Alan writes: "Using the above criteria it was harder to get down to Sub-five-pound FSO-BW than I had anticipated. I quickly realized that my primary gear focus was on keeping warm and dry. To do that and stay under weight FSO-BW, I threw out many of the Ten "Essentials" and gear numerous people would consider essential. For instance: compass, knife, [sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen]*, warm insulating jacket or vest, gloves, spare socks, long pants, TP, toothbrush/toothpaste, and no underwear. I even considered leaving my watch."
Doing an XUL overnighter isn't a big challenge, although my gear list would look quite a bit different than Alan's.
IMHO, when you start challenging systems of any kind, someone is going to get radical.
BUT, I can't see going without essentials like a compass and knife. The clothing selection is more to personal taste and metabolism — he does have rain gear and insulation. His kit would look odd coming down the trail, but that is just the sort of thing we need to get over for XUL travel.
There are so many things I would do differently– clothing selection, swap out a poncho/cape shelter, ditch the trekking poles and use a branch, go to cookless meals, etc.
Philosophically, I want to get out to enjoy my time and prefer to be more comfortable. His omission of a sleeping pad caught my attention as much as anything else. In a survival situation, you can insulate with leaves and evergreen boughs, but that runs against leave no trace for regular hiking. And I can't imagine enjoying trying to cover 75 miles in 3 days, where it becomes another sport altogether. Enough of the Rat Race– don't take it into the woods!
