I should mention that I'd strongly describe myself as an ultralight backpacker/gram weenie and normally I'd cringe at the title of this thread, but hear me out.
What prompted me to write this was listening to Andrew Skurka talk about his recent trek through Northern Minnesota in January. Him and the interviewer get a little off topic and touch on this issue for a few
minutes. Listen from about minutes 29:30-35:50 for what I'm talking about
:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...3_skurka2.html
Also, details about Glen Van Peski's sub 3 pound hike that Andrew refers to are here:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...sub_3_pct.html
Like he says, at a certain point, is it worth making unsafe assumptions about conditions or "cutting corners" in order to drop a pack weight by a couple ounces, or a fraction of an ounce? As far as the effect of pack weight on your body for example, I do not think there is any real physiological difference between a pack weighing 5 pounds and one weighing 4.8 pounds, let alone a 0.1 ounce difference. So is it worth going to extremes when the real benefits of achieving that lower weight are (arguably) negligible?
I would agree that Glen's gear list is totally impractical for a significant or long term hike in variable conditions. I'll also say that I'm personally NOT impressed that he did this hike with such a low weight. Like Andrew mentioned, I think we need to question the value of something like this. What are we trying to accomplish or prove here? That in very specific areas and conditions, you can get by with very little gear? I don't find that particularly interesting, innovative, or of much value to anyone.
In the end, do what makes you happy. HYOH. But do you think we're reaching a point where the effect these weight differences have on our bodies, speed, efficiency etc. are no longer significant enough to have merit? I think we should always strive to improve the qualities of design and materials, and this alone tends to result in lower weight products, but I think we need to take a long, hard look at our motivations for these extremely light gear lists.
I mean, I'm still going to cut tags off my shirts, trim excess webbing, etc. These things serve no function. But on the other hand, I have a very solid, dialed in 3 season base weight of just under 8 pounds which I'm using on a PCT thru this year. Sure, I could feasibly drop maybe a half pound and I'm sure there's folks out there who'd do it, too. But at this point I just don't understand the motivation for this.
With many hikers carrying under 10 pounds of gear these days, again, I guess I just don't see the motivation to make significant gear changes in order to drop say, a half pound, when I think there is demonstrably NO practical advantages to it.
Your thoughts?