I have no doubt many of you know of Dick Proenneke and his life and time in ALASKA


I recently stumbled upon the whole documentary aired on local TV. It was awesome and his pack was sure interesting from a UL standpoint.

Proenneke

anyhow just sharing with BPLers!

Edited by THUNDERHORSE on 04/01/2010 23:27:34 MDT.

These are great. Thank you.

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Edited by annapurna on 05/01/2010 22:11:43 MDT.

The movie/doco was great, watch it a few times a year.

Oh to live as simple as that hey!

Nice film indeed! All his own camera work ... perhaps an inspiration to Les Stroud?

The "book" pretty much parallels the film. The NPS printed a followup, a much more extensive set of his journals ... even more interesting than the original with a broader description of his life. I was about say that it was out of print and d**m hard to find (and only for big $$$) but now that I look again I see it's back! More readings from One Man's Wilderness

his pack was sure interesting from a UL standpoint.

I used to own that model military surplus pack frame! Was great for carrying the kind of things Proenneke was bringing to his building site.

UL perspective? I suppose it's all in how you look at it. IIRC, the building site was a few miles from the nearest place his bush pilot could land and he hauled the entire load in 2 or 3 trips. That's all the tools he used to build the cabin plus at least a couple weeks of food (he did get resupplied now and then). Compare that to what the typical modern "craftsman" would bring to that kind of job and you might conclude he was going pretty light!

Edited by jcolten on 04/02/2010 07:27:02 MDT.

Oh definitely inspiration for the modern Bear Stroud/ Les Grylls natural documentaries. Hmm maybe that book is worth looking into.

In reference to his pack I was thinking of the small day pack he carries around snowshoeing. It looks like a canvas cape with pockets... I have carried a similar large pack designed for trail maintenance gear. They rock for carrying large tools! His larger pack is definitely lighter than your modern craftsman since he fashioned all his handles and that mallet.