Gear Talk

Nick wrote, "Backpacking gear is getting boring"

Yup, at some point you just saturate and you've covered the scope of the genre. You have indeed tasted all the Kool Aid in the bus refrigerator :)

BUT, it is a gear-centric niche, hinging on the function, performance and weight of the gear. There are many forums on food and trip reports, so there is certainly more to the forum community than just gear.

Like the old Zen koan, "Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water."

Have a good cry and go for a hike :)

I tend to agree with Nick. The most popular outdoor websites (be it hiking, skiing, climbing, etc.) are gear focused.

My own nickels worth:
http://www.pmags.com/gear-as-lifestyle

"There is certainly a place for this type of discussion.

After all, money is a finite resource and we want to get the piece of gear that works for us.

But why the overall popularity of this discussion vs say outdoor ethics or the best spot for trout fishing? Where to get the best sunset photo or what are some favorite backcountry meals? Or even the logistics of getting to a place and planning for a trip?

Basically, why gear discussion for the sake of gear discussion? Is gear that important for outdoor pursuits in proportion to the amount it is discussed?"

Take nwhikers.net for example, another hiking site I frequent, especially when I'm looking for new routes or just info related to an area I want to visit. 24,468 Trip Reports to date. In comparison, 5,178 total Gear posts. These are the only two sites I really frequent with any regularity. I'm not a blog reader either so maybe my sample is too narrow.

Edited to add: people who identify with lightweight backpacking and seek info related to how they can better achieve their goal of going lighter (assuming that's a major reason why they are here) will necessarily be gear centric. When you aren't gear centric to some degree you will be carrying things you could do without or find lighter versions of. Whether that entails doing it on the cheap, MYOG, or spending big cash on the latest technology, or any combination of those, you will necessarily be gear-centric to some degree. Furthermore, we are within the Gear section of BPL… which makes me think this is another topic that should be moved on over to chaff at this point (or maybe from the beginning).

William,

You make some valid points.

Each of us needs to approach backpacking in a way that makes sense to each of us, and in a way that is enjoyable.

When I backpack, I like to minimize the gear as it can get in the way of the wilderness experience for me. To me, gear can be a barrier to learning of the wilderness world around us.

This works for me, and others may disagree — that is okay; nobody is right or wrong.

Sometimes I take the same gear as my last trip, even though the trip is different and I could tweak my gear a little bit. Just too much hassle and my pack is packed, except for any down I took out.

When I started backpacking there was no Internet, no backpacking magazines, one book, and few backpacking-centric stores. I bought gear at Sears, Thrifty Drug Store, Army/Navy Surplus, and sometimes mail order. That was it. So I, like many of my contemporaries, just went out with what I had with little thought of upgrading gear. When I found something was less than satisfactory I would have to figure it out on my own for the most part. I learned a lot that way. Plus I didn't have much money, so gear was pretty low on my list of priorities — as it still is today.

What is interesting to me, is that my son, Joe, who is in his mid twenties and enjoys backpacking, just goes with what he has too. His kit probably weighs 3 times as much as mine, but he isn't gear focused. And I don't try to convert him to the UL religion.

I write my blog mostly for my kids, so they know what I am up to. There are plenty of trip reports in it, far more than gear reviews. Also, a lot stuff about camping too… my focus is on things outdoors, not just backpacking.

Joe knows that I could give him the latest and great backpacking gear for Xmas or his birthday, but he doesn't place a high priority on it. Guess the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree :)

He is outdoors almost every day of the year, working as a biologist to protect the Desert Tortoise and other endangered species. Hiking and backpacking are just what he does, irrespective of the gear. I like that.

And as we always say here, HYOH!

Thanks for the thoughtful response Nick. I guess my main point was, while your son Joe sounds like a great guy and all, whether he cares or doesn't care about gear has very little if anything to do with it. Or at least I hope so. By claiming talking about gear is "boring" and saying you are "over it" implies that people who are still learning are wasting their time and being shallow in the process. This seems problematic to me, especially on backpackinglight.com (which is necessarily gear focused IMO as I argued in my last post) and in the "Gear" section.
My good friend is a lot like your son Joe in terms of gear and backpacking. He gets out a lot and uses all the ultralight gear his dad has accumulated over the years. We used to laugh at his dad about making high-caloric bacon bars that smelled absolutely horrendous. We all would go out together, gear talk came up between his dad and I because we enjoy it, with his son/ my friend we didn't talk about gear much because he could care less really. My friend doesn't say his father's obsession with gear is "boring", shallow, or anything like that because it would be putting his dad down for no reason when they could be having fun.

I like the idea in Nicks blog post very much. I too didn't really buy anything for about 8 years, and then at the end of 2012 I suddenly decided I wanted to sample the "next decade". But by the end of 2013 I felt done, so I will probably go for most of another decade without purchasing anything significant. As obsessive as I can get on here, my REAL goal is for the gear to in effect disappear when used so that I can just focus on where I am at.

Still I have to call a bit of a foul here Nick. I see no mention in your blog about the what, is it 3 Mchale packs you said you own? Now I totally approve of the sentiment of finding a good pack and sticking with it, and not buying a ton of stuff and then abandoning it – like people who buy a new car every few years. Also I am jealous. But still, if you have 3 Mchale packs maybe there is obsession and obsession. ;-)

The price of these packs might be more than the entire budget for some of these people who go through gear like gangbusters, that you refer to. I find I approve of your approach nevertheless. However, lets not be too hard on them – maybe they are going through the their several year transitional phase, like tthe one that you are now finished with.

I am going to now see this spring and summer how I finally feel post my latest new-gear stage, and I hope I feel exactly how you expressed it in your blog.

Bored is actually my goal!

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the kind words. No, it is only 2 McHales. I found the first one too big for short trips and needed a smaller one that could easily carry a couple gallons of water. I also often use a zPacks Zero, which like a couple other UL packs I have owned, will probably die this year. I can, with a high level of confidence, state that I will never buy another pack in my lifetime, but I realistically only have a couple decades of BPing left in me, assuming I live that long.