[pct-l] Worrying about your gear and clothing

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

To those worrying about what gear to get, what clothing to buy.

First of all, with the gear, just get something and then don't worry  
too much about it. Pick the tent or whatever that does the most of  
what you want. You'll be fine, you won't die, nobody will laugh at  
your decision, and your decision isn't final anyway.

The "fashion show" kind of ends after Kennedy Meadows, which really  
simplifies your life. After the Sierras nobody talks about gear  
anymore. It's just a tool by then. There may be disappointments about  
various things, but you really won't care about gear anymore. Honestly.

And as for choosing clothing for the temperature. The range really  
isn't that great. The human body is really quite adaptable, too. I'm  
a typical female who freezes in the office, wears a down jacket every  
day, even in summer, while living in Santa Barbara. But out on the  
trail, I was constantly moving. When I wasn't moving I was in my  
sleeping bag. I didn't need that many layers. I hiked in spring and  
summer so it never was all that terribly cold. Perhaps there were  
some mornings in the 20s and some mid-days in the 40s at the coldest  
and I think 103 was tops for the hottest. A small amount of clothing  
was capable of taking me through that range comfortably.

When it was cold (and I did get cold a few times), I felt a little  
cold but that's all. You can endure more than you think you can. I  
wasn't dying, I was simply not perfectly comfortable. We really get  
spoiled, soft and weak in our culture. Fortunately decades of  
freezing in offices has taught me to endure being cold quite well.

To deal with being a little cold, I just kept moving and stayed warm.  
When I stopped, I went to bed. I was never at risk.

At one point I did get tired of being too cold and managed to solve  
the problem by purchasing a $3 crappy old shirt at a thrift store in  
Mammoth (in 2009 it was snowing or hailing every day brrr). The thing  
had runs in it, no brand name, the collar didn't work right, and it  
was an ugly shade of blue, but it felt warm and I moved on up the  
trail feeling like luxury. I crossed the Canadian border wearing that  
shirt.

My point is, do the best you can with your gear but after that,  
remember it is only a tool. Tools are available in most towns. You  
can always get more tools, swap your tools for different ones. They  
don't have to have fancy brand names or even be all that high  
quality. Sometimes cheap stuff works as well or better.

Diane

On Dec 13, 2010, at 4:44 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
> Hey Paul,
>
> I know I am bouncing a 9 day old post, but I just wanted to thank  
> you for
> sharing this data.
>
> A constant struggle is knowing what kind of temps to expect and  
> thus what
> cold weather gear to take - as that tends to be the heaviest items  
> in our
> pack, outside of food/water - and while we can of course expect  
> different
> temps from year to year, having a base-line from which to go on is  
> amazingly
> helpful.
>
> So, thanks!
> John