Tumpline

[David Tyrrell]

Chouinard is actually using one in the movie 180 degrees south. I just watched it like two days ago for the first time and was wondering what it was thinks for your post and helping me to figure it out.

[Royal Magnell]

Anyone seen this article?

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/nepalese-porters-are-worlds-most-efficient-carri.html

[Lisa Frugoli]

Now I know what to do with all those straps & webbing I cut off my packs! Could have multiple uses also – first aid comes to mind.

http://www.thecleanestline.com/2011/08/on-tumplines.html

[Mark R]

Perhaps since the tumpline has been a dominant way to carry packs for several thousand years, perhaps the problem may not be the tumpline, but our understanding of how to use it appropriately.

[Ratatosk]

I wove a tumpline out of agave in Peru once.  It took about forty five hours, all in. I made friends with a lot of old people that normally wouldn’t be interested in talking to an anglo; they mainly laughed at my attempts to use one.

Carrying loads solely with a tumpline is rough if you’re not used to it; seven or eight pounds over a mile or so would wear me out and was enough to worry I might be causing myself damage. The one place they really shine is balancing a canoe while portaging; if you look at center thwarts in old bark boats, they generally have two nubs or a groove or some means to catch the tump tails from slipping to the center of the thwart. I never worried about a wannigan or wrapping a load with it but as a stabilizer it can be really helpful.

They’re meant to go over the top of the front of the head, as opposed to “the forehead”.

[Cody M]

Does anyone have a tumpline they are looking to get rid of?

[Terran Terran]

I used to carry the big paving stones on my head.  I found out the hard way. If it’s too heavy, it’s too heavy. No matter how you lift, or how strong your neck is, or your back, it compresses your spine and every twist and turn you make grinds your discs together and they slowly start disintegrating and pinching the old sciatic nerve. I can’t sit for a long time and I can’t hike very far without using trekking poles. It’s not crippling, but it’s limiting and very irritating. I wake up with leg cramps. I get numbness in my arms and feet. I’m sure there’s other factors, but it’s just not a good idea carrying anything but a hat on your head. That’s just my opinion.

[Murali C]

You cannot say you want to run a marathon and go run one! You have to build up the miles. You start with 3 miles, increase it to 4 miles and so on. It is a six month process.

Similarly you cannot say you want to use a tumpline and start attempting to carry 25 to 30 lbs on a tump line. You need to start with 5 lbs, train for couple of weeks, increase it to say 10lbs for a month or so etc. See how it is in a few months.

So many folks give up on bicycling because they cannot get used to their butts hurting. What they don’t know is that it happens to even seasoned veterans if they have not biked in a long time. After a few rides, you will not feel it. But, most abandon after a couple of rides.

Everything in life is getting used to something new with enough time. Patience and persistence.

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