Posted: 6/27/2026 12:15:19 AM EDT
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I am getting too old to go truly ultra light any more and it pains me. I got into backpacking in the 80s. Gear was crazy heavy (not as heavy as the 60s and 70s). The UL market really didnt exist and the internet wasn't around. So you read Ray Jardines book and cut the handles off your tooth brush. I remember trying to buy a sleeping bag. A sub 3 pound 20 degree bag was almost unbelievable. I custom ordered a sub 2 pound 15 degree bag from Feathered friends for a small fortune. Now every store has bags like that. I continued down the path and had sub 20 pound base weights when everyone else was carrying 35 pound packs. Mostly i just did without and was able to carry small light back packs. Over the years my interest changed and i slacked off. I have always backpacked a few times a year but nothing like i used to. About 15 years ago my wife through hiked the AT. She got insane about weight and basically carried almost nothing but food and clothes. She wasnt a gear head, just didnt want to carry weight was willing to go without. Recently we started to plan some trips again and refresh some gear. We are still light, but it kills me to see that we are slowly adding gear as we get older. The worst is that this last trip I literally carried a memory foam pillow. Yes I did cut it smaller but were i normally obsess over grams i added a 15oz pillow. I now have a spinal stenosis at C6 that is almost crippling at times if irritated. So the pillow is 100% non negotiable. We got home from this last trip in Yellowstone and decided to replace our 1.5oz alcohol stove with a 3oz canister stove. The fuel will add another 4 or 6oz. Also added a small Garmin Inreach for emergency's. It feels like BLASPHEMY!!! This is all in jest. I used to be so hard core now i feel like I have caved in. Pretty soon I will be bringing a camp chair. In all honesty I dont feel too bad. Even with my 15oz pillow, my fly rod and fly box, full water and 3 days of food my pack was right at 20 pounds on a cheap fish scale as i walked out the door for this last trip. But it sucks to get old and soft. |
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Great post. I suspect we're of a similar age, but took different trajectories with gear. My influential reading was Colin Fletcher's books - and he was more along the "kitchen sink" mindset of a load out. So while I was always weight conscious, it wasn't fanatical and I always packed what I might need (or want). I haven't truly hiked in years, but my teens are fresh into it now... in fact, just last weekend we did an over-nighter to test out some new gear they'd bought for an upcoming trip. I unearthed and was happy to spend the night in my 1980's era North Face tadpole again... one of the few pieces of gear that has endured the 40+ years of hard use and long periods of disuse and neglect! I wouldn't trust the old tadpole in the rain or wind, but it's great nostalgia, and still a great design. I think the only other bits of "OG" gear remaining is an MSR Whisper light and a pair of my first Danner Mountain Lights that are probably beyond salvageable for rebuild, but I just can't toss them. No shame with the pillow! |
Not *that* Grok
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Originally Posted By grok: Great post. I suspect we're of a similar age, but took different trajectories with gear. My influential reading was Colin Fletcher's books - and he was more along the "kitchen sink" mindset of a load out. So while I was always weight conscious, it wasn't fanatical and I always packed what I might need (or want). I haven't truly hiked in years, but my teens are fresh into it now... in fact, just last weekend we did an over-nighter to test out some new gear they'd bought for an upcoming trip. I unearthed and was happy to spend the night in my 1980's era North Face tadpole again... one of the few pieces of gear that has endured the 40+ years of hard use and long periods of disuse and neglect! I wouldn't trust the old tadpole in the rain or wind, but it's great nostalgia, and still a great design. I think the only other bits of "OG" gear remaining is an MSR Whisper light and a pair of my first Danner Mountain Lights that are probably beyond salvageable for rebuild, but I just can't toss them. No shame with the pillow! No way, Tadpole was my first tent. I bought it used from a lady in the REI parking lot for $50. It is actually a amazing tent even by todays standards. I think after I replaced the stakes and stuff sacks with some lightweight stuff I think it was around 3 pounds for a true freestanding tent. I loved that tent and spent a lot of nights in it. We do tend to hang onto our gear and use it for a long time but i dont think I have much original gear left. When I do finally retire stuff I tend to give it away. I figure its too worn out to sell but if you dont mind "worn gear" it is still serviceable and better than having to drop 2K on gear if you are just getting started. |
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I tried doing alcohol stoves when I lived off of the AT. I'd have a number of thru hikers stay at my home when the bubble would come through in June, and I'd often make alcohol stoves or replacement stoves for them, often replacing the Trangia stoves they'd been suffering with or helping them modify the Trangias into something that's actually useful. In recent years, I've been getting out west more. And that ended any alcohol stove stuff. You just can't do it out there. Canister stoves are the way to go, despite the extra weight. |
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Originally Posted By L_JE: I tried doing alcohol stoves when I lived off of the AT. I'd have a number of thru hikers stay at my home when the bubble would come through in June, and I'd often make alcohol stoves or replacement stoves for them, often replacing the Trangia stoves they'd been suffering with or helping them modify the Trangias into something that's actually useful. In recent years, I've been getting out west more. And that ended any alcohol stove stuff. You just can't do it out there. Canister stoves are the way to go, despite the extra weight. I agree. My wife used the alcohol stove hiking the AT and it was great. We are in Montana and doing shorter hikes, 3-7 days. We just ordered a Soto Windmaster to try out. The alcohol stove works for us OK out here but we worry about the fire hazard, burning our self and its a little less convenient. Weight penalty will be about 4oz depending on the fuel needed for the trip. |
Exceptionally Thick Member
Joined:
Jul 2024
Posts:
1711
EE: 100% (22)
NM, USA
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I self-discovered UL experimenting with “how light can I go?” and only later discovered making your own gear, Montbell etc. I had forgotten about doong things like overnighting into Yosemite by crossing from Emigrant or Cherry Lake, without a wilderness permit. Also remember my beloved MSR Whisperlite Internationale (had two versions) and my younger girlfriend looking at my “quaint old” backpacking gear (she was a technical designer for several outdoors clothing companies). That stove made an appearance with Reese Witherspoon in ‘Wild’. Not quite ultralight, but I rent from external to internal frame to surplus alpine military rucks. Now it’s out of the truck ;) |
| I’m not “UL” in that I don’t care about an arbitrary base weight, but at 57 with bad knees I watch what I carry. In the summer at least I can carry 3 days of food and all my gear, including a GoPro and trail cam for my YouTube channel, and have room left over in a 30l pack with a total weight <20lb. That’s with a heavier sleeping pad (long wide Exped Ultra 5R or NEMO Tensor Trail), OR Foray raingear, and 600g EMS down jacket that will be replaced with a 232g Neve Barrington in a few months. |
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50, and I miss my external frame Jansport. I also chuckle at doing 500 miles of the AT in Sears Diehard work boots. Now I have my own teenage son and I have been back on the trail for the last five years with the Scouts. Tents, air mattresses, and sleeping bags have become way better. Yet somehow my pack hasn't gotten much lighter. It's probably the camp chair. |
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I love my Caldera Cone alcohol stove and use it over a canister stove every chance I get. But as I've gotten older I've added heavier items for comfort. Warbonnet Eldorado hammock, full length under quilt, and super warm top quilt. Instead of a minimalist hammock and Enlightened Equipment 900 fill quilts measured for absolute minimum coverage needed to save weight. An inflatable pillow instead of a stuff sack with my spare clothes. Camp sandals, spare clothes. Heck, I even pack a small tube of deodorant. Maybe a Kindle if it's Fall/Winter and the sun sets at 4pm. Long gone are the days of a torso length Termarest z-lite sleeping pad, half-length quilt, minimal Dyneema tarp, and a 6oz bivy sack for shelter. |