[pct-l] On the Dangers of the UL Mentality

[Yoshihiro Murakami]

Experience doesn't always mean good judgment nor outdoor skills.

I strongly agree. We have limited resource and experience, but the
hikers and climbers ( at least in Japan) tend to rely only on  their
experience. Some times, the tragedy occurs.

I will try to write my feeling of  UL briefly, because I have limited
ability of writing and time ( I am at slavery job).

I had read  Ryan Jordan (ed.) Lightweight Backpacking and Camping
(Backpacking Light) , and I think I could understand their opinion,
but I  could not agree with several points. I felt their movement
contained a tendency to return to the primitivism and radicalism,
sometimes lacked rationality or scientific findings.

My first impression of Ryan (photo) was he was wearing too many
clothes. In UL, it was frequently asserted that the weight of tent,
sleeping bag and backpack should be reduced. But the reduction of
weight induces sometimes difficult problems.

--Clothes and sleeping bag--

Why he wears many clothes? I think he reduced the weight of sleeping
bag and pad. When  assumed total weight of clothes and sleeping bag to
be constant,  the warmest combination will be a thin clothe and a
thick sleeping bag. When we walking, heat is generated, we need not
thick clothes. I think it is better to minimize the clothes and
maximize the sleeping bag.

--Footwear --

On the footwear,  boots vs shoes dispute appeared in this ML, there
are also many opinions. There are many variables concerning footwear,
and  I had consulted the scientific research. I found several papers.

---Energy consumption

Contrary to our expectation,   the energy consumption of shoes and
boots is  equal, when walking speed is 5 km/h.  This was a limited
experiments by G.R Tack et al. XXI ISB Congress, Poster Sessions,
Wednesday 4 July 2007.

When we are walking by shoes,  prominent jerks are observed and
consume more energy. Boots is heavy, but they need lesser energy to
stabilize our body. Then, on the energy consumption, boots and shoes
may be equal.

Matthew, et al. ( Gait and posture, 28, 427-433. 2008) also executed
the walking experiments and proved that the ankle fixation does not
increase the energy consumption.

---Injury

I had already posted on this issue. Stewart et al. (Wilderness and
Environmental Medicine 20, 250-256, 2009 ) investigated long -distance
hikers, and found that the injury associated  only  with pack weight
not with the footwear type. Boots are disliked sometime, but they were
innocent.

So, the boots vs shoes problem cannot be solved easily. The boots will
be appropriate for a man like me, heavy body weight and traditional
backpacking style, but not appropriate for a light weight man.

I will omit the backpack, and tent vs tarp problems. But many people
know the backpack without waist belt is not appropriate for hiking,
and will select the backpacks with waist belt (which has extra weight
! ). Concerning tent vs tarp problem,   the very light tents exists.
For example, Terra Nova Laser Photon Elite weighs only 1 lb 6 oz (624
g).

The important thing is to reduced the total pack weight within the
secure range, this range is  different for individuals.

I will walk JMT with very bulky and heavy backpack in this summer. I
must carry English dictionary (If my English ability is superior,
this  can be omitted, but I cannot.) and a heavy DSR (my hobby! ) and
the necessities as a foreigner. But I will reduced my total pack
weight within my secure range.



-- 
Sincerely
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Hiro    ( Yoshihiro Murakami )
HP:http://psycho01.edu.u-toyama.ac.jp
http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/CompleteWalker/
Backpacking for 30 years in Japan
2009 JMT, the first America.
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