What’s Your Weakness?

24 Headlamps and 12 Packs.

Most of my trips away at the weekends start on Friday night and involve anywhere from 2-4 hours tramping on the Friday night before camping, so finding the perfect headlamp has been a long process that has yet to be completed…

The packs have accumulated over the years for sentimental and historical reasons as much as downsizing and lightening up. I still have the original pack I first went tramping with, a Hallmark Nomad 45 litre pack with a steel external frame. Interestingly it weighs 1.3kg (2.9lb) with a hipbelt, making it fairly weight competitive with internal framed packs today! Many kids from the late 70's and 80's in New Zealand would have started their tramping careers with this pack.

Some pictures of another Nomad:

Sunny,
Great post…I assume that you started it to find some off-the-grid Gear Swap items to supplement your own addiction (very sneaky indeed!). I suspect that there will be a flury of PM's to the folks that responded.

Just think of the things people aren't admitting to!! I assume that many members aren't counting the tents, stove, lamps, packs, pads, sleeping bags that they have "purchased for" spouses, kids, etc. BTW…I'm not talking.

I also checked out the Trail Dames website…very cool. Looks like lots of gals having fun outdoors!

Tom

easily jackets. i now only get eyerolls from family members @ them

Footwear. I blame it on my filipino blood.

I'm with the guy who earlier said "latest and greatest", such that a person end up with multiple versions of all sorts of things. My kids are often the beneficiaries of the upgrade cycle.

Though the O.P.'s mention about tents hits home; for solo tents I have an old heavy bivy, a very light Oware bivy, a Hennessy Hammock, a Gatewood Cape, my former go-to tent is a Tarptent Contrail and I just ordered a hybrid cuben/sil-nylon Lightheart Solo tent: http://www.lightheartgear.com/LightHeart_Gear/Cuben.html

The sad thing is how well I can justify all of this. At least for the light bivy and the Contrail I have a lot of miles of use to show. I just put a couple more hundred miles on my Gatewood Cape, though as it turned out only in poncho mode. And I fully intend to put a whole lot of miles on the Lightheart tent next year. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The hammock, now, I should probably sell the hammock. Hmm, or maybe my daughter would like to try it …

Because I'm not alone. As my moniker implies, I'm always looking for the perfect _____ too. Mine would be:

Westcomb eVent anything-4 jackets, 1 pair pants (all bought on sale or from Westcomb rep so no, I didn't have to refinance the house)

Shelters-Lost count…19 after listing them out. And I can't hardly bring myself to divest which is sad due to sentimentality, great deals and can't replace, etc…
Black Diamond Lightsabre Bivy
Black Diamond Lighthouse
BD Guiding Light
BD MegaLight
Bibler Big Wall bivy
Nemo Morpho
Golite SL 4+ & nest, floor
Golite SL 6+ & nest, floor
Golite Poncho Tarp
SMD Lunar Duo
SMD Refuge X
Tarptent Hogback
Tarptent Rainshadow 2
Early Winters Light Dimension
Exped Sirius Extreme
Kelty Noah's Tarp 12
Warbonnet Blackbird
Sierra Designs and Kelty family car camping tents

And bargains. Huge sucker for a nice item for cheap. Even if I don't really NEED it. I'm such a consumer (which sucks because I also feel very strong about the environment)…It just so happens that where I live in Colorado, people get rid of extremely nice gear for cheap many times at garage sales/consignment shops/thrift stores and I am very weak. But heck, you only live once and you never know when NOLS will call up and need to outfit an entire expedition from my garage. Which, unfortunately, I could almost fulfill.

Great thread!

>> Women Period. <<

>> >Whoa… that one could be really expensive!

Actually, that's when they are at their most unattractive. Ure strikes me as a masochist.

"Ure strikes me as a masochist."

Yeah – I'm into short term gain, long term pain.

Insulation is my weakness. Something about being in the cold and being snug and comfortable…well, it's a warm feeling. ;)

(Vests)
4 fleece
1 down
1 synthetic

(Sleep)
Down bag
Cuben synthetic quilt

(Baselayers)
3 set silk
2 merino tops
12ish polypro tops

(Socks)
Please don't ask.

Used to be hats and gloves, too, but I recently cleaned those out and I'm feeling good about it.

For me it is anything that Gossamer Gear or Mountain Laurel Designs offers. Fortunately for my friends, I usually give away gear I seldom use & get the added benefit of watching them enjoy it!

"Footwear. I blame it on my filipino blood."

Funny you should say. I was just thinking of Imelda as I read down through these posts. She'd fit right in here. ;-]

Imelda wore trail runners?

–B.G.–

Shehters and packs

My weakness: not knowing what I like for sure yet…

2 Western Mountaineering bags, 1 generic down bag, 1 synthetic bag, 4 sleeping pads, 4 shelters, 3 packs, a half dozen ways to filter or treat water, on and on and on.

I imagine after I do a thru-hike I'll know what I like for sure.

My weakness: not knowing what I like for sure yet…

Do NOT get a motorcycle.

I guess foremost shelters. I just love 'em. (Ya think?)

Close second on stoves and bags/quilts.

Hmmm, got a few packs too…

I need help.

Finding any tops or shoes that fit. Being 6'5" and 235 is not all it is cracked up to be.

Old Scotch :)

Wanting something new and "better." The challenge is keeping it simple, finding the essential, the epitome– in gear *and* life.

Must be shelters….at least 7 but that's without really digging into any boxes or closets.

24oz of Freedom(Beer) and Shelters..I own six different shelters and just sold two recently..

PBR, Coors, Heineken, Miller High Life, Modelo, Bud Light

REI Kingdom–sleeps 6 and used for car camping

TT Rainshadow 2– sleeps 3 used for family trips

DLG Arapaho—sleeps 1 or 2 tarp-tent style

BPL Nano Tarp–sleeps 1 or 2

MLD Serenity bug shelter–sleeps 1

Alpinlite 2.0 bug shelter

Tools…. I love tools.

But backpacking I'd say shelters since that is what I have the most of….. one 4-season two person, one lightweight 2-person and one solo.

For Gear:

1. Jackets

2. Packs

3. Homemade bags and quilts

All others:

1. Always redoing my packlist to make it a smidge lighter

2. The speed I try to make while multiday fastpacking

3. The other half, (some of you get it)

My true scapegoat in my life is my left leg that is 5/8" shorter than the right, (actually the right is longer from 2 surgery's when I was younger), but I fall on the inside of my left foot/ ankle with every step making it way to problematic.
I could probably be a top 5-10% hundred mile runner if the legs were the same length. Doing over 50 miles a week starts getting to me and 6 or more miles on pavement kills me.
Never run a marathon, but I've run 233 miles in a 3 day race on dirt.

My embarassing pot collection:

Evernew 600
Evernew 900
Evernew 1300
MSR Titan kettle
Snow Peak trek 900
BPL 900 pot (old version)
BPL 1100 pot
BPL 550 pot (old version)
Snowpeak multiset (contains 900ish and 1100ish pots)
Snow Peak mini solo pot/cup combo
Snow Peak trek 700
Antigravity Gear 2 Quart pot
Zebra billy 10cm
Zebra billy 12 cm
Zebra billy 14 cm
"Mors Kochanski" 2 Qt pot
Stansport 1L stainless pot
Stansport 1.5L stainless pot (set with above)
Trangia pot/lid from the mini cookset.

I won't count various cups (like the snow peak 600) that can also be used as small pots, though I only have 3 or 4 of those.

Wait, I guess I should list some kettles I've got:

GSI Halulite kettle
Trangia 600ml kettle
Trangia 1400ml kettle
Evernew 400ml kettle
MSR alpine stainless kettle
Stansport stainless kettle
Daiso 500ml kettle
Kelly kettle (S)
Kelly kettle (L)

Tarps, tents, heated wall tents, snow shelters… mm mm mm

Jeff

Hey those Evernew Past Pots are great. Oh, sorry you don't have those listed;-)