Nehaveigur

The amount of time I spend researching backpacking gear, reading blogs and reviews and watching YouTube videos about tarps, camping stoves, backpacks, sleeping quilts and footwear is comparable to the time I actually spend using the gears outdoors. I find this embarrassing. I also know I’m not the only one.

My obsession with gear comes from the desire to carry less on the trail. The lighter my load, the more I enjoy being out there. There are a few things I need: Good shoes for example, and a quilt to keep me warm at night. There are also things I don’t need but want for comfort. I could do without a stove or cooking pot by eating cold food, but I don’t want to. I also like to bring a book or two even though I’m perfectly capable of going without reading. For the necessary equipment, the way to save weight is to pay more. Any type of backpacking gear you can think of has an ultralight version, which weighs less but costs more. A lot of the time the large adventure stores don’t offer those items since there isn’t enough demand. Instead, they’re made by niche manufacturers who exclusively sell them online.

The other way to save weight is to bring less. In the Sierra Nevada in summer, you don’t need a tent. It’s probably not going to rain, and if it does, a lightweight silnylon tarp is sufficient. You don’t need a camping chair, or an extra pair of camp shoes, or a lantern, or a hatchet.

The High Sierra by Kim Stanley Robinson is a good book by a great writer, and he says it better than I ever could:

Technology is an expression of a culture, and it changes over time with our desires. Now there are many reasons for us to want to go lighter in every way. When I see articles about 300-square-foot houses, I think to myself, that’s the ultralight ethos, reversing the 1950s error; back then they tried to make tents like houses, now they’re trying to make houses like tents. Good idea! This may lead to other types of going lighter. Tiny cars made of carbon fiber, tiny houses made that are self-powered; tiny cars that are also tiny houses! And so on … higher tech for lower impact; the most sophisticated civilization yet.