most of us can only hope for this

Jim:

I'll go halfsies on the cost of the book…

Merry Christmas!

Glenn

You can listen to a podcast with Laurent Gaudreau on Practical Backpacking. He is sponsored by Golite and seems to know his gear. In the podcast he states that the largest pack he uses is a Gust…but also uses a 4 ounce pack of his design.

I just thought I would point out the podcast and try to save you guys some money! Although he still may enjoy the book.

Happy Holidays.

—Kevin

Last year, as I was going down the South Kaibab Trail, I met Maverick going up. He had done more than 40 rim-to-rims so far that year. I don't recall him having a large pack.

He said his wife works at one of the rim stores, and she doesn't mind his being on the trail as much as he is. I do wonder, though, how it's possible not to be bored when one does the same route dozens of times a year.

It's probably fair to say, though, that, if you showed Maverick a photo of any ten-foot stretch of trail, he could tell you just where it was along the North or South Kaibab Trails.

thanks for the pointer … interesting interview. Me thinks I need to expand my horizons and watch a few more forums.

Nice to see that he'll be sharing what he knows and even nicer to see a vendor sponsoring an advocate who has a relatively low glamor quotient.

Wow.  I just read the book Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon.  The last chapter is on murders.  In 2009, Maverick (Gaudreau) apparently shot and killed his wife, called 911 and told them what he had done, then shot and killed himself.

I then googled him in connection with GoLite (which was mentioned in the book as designing a pack for him) and this was the first link that came up.

I did Cactus to Clouds a few years ago with a guy who was in his 80s. Not gonna lie – at the start of the trip I was a little worried – he looked a little frail. But he powered through the whole thing no problem – I was really impressed. Multiple other people dropped out as soon as it was safe to do so.