Shedding Pack Weight by Thinking Outside the Box

The biggest problem most of us have when we begin the process of shedding those unwanted pounds from the pack, is how do we start. You're standing there packing a 45 pound pack and guy comes sundering by carrying some 12 pound mini pack strung over one shoulder miles from the nearest road. You know he's too damn far from the road to be a day hiker so what gives?

So you spend the next couple of months pouring over countless articles and catalogues. You scan the Internet, read all the archives. Seek advice from the most learned of the learned. All the while mentally imagining the nirvana you'll feel next time you stride over some 13,000 foot pass, carrying a day pack. You want to feel like David Carradine from Kung Fu, walking in bare feet across sand dunes with a bed roll over your shoulder. Knowing you've got what it takes to conquer all life throws at you.

Spread all around your house lay neat little piles of gear. Each marked with what it's for and how you're going to use it. Nights are spent glassy eyed staring at all the little figures organized into neat little columns on a spreadsheet. Weights, measurements, cost and purpose all factored trough a thousand what-if calculations to achieve the perfect pack.

After all that, you've still not come close to what that guy you saw a couple of months ago was carrying. Why? How could you work so hard and still fall so far short?

All of us generally start the process of shedding the unwanted pounds the same way. We run through our gear and start making substitutions of a lighter piece of gear for a heavier one. Got a 6 pound pack, replace it with a 2 pound one, and so on and so on. Eventually we start getting more creative by analyzing how we can start using the same piece of gear for multiple uses. After all why carry a heavier jacket when you can simply crawl into your sleeping bag to say warm when you get to camp. See the picture?

The problem is, we're still approaching it from the wrong direction. When you think about it, it's pretty understandable. 99 percent of us Americans spend 99 percent of our time either indoors or in controlled environments like our cars. Well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it illustrates my point. Most of us live our lives in controlled environments, when we travel outdoors, we look for ways to extend that control.

In many ways our packs are little mini versions of our homes. We often even organize and describe them in familiar terms. This bag contains my kitchen, that one is my bed and, well you know the rest.

A couple of years ago while walking my dog, I was pondering the same stumbling blocks. My pack was pretty light but there must be further optimizations I could be doing. Well for the life of me I was stumped.

That is until I realized I was approaching the problem all wrong. Instead of worrying about what I should be carrying. I flipped the problem around and starting thinking about what I would be doing and what I would need carry to just to survive in the different situations I'm likely to encounter. To that list of gear, I'd add a few items to be comfortable. What I call the Comfortable Survival gear selection.

So these days, instead of trying to minimize my house. I try to think about just what I need to survive then add some for comfort.

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