In the interest of full disclosure, this is about as ridiculous and "fringe" as it gets, and I can't imagine I'll ever do it, but...

My son was just playing with mylar balloon, and it occurred to me that one filled half-way with helium would make for a comfortable (if noisy) pillow. Not only would it be weightless, it'd probably offset your weight by half an ounce or so. Since it's waterproof, you could tie it to the outside of the pack at the beginning of the trip if you don't have the space. After your last night, simply deflate it.

Not only that, it's multi-use! Get a shiny or colorful enough one, and you can tie it to your bearline for a solid emergency signal.

Just sayin'...

Ha ha! I like it!

But why stop there? My calculations show that I only need an 8 foot diameter balloon to achieve a total pack weight of -4 pounds!

http://science.howstuffworks.com/helium2.htm

And so the sport of balloonpacking was born.

An 8 foot balloon could also be used as a shelter, air mattress, flotation device, and emergency signal.

I think we're on to something here.

Az

Make the pack out of a double-layer mylar. Fill it with helium before you go, and it unfolds into your sleeping pad/pillow.

Edit: Where's Mike to draw up a cartoon of someone pulling their balloon-lifted SUL kit on a leash?

Edited by Knaight on 05/17/2011 09:32:06 MDT.

Using hydrogen instead would offset even more weight. Add a small but long enough hose and it could take the place of your stove, too!

Ultralight fireworks. Excellent!

I could see this working, but if you do it, you're gonna open a whole new can of worms. Aerodynamic drag. If you have a big balloon slowing you down, you'll lose the gain of less weight. How can you get 30 miles a day? Then manufacturers will address that problem and I'll be out another $1000 for "aerodynamic noble gass filled neon self lighting pack lighteners". I don't have the cash for that right now! Also if you go too far, you become a hot air balloon and you have to switch to a new website. I met some hot air ballooners one time. They were sort of strange.

"Using hydrogen instead would offset even more weight. Add a small but long enough hose and it could take the place of your stove, too!"

And this would carry with it an added incentive to use fuel sparingly -- because the more fuel you use, the heavier your pack gets!

And don't forget to bring along plenty of guylines and some serious stakes in case of storms; these negative weight packs will be even easier for the wind to blow away than an unsecured free-standing tent!

One can always replace burned hydrogen (and re-lighten pack) by carrying a solar panel to disassociate water on the go. Plus, the O2 can be breathed to boost hiking perfomance.

Someone needs to trademark "balloonpacking."

Instead of carrying our houses on our backs, we're going to let balloons do it for us.

Just like this guy! - http://abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/carl-carrying-house-300x182.jpg

If you get bored while sitting under your "shelter" you could always do a hit and amuse yourself and your friends with your squeaky voice.

Kite related, but I'm sure it can be applied to backpacking gear. Kiters have been using helium encapsulated graphite for years now. They can always be identified by their kite bags; they float over their head walking on the kite field.

It took quite a bit of technology to come up with this stuff. I quote from someone in the know: "It's extraordinary "light weightness" (TM) is achieved by exchanging oxygen molecules with Helium molecules at the molecular level. This is done "while" the graphite is being applied to the spindle."

I can't wait for Wild Ideas to start using this stuff. Once they do, we will only have to deal with the bulk of a bear canister. That whole ursack discussion will be tempered...

Steve

Edited by geokite on 05/17/2011 21:46:15 MDT.

And pray tell what ever happened to Unobtanium hiking poles? Are we to now use helium infused graphite poles instead?

And pray tell what ever happened to Unobtanium hiking poles? Are we to now use helium infused graphite poles instead?

Those would be utterly useless for fording creeks as they'd be an incredible hassle to push down into the creek bed. They would be even worse while trying to hitch. You'd merely be trying to keep your poles from floating away, but passerby's would think you're a madmen waving your ski poles in the air. They could be an alternative to packrafts. Polerafting anyone?

Pardon me for taking this topic a bit too seriously, but I did a bit of actual research for fun.

Using hydrogen or helium, you get about 1 gram of lift per liter of gas or 0.95oz of lift per cubic foot. So theoretically, you'd need over 100 cubic feet to live a nice UL baseweight around 6-7 lbs. That would mean a ballon around 6 feet in diameter.....totally impractical but pretty neat.

With any attempt to save weight using lifting gases, you'd need to find a container that doesn't weigh more than the weight you are savings. Using something that you are already carrying would be the way to go. One idea is to fill your NeoAir mattress up with helium before your trip and then just keep it filled. A full length NeoAir holds about 2.1 cubic feet of gas, which corresponds to a savings of 1.92oz when filled with helium. So you'd reduce a NeoAir's weight from 14oz to 12oz if you filled it with helium and then kept it inflated...assuming of course the helium can't escape through the walls of the pad.

Dan,

If I were to make a Rectangular 72x24x4" airmat using the lightest materials it would be 11.3 oz. My estimated volume came out to 99.1 liters or 3.5 oz lift. An 11.3 oz airmat minus 3.5 oz lift = 7.8 oz! I calculated doubling the thickness and the final weight comes out exactly the same. Adding Canadian geese with some spectra cord attached is the only way to help this dirigible off the ground.