Examples of “Stupid Light”

"Moral, for the umpteenth time this thread: use what fits your conditions"
says it all….

I'm very familiar with the 10 Essentials, but is there and ultralight essentials list? I'm asking which items should be on EVERY trip. Is it just ultralight version of each item, or are there some that you leave out completely. These are items that you carry in every condition.

According to an article on the REI Web site (http://m.rei.com/mt/www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/ten-essentials.html) The Mountaineers came up with a list in the 1930's that was pointed to specific items, but the recent trend has been to working with systems:

● Navigation (map and compass)
● Sun protection (sunglasses and sunscreen)
● Insulation (extra clothing)
● Illumination (headlamp/flashlight)
● First-aid supplies
● Signaling
● Fire (waterproof matches/lighter/candles)
● Repair kit and tools
● Nutrition (extra food)
● Hydration (extra water)
● Emergency shelter

Easy enough to cover, but doing it in an ultralight way is a subject of debate equal to approving a Federal budget.

Here's my list:

Navigation: Green Trails maps and a Suunto MC-2G compass. There are suitable lighter compasses– by an ounce or two. I think it should have adjustable declination and the mirror covers another category. Bottom line: compasses are not heavy, regardless of the model.

Sun protection: I wear sunglasses with bifocals for reading the maps and compass. I carry sunscreen in the smallest container suitable for the trip, not a big 6oz tube of the stuff. I also use bike gloves to protect my hands and a wide brim hat (Tilley T3).

Insulation: as light as a Power Stretch on up to a polyfill puffy per season and expected condtions. I usually have a little stuff sack with liner gloves, light beanie, spare socks and mid layer. I always have a windshirt and a ponch doubles for rain gear and emergency shelter.

Illumination: Olite i2 flashlight and Fenix HL21 headlamp. Both use one AA battery, so add one AA for a spare.

First Aid kit: AMK .3 with larger compresses, better tape and more meds.

Fire: mini firesteel, mini Bic lighter, a spy capsule with Tinder Quick tabs and a K&M match case with UCO storm matches and there is a button compass in the cap

Signalling: Fox 40 whistle, mirror on my compass, firesteel

Repair kit and tools: Victorinox Classic knife, Benchmade Griptilian 3.5" folding knife, flat pack of 18" duct tape, small roll 26 ga wire, hotel "freebie" sewing kit, small bundle light braided seine line, zip ties.

Nutrition: extra granola bar, hard candy

Hydration: 2 one liter drinking water bottles. Sawyer Squeeze filter and/or Micropur tabs. I keep a survival water bag in the crown of my Tilley.

Emergency shelter: poncho and AMK space blanket bivy and the line in my repair kit.

The flashlight, whistle, SAK Classic knife, spy capsule with tinder and firesteel are on a ring and carried in my pockets with the larger knife and the match case. The rest fit in a suff sack for quick locating and easy transfer from one pack to another.

Add training and improving skills and a can-do attitude, which are weightless.

I have a 20 oz zero degree Epiphany quilt.
It is a magnificent piece of gear.

but I'm thinking how can I make a 12 oz quilt. Stupid.
It would be expensive.
It would if not dangerous then just painful, being cold is painful.
And for what, saving the weight of a small apple. I weighed an apple. It was 7.4 oz.
I'd do better to lose 10 lbs and carry a few apples in my pack.

I remember reading that several of the cottage industry owners got together for a backpacking trip (I think I read this on Gossamergear) And they are in the hotel together the night before the trip and the weather channel says a storm is coming in. They are weighing their gear. One is 6.1 lbs, the other is 5.9 lbs so the guy with 6.1 lbs takes something out and it becomes a pissing contest to see who has the lighter gear. in short, they go and during the night the storm comes in and it's an ice storm. It coats everything rocks, trees, trail with 1/2 an inch of ice. They are all skilled backpackers and they survive. Slipping and sliding down the trail in snow and ice in trail runners. But the great thing was at the end of the article they wrote, the night before in the hotel when we saw there was a storm coming, that was the time to be putting gear into the bag, not taking it out.

Very well said Anthony,

In the spirit of thread resurrection, the bivy thread on the front page reminded me of a “stupid light” moment of my own:

In one of my early efforts to cut weight, I decided to only bring an REI bivy as my shelter on a weeklong trip in Yosemite.  I think that it was a fairly waterproof fabric, and my reasoning at the time was that it probably wasn’t going to rain. Besides, I thought, I’ll never be more than a day’s hike away from some sort of bail-out point, so I could always hike out if my stuff got wet. Up until then, I had never hit a big storm in several years of backpacking in the Sierras.  Luckily for me, I didn’t get any rain that week.  Looking back, I’m really glad I didn’t have to ride out a big thunderstorm in that thing.

(I also wish that I could tell my past self that while it isn’t so smart to omit a shelter in order to cut weight, I might want to take a look at my 6 lb backpack, 1 lb water filter, 3 lb sleeping bag, extra clothes, etc. and see if there are lighter options.  But then again, discovering UL now wouldn’t feel quite as sweet without those years of lugging around a 40+ lb pack.)

But then again, discovering UL now wouldn’t feel quite as sweet without those years of lugging around a 40+ lb pack.)

LOL, been there too…. and there is no more fervent proselyte than a ‘sinner who has seen the light’, amen. ;^)

My example of stupid light:

I bought a ridiculously small cuben tarp that barely provides me with overhead coverage from rain and not really enough on the sides for heavy, blowing rains.

BUT, it was 1.5 to 2.0 oz lighter than a much bigger tarp that would have given me ample space for rain protection in almost any circumstance that I could run into.

So I saved 1.5 to 2.0 oz but I have to “worry” about my setup in heavy, blowing winds.

Evidence of my “stupid” choice is that this cuben tarp is no longer manufactured…probably because it is stupid small and probably did not sell well.

Costly mistake in that if I had just spent a little bit more on the bigger, heavier tarp back then….I would not be in a position of spending $200 or so on a whole new tarp…but that would be my choice if I decide if I want cuben.

One could argue that Cuben in itself might be “stupid” light from a cost to value stand point. :)

Tony, the nervous guy under the tarp….

Cuben: it’s not just lighter; it doesn’t stretch. That’s helpful in an all night rain for sure.

I’m too nervous to just use a tarp at all. And for ‘nervous’ read, ‘incompetent’.

Stupid Light is getting rid of your insulated titanium mug a third of the way through a thru hike thinking that you can just use your Trek 700 for a drinking mug too.  You can, but it’s just not worth it.  OK, that’s not really stupid light, but I regretted that move over and over.

There is a “hiker” that is attempting an AT thru hike with an interesting gear list.  Tiny GG pack, a 38 ounce tent and a SOL bivy paired with an 1/8″ foam pad.  Why  no quilt or bag?  The tent is so big and the pack too small so he can fit a sleep system.  His answer.  We’re all his clothes and his tent, which I don’t think he has ever used, will keep him warm.  Did I mention he also intends on walking it barefoot?  Sounds like a winning combination for starting a thru hike in the north ga mountains in March.  Beyond stupid light.

Might get a Darwin Award ?

@Hiking Malto I almost put you on the “who do you miss on BPL” thread…

I did the “no sleeping bag” thing once. Close to a score of years ago I did a  7 day fastpack of the JMT. I didn’t have very light gear at the time so I went minimalist. Foam pad. Bivy, an old nylon one from REI that was close to two pounds. No tarp, no sleeping bag. I figured that if I wore all my clothes and wrapped myself in a mylar emergency blanket I would be ok. I didn’t even have a down jacket at the time, just a heavy weight pile jacket (a beautiful Campmor number with pitzips that I still have today). Well, the first night was ok. By the end of the second night the mylar was in shreds, not to be used again. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep after that, often sleeping till the shivering woke me up, night hiking until dawn and then getting a nap in. By the end I was so tired that after coming off Forester I fell asleep while hiking.
As I think back my shoe choice was bad too. I knew the ones I was talking caused me some heat by the end of a days hiking, but I thought they would be ok. By noon on the second day I had silver dollar blisters on the balls of each foot. The pain was bad and I had to walk for a half hour or more  before they would go numb and become more bearable.The only thing that kept me going was the thought that I had the whole week off and that if I was going to fail I might as well do it farther up the trail. Good times, but I made it and learned some serious lessons.

There is a “hiker” that is attempting an AT thru hike with an interesting gear list.  Tiny GG pack, a 38 ounce tent and a SOL bivy paired with an 1/8″ foam pad.

It should work, in theory. ;^)

“Might get a Darwin Award ?”

Some people will do just about anything to get a trophy.

Kat,
I sometimes wish I was still travel out to Ca. It would be great to do another trip with you and many of the others.

Bob,
Yes, it’s all theory and little reality. :)

Hi Anthony,

The trip you wrote about was in the monthly magazine that BPL produced several years ago. The trip was through the Wind Rivers. The 3 trekers were Alan Dixon, Ryan Jordan and Glen Van Peski. If I remember correctly Ryan Jordan used a poncho tarp. I think they waited out the storm at the Cirque of the Towers.