Ultra Light Theory

[The Weasel]

I think I've got my packweight down to "Ray Jardine" standards. If you don't know what that means, you should...he's the Apostle of Light! Not counting food, water, or fuel, my "FSO" weight ("from skin out", i.e. including clothing/shoes etc. that is worn) is about 11 pounds, and my "wet" weight (fully laden with supplies for a week) is about 27#. Glad to answer questions and I still would like input from others.

"Well a promise made, is a debt unpaid, and the Trail has its own stern code." -- Robert Service

[ez-does-it]

:) Weasel hello,
I would be interested in helping you further reduse your weight how ever would you be willing to post your gear on line so I/we could see it and offer any help if need be.Or you could e-mail me off line and we could compare weights.Good luck with your gear.

[MedicineMan]

all this talk of Jardine,,,,hmmmmm, I think we should give credit
to Grandma Gatewood as the true progenitor of light weight hiking. if you want to give credit to Jardine give him applause for marketing quite successfully Gatewoods practical applications but sadly he is not the guru I find most impressionable, that appelation I reserve for the lady who slept under a shower curtain!

[highway]

I agree wholeheartedly that she has never received the recognition she so rightly desearves, probably because there were so few backpackers in the 50's.

I guess it is similar to us still paying homage to Columbus for "discovering" America, when he was really not the first European to have done so. That honor goes to a small group from the Germanic tribes which settled in Iceland from what is now Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and went to the new world about 500 years before Columbus. Columbus just "commercialized" the new world.

There just were not enough backpackers around to give Grandma Gatewood her just due. And now Jardin is given the credit because he has "commercialized" the idea. And, that is sad!

[EarlyRiser]

yes she should most certainly get more recognition. things are very easily "forgoten" somtimes when it comes to who did waht first. such as the fore mentioned Columbus as well as the wright brothers who actualy wernt the first to fly. (now i know most people say thats just myth or whatever) the first man to fly a heavyer than air craft was a man in connecticut i believe it was two or three years prior to the wright brothers, however he didnt publicise this and word didnt get out beyond the local community. the reason that scientific institutions like the smithsonian dont recognize this is because the wright family allows the smithsonian to display the wright aircraft while the one in connecticut was destroyed years ago. a replica of it however is in a toolshed behind a local pub i believe. but then it really is hard to tell who did waht first. but yeah somtimes people dont get credit for what theyve done.