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.

[Greenmountainguy]

Yeah, but Grandma G. did not commercialize any of what she did. She wrote no books, no memoirs, no magazine articles.
She did not charge people for seminars or to take them hiking.
You cannot sell a Grandma Gatewood shower curtain or a pair of canvas Gatewood sneakers.
So, other people get the credit.
PS Come to think of it, what about John Muir? He had a canvas sack, a loaf of bread, a pound of tea and an overcoat. Hard to put a name brand on any of that either.

[Venchka]

Colin Fletcher. Fully documented. I don't recall that he ever advocated carrying anything that was heavier than it should be or unnecessary.
Keep in mind where he hiked and when. Trails were clearly optional for Mr. Fletcher. I should also point out that he put up some serious routes and then told his story. No brag. Just fact.
Wayne


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[Engine]

Colin Fletcher. Fully documented. I don't recall that he ever advocated carrying anything that was heavier than it should be or unnecessary.
Keep in mind where he hiked and when. Trails were clearly optional for Mr. Fletcher. I should also point out that he put up some serious routes and then told his story. No brag. Just fact.
Wayne


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The Complete Walker was among my favorites as a teenager. Fletcher inspired many of my ultimate hiking goals and then influenced much of how I went about achieving them. If I could spend a day walking with anyone who ever lived, I would strongly consider Colin as my choice.

[rafe]

Wow, talk about a zombie thread!

[Venchka]

Greenmountainguy made me do it.
I obviously missed the 2002 date. Good grief is WhiteBlaze that old? And folks are still asking rookie questions?
Wayne


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[One Half]

Greenmountainguy made me do it.
I obviously missed the 2002 date. Good grief is WhiteBlaze that old? And folks are still asking rookie questions?
Wayne


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Because hopefully, there will always be rookies.

[DuneElliot]

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!

They were Norse, which were of Germanic descent but not actually Germanic, and it was Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, who first set foot in what we now know as America. Germanic tribes were historically notable 3-400 years before the Norsemen that crossed from Scandinavia to Iceland and then to America.

So completely off topic but wanted to be accurate

[rocketsocks]

Colin Fletcher. Fully documented. I don't recall that he ever advocated carrying anything that was heavier than it should be or unnecessary.
Keep in mind where he hiked and when. Trails were clearly optional for Mr. Fletcher. I should also point out that he put up some serious routes and then told his story. No brag. Just fact.
Wayne


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The Complete Walker was among my favorites as a teenager. Fletcher inspired many of my ultimate hiking goals and then influenced much of how I went about achieving them. If I could spend a day walking with anyone who ever lived, I would strongly consider Colin as my choice.Agree, team Colin just so I could ask him to explain some of that dry British humor that I'm still deciphering to this day...the internet has made that task easier. :D Great series of books!

[Traveler]

http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/Assets/ClientImages/static_pages/MISC/StoryArchive_Images/IB_Dead_authorphoto.jpg"Whenever I am feeling bored, I wander back to the turn of 2000 to find something worth eating" Melford Peters, official Zombie of hiking threads