The Era of Lighter-Than-Air Backpacking is Here!

[Mitch Chesney]

I *have* to imagine this (joke) idea has been tossed around after much drinking, but if you have ~$100 to waste and an 8lb backpack, then take it to the next level: lighter than air! A 30ft diameter weather balloon can lift an 8-12lb payload. Enjoy the envy of your peers after describing your NEGATIVE pack weight! :)

I found a cheap one on Amazon. Who has some spare cash and wants to post the best SUL backpacking photo in recent memory?

http://www.amazon.com/30ft-Professional-Weather-Balloon-1200g/dp/B00513FWQI/ref=pd_sim_hi_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1J5GQB3YJWXC692YCHR2

Look at this smug bastard. Hardly a calorie wasted 'carrying' his pack.

[Mark Verber]

Where I typically backpack the balloon would get hung up on trees… but it you stay above tree line on alpine trips, or in the dessert trees wouldn't be a big problem and with some sort of add on could provide shade as well as lift.

–mark

[Mitchell Ebbott]

Having to tether your pack to the ground in order to keep it from floating away. That's the dream, right there.

[David Thomas]

It's better than that. With a 30-foot diameter, 15-foot radius ballon, you'd have 4/3 * pi * r^3 = 4500 * pi or 14,000 cu cubic feet. That displaces slightly over 1000 pounds of air. You get most of that buoyancy if you use hydrogen, 25/29 of it if you use helium, and 13/29's if you use methane. So even with methane, you get 480 pounds of buoyancy (less the ballon weight). Note that with hydrogen or methane, you needn't carry any stove fuel – just tap your ballon, your food weight will be falling anyway.

[Jorge Falcon]

Just add enough gas and attach your waist to this super advanced backpack, also remember to hold your feet with 2 stakes to the ground so you don't go flying around… (warning: expect some turbulence during a storm).

[Michael Gunderloy]

Skew your menu enough towards beans for protein, and you won't even need to buy the methane.

[Marko Botsaris]

I had planned as a joke for many years to make a post something like this, but every time April Fools days came around I kept shrugging – "too much work, maybe next Year". I figured if I stuffed my old 3 oz Gossamer Gear G5 with helium balloons like it was full pack, and then starting tying on more balloons I might be able to eventually take a picture of myself on the trail with my G5 floating behind me trailing on a thin leash.

Snooze and loose, I guess. Still it might make a good avatar. :-)

[Andy F]

Eventually things get a little dull in the evening around camp, and someone inhales to do their best campfire Micky Mouse impression. Then, everyone actually has to carry a pack with a positive weight, and the fun is all over.

[theodore jefferson]

Could you overinflate it and have it lift you up and carry you over the pass??

[Jeffs Eleven]

No more center 'mid pole Just float the peak of your shelter

[Roger Caffin]

Had to laugh.

One of the early Darwin Awards went to a guy who attached a whole lot of hydrogen-filled weather balloons to the cane chair he was sitting in.
Then, at several hundred feet of altitude, he realised he had no means of steering, no means of controlling his ascent, and no means of descending.

I forget how they got him down – maybe someone shot out just one balloon?

Note: as you go up in altitude, the pressure drops and the balloon expands – so the lift gets greater. Oops!

EDIT:
Double Oops. I forgot the air would get less dense at the same rate. Thank you guys.
Um – he went awful high, didn't he?

Cheers

[Jim Colten]

Note: as you go up in altitude, the pressure drops and the balloon expands
Correct

so the lift gets greater.
Having had PV=nRT pounded into my brain so many times that it is still there after four decades plus some, I think not. The lift is the difference between the mass of the balloon and the mass of the air it displaces. The expanded balloon will displace a greater volume of air but that air will be proportionally less dense at the higher altitude. Very minor discrepancies in that result due to the balloon's shell material not being compressible but close enough.

[David Thomas]

Roger:

That really happened. Circa 1980. Los Angeles. Guy used a lawn chair and helium-filled weather balloons. He had quite a bit of excess buoyancy and went to 15,000 feet. Was sighted by a jet on approach to LAX. It was cold up there. He had brought a BB gun to shoot out balloons and did so. Landed in some power lines, but uninjured.

A mole of helium (4 grams) displaces a mole of air (average molecular weight 28.9 grams) regardless of the density (i.e atmospheric pressure). Lift is nearly constant with elevation. You know that after you've had your morning tea.

[David Thomas]

I didn't remember the bit about the helicopter rescue in the news reports of the time. And I thought he went higher. And apparently he didn't land in power lines. Otherwise, my 35-year-old memories seem accurate.

http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp

[David Thomas]

Oh, wait. That's the from the 1997 Internet report. I pretty much nailed the original report. Yes, 16,000 feet, yes power lines. I remember the "as soon as we figure out which part [of the FAA code] he violated." -FAA official, and immediately thought, "Balloning without a license". which is an offense.

[Michael Gunderloy]

1982 – http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2009/10/the-balloonatics.html has a reprint.

[EndoftheTrail]

I get sweaty palms just thinking of sitting in a lawn chair, dangling 16,000 ft. in the air…

[Nick Gatel]

I remember that story when it happened. About the same time another moron took off from the Banning, CA airport in a single engine plane and decided to do "touch and go's" on the trailers of big rigs on I-10, which is next to the airport. The FAA fined him. Somehow Darwin ignored these two.

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