Backpacking Light was founded in November of 2000 with the simple mission of promoting backcountry travel in lightweight style. We are based in the Northern Rockies with offices in Bozeman, Montana and Laramie, Wyoming, with educational and guided trekking programs offered in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness of Montana (Billings area) and Medicine Bow Mountains of Wyoming (Denver area).
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Wow! What a set of submissions, each one is really great in so many different ways. The creativity shown is impressive. I am honored just to have my submission read by the judges.
Eric, I really like hearing peoples thoughts on how these lists might have been judged differently. What seemed like a simple exercise took more hours of my Chistmas vacation than I would ever admit. You hit the nail on the head with that item that I found the most challenging.
Dealing with criteria #1 vs #2…
1. Simplicity and applicability for a 24-hour trip.
2. Generic-ness and ability to appeal to a wide audience without modification.
For help with simplicity I drew apon this statement…"Your gear list should be as SIMPLE as possible and contain as few items as possible without sacrificing a great deal of comfort or safety."
Since simplicity was listed first I focused on this then tested for the other requirement like Generic-ness. To achieve simplicity I selected poncho tarping as my technique. When "testing" the list I found I could swap techniques and use the list without modification. In this way I was satisfied with criteria #2.
So for example…If my approach was "tenting" instead of "poncho tarping" all I did for the "Actuals" lines was to write in "Tarptent Moment" on the poncho tarp line, "None" on the bivy line, "precip jacket and pants" on the wind shirt line. I agree this isnt as generic as many of the other list, but this was how I addressed it.
I learned a lot during this process and appreciate BPL for sponsoring the contest.
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