best text-centric content and the best standalone multimedia content.

Bill, it's not so much that I want more (in the sense of overall volume) from online information, but that I want to preserve effective random-access capabilities so as to support effective research and time management. Better random-access capabilities do, however, let me gorge more overall effective volume :)

[Andrew Browne]

Thought the podcast was great…… better than an article…..but the pics etc accompaning it also helped
Having an experienced ultra light backpacker like Carol interviewing, helped draw Glen, with leading questions (based on her experiences) to give more detailed explanations for for his choices with gear and techniques undertaken…an article would not necessarily have extracted this info!
More Podcasts like this would be great
10/10 for this addition to backpackinglight.com

[Adam McFarren]

I'd like to cast a vote requesting transcripts for podcasts in the future. As "BPL Subscriber" points out, a transcript is search-able (non-English speaking readers can even attempt a Google translation on a transcript). While I listen to a lot of podcasts, I never take away as much information from that format as I do from an article.

-adam

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