Hey everyone, just found this forum, looks great. I have just recently gotten bitten by the lightweight bug and am currently lightening my load. So far I am down to 28lbs for weekends and hope to be down to around 20 when i am done. This includes food and water. I have already dropped the weight of my pack in half and also my sleeping bag. Tent is next. I do most of my backpacking in VA. Closest mountains to me in Eastern NC.

Welcome!

Hey Paul,
congratulations, there are a lot of good people here who can help you, just ask.

Best regards from the AZ desert,
MikeB

Im kinda relatively new, but my question is, Does anyone know of a thread thats just people introducing themselves, coz a lot of people (me included) really just drift around reading and we could probably have a few more interesting minds on this crazed airspace

Same here which is why I decided to introduce myself here.

Welcome guys! You won't be disappointed. This site absolutely rocks for lightening up.

Well if anyone is interested, I'll start it off in the Chaff section sometime tonight unless you guys have any better ideas. Welcome all new fellows!

Well after giving it some thought we might as well continue here. My name.... is unimportant, but it is to the left. I'm going to be a senior in boarding school this year and am looking to go to college perhaps in the North West, the pictures from the coastal expedition Erin and Hig are doing makes me want to go even more. I bought alota really bad mid-weight gear, like a terrible Mountain Hardwear ripoff of a sauna, I mean Tarptent, now I want new stuff but I have neither the money nor a chance to settle on one idea due to this blasted site, keeping me up to ungodly hours as I fail to adjust to jetlag after me and my sister visited our Grandma in England.
Cheers

hey guys, welcome to the forums..

this website was one of my greatest resources in coming to a greater knowlege of ultralight gear, philosiphy and technique.

Lately I have not posted as frequntly as I have in the past, mostly because there doesent seem like there is much more I can learn after 2 years of being a member and posting over 800 times. and there are others more qualified to answer the questions of others..

so I am just taking this opertunity to welcome all the new members, and thank all those who have contributed to the forums in the past.
because of this site, I have greater confidence in my ability to suceed on the trail, and have started long term plans for my future in backpacking, that would have seemed impossible were it not for this website.

Hi, another new guy saying hi!

Hey, me too. I've been a long poster/reader on USENET, and I've lurked here for a couple of years before setting up an account last November.

I was never a backpacker until a few years ago, although I have thousands of miles of bike touring from the 80s and 90s, which involved a lot of "lightweight" camping (including a one-day hike to Half Dome--long story). An overuse injury to my knee sidelined my cycling (as did other life events), but the camping part never completely faded away, and I suddenly found myself buying an IF backpack in 2002 and loading it up with my camping equipment from the 1980s.

In the last few years I've reduced my 2-3 day packweight from an insane 55 lbs. (which I only weighed, but never carried on a trip), to an equally insane (for me) 16 lbs. + consumables. But I've got the typical scars of such a weight loss: a fat gear closet and thin wallet :-)

The limiting factor for trips now is time (and--ahem--physical conditioning), and can only get out once or twice a year. But I love every minute!

I didn't start backpacking until relatively late in life. My first big outing was a trans-Pecos trip with the wife. We estimate that we carried 45-50 pounds of gear EACH for a mind-blowing OVERNIGHT hike to the south rim of the Chisos in Big Bend. Every other camping night since then has involved less than 100 yards of travel from the car to the campsite. I think there may be a correlation. So we're pretty pumped about shedding weight and getting back out there. We're both also very excited about making our own gear.

So now you shouldn't be surprised at the barrage of stupid questions to come. :o)

Tell everyone it was mostly water.........