The 6 BIGGEST Mistakes I Made As A New Lightweight Backpacker
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2024
- Hey everybody! Today I want to run you through six of the dumbest decisions I made when I first got into lightweight/ultralight backpacking, with the hopes that it will help you avoid making the same mistakes. Thanks for watching, and hope you enjoy it!
BACKPACKING GEAR I USE OR TALK ABOUT
Foam pad: www.montbell.us/products/disp...
Inflatable pad: geni.us/SESk6T (Amazon)
45 deg sleeping bag (new model): www.montbell.us/products/disp...
20 deg sleeping bag: zpacks.com/products/20f-class...
7 deg sleeping bag (new model): www.montbell.us/products/disp...
38L pack: mountainlaureldesigns.com/pro...
55L pack: mountainlaureldesigns.com/pro...
3 person tent: zpacks.com/products/triplex-tent
CAMERA GEAR USED TO SHOOT THIS VIDEO
Waterproof camera backpack: geni.us/PAftnR (Amazon)
Lightweight, full-frame camera: geni.us/HyNJK (Amazon)
Wide zoom for vlogging: geni.us/jBbeUq1 (Amazon)
Mid zoom for b-roll: geni.us/PeuC (Amazon)
My mic: geni.us/fvbT0E (Amazon)
Lightweight tripod: geni.us/fFSFX (Amazon)
VNDs for shooting outside: geni.us/BuxS1BH (Amazon)
Feel free to follow along:
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DISCLAIMER: This description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Doing so helps me make more videos like this. I appreciate you! - กีฬา
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Biggest future mistake I see myself making is cold-soaking. 🤔🤗🤪😩😥😂
Nothing like a warm or hot meal at the end of a long day. 😊
@@damnitman3170 exactly. I don’t even do freeze dried anymore. Gourmet all the way. It’s worth it for me to carry the extra weight and take the extra time to cook right.
I need my coffee in the morning. So that stove is coming along regardless
Haha! I'm considering cold soaking for some upcoming longer trips as well, but I'm not sure if the saved weight balances the psychological hit of no hot meals. From my desk chair here I feel as though I'd be just fine, but I could see how that perspective may change after a week of cold mashed potatoes.
@@timbschwartz I typically hike sunrise to a few hours before sunset, sometimes even out to sunset. But this depends on if I’m solo or with a group, and what the group is like. Some groups like to hike from 9 am to 5 pm, and have time to find and setup camp, cook diner, maybe clean clothes and set them out to dry, all before the sun goes down. I’ve learned not to force a group into Death Marches, and time in camp together makes for a stronger group, in terms of members getting along when hit with type-2 and type-3 fun.
In terms of cold soaking, based on my experience with groups, you might at well relegate it to solo hiking or hiking with members of the extreme ultralight cult… unless you really enjoy cold soaked meals, then by all means.
The reason I’ve come to this conclusion is all about pack weight, time on trail, and miles covered per day.
When in most groups, the upper end of the mileage just isn’t high enough to where I’ll be positively impacted by carry less food weight. I already have a comfortable pack weight, and I’m not on the trail long enough, given the group’s mileage or “stop by” goals, to need the weight savings of cold soaking. Eating gruel while everyone else has a real warm meal is also no fun.
So now I think of a solo hike. Again, I hike for most, if not all, of the daylight hours. I’ve never had to stop early due to carrying a heavy pack, the heavy pack just impacts my pace.
Generally speaking, at 18 lbs I hike a 30 mile day, 23 pounds a 25 mile day, and 28 pounds a 20 mile day. It’s been a long time since I’ve carried more than 28 pounds. It’s not a physical limitation, I’ve just got my kit dialed in. Maybe if I’m with my wife and carrying a true two person tent and more of our collective food, I can get up to around 32 lbs.
If I was cold soaking, and carrying provisions for 3+ days, the pack weight would still be around 13 lbs minimum. This load won’t really have an impact on my ability to go far beyond that 30 mile day. So cold soaking is only going to lighten my pack by offering me food that I don’t find make for a satisfying dinner.
I’ve found that I have difficult keeping a dinner down if I flow like the typical backpacker - get into camp, pitch the shelter and spread out the pad and quilt, set up a food hang, rehydrate dinner, eat, clean up, hang food, change clothes, go to sleep.
That pattern is go, go, go and my system never slows down, thus the issue keeping food down.
If I go the gourmet route, where I have to cook the actual meal, then I slow down enough, have a zen-like experience while I cook, to west I not only want to eat the food, but I can keep it down as well.
I should note that those 25-30 mile days allow for frequent re-supplies in most parts of the country, which also factors high into maintaining a light load.
One could argue that a lightweight food load would also allow you to stay out of towns and have more trail time. I try not to stay more than five days between resupplies, showers, and real town food. Out west where the climate is drier it’s easier to stay out lot longer, say 7-10 days at a time. In the Midwest and eastern US, it just rains too much IMO. You just get a lot dirtier / colder and thus the town stops are more welcoming.
Anyway, that’s my story / perspective.
I knew nothing and had no mentor when I started backpacking at 13. So I guess everything I did was a mistake. But the South San Juans are out my back door, and I couldn’t resist.
I carried the kind of sleeping bag you'd use to spend the night at a friend's house. No pad. A plastic tarp. My schoolbag pack (no hipbelt). A gallon milk jug tied on for water if needed, and no filter: Drank right out of every spring, stream, or river. Canned food. Sterno cans. An ax. Wore jeans, cotton tshirt and sweatshirt, and my school sneakers w no tread. Cell and PLB didn’t exist. I carried over 60 lbs.
What I thought was normal: Bruised collarbones, lying awake all night freezing as I watched the moon's slow traverse, wet gear, my sleeping bag choosing the worst moments to slide out of the garbage bag that I inexpertly tied under the pack...
I will always appreciate gear designed for backpacking! But those early trips with makeshift gear are some of my favorite memories. Discovering the magic of nights above timberline, of tiny alpine flowers, of total solitude.
I'll always still be learning, and I appreciate these videos! Many thanks.
I really enjoyed reading this, Jessica! I'd tend to agree with you - my "worst" memories of freezing my butt off or being soaking wet tend to be my favorites. Thank you for commenting!
That sounds kind of lethal 😂
But yeah my first and worst experiences are so memorable. I am just starting our, but the days when things go well just blend in and I barely remember them anymore
@@pedroclaro7822 Youth and luck were key. That's an interesting point about good days blending. Still, I won't be giving up any of my made-for-backpacking gear no matter how well things go! 😄
@@timbschwartz Yes, those times sure do form the memories. But there's something to be said for being comfortable. And relatively safe.
I know the felling lol I also remember the very first time I went in the woods, alone, in winter wanting to cook some baked beans over a fire. I couldn't start a fire in the freezing temperature but I still opened my can and ate the beans cold. I don't know if it's because of that, but today I like eating cold baked beans.
I started in Scouts back in the 80s. Wow (I feel old now). I remember a fellow scout had his mom help pack his pack, and he had an entire backpack of canned goods. God bless her, but we divided all his cans among the troop. Lol. I was certainly guilty of a lot of your mistakes as well and have tried to reform my ways (mostly). Thanks for the great video
Haha glad you enjoyed it! Yes many mistakes have been made over the years, although I tend to find that those are usually the best memories. Thanks for the comment!
Well presented: thorough, specific, honest, organized, brisk yet clear.
Thanks so much for the kind words! I'm glad you like it!
Biggest mistake I made when I started LW backpacking was saving 3 oz by leaving the second pair of hiking socks back home.
One pair of hiking socks make it much harder to hike in a clean, dry pair of socks after day-3. Depending on the environment, if you don’t wash your socks and get the traces of dust and dirt out, it will build up and start rubbing against your skin like sandpaper. Once you start getting skin rubbed raw along the fronts and tops of your toes, it’s game over.
👍👍👍 Good advice regarding socks.
My late Mother-in-law had a saying, "Een op die Bas, een in die Was en een in die Kas" (One on the body, one in the wash /drying and one in the cupboard).
As a complete aside, something I read, many years back. The day before the D-Day Landing, one soldier was telling his buddy how important 'socks' were .. having a load knitted by his Mom, stashed in his pack .. "one could not have too many pairs". He did not make it off the beach.
Why this? That a mention of 'socks' triggered the memory of something I read more than 50 years ago and had not thought about since. Just saying ..
Great point, Andrew! I will say a second/clean pair of socks is one of the few places I haven't tried to cut weight. I can't bear the thought of putting my nasty bare feet or hiking socks inside of my sleeping bag, so I always take an extra pair. Besides, it's basically always raining here.
@@timbschwartz oh, I didn’t mention sleeping socks. Yeah, I ALWAYS have two pairs of socks, but one is a Possumdown pair that Zpacks sells (temps below 45) or a pair of ankle high SmartWool socks.
My hiking socks are Darn Tuff. And the “trail socks” is where I often take only one pair (weekend trips), but really need to take two pairs for longer trips.
Dedicated sleeping socks are a key element in my feet rebounding overnight.
No Not at all. Now you learned that looking at socks isn't the way to lighten the load. Great lesson learned. What made the trip that shouldn't have in hindsight. Food food food...
ALL of this! and i can fully attest to layering quilts.. last winter my girlfriend started coming with me. she sleeps super cold. we did foothills and wound up getting some crazy weather. i gave her my thermarest 20 and layered it with a MYOG costco quilt that i did a few years ago. with a 5R pad, and smartwool sleeping layer she was completely comfortable down to 18 degrees for 5 nights. i was literally de-icing my tarp in the morning and keeping our filters in our quilts.
Oh nice - I'm glad it worked out for you! I still need to try it at some point.
@@timbschwartz it absolutely works! and kept us from spending another 400 on a second EE quilt. i found a diagram somewhere, i think on the thermarest site, with some temp ratings.
An excerpt from Patagonia's Field report on Ultra Light Camping via Kelly Cordes:
A mess of gear lay strewn before us in Pakistan’s Charakusa Valley. Too much stuff. I stared 8,000 feet up at K7, where we would soon receive a righteous ass-whuppin’, then looked at Scott DeCapio and fluttered my big doe eyes.
“What do you think about bringing just one sleeping bag?” I asked.
My desire to go light comes down to one primary thing: laziness. I hate carrying a heavy pack. I’ll sometimes go to absurd ends to avoid it, which leaves me shivering on some godforsaken mountainside, cuddling with a swarthy dude for warmth before rapping off feeling ashamed and confused.
For all of the chest-thumping “single-push” and “light-and-fast” bravado - something I know well - an unlikely link exists between this decidedly macho endeavor and the decidedly un-macho act of snuggling up with another dude. You know, the ManSpoon.
“No way,” Scotty said.
After all these years of climbing together, we’re like those old married couples who sleep in separate beds. Some people just aren’t into the ManSpoon - not that there’s anything wrong with that. Some, apparently, even prefer hypothermia. On a midnight descent in a Canadian Rockies thunderstorm with Jim Earl, for example, as we shivered beneath a rock overhang and I scooted closer, I swear Jim growled at me.
Here, in the Charakusa Valley, gorgeous alpine lilacs sprouted from the grass around us, suckling off the morning dew that still clung to their petite petals.
“Scott, this won’t be like the Catholic Church. I know there’s a difference between good touch and bad touch. We’re just two sensitive, mature men who are secure enough to share a sleeping bag to save weight.” In a breathy whisper I added, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“Look at those guys,” I said, pointing to Vince Anderson, Steve House and Marko Prezelj, merrily frolicking in the meadow after their K7 West ascent. “You think those guys brought three sleeping bags? This is perfectly natural, Scotty.”
Since the negatives of the ManSpoon are apparent enough, I encouraged Scotty by sharing the positives and my claim to fame: I’ve spooned with some of the best alpinists in the United States.
1. Jonny Copp stood a strapping six feet tall, packed 175 pounds of solid muscle, and was a sensitive, music-playing renaissance-type guy. Spooning with the “muscular flautist” in Alaska felt like curling up next to a fire - I miss him.
2. Josh Wharton makes this list for a simple reason: osmosis. In a week of accumulated on-route snugglefests in Pakistan, I’ve become not only a more caring and sensitive person but, more importantly, I’ve become a better climber. (Strangely, though, Josh didn’t get any worse after our climbs.)
3. Supple young Colin Haley may lack size and muscle, but he’s enthusiastic about everything - and enthusiasm goes a long way. Plus, climbing and spooning with Colin in Patagonia allowed me that self-satisfying, has-been-never-was claim that I influenced the next generation. Somehow.
Feeling satisfied with my presentation, and even a little tingly inside, I tilted my head at Scotty, raised my eyebrows, and smiled.
“No,” he said.
I looked again at the huge pile of gear. “What if I wear the wig?”
He ran off to get the other sleeping bag.
This video will become a classic.... Well done....again.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Thanks for a great video. Really appreciate not only the great visualisation of how to tie the knots - but also the explanation and reasoning about them and their usage.
You're very welcome! So glad that you enjoyed it and found it helpful. Thanks for the kind words!
What knots ?
Very thoughtful and well considered list, I agree with everything you brought up and made many of the same mistakes but learned the balance and now have a light but luxurious setup.
The part about getting over your ego in order to make sure you're packing to create the best memories possible really grabbed me at the throat. I may have even had a little tear. :) I am heading out shortly for my longest through hike (7 nights out - Killarney PP, Ontario) and I just realized that I'm a little mixed up in my priorities. Thanks for this video. I'll be looking through my kit and may make a few different decisions to enhance my experience. Gosh, that ego is a pain. I'm inspired by your candidness and humility. Cheers!
Thanks so much for the comment, Alison! I'm so glad that you found the video useful. Good luck on your trip, and let me know how it goes!
Great video man! From the content to the edits. Nice work.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Good stuff. You are a natural communicator. Well done.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
👍👍👍 .. good advice, thanks.
I started 'camping and hiking' back in the 60's and much of my gear was that begged, borrowed and 'requisitioned' from home. Time, learning due to experience (self and seeing others fall into the same / similar pitfalls) and such, took it from there. And I am still learning albeit not necessarily complying with everything now said out there .. I am still learning how to navigate 'marketing' 😏.
Foam sleeping pads. Back then, they were the go-to. Inflatable pads then (plastic 'lilo's'), had a terrible reputation for deciding to unilaterally deflate whenever it suited them. We survived 😏. How, I do not know .. similar to my thoughts then on how my ancestors managed without a closed cell pad under them at night 😊.
Some advice from the Peanut Gallery, for what it is worth. Start at home and in good weather, in the back garden if possible, using stuff from home or borrowed. Take it from there. My kids started in our back garden, using 'cheap' kit I no longer used, me having moved to to better 'stuff'. Evolution will then work it's magic .. either further out into open waters or a Darwinian dead end.
Thanks for sharing .. take care ..
Some very good points here, Thomas! Thanks for commenting!
@@timbschwartz 👍
Wow, editing and graphics - next level
Thanks for the kind words, James!
Good stuff bud. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it :)
pack for the goals of the trip, so true
Great advice on the sleeping bags
I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks for the comment!
Great video! Really intrigued on what card game was featured.
Thanks! It's called Superfight, lots of fun :)
Good info…thank you
Thanks for the kind words!
love montbell, had no idea they made sleeping pads or bags. thanks for the video! also first
Me too! I've never had a bad experience with anything from them. It all fits me great, is super light, and lasts basically forever.
The sleeping bags are amazing - not the lightest in the world but they're stretchy so you can move around in them comfortably.
Great video and advice 🙂👍
Thanks for watching!
@@timbschwartz 👍
Nice. 👍 Add to foam mat, cheap rubber airbed! (Or even a plastic one, aka, li-lo or Lilo.) For years and years I kept using the same cheap rubber airbed, because, that's what all my friends used as well, and so, that's what we used. (And when eventually it couldn't keep air in anymore, I bought another one! Because!) Had many freezing nights on it, body heat just goes straight into the ground. Popular advice (also from my friends) was, put an emergency foil blanket on top of it if you're cold. Or, just get something decent. My first proper Thermarest mat was a total revelation! 😲👍❤
Haha thanks for sharing! Yeah airbeds get suuuuuuper cold - we use them sometimes when car camping.
Everything you say makes sense. Well made video
Thanks so much for the kind words!
As a high functioning autistic man this is exactly the video I needed. To the point very specific and lots of detail about the packing method procedure. I thank you.
I'm so glad you found it useful!
AMEN brother. I was just diagnosed with the ADHD a week after my 60th birthday....Ultralight is absolutely everything to do with folks on the spectrum...not because its ultra light (thats a byproduct) it must be ultra simple! Maxmum retrievability, minimum things to break, Everything must make perfect sense. I must be able to count on all my decisions or prepare for diversions. My transition in backpacking happened before the diagnosis so its neat to see how it all fit.
I'm waiting on a tarp now - I want that other experience. Or at least I think I do.
Cheers
Great vid! Just discovered your channel.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Great Vid thank you, I was so meticulous back in my youth, now I pack 12 yr old Whisky. it stops me from complaining.
Thanks for the kind words, Barry! Yep, the older I get the more comfort items I'm willing to carry haha.
Great video! I’m the same where my brain wants consistency, but it’s impossible. I generally have the same regular stuff and my same regular pattern and put stuff in certain sacks and put stuff in my tent in certain corners. Some stuff changes for the seasons or the destination or who I am with, but mostly the same. Fast forward to oh yeah, I have the opportunity to hike the John Muir trail this summer so I’ve been practicing. The bear canister is a BEAR for sure, but required. I started hiking with other things I thought I needed and changing things from my norm and it all became too complicated. I now know that I am not bringing a sun umbrella and I will bring a cut down version of my closed cell pad vs., my sit pad and I will bring my regular few stuff sacks rather than try to stuff everything into the hole. ..still working on the clothing list, but as I hike around with full weight, that’ll probably be much of the same too. Too many gear changes at once for me make things awkward.
Thanks so much for watching, and thanks for sharing! Good luck on the JMT this summer - that sounds like an amazing trip :)
The thing Im learning today is backpacking your lightweight bag will affect the confort of your back. Lightweight bag doesn't have backframe so the weight distribution on your back will be depend of how you're packing your item into the bag.
My two mistakes were:
1- Carrying everything I thought I might need.
2- carrying back-up gear for when my primary gear failed.
Great points, Richard! I've been guilty of backups as well. I still have a hard time ditching some extra layers in the bottom of my pack, even during summer here when the chance of rain in my area is roughly 0%. Thanks for the comment!
Looking for an inflatable sleeping pad in the $100ish range, any suggestions? Thanks in advance
Hi! I really only have experience with thermarest pads, most of which are a bit more than that. Their Prolite model falls right around that range though - it's not the lightest thing ever but my fiancee used one and it was relatively warm and durable. Hope that helps!
www.thermarest.com/sleeping-pads/fast-and-light/prolite-sleeping-pad/prolite.html
I take beer, wine, good food, chair, table, a 3 man tent, and all the comforts I can manage.. I'm a motorbike camper. 😂
I'm jealous! I have to admit I've taken my 3 person tent out with just myself and its freaking amazing.
I'm glad I started young and before there was TH-cam.
I think I packed some sandwiches, a couple of Gatorades (when they were still in glass bottles), a cheap slumber party bag, a D-cell flashlight and a pup tent into an army duffel. Probably wore jeans and my dad's M65 jacket. I walked from the house through the neighborhood and into the woods. The tent had horrible condensation, and with no pad I was cold the whole night. But it was still great. I was about 12 years old.
I think I finally quit chasing the latest and greatest gear about 15 years ago. Now I just replace something if it's worn out.
I can get by with a 5 lb base weight in my old frameless GoLite pack in the summer, and I have a 4 season tent that weighs more than my summer baseload when needed.
I don't see those as mistakes so much as stepping stones to knowledge building. Plus it's good to know I could still improvise a night out using an old duffel bag.
Good points! Yeah most of my fondest backpacking memories were as kid and just using what I had - jeans, boots that must have weighed 6 lbs each, and Jansport external frame pack in a sweet bright red color.
I agree with the 45 + 20 F sleeping bag/quilt purchase, and then using them together for use to 0 F or even lower.
Lightweight backpacker beware, however. You can’t buy the lightest 20 F solution if you’re intending to use with another bag/quilt, as the lightest weight bags don’t have a lot of wiggle room inside (less material = less weight).
If the 20 F bag isn’t loose enough, when you mate it with another bag inside it will not allow that inner bag to fully loft up, and suddenly the two bags aren’t as warm as you expect.
I have combined an outer bag with an inner bag, and an outer quilt with an inner bag, successfully.
I have no experience with combining two quilts, however. Would the slick material of the two cause the outer quilt to shift around too much and not be able to efficiently trap warm air? 🤔 Seems like pad straps are a necessity for two quilts, at the very least.
I've believe I've seen quilts that are designed to clip together, but I want to say it was something more or less custom from someone like Katabatic or Nunatak - don't quote me on that though. Otherwise, yes I'd assume lots of straps. I feel like quilt on sleeping bag is probably simpler.
@@timbschwartz Western Mountaineering used to make a 14 oz, 45 F bag liner with no zipper. No hood, and it had holes that you could poke your arms out of so the top looked like a vest. Then the footbox had a draw string, which could be opened and the liner pulled up over your waist so you could walk around camp with it.
It was the perfect bag to mate with a 20F quilt for a 0 F solution.
Unfortunately, it’s been discontinued for more than a decade.
A similar solution was the Feathered Friends Rock Wren, also discontinued.
UL hikers: "Why would you use a backpack with a bunch of pockets? I don't need all that."
Also UL hikers: "I really need to stop using so many stuff sacks."
Haha! On point.
Very good information. Your examples of why and why not are spot on.
Turn off the background music. It is beyond me why TH-cam content creators think playing background music over their voice is somehow enhancing their videos, it is not, it is distracting. We came to hear you, not to fight background music which quickly becomes extremely annoying and intrusive. Many folks have hearing difficulties, thus while concentrating on your voice they must also concentrate on tuning out the music; frustrating. Your background music ruins an otherwise exceptionally good presentation.
Thanks for the feedback!
Wool does not dry faster than cotton, it just keeps its loft while wet. Synthetics do dry faster than wool and cotton. There is so much misconception about fabrics in the backpack community.
Hey there! Thanks for the comment! I suppose the appropriate description on my end would have been that the rate of drying across similar weights of fabrics is roughly the same, time to dry is a function of water retention, and that wool retains less water than cotton; if you soak both wool and cotton, the wool be dry sooner with wool and cotton absorbing ~33% and ~2700% of their weight, respectively. That's a mouthful, though.
We're sort of splitting hairs here though, as in practical application the wool is going to be dry sooner than cotton.
You're correct, synthetics reign supreme in the sense that they retain less wetter than both cotton and wool, but the amount varies by fabric type. Wool is also, as you said, warmer than cotton when wet.
Have a great weekend!
Sources (admittedly one isn't academic, but you can find textile absorption data anywhere):
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/004051755102100107
nailthetrail.com/comparison-of-base-layer-materials/
Not buying a Kuiu Peleton 97 hoody when it’s 29% off (current Founder’s sale)
Oo thanks for the heads up!
I’m not sitting through 2 15 second ads for backpacking advice
You can just use an adblocker
So don't.....
feedback: I feel motion sickness from your style of rocking back and fourth into the camera
Thanks for the feedback!
Don't get me wrong, you aren't dumb, but I think you think you're a lot smarter than you actually are.