ANOTHER poll

[John Fenna]

"Any Fool can be uncomfortable"
Take too much kit for your strength/distance/difficulty and you will be uncomfortable.
Take too little kit for the conditions and you will be uncomfortable.
Take the luxuries you want when you can and you have a luxury time.
The fitter/stronger you are the more luxuries you can afford to carry.
The less kit you carry the furthur you can travel without tiring.
When I want to go far I travel light.
When I want luxury I travel heavy.
The better I get at bushcraft the fewer items I NEED and the list of luxuries grows longer...
The less kit I carry the longer things take - a jetboil brews my nettle tea quicker than lighting a fire does - and I travel less distance.
It all depends on the aims of the trip realy.......

 

[John Fenna]

If it's on my back it's all about dropping weight, mostly by leaving frivalrious items behind or risking the lightest of the sleeping bags (the marathon bag with 2 feathers per baffle).
In a canoe its just leaving a slab of beers behind and taking a bottle of the hard stuff instead

A bad choice Sickboy!
The slab of beer is a valuable aid to trimming your craft for varying conditions, is easily moved and the empties can be fashioned into a host of useful tools such as candle lanterns, reflector firelighters, tarp tensioners etc
If you have a 16 footish canoe ther should be lots of room for BOTH BEER AND HARDSTUFF!
If it is the weight that bothers you stick to river running where the water does the hard work!

 

[Fin]

I answered a)

My main problem now is volume - coupled with the fact that, as I get older, I am less willing to compromise on comfort.

The manufacturers have done a great job, in the last 20 years or so, in reducing weight. They still haven't addressed the problem of volume though.

I'm generally in the hammock - but even in forecast warm conditions, I won't leave home without my thermarest (I once had 8 hours decent sleep on the floor of terminal 3 LHR so there's a certain loyalty factor!) - weight wise? - pah! but volume? - Geez!

Good question (and poll) at the end of the day - if I'm doing milage on foot, it's a large bergan stuffed with lightweight gear. If I'm not on foot - then I'll take the kitchen sink!

 

[Nat]

Answered C. I've learnt alot in the past month of taking up bushcrafting and hiking again, and found i don't need that huge frying pan or kitchen sink.

As i have heard so often recently - knowledge and experience more than make up for stupid amounts of kit.

 

[sandsnakes]

With me its more volume than weight.

Most gear I can do without, I can get down to a ratpack, mug, spoon, knife, kitchen wipes and credit card ( ). But I like to sleep dry, warm and comfey. I use a pattern 58 bag which has bulk but boy is it warm, I am also a ground gripper, cant cope with swinging in the air and getting a cold bum, So throw in a 3/4 thermarest, bivvi bag and tarp, waterproof and you have it.

In essence my bergan is getting bigger but lighter as most things contain air and cant be crushed down any smaller.

Sandsnakes

 

[Wayland]

Ok, who voted? It's amazing when these old polls resurect themselves from the past..

I never get to travel real light these days because I'm either demonstrating something, making something or on the occasions I really go light on gear it's because I'm carrying a bag full of camera gear.

 

[addo]

For me - option 3. Every time I go out it's a compromise between comfort, goals and weight. And of course the 'knowledge weighs nothing' (even if scientifically a tad inaccurate) is a big part of that.

Interestingly, to me anyway, is that I find my kit now seems to be getting more and more heavy. I went from stereotypical 'brit camper' alpinist a few years back (i.e. kitchen sink and a spare in case the 1st one blocked), to ultra lightweight (expensive and generally too uncomfortable for me) to now a kind of compromise between the two. Taking more 'bushcraft' kit such as saws and billies, in addition to the more standard camping kit, have increased item numbers and weight also... on the whole I find them very worthwhile though.

Each to find their own balance I guess!

Same here rearly, I take some more stuff now and more natural heavyer materials, plus the cooking gear is a bit more extencive with a hobo ect but im not hungry or uncomfortable. I save weight where I can and bulk ie not taking a tent or loads of spare clothes and water.

 

[drewdunnrespect]

well i try to use kit were there is two uses so i save room and weight

 

[harlequin]

OK here's the thing. Lightweight is all and good, but everything you need from the wild takes time to craft. And when we are out and about time is important.

 

[Bimble]

I’ll probably get slated for this but.....

Yup, sounds like a good idea to carry less, many a alpinist has got trapped by weather or mishap and wished he'd taken a sleeping bag.

You should neither go too heavy or too light. Knowledge might not weigh much, but you can get cold real quick!!!!

Any idiot can be uncomfortable....

 

[leemann]

My Kit Is always a work in progress.

Lee

 

[BOD]

Its all about weight for me - the less the better. You can only reduce weight overall if you can carry the technology in your head.

But I would not carry less water just because I 'know' how to find water. An absolute minimum is starting with 3 litres. If it gets down to one litre I start looking for water unless I am on the way out.