[pct-l] UL vs going without

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Feb 19, 2009, at 8:21 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> Whoever dies with the least gear and/or the lightest  
> pack........still dies.
> ...
> No sleeping bag;
> No shelter or rain gear?
> No stove or pot;

This isn't what I understand ultralight backpacking to be. I don't  
think I know of anyone who went without these things.

Getting your pack weight down isn't about eliminating gear. It's  
about finding lighter gear that can serve two purposes in one.

For example, your shelter and rain gear can be the same item. Your  
stove need not have the capacity to melt snow if melting snow is not  
necessary. You don't really need a windbreaker and a rain jacket.  
Find a jacket that can do both. Nothing wrong with going without a  
stove. Hot food is not necessarily more nutritious than cold food.

Many people subscribe to the "better to have it and not need it than  
need it and not have it" school of thought. This is fine if you're  
willing to carry it and not land in a hospital with stress fractures.

Here's the deal: If you are doing the kind of hiking where you get  
into camp next to a lake around 3pm and hang around, sleep in, have a  
leisurely hot breakfast in the morning, hit the trail at 10, maybe do  
some fishing during the day or whatever, then maybe you need more  
stuff. You're going to get colder, for one thing, and you'll probably  
want some fancier food and little luxuries. You might even do some  
exploring and therefore find things like fancy compasses and whistles  
to be necessary.

But if you are thru-hiking the PCT the experience is very different  
from this. You are moving constantly along a well-trodden trail from  
the minute you wake up until you set up your bag and go to sleep,  
hiking 12, 14 even 16 hours at a time. You don't need as much stuff.  
There is no time to use it. You learn to pick warmer places to sleep  
at night. You need less insulation because you are so active. You may  
not want a stove because it takes too much time to cook.

This isn't deprivation and courting death. It's just reality. And  
it's a beautiful reality because having and needing very little, so  
little that it literally does not weigh you down, is the ultimate  
freedom.