Originally Posted by
Franco
Tipi Walter,
"It's not the attempts to lighten our loads that rankles and disturbs, it's the heavy handed born-again ultralighters who keep attempting to lead us into a future of flimsy nothingness and a preoccupation with grams.".
Does it not strike you as odd that you are saying that in the Ultralite section ?
Are you not the one that implies that anyone not using your "expedition " gear is going to die or is just plain stupid ?
Who is really preaching here ?
Seems to me that many don't hike because of not been able or willing to carry heavy loads. On the converse , most of the light weight hikers I met recently in WA were older folk that can and do hike (and have fun, look that word up...) because they have lighter loads. And yes I met many with huge packs, none of them appeared to be enjoying themselves (enjoy :look that up too)
One guy (57 year old) did 3-5 days at a time, covering 20-30 miles a day with a 30 L or so pack. He eats just bars (from Walmart as he told us several times). Not my cup of tea but HIS cup of tea. And that is fine with me ....
No , he would not survive Denali , but he was not doing Denali
Me, I had a total load of 30lbs for 7 days including 1.5 L of water . (about 27 for the next 5) . Not light, not heavy . What I had is irrelevant because it was what I wanted to have and still have a good time.
And BTW, your very much maligned Neo Air worked very well for me, saved me some weight and space too...
(no I was not doing Denali)
Franco