Leatherman Heads Up

The Squirt PS4 works fine for light backcountry tasks. 2 oz.

No awl, no saw, bad scissor design, no phillips head, no opener.

No awl, no saw, bad scissor design, no phillips head, no opener.

This is Backpacking Light. Most people don’t need those things on the trail.

I have the Squirt and love it. I see no need for anything else.

As long as it has pliers to extract porcupine quills from the dogs, I’m good.

I use the Style CS – I see it is no longer made. Only the version with pliers now available. Reasonably light, and when new the scissors were excellent – much better than the tiny single ended types in the Swiss Army Classic. Unfortunately, they are not as good as they used to be at their primary job – cutting bits of 2nd skin knit tape to cover hot spots.

Most people don’t need those things on the trail.

Not trying to start an argument, but I’ve actually used all of those things on-trail… especially the good scissors and the awl.  PH1 and 2 a few times, but mostly when stuff has broken.  Openers are good for canister punctures, but so are a lot of other things.  Point being, tools can be useful; different strokes, and what not.  I’m a big fan of having good scissors and a good pair of needle-nose pliers.

@Bonzo as a desert hiker I will say a good pair of tweezers is essential. The Swiss army knife tweezers that many UL’s rely on are pure garbage with removing cactus spines, especially Cholla.  I now carry a pair of Uncle Bills Sliver Grippers-that with the Squirts pliers are drastically better than SAK tweezers.

As someone else said, this is Backpacking Light – the Juice CS4 weighs 3 x what the Squirt does and the XE6 weighs 4 X – and I’ve never needed an awl when bushwalking.  Or hard wire cutters.  Or a diamond-coated file.

@Bonzo as a desert hiker I will say a good pair of tweezers is essential.

Agreed on that count, and I don’t even hike in the desert…but I am clumsy and prone to getting splinters.  I never liked the SAK tweezers, myself; they might well be featherweight, but they don’t work well for me – or at all, to be honest – so from my perspective, they’re useless weight.

As someone else said, this is Backpacking Light – the Juice CS4 weighs 3 x what the Squirt does and the XE6 weighs 4 X – …

Not to put too fine a point on this, but “light” is a subjective word (among many in this post) and we each get to decide what it means for us, personally…but we don’t get to decide what it means for someone else, or for a group at large.  I’m all about expressing opinions on subjects, but it feels like a couple of the comments in this thread are downright dismissive and condemning of the OP’s info solely on the basis of personal value.  Maybe I’m misreading that; if so, please correct me if so.

…and I’ve never needed an awl when bushwalking.  Or hard wire cutters.  Or a diamond-coated file.

Okay, cool; removing those things from your kit is easy way for you to trim weight, then…but what if I needed them?  Which of us is more right?  I would submit that neither of us is more right, and that’s despite not being able to even begin thinking about how many hooks and knives and scissors I’ve touched up in the backcountry with a little diamond-lap file.

I suppose my point is this: “light” is about pound-for-pound utility and enjoyment, for me.  If someone needs pliers and an awl and a magnifying glass and a vintage wicker creel and a collapsible titanium weenie-roasting stick to do what they want/need to do in the hinterlands…cool: I don’t usually need those things, but you do you, boo.  Sometimes I carry a pack that weighs, like, six pounds when it’s dead empty, and I have a 31-pound base weight with that kit…but to me, that’s pretty light, given the conditions.  It’s all about perspective and personal definition, I think.

Actuallly “ultralight”really  isn’t subjective – it’s pretty widely agreed what base weights constitute UL and SUL.  And, as an example, a pack that’s 6 pounds when it’s entirely empty isn’t light or ultralight by any definition.  It was having to carry a 3kg pack up a mountain 30 years ago that led me to start looking for other options and the nascent UL community.

Actuallly “ultralight”really  isn’t subjective – it’s pretty widely agreed what base weights constitute UL and SUL.

“Pretty widely agreed” is perfectly fine; that’s a group consensus, but it’s also entirely subjective.  A solid definition for subjectivity would be “based on or influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts”…and “pretty widely agreed” definitely fits that description.  There’s no testable, objective, impartial hypothesis or process that differentiates “light” and “ultralight” and “super-ultralight” and “made-entirely-of-nightingale-songs-and-unicorn-snuffles-ultralight”; there’s only an arbitrary and evolving barrier that is held to group consensus.  That being said:

And, as an example, a pack that’s 6 pounds when it’s entirely empty isn’t light or ultralight by any definition.

It’s light by many definitions in the past, and it’s light by my definition in the present; it’s the lightest pack I could find that would meet my current needs, carry/protect my gear, and work correctly with a spine that’s been fractured.  As my back continues to heal – a years-long process, that – and as materials and designs advance, it will no longer be light; the same is also true of the current palate of ultralight gear as a whole.  Thus, the definition will again change, and it will again be interpreted in various ways by various people.  So, to be clear: I’m not saying that you’re wrong…just that there’s more to this pursuit than simple definitions and group consensus.  We need to leave room for the individual, here.

This thread has prompted multiple messages to BPL now through PM and the Report This mechanism. I don’t think this thread is an example of particularly egregious behavior but I’d like to direct everyone’s attention to the text above the green Submit button before posting.

Also, thank you to Bonzo for the post above this one. I strongly agree that “We need to leave room for the individual here”. We all have different needs and hike in different conditions and make different choices.

Example: I choose to carry a first aid and repair kit that weighs over a half-pound! I’m sure we have members that would find that ridiculous but I have my reasons why I carry what I do.

Getting back to this thread: I don’t carry a Leatherman tool with me even though I have a PS4 Squirt. I didn’t post in this thread because I didn’t think it was important to share why I don’t carry it. If I had, I might have used language like “I have a PS4 and I’ve not found the tools useful in the field so I carry a small Swiss Army Knife. What tools have you found useful on your Leatherman?”

So far, only twice this year. First, two Leatherman pliers to repair the chain links on a pair of Microspikes that had come open. Some of the links were also missing, so we used zip ties to put the rest together so the scout could continue safely.

In the spring, I repaired a splintered crossing tent pole on an REI Quarter Dome. Impossible to slide repair sleeve. File, wire cutters and pliers made it much easier.

Actually, I used the pliers before that also to add tension to tent poles with limpy shock cord on a couple of occasions.

Trekking with large groups brings up the number of incidents. My first aid kit is ten times larger with Scouts. I also have a gear repair kit that I bring to fix all sorts of gear.