Hey, this is about us

[Ike Jutkowitz]

No criticism of the style of backpacking the author espouses. Only that I didn't enjoy his article because a good portion of the way he defined his experience was derived from examples of how not to do it, without seemed to grasp the essentials of the aesthetic he disparaged. To me, an article written through negation of others will have great difficulty in capturing my interest. Had he defined his ideal by sharing a positive experience, he would have been more likely to have gotten my attention.

[Ken Thompson]

Wrong forum. Should be in Philosophy & Technique. Better yet, Chaff.

@ Tipi. Why are you a BPL subscriber?

[Jim H]

I can always rely on BPL for an entertaining thread to read over coffee!

On the whole, it seem silly to try and objectively measure enjoyment. I guess this is the essence of HYOH.

John Muir, who by most accounts slowly starved to death when he was out hiking, must have enjoyed his trips immensely to dedicate his life's work to wilderness (John Muir Menu). I'm sure he did so only because of his UL philosophy, which given the state of the gear market at the time, limited him to bread, sugar, tea, and blankets. :)

[Gary Pikovsky]

People, I think you missed the point of my original post – too much gear talk/focus = definitely less enjoyment on the trail. I will vouch for it. If you hike and keep thinking how nice and light it is and what's working or not, you're not enjoying the mountains in the end as much as you would if you focused your mind on it. Simple point.

[Tipi Walter]

Gary says—
"People, I think you missed the point of my original post – too much gear talk/focus = definitely less enjoyment on the trail. I will vouch for it. If you hike and keep thinking how nice and light it is and what's working or not, you're not enjoying the mountains in the end as much as you would if you focused your mind on it. Simple point."

On a website that is transfixed with gear and grams, this comment will stir the pot.

I can hear the replies—Too much gear talk equals less enjoyment?? NO WAY!

Then again, I can think about gear and still enjoy the mountains. In fact, on my trips I like to take out copied materials about gear and reviews I can read when in camp and not hiking and later burn. Still able to enjoy the mountains.

[David Chenault]

"People, I think you missed the point of my original post – too much gear talk/focus = definitely less enjoyment on the trail. I will vouch for it. If you hike and keep thinking how nice and light it is and what's working or not, you're not enjoying the mountains in the end as much as you would if you focused your mind on it. Simple point."

The extent to which this is accurate is not very relevant: if the aforelinkedto essay/post/thing was trying to make that point, it did so very badly indeed.

[Ian]

At work we talk about talon grips vs stippling, the fact that the new TLR1-HL is a smidge bigger than the TLR-1 and therefore won't fit in my Safariland ALS holster correctly, and how my new Tru Glow w/ Tritium sites are great for farsighted silver haired officers.

Same for my time in the military. We were always looking for ways to modify our gear to make it work better for us. Swapping out flesh shredding alice clips for zipties and 550 cord. Adding pockets to our alice packs. Adding velcro to our poly pro bottoms so we could strip them off when our 48hr patrol transitioned from sub freezing temperatures at night to where we were overheating in them during the day but don't have time to take off our boots to remove them.

Had another conversation with my daughter earlier this week about how the K2 Miss Conduct skis seem to be a great all mountain ski with freestyle possibilities and a seemingly ideal camber for staying on top of some sick pow. She's very much looking forward to using them later this winter.

Come check out the photography sub forum sometime.

I get that all topics are not interesting to all people. There's stuff on here at bores the crap out of me. That doesn't make their conversation wrong or is somehow indicative of a character flaw.

We're a large group of opinionated people who come from all walks of life to discuss our craft of walking through the wilderness for days at a time all while carrying the knowledge in our heads and everything on our backs that will sustain life in often times widely varying and unpredictable conditions. I've been doing this for 30+ years and still find it to be damn awesome and that I still have much to learn.

Don't like gear? Then hang out in the technique or food subforums. There's something here for just about any backpacker, fecophiliac heavy haulers included. As for me, I'm a grown assed man and I'll do and discuss what I damned well please.

[Nick Gatel]

"Much ado about nothing"

It's going to be a long winter.

[Ross Bleakney]

I think the article is full of ignorance, arrogance and stereotyping. He lumps a fringe group — those that are merely fixated on amassing miles and setting records — with ultralighters. This is stupid stereotype. He obviously hasn't backpacked very much (given the way he is wearing his pack — I've worn external frame packs that are closer to my back than that) or with that many people. If he did, then he would understand that for a lot of us, ultralight backpacking has simply improved our experience.

I'm a good example. I grew up backpacking, but as an adult, I would rarely backpack. I live in an area where the dayhiking is great, so I spent most of my time doing that.

I hated the backpacking part of backpacking. In other words, I hated every second that I spent carrying a big backpack. My backpacking trips consisted entirely of "basecamp" type trips. Haul my gear up to some camp, then day hike from there. There is nothing wrong with this, and I know a lot of people still do this. The backpacking is simply a means to an end. It enables one to get into wilder, more interesting territory.

But then I started getting my pack weight down. After a while, carrying the backpack went from horrible to tolerable. Eventually, the weight became similar to what I carry on a day hike. Suddenly my perspective changed. The backpacking days could be fun! Backpacking days suddenly become just like day hiking days. In other words, if 15 miles and a 4,000 foot gain isn't bad for a day hike, then it isn't bad for the first day of a backpack. This has opened up a much wider range of trip opportunities for me. There are areas I never thought I would explore that I know have seen.

You don't need to go ultralight to do this, of course. I'm sure there are people who don't mind carrying a heavy load. But with most of the people I know, this isn't the case. I'll go on a dayhike with a few friends, and do a round trip of a dozen miles with a three thousand foot gain (and loss). Then I'll propose a three day backpacking trip where the first day is the same distance and elevation gain (without the loss). They balk. That is too much for backpacking, they will say. Other friends don't feel that way, and those other friends have lighter packs.

Oh, and I think it is funny that he wrote this article wearing — you guessed it — trail runners. Trail runners! Dude, you will twist your ankle! You can't carry a big pack with trail runners! Seriously, though, if there is one quintessential piece of ultralight gear, he is wearing it.

[Ryan Smith]

"As for me, I'm a grown assed man and I'll do and discuss what I damned well please."

LOL. Best post I've seen in a while. That sums it up pretty well for me also.

Ryan

[Peter Boysen]

I agree with Doug. Most of the fury here is essentially dismissing by label. On this site, we have a super precise definition of what "ultralight" means, and this guy is getting roasted because he doesn't use the arbitrary collection of letters in the same way we do.

In other news, rain is wet.

[Ian]

As others mentioned, had he written the article to explain why he enjoys taking it easy in the backcountry, or how he tried 30 mile days and found that wasn't for him, it's unlikely this thread would even exist, acronyms be danged.

[Sam Farrington]

Maybe the guy in the photo was just airing out his back a bit.
As for footwear, we all know it's really just about what fits and works best, don't we?
But OK, I don't get why anybody still carries monster packs either.
And I luv talking about MYOG, just for fun, not that is has much to do with anything.
(Unless you are on here to promote stuff)
Come to think of it, that's also why I luv hiking, just for fun.

Re: "'Much ado about nothing'
It's going to be a long winter."

Have faith, Nick. I will try may darndest to get some stuff up that's about sumpin' this winter. The more of that we see, the merrier we will be.

[Anonymous]

"As others mentioned, had he written the article to explain why he enjoys taking it easy in the backcountry, or how he tried 30 mile days and found that wasn't for him, it's unlikely this thread would even exist, acronyms be danged."

It's even likelier that if everyone had just ignored him this would have been a one post thread. OTOH, it's been an excellent warm up for the annual winter bloodletting soon to begin. ;0))

[jimmy b]

Well with winter on the way only seems reasonable to fan the flames some. At least we are not hypocrites here at BPL as we don't hesitate to roast our own occasionally :)

jimmyb

[spelt with a t]

On this site, we have a super precise definition of what "ultralight" means

Thanks, I laughed!

[Ian]

"It's even likelier that if everyone had just ignored him this would have been a one post thread."

Yes well what's the point of paying $600 per year for internet if you can't have discussions like these?

Yes yes… I know about cat memes.

[Bob Moulder]

Maybe Wes should be given a temporary membership so he could, uhhh, "weigh" in?

[Author]

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