Going solo? How has ultralight made you an outcast?

[Art Sandt]

I don't think that going UL has impacted my interactions with normal people (friends and acquaintances who don't know anything about backpacking, I just don't talk about backpacking with them), but it has definitely made me an outcast among the casual backpackers I know. From the moment one of my backpacking friends or relatives starts packing his "ultralight" 7 pound internal frame backpack to the moment we leave the trail, I can't help myself from spewing advice and suggestions about how they could easily save weight without having to spend money, or, if they were going to spend money, what they should buy to cut weight most efficiently. I realize that they don't want to hear it, and that I can be a nuisance, but I do it anyway. Even when I try to "go easy" for one trip, I still am talking about my own gear. For instance I went on a trip recently with a guy who had all his clothes, food, sleeping gear, and everything in individual dry bags. In addition, he had a huge 9 ounce rain cover for his backpack. By contrast, I used one S2S ultra-sil drybag as my pack liner, one stuffsack for miscellaneous gear, and my food in a large OP sack. It rained quite a lot on the trip and I for some reason couldn't help but remind my friend that my gear was just as dry as his after each downpour.

>I don't think you've gone crazy until you start looking into body modifications.

Uh uh. Lately I've been thinking of adding trekking poles to my wrist bones so I can use my hands without having to drop my poles.

[Jeremy Greene]

"…I can't help myself from spewing advice and suggestions about how they could easily save weight…"
-artsandt

Specifics are meaningless until the concept is sold. Just switch packs for a mile.

[Chad Miller]

>From the moment one of my backpacking friends or relatives starts packing his "ultralight" 7 pound internal frame backpack to the moment we leave the trail, I can't help myself from spewing advice and suggestions about how they could easily save weight without having to spend money, or, if they were going to spend money, what they should buy to cut weight most efficiently. I realize that they don't want to hear it, and that I can be a nuisance, but I do it anyway.< Art Sandt

I think it has nothing to do with you being and ultra light backpacker and everything to do with your personality.

[Art Sandt]

That could be so.

[Chad Miller]

It's ok; kind of admitting you have a problem is the first step words recovery. :)

[Devin Montgomery]

So I see I'm not the only nerd around here. I was speaking a bit tongue-in-cheek when I said it made me an outcast. I just get funny looks from my wife sometimes. Chad's probably right – the nerdom preceded the UL nerdom.

[Chad Miller]

Ah, it's all just nerdom, embrace it! You should be proud of your inner dork. I know I am.

[EndoftheTrail]

Anyone reading my infrequent posts will know that I care little about gear. Just saying.

[Jay Wilkerson]

ULTALITE SICKNESS 24/7

[Monty Montana]

My "normal" backpacking friends used to refer to me as a gearhead. The disdain dripping off the word was palpable. Then they went on a week-long trip, deciding to leave their 7 lb tents behind because their packs were already sooo heavy. Well, it rained. And it rained. And it rained. They were miserable. So they cut the trip short and made their way dejectedly home. Upon hearing their sad story, I laid an old silnylon catenary cut tarp on them that I no longer used. It weighed 12 oz. I thought it to be too heavy. They were ecstatic. "Morituri te salutamus", they cried!

Now they call me "on the cutting edge", but they still look at me sideways when they say it. And that's quite alright.

Montani Semper Liberi!

[Juston Taul]

My friends, being the smart asses that they are, often ask me how much something weighs. They don't follow the UL mantra. At first they were surprised and sometimes disgusted that I actually knew. Now that just expect it. ha! :D

[Steven Hanlon]

i consider myself a normal backpacker. i do not use an UL pack, sleeping bag, or shelter. i like my 4 pound pack and 3 pound tent. i know they weigh a massive amount, but i like them. i reduce weight in other things, like my clothes, cooking kit, and accessories.

my friends think i'm over the top. i have refined my gear selection so much that i rarely come back with unused items in the pack. usually it's food i didn't eat on the last day. the thought of pie and a milkshake are to blame ;)

i have never felt unsafe but my friends grew up with the scout mantra pounded into their heads – be prepared. i was a scout as well, and knowledge and ingenuity are probably the best tools for preparedness i have. my MacGyver side tends to come out when a problem needs solved and i tend to do pretty well.

discomfort and safety are sometimes a fine line to dance, but it is rare that i am uncomfortable in the back country. the more i go out, the better i refine my process, the better prepared i am. lugging 20 pounds of 'you never know' gear just doesn't make sense.

we are born into the world with nothing but now we need electronic gizmos and high tech fabrics to survive just doesn't seem to make sense. the goal for me to connect with nature, not use it as a backdrop for technowankery

[Connie Dodson]

I must be a UL nerd.

Most people haven't noticed my "secret" indulgence: all the tons of equipment and gear I have purchased so I can have the most superlative lightweight and ultra-lightweight gear that will serve the purpose of dual-use, multi-use or become the MacGuyver key to backpacking perfection.

I don't want a 12-step program.

I celebrate my ultra-lightweight needy-ness.

I have raised myself up from consumerism to the pursuit of the happiness of perfection in minimalist provisions, years ago, by reading Calvin Rutstrum, North American Canoe Country, The Wilderness Cabin and Paradise Below Zero.

[Jim W.]

"the simple fact that i now have a sewing machine freaks anyone out that knows me."
I know how you feel. I got three pair of sewing scissors, a seam ripper, and a rotary cutter for Christmas. I won't mention that at work.

I have to guard my discussion of gear around everyone (except on BPL).

[Nick Gatel]

Well, there are those who are consumed by UL, and constantly trying to convert the world, kinda like religion.

People around me just know I backpack. They wouldn't know the difference between a Gregory Whitney 95 or a GG Murmur. Plus, since I don't try to convince anyone to get into the sport (I like to reduce the number of people in the wilderness, not encourage more users) I don't talk much about what I do.

However over Christmas we were visiting relatives. Part of my vacation was a 4 trip. Since I was not sure where I was going to hike, I brought a lot of gear and was sorting things out to pick the items I needed. I had planned either to hike Mt Charleston in Vegas or a loop in the Lake Mead area, so I had a lot of stuff. I picked the Lake Mead area, so I was discarding all the snow equipment. The in-laws were surprised that I knew the weight of each item though. Eyebrows were raised when I pulled out my laptop and put together my list in my spreadsheet. They see me more as a computer geek.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

It amuses me how the boyscouts seem to get the whole "be prepared" thing wrong. You're not prepared if you are lugging tons of what-if stuff but don't have a 1oz mosquito net and then you slap furiously away at the mosquitoes. Or if you have a sub-zero winter parka suitable for Siberia in the middle of summer and the weather report is calling for a heat wave.

I went backpacking with someone recently. I never said a word to him about his stuff or my stuff, but he kept saying all these defensive things about how much he liked his stuff even if it wasn't super light. I felt like an outcast. My very presence made him uncomfortable.

I got a lot of comments about my tiny pack on the PCT. Some people were amazed, some were defensive, others curious, and one guy was actually hostile and said I was another one of those un-prepared ultralighters. He tried to find things to criticize. As I walked away from him, I walked on some loose, angular rocks he shouted to me that my running shoes were totally inappropriate because look how my ankles were bent! They were loose, angular rocks for crying out loud! There was no other way to walk on them. It cracked me up in a way because here I was in northern Washington after hiking for months and months and this was obviously his day 1. I guess I was prepared well enough so far…

[Laurence Beck]

My family knows I am into backpacking so they buy me all sorts of gadgets from REI for my birthday. The problem is, "They don't even know how much the stuff weighs or if it is really needed anyway!". Once you have gone through a couple of UL iterations, you don't just throw some gimmicky gadget into your pack unless, because of it, you can remove another heavier item.

Luckily, REI takes everything back. :)

[Scott Ireland]

REI needs a registry for hikers like other stores do for weddings…that'll solve that.

[EndoftheTrail]

Hey, maybe we can start a new REGISTRY branch and direct our 'friends and acquaintences' there! :)

[b s]

I'm pretty sure REI does have a registry. And I think Campmor has one too.

[ben wood]

REI does have a registry, my friend registered there when we got married

[Ian White]

I am first noticed my UL differentiations in city life at the grocery. I noticed I had been in the bulk section for an hour checking weight/volume ratios, buying items I would normally consider junk food, and thinking to myself about how healthy I was being by finding these great sources of calories. Now the label is the first thing I look at when I discover a new food at a store.

I go on many trips with people not familiar with UL backpacking. I certainly stand out. But as the bags are packed in the parking lot I find myself with the majority of food. I know that if others carry 40+ pound packs they will get tired quickly. Heck, that is why I started lightening my load in the first place. So now I often choose to bear the burden of extra food so that everybody has fun in the hills. I still find that I am the one with energy after a days hike. And I need that energy cause people usually end up asking me about the gear I bring, multiple use times, and other UL ideas.

I just have to wait till the end of a trip to really notice in a nerdy and self appreciatory way how much better i feel at the end of a trip than before i lost the weight

Then i go back to work and really feel like a backpacking nerd!

[Mark McLauchlin]

+1 Nick.
"(I like to reduce the number of people in the wilderness, not encourage more users)"

Speaking of scouts…

[Elena Lee]

OMG, this is so true! i'm currently going thru a search and rescue training. This "experienced" instructor guy made a whole speech how the lightweight packing was so inappropriate in the S&R situations. He failed to make one single objective argument on why exactly. Number one excuse you have to be "prepared". All this ultralight stuff is just too weak and won't work. "This is not the time to think about you, but about the team and the others" and he said that obviously looking into my direction. Then he said "not only should you be prepared to carry your own stuff, you should be prepared to carry the victim's stuff" and i looked around at everyone's backpacks, most of them filled to the top with crap, stuff dangling from the sides. there wasn't one backpack you could possibly fit anything without creating a third floor of stuff piled on top of each other!! however, i could unroll half of the space of my golite pack and provide at least 1,000 cubic inches of extra volume. Good thing that their training manual has a three-step instruction illustration on how to put the backpack appropriately on, he he. Not to mention everyone else collapsing under the weight having to break all the day thru the woods with their backpacks on.

Climbers are even worse. We had 6 people going to mt Adams one day. 3 of them looked like they carried a refrigerator on their backs for extra 'safety' on a one night trip. I didn't say anything because they were dudes, and they were American dudes. Of course, the three never made above the base camp, and barely made it to the bottom.

But there are also positive stories. Some people listen and are thankful for gear advice. Some people have no choice as I ruthlessly go thru their packs before the trip and eliminate all the junk. They are true friends though, but even they want to kick me in the face!

[EndoftheTrail]

I think it's completely useless trying to argue with the mainstream that UL techniques are safe and fun. Who are we against the multi-billion-dollar outdoor equipment marketers who trumpet the dangers out there so folks will buy more gear?

A much better way is simply to influence by example. We don't have to lead or follow. We just need to be around so folks can see firsthand the joys of hiking light — and answer questions they may have.

[Author]

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