Pack Weight Doesn't Matter

your pack weight doesn't matter there's only been one time on this planet that Dan Becker has given me good advice today I want to share that little piece of wisdom along with you as well as talk about one of my controversial opinions on backpacking gear pack weight is one of the most deceptive things that Backpackers tend to get hyper focused on now bear with me here I know that there's going to be a few of you that are going to put your arms up in Umbridge and uh not listen to anything else I have to say but let me hear hear me out here folks I am I'm 40 years old now and I started backpacking when I was about 10 years old back when things were way heavier things were way clunkier I definitely grew up in an era of backpacking where ultral light was not a thing ultra light was just a a glimmer in your father's eye of backpacking here's my first real Takeaway on the point that I want to make today your backpack should be the last thing that you purchase you should purchase your tent your sleeping bag your stove kit your your clothing your sleeping pad everything that you're going to need for backpacking buy what you can based on your budget then buy a backpack that fits the gear that you've bought a big mistake that people will make is they buy the backpack first or among the first items they get the sleekest coolest lightest weight backpack that there is and then they find out that the rest of their gear that they can afford is bulkier is heavier they're stuck carrying a 35 40 lb pack hauling all this gear in a pack that is made to carry like 22 to 25 lbs case in point this right here is actually one of my all-time favorite backpacks this is the Bridger from Mystery Ranch and if you've been following me you know that I have a love of Mystery Ranch and their packs and they make these way overbuilt very comfortable backpacks that are so much heavier than anything in the ultral light realm this backpack here weighs over 52 lbs and yet this is the most comfortable backpack I've ever used I'd like to contrast that with the Hyperlite Southwest 3400 which I just published a video on how I'm ditching this backpack that is because I have consistently found this backpack to be the least comfortable of all the backpacks that I wear now this is a just over 2 lb backpack and this is a 5.6 lb backpack so how is it that when I carry this backpack it feels like I'm carrying less weight than this in fact I can be carrying a 45 lb backpack with this and it feels more comfortable than carrying this at 30 lb not all backpacking weight is created equal I want to talk to the Ounce counters out there if you are going to count ounces and be hyper Vigilant on all the things that you carry be my guest that is awesome and I've even been learning from you I don't want to say that your tactics are completely wrong because they're definitely not you will go farther if you carry less weight but this three-b difference between the Bridger and the Hyperlite is not where I would be concerned there are so many other ways that I would rather save my pack weight than going straight to what backpack I'm carrying if that's truly where I'm saving the weight then I'm kind of in trouble places that I think are a great area to save weight that make almost no effect on your camping experience would be things like your stove now if you are backpacking with say a jet boil or a chimney stove you can cut that weight down to like 2 oz for a stove and it works perfectly good go with a really lightweight stove with a really simple like toes cook pot I would go with a water filtration system that is really lightweight so in instead of carrying something like a Grail or an MSR guardian or one of those traditional kind of hand pumps use a b free or even use like Aqua tabs or aquamira those would be the first areas that I would look at for saving weight I know that I've had trouble with getting my pack weight dialed in around food so if I'm accidentally carrying an extra four to six pounds of backpacking food well that is really not even a gear piece that is just a skill of how to pack the right amount of food the right amount of calories how to have the right amount of buffer in case something goes wrong in case you get injured in case you stay an extra day or two or hike slower than you anticipate and then of course clothing there is a lot of ways that you can save bulk and save weight in the clothing that you pack and of course a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad now to me there are certain things that I'm really cautious about when it comes to saving weight and I think everything that is Central to my body which is my backpack my sleeping bag and my Footwear I am really cautious about what I do with those which is why I've had a hard time getting on the ultr light quilt train I really want to get good sleep it's something that I really value it's also a piece of safety equipment for me that if I know that I can warm up at the end of the night no matter what the conditions are then I'm going to be happy so if I have a mummy bag that's a little bit heavier than a quilt well I'm okay with that and of course another great place to save weight is a tent for me a tent is one of the biggest opportunities we have for where to save weight you often pay for it with a premium now my favorite tent that I used last year is the dur X-Men Pro which is a 16 o tent it's for one person but it is a super ultra light tent and the great thing about that is that I'm not making a lot of sacrif sacrifices in order to save 2 or 3 lbs one of the great things about choosing your tent as a place to save weight you're not really sacrificing a lot of comfort a bigger heavier tent is probably going to be more luxurious but it's not necessarily more comfortable you'll still get the same quality of sleep as you will in a more spacious tent or in a heavier tent so that to me is a great way to save some pack weight obviously the heaviest thing that you carry is water at 2.2 lb per leader also with that is water bottles I'm old school I still carry na jeans but I've started going towards smart water bottles as well as investing in apps that allow me to more accurately predict water sources so that I can more comfortably carry the minimum amount of water without risking it where in the past I would just always carry about 3 L of water because I just wanted to always have enough as I've gotten older and as I've gotten a little bit more skill build and a little bit better at preparing I've started looking into apps like uh onx or far out that have a pretty good predictive rate at where the water is those things really help so that I can know that you know I only need to carry one liter right now now going back to the backpack some people out there will hear that this backpack weighs 5 and a half pounds and they won't even listen to another word about this backpack but let me say why it makes such a big difference the contact points and the way that it rests on your hips the way that a pack will rest upon your shoulders and your sternum it's very different in a pack like this versus the Hyperlite or the outdoor vitals or the way Mark or the zpacks or any of these ultra light packs because of the way that this system is fit now this isn't just a Mystery Ranch thing but mystery range has a pretty unique thing so whether it's Osprey or Gregory or kind of the traditional pack makers what I love about this backpack in particular is its ability to spread weight across your shoulders your chest when you actually have a pack that's Distributing weight across your sternum across your shoulders across your back and across your hips it is a very different feeling than when you basically are muscling through with everything on your shoulders and your hips that's why the Southwest 3400 is such a not great backpack is because I feel it almost exclusively on my shoulders it doesn't do a good job of Distributing that weight around the rest of my body the rest of my torso I have carried about 50 plus pounds in this pack with ease or I should say with relative ease where at the end of my trip I'm not I'm not sore I'm still I could go for more miles whereas with carrying 15 20 lbs Less in some other packs my shoulders are aching my body is hurting and that is where I finally decided that yeah shaving that extra pound shaving two pounds shaving even three lounds is great but not at the sacrifice of My overall Comfort I've long been a proponent of backpacking comfort as a number one priority because for me Comfort is King if I'm comfortable on the trail if I feel warm if I'm getting good sleep if I'm not having blisters and pain points and things like that then almost no matter what is happening I am feeling pretty good out there so for me that is why I consistently carry heavier packs than a lot of the ultr Light Community does and yet I'm still having probably more fun than most of those people that's my controversial opinion and I want to hear from you if you just vehemently disagree with me I'd love to hear it from you and uh and if if you know somebody that needs to hear this message maybe pass it along to them that's it for me on this week's edition of rants with Eric Hansen I'm about to head off and go on a winter epic camp out and trip to the San Juans to Colorado and across to Utah so it's going to be great so stick around here on the channel make sure you are subscribed and I'm really appreciative of all of you here on the channel thanks so much for watching I'm Eric Hansen I'll see you later

Channel: Eric Hanson

Views: 165,685

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Id: vFyB5XEVbc0

Length: 10min 34sec (634 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2024