View Full Version : Gear Acquisition Syndrome
Interesting reading. Written for photography, but easily applies to gear obsessed outdoor pursuits.
" Finding a community more focused about shooting (and less about gear) will in-turn make you more focused on photography and less on gear. "
Change photography/shooting to "the outdoors" and you get the idea!
http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/03/04/10-tips-on-how-to-cure-yourself-of-gas-gear-acquisition-syndrome/
I feel mostly blessed these days not having to visit EMS or REI hardly at all. I actually have all the gear I need, and then some, for three-season hiking, and it's all sorted out, tested, and ready whenever I am. It's a great feeling.
Almost the same deal with photography. I burned out with all the $$$ I was spending. The gear lust never quit.
I've been thinking of getting into some more serious winter hiking, and on that score I've been frustrated. It seems right now is a horrible time to be buying snowshoes and crampons. Local REI has zero stock, and the stock situation isn't much better anywhere else, even Campmor.
Yeah, I notice it too and I've done it myself - obsessing about accumulating gear or discussing gear, as it applies here, hiking gear, rather than the simple beauty of hiking. I've let loose of that accumulating of gear but I admit I still obsess at times when discussing hiking gear. What I don't do though is just accumulate(shop, trade) and discuss gear. I do hike, IMHO, quite extensively. The vast amount of gear I discuss concerns my personal use or personal knowledge of it. You notice here on WB I don't always intimately involve myself in every gear discussion thread. ULers and Newbies or those that infrequently hike are very susceptible to the gear accumulating obsession and endless discussion of gear. In my experience, those that I meet who are regular hikers, particularly the long time long distance hiking crowd, which I'm most familiar with, don't obsess so much about gear. I know I've come to the place where gear, while obviously important to me, is not the most important for an enjoyable hike.
I think about what wanders(hikers) like John Muir did - jumping over a fence with a wool coat, some blankets, loaves of bread, oatmeal, tea and a tin of sugar. It certainly seems Muir enjoyed himself most of the time, often immensely so, with his minimalist approach. I know he fasted at times on some of his treks though. For him there was more to being in Nature than gear! It's my illusion, since Muir didn't have such an obsession with gear, all his focus was spent on the quality of his backcountry experiences and absorption with Nature and GOD.
magic_game03
03-05-2014, 16:56
I actually have all the gear I need...
No such thing. Five different sets of crampons for everything from front-pointing to micro spikes, and just as many sets of ice axes. Three different sizes of bear cans (I still need an Ursack). Five different sleeping bags from -15 deg. to 40+. Half a dozen tents from bomb proof 4 season tents to UL solo tents. Ridge rest foam pads, two sizes of the prolites, to my new NeoAir. I stopped counting packs. And the list goes on-and-on-and-on. I still have gear that I'm dreaming of. On my bucket gear list is… my first quilt (which I hope to get next month), darn tough socks (haven't tried them yet but I'm about to order some), and a new pack (too many problems building in my old favorite.)
I think about what wanders(hikers) like John Muir did - jumping over a fence with a wool coat, some blankets, loaves of bread, oatmeal, tea and a tin of sugar. It certainly seems Muir enjoyed himself most of the time, often immensely so, with his minimalist approach. I know he fasted at times on some of his treks though. For him there was more to being in Nature than gear! It's my illusion, since Muir didn't have such an obsession with gear, all his focus was spent on the quality of his backcountry experiences and absorption with Nature and GOD.
Yea, and John Muir didn't have to take care of a family (kinda sad in a way), pay entry into National Parks, nor did he have a dentist if he had a tooth ache. It sounds good until you actually live in those shoes. Don't get me wrong, I respect and revere the life of John Muir but often truth and reality gets a little muddled with legend. If this were 1890 maybe I wouldn't feel the same but it's 2014 and a different world from the Yosemite of John Muir's days.
Different world now, truth and reality gets a little muddled with legend, you don't know a man until you walk 10 miles in his shoes - uh, I get that. But what's your pt beyond that in context of the OPs thread? Help me out. I'm working on 6 hrs of sleep in the last two days.
daddytwosticks
03-05-2014, 17:08
As I get new gear, I give up (donate) or sell an item. This keeps my hiking gear inventory from getting out of control. For example, I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a new Osprey Exos 48. Just about a month ago, I basically gave away my old Aether 60 pack. :)
Nah seriously... for ordinary backpacking, I need nothing. My list of gear is extensive, maybe as much as yours (magic_game03). Numerous down bags, tents, stoves, packs, sleeping pads, water filters, base layers, socks, hiking boots. All good stuff.
But now that you mention it I could use a new set of Frogg Toggs and maybe poles. Mine are pretty beat up.
Just Bill
03-05-2014, 18:30
Tools of the trade Mags.
Every beginner must obsess over what tools they need to perform the job. In addition some tools can make up for lack of experience or skill and bridge the gap. As your experience grows your tools change to reflect that. After enough practical experience is stored under the ol tool belt then the craftsman can do nearly any general purpose job with any general tool.
There are always a few special jobs that require special tools- but once you know your craft it makes little difference what tool you use.
As the carpenter's say- "You'll learn more swinging one hammer a thousand times than a thousand hammer's once."
Master the craft, don't be a tool.;)
Another Kevin
03-05-2014, 20:09
Gear is easier to talk about than technique, and technique is easier to talk about than any of the more spiritual aspects of hiking. I'd love to get more tips here on technique, but there's just so much of it that can be learnt only from direct experience that I don't think the discussion will sustain this forum. And discussion of the spiritual aspects are best reserved for evenings in camp or in the pub after a trip. So everyone talks about gear because it's something we can talk about.
I'm mostly with 'rafe' here. I have what I need for three seasons, and for carefully selected deep-winter trips. I do make the occasional gear purchase. But the rate is definitely slowing down. Most of the time nowadays, I can walk through an outfitter and say, "I don't need that. What I have suits me better." to most of the stuff, and 'hoo-ha, look at what they're charging for that! Mine is definitely good enough!" to a lot of the rest.
The purchases now come for several reasons:
(1) There's something I can't do without the equipment. The last few winters were so mild that I've had no use for an ice axe since I got back into hiking. This winter, I turned down a trip (with an instructor who could have given me a refresher on technique, no less!) for want of one. Now that the spring clearance sales are happening, I've picked up an ice axe. (Plus pick guard and spike guard and leash and ... every major piece of gear seems to come with its own kit of small stuff.)
(2) I can make a major improvement. When I got back into hiking, I was carrying an REI tent, not lightweight at all, but it was cheap and bombproof. I still have it against the possibility that I need to lend a tent to someone else. (And once in a while, my daughter borrows it.) In the meantime, I picked up a TarpTent that was less than half the weight. (Plus lighter stakes, and the gizmos that attach to pole grips, and ... the kit of small stuff) There aren't going to be many more major improvements available. I don't have top-of-the-line gear, but I'm definitely at the point of diminishing returns with most of my stuff. I'd rather get out and use it.
(3) Something no longer fits. I've lost over 40 pounds since I got back into hiking It doesn't do to have my pants fall down. That could be em-bare-assing. :o Baselayers need to be form-fitting, and a too-loose wind jacket gets the wind up it.
(4) Something is trashed. Trail runners last only a few hundred miles. Dri-Ducks get big holes if a spark from a campfire hits them. I ripped the seat out of a pair of pants scrambling a chimney in sandpapery conglomerate rock. The battery clip on my headlamp broke (and the plastic cracked when I tried to press-fit in a bit of bent wire to replace it). You can only sharpen microspikes so many times before you start running out of metal. Once in a while, you just need a new one of something.
I can think of a few things that would be nice to have, but they're getting to be few. A lighter-weight sleeping bag for summer. (I use a three-season bag and just pull it over me part way, loosely. That works fine, but is heavier to carry than it might be.) On the other end, possibly a warmer bag for deep winter. (Although my zero-degree bag has served me well on all the trips I've made with it.) A lighter pack (Not yet. I still can't make up my mind what size it needs to be. I still carry too much stuff.) But those are low-priority items. The high priority belongs to things that are necessary to go somewhere, and that trip last weekend is the only one I've turned down for want of equipment in a couple of years.
I wouldn't say that I have an immense amount of practical experience, but I have enough experience - and enough gear - to do what I want to do, more or less safely, and garner more experience on the way. Enough experience to know that what I carry suits my current style. While some things in my pack don't see use every trip (I'm happy not to use the first-aid supplies, thank you!), I can't think of anything in my pack that I don't use once in ten trips, and all the really heavy stuff is used every time. I do perhaps travel in more comfort than some, and that means I travel slower, but I like it that way.
I might feel differently if my style were to get out and live with my equipment for months on end. But I'm a clueless weekender. An extra pound in the pack won't kill me, and at this point, it would most likely cost hundreds of bucks to shave off that pound.
Meriadoc
03-05-2014, 21:23
I feel mostly blessed these days not having to visit EMS or REI hardly at all. I actually have all the gear I need, and then some, for three-season hiking, and it's all sorted out, tested, and ready whenever I am. It's a great feeling.
Sure is! Less gear, more hiking. That's where I am for 3 season.
But it's an interesting experience going through gear selection for a new area. I'm a newcomer to Maine and didn't have deep cold equipment (mostly double layer boots and some hardcore mittens). I used my ingenuity and scraped through a tougher-than-usual winter just fine. But now that I'm looking at guiding for a living, I'm starting to spring for the gear that works no-questions-asked. Since restarting my gear acquiring brain muscle, I have had to stop myself from picking up new shell pants - pants I desired just because they are so much better than the ones I already have. Fortunately, I know just what to buy and how to limit it, but that long-dead gear collection urge revived. Fascinating.
GAS; I've got multiple forms of it: Gear Acquisition Syndrome, Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, and....
Kraken Skullz
03-05-2014, 22:27
Nice thread. I think I am still in the phase of transitioning from the way I used to hike when I was in the scouts and 15 years old to what I am now as an almost 30 year old career man that sits at a desk for 40hrs a week. For me I want good gear that will last a while and will allow me to be comfortable and enjoy my time on long hikes while also being comfortable to carry along the way. I'm probably never going to have a $600 sleeping bag or a $300 pack that weighs 6oz, but I want to get back to something that pushes me to get off my butt and have fun while seeing parts of the outside world that I never saw before.
The best cure for GAS is to hike. The more I hike, the less I think about gear.
Another Kevin
03-05-2014, 22:50
Malto - And you and Laz could teach us all a lot about traveling with 'two apples and a bedsheet' as Coach Lou put it. I don't know how you manage it.
As an avid photographer, thank you for posting this :)