“NEW ITEM WORSHIP”

Brett:

The nice thing about your program is it can easily be expanded to 14, 16, or 18 steps for those of us who have more serious cases.

I am a culturally ignorant slob. What pray tell is metrosexuality?

Google it. It's "yucky" even to explain. :)

Metrosexual means a straight guy who has "good taste" in clothes, restaurants, furniture and homes.

Also he is "sensitive" and politically aware (read liberal, usually)

You see these latte-sipping, Prius-driving, Bluetooth-wearing, asexually-clothed, far-too-cool boy-men in trendy LA, NYC and 'Frisco areas acting, what else, "far too cool".

Eric

Rut ro. The old backpacker board had careened off into the world of judgement and generalization.

Eric, I know you are joking…?

To insinuate that Prius drivers are in some way bad is possibly showing your age and regional bias. By the way, trendy people pop up in every part of the world…not just the ones you may have passed through on a long weekend.

While I agree that "marketers" create a ton of crap…I do not think it is a new and current trend. Green shag carpet, orange fermica, and the Pinto are only but a few.

I think what can happen also is that folks that live in dense populations tend to need to express themselves more, maybe as a reaction to the subconcious realization that they are literally the same as about 30 million other people right next to them. Obviously this manifests itself in ridiculous ways…like the silly clothes…and blinking attachments to ones ear…but on the flip side, when you live in Henderson Nevada, or Elko, or Winnemucca…it gets a little harder to express yourself without getting picked on. Or in Salt Lake City it just might be illegal all together!

At least it's an addiction that is good for your health
both physical and mental.

Hi, my name is Ian
and I'm a spreadsheet junky.

I do all these spreadsheets about all my gear
what I have and what I want and what would be good for this
trip and what would be good for that trip and how this new bit of gear compares to what it replaced and on and on and on.
Then . . . I don't like the layout or some other minor
feature so I do them all again, and on and on and on.
And you know what? I LOVE IT !

Ben was visualising people having a close encounter on the Paris underground…

If you spend more time and money on grooming than your girlfriend or wife….
If you get pedicures and manicures….
You wear pointy toed boots with heels, and they ain't cowboy boots…
You wear boot cut, low riding jeans…..
You iron your clothes….
You make sure your sunglasses are cutting edge, and match your jewelry….
From the back you might pass for a woman-metro boys are many times shorter and very thin!

Yeah, you might be a metrosexual. Think Euro men. Highly polished, high maintenance.

Franco wrote: "Ben was visualizing people having a close encounter on the Paris underground…".

Actually, Franco, what I was visualizing was the photo you posted of YOUR hot pink Thermarest Prolite Ladies version sleeping pad!

Grasshopper,

Wisdom is knowing the difference between what you want and what you need. :)

I've talked about my concept of hypermaterialism before. The idea is that each item we choose to own (and own us) is the epitome of that product and suits our needs. In contrast, blantant materialism is accumulating wealth or material goods for its own sake, for our personal agrandisement, to prove our worth to others and our superiority to them– status totems.

So my pack should be the exact pack that I need. Not the newest, most expensive, or feature-ridden, but just the pack I need. Most importantly, that pack has no connection to my self-image or my relationship with other people. I am not the pack, and the pack is not me, it is merely a tool to use on my journey.

And in my case, easier said than done!

[Dale takes his empty shopping bag to the door of REI] KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
[The door opens with a loud squeak and a tanned blonde goddess in a green vest peeks from behind the door] "Yes?"
[Dale holds up his shopping bag]"Please, Ma'am, may I have some more?"

okay whats wrong with getting a pedicure? you sit in a chair for 20 minutes and a cute girl cuts your toenails and sands the callous off your feet, then gives you a foot massage, I mean, I'm sorry but that ain't metro, that's just nice. And there is nothing wrong wih ironing your clothes either. Jeez.

The male version of capris. I just dont get it; unless you are climbing at the crag and want to see your feet.. ok.

>>"manpris"

never seen 'em b/f. however, that won't stop me from offering an opinion on their use and who might wear them.

look at the footwear.

my guess: they are worn by those with some type of chronic injury that prevents them from bending over and rolling up their pant legs when they want to stroll through the intertidal zone at the beach and keep any small waves from wetting the bottom of their pants.

it's nice to know that someone is keeping the unfortunates among us, i.e. the partially disabled or injured, in mind when they are designing their clothing.

so, my guess is that it's not about style (or the lack thereof in this case???), it's about caring!

The term for metrosexual is something like "when care" here downunder
Hi Ben
Maybe there is no pot of gold under the Rainbow but there is a lot of room at the end of it. Particularly if you do not use a 6' mat when you are only 5' 7". I am tempted now to buy the Insulmat AO Mtn "Petite" to save 2oz on the men's version and annoy you at the same time.
Franco
We have the Ghost here now !!!) about $100 US
Tonight I found one of those 20g Platypus 500ml containers. Will test it as an alcohol container tomorrow.

Brett said "The male version of capris. I just dont get it; unless you are climbing at the crag and want to see your feet…."

They were developed for post-Katrina New Orleans, along with the gaucho pants.

>>Think Euro men<<

Sarah,

Do you have a bias against men from Europe?

Eins

As a guy who lives in an urban area and has occasionally been accused of being well-groomed, who is not above an occasional pedicure (I've never worn manpris, but I'm not opposed to them)I find it interesting that a disscussion about how we tend to lust after gear that we might not nessescarily need has turned into a bit of a slag fest directed at the "metro-sexual"

So, these men are slaves to fashion? How many of you ran out and bought the buhbuddy ultralight ti stove? If you aren't going on an arctic expedition did you really need one? I've read posts praising the "design", that is the aesthetics, of stoves, Dr. J once wrote that stephensons v.b. clothing "lacked style", a predjudice towards design and an infatuation with the novel is all over these posts.

Isn't this another form of fashion, a need that is created by a nexus of group desire and a designer marketing the right thing at the right time?

Some people wear designer labels, some people need titanium sporks, and isn't our allegiance to the cottage manufacturers of the u.l. community in some ways very similar to a fashionista's allegiance to dolce and gabanna?

I figure I'm going to catch a lot of flak for this post, but this site is dedicated to a lifestyle that may seem incomprehensible to people outside of this community, just like some life styles are incomprehensible to us and I think that it's unkind to start slagging off people wearing expensive shirts while we put on our $150 patagonia windshells to go to the store.

I think this may classify as a rant, I hope I didn't offend anyone, not my intention, maybe I'm just feeling a little sensitive about my own culture straddling.

Einsten, no I don't-but here in the PNW, you can pick out Euro guys from the locals….they have style, which, as well known, Northwest men don't possess. And hence, they stand out. So, if you have a local guy who is metro, you tend to see him trying to be Eruo looking in fashion.
Afterall, even a decade and a half after the fall of grunge, the Northwest still dresses like it is 1991 ;-)

Now as fer gear whoring…..I was saddened after a long visit to REI last night where I found almost nothing that I truly needed. Even with a massive dividend to waste. Sigh!

it's true, dividends are out, and I don't really need anything, I was thinking about buying a cannister stove, but that would make four, not counting the coleman two burner my wife and I use for car camping. I wish they stocked more u.l. stuff, so I could use the dividend in good conscience. Oh well.

Gear Whore. Gear Head. Gear Freak. Yup! That's me. I realize that Ultralight is all about gear, but…..

Shouldn't we just be carrying less of what ever it is we have?

John Muir would "Stuff his coat pockets full of bread and hop over the back fence."

Denis:

You are confusing 'carrying less' with buying less! UL gear whores do carry less at any one time, but their gear closets are just as bulging as anybody else's!

Josh, you keep on looking good!

there's nothing wrong with a man wanting to be well-groomed outside of the backcountry. women like men who look good, smell good, and take care of themselves (i think that men who like men also have the same criteria).

confession time: i pretty much dress and groom my husband. he refuses to shop for anything other than gear or electronics, so it's my job to make sure he looks good. he balks at a few things (can't get him to wear any stylish hats, doesn't like anything other than solid-color wovens), but mostly he just puts on what i hang in his closet. one of his co-workers asked him once,"Hey, is that a new shirt?" he said,"I dunno, ask Colleen." i finally got him to wear a suit that actually fits him, as opposed to the baggy-saggy suit he's been wearing for the past 5 years. it's pinstriped, too! for years he'd get unflattering haircuts, until a friend of mine started cutting his hair and i was able to tell her what looks good on him. after 12 years of marriage, we're making some progress. ;)

what about we ladies? is it OK if we like to be vaguely stylish in our time amongst civilization? i'm a shoe ho (love heels!), kind of a purse lover, own more jackets than a girl living in southern California has a right to. i wear makeup sometimes and i just bought a curling iron and need to get a blow dryer now (grew my hair out). am i too fashionable for backpacking? eh, honestly i don't care. i like looking like a knockout in the city but knowing i can get by in the wilds with less than 10 pounds of junk.

As a responsible REI "Co-Op" Member I should give my $185.00 dividend back. Where would I store more stuff if I bought it?

Perhaps I'll cash it in and take Susan out to Dinner at the Bay Wolf.

After a weeks hiking I sure enjoy getting near the trailhead and smelling clean, perfumed ladies. I make sure I keep my arms close to my sides.

Denis, I'll use your $185 dividend for you. A C.A.M.P. Corsa ice axe ($100) would be just the ticket to keep me safe on early spring solo trips across passes.

Better yet, buy yourself and Susan one.

You know you want one :)