BackpackingLight.com Forums

Forum policy and use issues.

A place where BackpackingLight.com customers can ask specific questions from the forum community and staff about maximizing the performance of products sold through the BackpackingLight.com Gear Shop. Generally, product support requests related to product performance will be referred here, as we recognize that the collective experience of the BackpackingLight.com user community is far greater than the collective experience of our customer support staff.

What's happenin' at BPL (read only).

For testing the forum interface. A place where newbies can post test messages without getting flamed. Nothing informative here, total trash.

GEAR talk. Everything GEAR. All about GEAR. Ultralight backpacking gear. Lightweight backpacking gear. Hiking gear. Anything GEAR. Gear that sucks, gear that works, gear that's cheap, gear that's cool, gear that's overrated by lying manufacturers, gear that's only available from a side street Spanish market, gear that breaks, gear that's multi-use, gear that can be Googled, GEAR GEAR GEAR GEAR GEAR. Now go. Talk 'some gear.

Post your gear list here, get some feedback, debate the choices.

"Multiple Use" as applied to a piece of gear is a foundation principle of lightweight backpacking. This forum deals with the topic in greater depth.

Do-it-yourself tips and tricks, material sources, patterns, techniques, and discussions of how to HACK UP off the market products to make them lighter (and sometimes, better).

Announcements of online & local sales, coupons, etc. Commercial posts OK, but ONLY if you are announcing a sale or coupon.

New and used gear to buy-sell-trade.

General discussion of lightweight hiking/backpacking and other backcountry activities.

Discussions about the ethereal philosophy of going light, balanced (maybe) by both rational and (very likely) irrational discussions of "best practices", techniques, etc.

All is well if you have an eight pound base (dry) pack weight, but you have to add food and water sooner or later. Use this forum to discuss the acquisition, packaging, and preparation of backcountry ingestibles. Post your favorite trail recipes too.

Short tips and tricks to help you go just a leeeeetle bit lighter next time.

A place to share experiences, stories, techniques, and gear ideas for backpacking light with Scouts.

A place for the discussion of gear, techniques, and strategies for High Adventure at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

News, trends, and gear from Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2007, January 23-27, Salt Lake City Utah.

Commentary about news and trends from ORSM'07, August 8-13, 2007, Salt Lake City Utah.

News, muse, and views from ORWM'07, January 26-30 2007, Salt Lake City, UT.

Comments and views about Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2006, August 8-13, Salt Lake City, UT.

News, new gear, and commentary about Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2005 (PUBLIC Forum). To view BackpackingLight.com MEMBERS version, please log in with your BackpackingLight.com user account and revisit this page.

Discussion of ultralight techniques, gear, and philosophy as they directly relate to more vertical pursuits above the treeline.

If you're mission is vertical, check out the "Mountaineering and Alpinism" forum. All other winter hikers, this is your gig here. Techniques and gear for dealing with SNOW and COLD.

Canoeing lite, river running lite, packrafting lite, sailing lite, etc.

Fly fishing, spin fishing, lightweight gear and techniques for the backcountry.

Camera gear, techniques, strategies for going light, etc.

Other activities not specifically related to hiking or camping, or the other Off-Piste forum topics.

Post trip reports, backyard gear testing fiascos, etc.

Discussions related to specific articles published at BPL.com or in the print mag.

Planning a trip? Need a partner? Need a shuttle?

Post your surf slop here - personal websites or other Web resources that will be informative to lightweight backpackers.

Unrelated to any of the forums above. No rules regarding the topic. Opinions, politics, the benefits of heavy gear, you name it. Please, no commercial posts, and NO SPAM. Courtesy is monitored in the other forums. In this one, you may need some thick skin to play with the big dogs.

A place to post photos - we're just testing this feature for now to see how it goes.