With New Years Eve upon us and a few hours left to make all those deeply, heart felt, resolutions, I thought I would bring up something that most of us would not care to admit, of coarse, I suppose I could be all alone in this. I actually made a resolution several years ago, not to make any more resolutions. Instead, I would just do what ever needed to be done, upon having the realization, or soon after and save myself having far too many things to remember and quit, come January first.

Anyway, I confess that over the years I have - when finances allowed - been a slave to new backpacking technology. Somewhere around ten or twelve years ago, I made my last purchase of a one pound thermorest ultralight and a snow peak canister stove, then called it quits. That was until I stupidly stumbled upon this site, a year ago and the demon was once again released. I hadn't been keeping up, probably due to my attention being diverted to digital photography and that never ending merry-go-round, but that's another story.

Anyway, to make a long story short, it sounded too good to be true. To be able to get my total pack weight under 20 pounds sounded like a dream come true, specially since with my photo gear, I was used to 40 pounds and sometimes 60-70 pounds, with large format stuff.

I jumped in with both feet and got Ultralighted and it was wonderful. I was in backpacking heaven. However, it didn't take long, until I read on and dug a little deeper and discovered there was an even more Nirvanaistic experience called SuperUltralite. How could I have missed that? I should have went there first and saved myself a bunch of dough, not counting the endless hours of online comparisons. So I stumble onward, counting grams, clipping labels, swapping stakes, doing without, until I finally reached the sub 5 pound barrier and I became an enlightened one. Then, I lived happily ever after and never bought another thing and retired a rich man, from saving all my money, that I would have spent on gear.

Well, not exactly, like that. Actually, I discovered that SUL, pretty much requires that you hike near water, because those beautiful little framless packs don't do too well when you get over about twenty pounds. I live in the desert, a typical two day two night trip put me up
on the north side of twenty pounds and as much as I wanted to be OK with it, it just was too much, for the little pack, and my shoulders.

I will save a cheap little day pack, for those SUL excursions in those distant rain and stream swept lands of Appalachia or California, but for now I had to buy a little more gear and get me a framed pack that can handle 16 pounds of water and I hope that now, I can live happily ever after, because I'm so done buying gear. I don't need nothing else, except for maybe a.......nope, I don't even need that, yet.;) Happy New Year!

>> I don't need nothing else, except for maybe a.......nope, I don't even need that, yet.;) Happy New Year!

Nope... You don't need it. But you want it! And if it's your biggest want, then go for it! Life is too short to impose limits for the sake of having limits.

Happy New Year!

Nope... You don't need it. But you want it! And if it's your biggest want, then go for it! Life is too short to impose limits for the sake of having limits.

True, I want, I want, I want, but I just don't want to carry it. :)

Got the pack weight down, now need to work on this.

Edited by khumbukat on 12/31/2011 14:50:51 MST.

I think BPL is good for most people, but there are severe diminishing returns going below lightweight that doesn't make sense to pay for most bpers. Fitness is probably going to be more important than going from 15 to 5 pounds.

Fitness is probably going to be more important than going from 15 to 5 pounds.

nonsense ... just buy the latest $$$$ cuben and yr all good ...

the sad truth about fitness is that you cant post up about the latest greatest gear you just bought (well you can but its useless if you dont use it) ... and its actually hard work

theres a reason why people like gear lists and diets over simply going out and going hard (as you reasonably can) ...

Eric, sometimes I wonder if you just assume that your experience extends to everyone else. No offense meant, but you are so down on people buying gear and seem to think that everyone here is lazy and fat and rich and into shopping instead of " going out and doing it". I have met many BPL folks thar are strong and fit and are out and about regularly.

no offense taken

i definitely believe there are very strong people here who buy a lot of gear and use it well

but im also quite sure that there are people who would rather look at a gear list analyze it to death, keep replacing gear, and end up not using it very much ... theres quite a bit of getting rid of lightly used stuff on gear trade

im going to quote mr jordan last very controversial article for which he is being tarred and feathered

You don't need the gear, you don't need the debt, you don't need to further tax our resources, you don't need to spend your children's social security on your gear addiction, you don't need to waste time and money storing (or disposing) gear you don't love, and you don't need to lighten your pack from 5.2 to 4.6 pounds.

the reality and contrary im sure to the belief of some people here is that there is nothing "elite" about having a somewhat lighter pack or certain gear ... its what you do with the gear that matters

not to long ago BPL was a place where REI gear got slammed, fleece got slammed, synthetics got slammed, anything from walmart got slammed ... if you werent using the lightest thing possible, you were a dino ...

i simply provide an opposing viewpoint which im quite sure some people dont appreciate at all ... you dont need the latest lightest shiniest gear to go out and have fun ....

nevermind.

Happy New Year

Edited by Eugeneius on 12/31/2011 22:07:38 MST.

Eric said "i simply provide an opposing viewpoint which im quite sure some people dont appreciate at all ... you dont need the latest lightest shiniest gear to go out and have fun ...."

I'd pretty much have to agree. You DON'T have to have the latest, but it also doesn't hurt either. What hurts is when people spend more time on Gear/Gear Swap then they do with their families. I've been guilty of that a time or two. The real point is if you don't have gear, get some. Then go use it. Don't sweat the small stuff. Get out and enjoy the outdoors. And for that, I'll thank the OP of this thread, who started this not so popular topic.

eugene ..

i simply give my opinion ... and if people dont like it its up to them ...

there are many other people's tone here that i dont personally like ...

thats the nature of the internet ... as much as im certain some people would love everyone to post in certain styles, only write certain things, only hold certain viewpoints ...

its a free country ... and what you make of my posts is yr rorschach test ...

I think what you are truly missing about BPL and the gear junkies is that many of the folks posting here are tech geeks and engineers - and like shiny new objects. Methinks you put too much into why others want to buy gear.If it makes them happy, who are we to say they are wrong?

Let it be and just live life the way you want. But how they live isn't any more wrong than how you choose to. Just a different road is all.

"not to long ago BPL was a place where REI gear got slammed, fleece got slammed, synthetics got slammed, anything from walmart got slammed ... if you werent using the lightest thing possible, you were a dino ..."

Oh the horror...I am certain, based on the above, these people must never make it outdside ........ yawn.

Look just b/c some folks tend to have a "grass is greener" syndrome with the tools of their chosen hobby doesn't mean they don't par-take in said hobby. You post a lot about "going hard" and "trashing gear", should I interpret that as you being more interested in talking the talk?

"you dont need the latest lightest shiniest gear to go out and have fun ...."
This is a great reminder, wish you didn't have to hide it behind all of the other garbage.

At one point in time about twenty years ago, I had been practicing ultralightweight techniques for almost ten years. Then a special trip came up, and the only possible way for me to do it was to "pull out all of the stops" gear weight-wise. That worked out nicely. Then one year ago, another special trip came up, and it was another "pull out all of the stops" trip that was nice.

So, you don't have to shave grams off your load for each and every trip, but ultralightweight gear and techniques can be very handy to have for those special trips that only come around every so often.

--B.G.--

sarah ...

a person choses to buy or use what he or she wants ... thats up to them

what i DO have an issue with is the implication that one need or should buy a certain gear .... weve all see some of those posts over time ...

a person can get buy very well with spending less and still easily getting out and having fun and be quite light ... in this time of tight money for some that could be quite important

as i said gear swap is often full of gear that is lightly used ... quite a bit i suspect is likely gear that didnt work out ... and the new posting rules makes the "if it doesnt work sell it on gear swap" non viable for non member

i dont go on every thread where they rage about the lightest newest pack from the cottage industry and say "dont buy dont buy dont buy" ... only a certain threads where the topic often is about that particular issue such as this one ...

how many times have we seen backpack threads where members indicate to buy this or that or another pack ... without disclaiming the obvious, most important thing a pack must do? ...

there IS a cost IMO to all this obsession on gear for newer members here ...

james ...

im not even going to bother ;)

Edited by bearbreeder on 12/31/2011 19:27:26 MST.

I shouldn't be getting sucked into this nonsense, it's infectious and usually I can abstain.

Eric, for what it's worth, your Rorschach test card results are in, here are the results, they don't look to good buddy.



Happy New Year!

Edited by Eugeneius on 12/31/2011 20:12:49 MST.

Happy New Years!

theres more important things to do than argue on the internet about gearon new years eve ... hopefuly ;)

Its a horned lizard!

with a merino wool scarf.