Why I Quit Ultralight Backpacking

I stopped hey what's going on guys my name is Dan I love hiking and I love backpacking and I love gear if you guys like that stuff - would you consider subscribing to the channel that's what the channel is all about so today we're gonna talk a little bit about why I stopped ultralight backpacking I got into backpacking around 2015 and I was instantly addicted it was something I researched constantly I watched every YouTube video imaginable I went to every web site imaginable I checked out every company you can think of and instantly my goal was just to buy gear that I could afford and I did that and then my goal was to rebuy a year and buy the latest stuff I could possibly find and for me like the number one thing for me was how much does an item way so before I even considered what it could do and how it was made I was more concerned with the weight and I made big mistakes starting out I had miserable nights I had miserable days and it didn't do what I needed it to do for the style of backpacking that I backpack a couple weeks ago I posted a video called how to pack the right amount of weight and I'll put a link to it right here for you guys so you can check that out and I think it's a great tool for you guys who just don't exactly know how much weight you should be carrying on your trip and I give some pretty good tips in there to try to help you guys out but I want to just tell you that what I'm doing today is admitting that I am NOT an ultralight backpacker by any means whatsoever now that doesn't mean that I think that weight is important I think weight is extremely important I think it's definitely like in the top few reasons that you should definitely consider when you're buying gear but I don't think it's the end-all be-all now in the video that I put out a couple weeks ago I talked about the different types of backpacking and why different types of weight are important but today I want to talk to you a little bit about the specific gear that I brought out to show you today and why I think it's worth the extra weight so this was my very first sleep it's a Walmart roll of foam you know like my kids have slept out in the backyard that kind of thing but I've kept it around for that reason but it's eight ounces some of you guys are like man that's perfect that's exactly what I use and I'm really comfortable doing it that's great it doesn't work for me every thru-hikers pretty much is gonna tell you the therm-a-rest NeoAir x-lite is the best pad those guys are constantly traveling there day in and day out they're four to six months or longer hiking huge long trails and sold every ounce counts in that situation but this pad doesn't work for me it's way too narrow it's like 20 inches wide and I roll around at night so I fall off so then I upgraded to the Nemo tensor regular wide pad I just got this pad I don't know maybe a month or two ago and it has literally revolutionized tent camping for me tent backpacking I'm about now 50% tenting and 50% hammock King I was only hammock I thought hammock King was the way to go but this pad is changing the way I think about tents I sleep as well on this as I do in my hammock and some of you guys are already like ready to click off of this video you're like there's no way I'm gonna take a pad that's 19 ounces Dan that's absolutely insane why would you do that well because it gives me the sleep that I need to be able to hike the next day and I'm a weekend backpacker I am NOT a through hiker I'm not a section hiker I usually go for two to three days max every once in a while I'll do four days but those are bigger trips in the year but I've got a lot of other obligation in my life that I just can't do more than weekend trips so it's okay for me to bring a pad that's 19 ounces especially if it's gonna help me sleep at night and as comfortable as this pad is I was claustrophobic in hammocks so I found out that the war bonnet Ridge Runner hammock which is a bridge hammock which means it's like a stretcher it's got bars at the ends that go across the top of your head and the bottom of your feet that open up the hammock was an easier hammock to sleep in for people who are claustrophobic it is also extremely comfortable it's kind of like laying in a stretcher you can almost lay on your stomach in it it's a fairly lightweight hammock and the problem is you got to bring spreader bars or you got to use trekking poles or so so it's extra weight to bring this hammock but I love sleeping in it then I went out and bought it gathered and hammock because I thought I was pretty much cured of hammock claustrophobia plus I wanted other gear for other people to use and I ended up buying the war bond at Blackbird hammock which is also an awesome hammock but I don't use it as much I don't sleep as good in it um I sleep okay in it I mean it's not bad but I'd much rather sleep in the Ridge Runner so this is a hammock that I keep around for guys that want to come with me let's talk tents for a second I also have this MSR through hiker mesh house three tent with the MSR through hiker wing 110 it's just an a-frame mesh tent and a tarp that goes over the top of it this whole setup weighs 2 pounds I got the 3 person because I bring kids with me so it's important that I have more room in shelters so I could use this but there's certain times where I want a little more privacy this thing has wide open ends there's certain times when it's colder out so I need something a little bit warmer in the summer when it's gonna be much warmer and if I decide to go backpack in this summer I'll probably take something along these lines I also have been using the Big Agnes tiger wall 210 this is like eight ounces heavier than the mesh house 3 and I'm totally fine with that I don't even have carbon fiber or titanium stakes that I take with this tent I just use the stakes that came with it because I think they're good enough they're light enough for what I'm doing it doesn't bother me it's not that big of a deal for me to go digging to save a half an ounce in stakes when I'm just going for the weekend let's talk about camp chairs for a second I had a ton of people comment on camp chairs some people love them some people hate them some of you guys use those Z seats you could be using this I could say to you you could be using this this is the Dutch where sit pad this weighs point 7 ounces and will pretty much do the exact same thing as your ZC so why aren't you buying this you could be saving an extra 2 ounces but you're not so you're a terrible backpacker right wrong you take that Z light because you like it you take that Z light because it fits your needs and because a ton of other people told you to buy it so that's what you bought and that's totally fine there's absolutely nothing wrong with that but even that's not super comfortable for me so I could be taking this tiny little stool that only weighs 10 ounces without the stuff sack but instead I chose for the Gila knocks chairs 0 which weighs about 1 pound of extra weight just so I can have some place to sit when I get to camp is a thru-hike you're gonna take a chair probably not I don't know too many through hikers out there right now that are using chairs and there's plenty of good reasons for that but for me a weekend backpacker taking shorter hikes hiking with my kids I'm just not I'll try light backpacking I've got this enlightened equipment revelation quilt and I've talked about this in other videos it's a really good quilt it weighs a little bit over 19 ounces which is fantastic it's a 20-degree quilt but this is a quilt that I'm never ever gonna take tents camping again because it doesn't cover me well enough it's just not big enough and I could save the weight and I could just you know suffer through the night and get over it and then I'll feel great that I was ultra light backpacking but it just doesn't work for me in a tent there's another company out there called underground quilts that is a excellent company and honestly I don't think they get enough credit I don't think that people know enough about them and I want to tell you about them because they're fantastic they sent me this quilt it's 20 degree quilts as well it's easily as nice and is well made as the enlightened equipment welt it's wider I had them specifically make it wider for me but it fits me much better in a tent so this is something I would use in a tent now this thing weighs a little bit more but for me to be comfortable it's totally worth it and this quilt is actually less expensive than the enlightened equipment quilt I will be doing a separate video completely about this quilt so definitely look out for that I know the company that's out there outdoor vitals so outdoor vitals contacted me I don't know maybe a month and a half two months ago and decided they wanted to send me some stuff they sent to me they're 15 degrees storm loft quilt and as soon as I pulled it out of the package I was instantly blown away at the quality of this quilt this quilt is a 15 degree quilt but it weighs 27 ounces it is a much larger quilt than I'm used to it is definitely gonna cover somebody who's tall I slept with this in a tent and it did great so I was okay with carrying that a little bit of extra weight so if you're kind of wondering what maybe like a rule of thumb to kind of help you guys decide at what point you should be carrying extra gear like how many areas of my gear system can be over what is the typical weight people tend to carry I would say look at the big three which is gonna be your shelter your sleep system and your backpack those are honestly some areas that you can get pretty ultra light you can get really low on the weight and still be comfortable I made a video about this and I will also link that right here if you want to check that out to maybe give you some ideas and some thoughts it can be really expensive to do that there are cheaper alternatives out there but just know that that may be a starting point so once you dial those big things down the other things man you can kind of supplement a little bit and just carry a little bit heavier stuff or whatever makes you comfortable maybe that'll help you guys out as well hey my outro didn't save when I went to edit my video anyway if you guys liked this video please make sure you hit that like button also subscribe for more and hit the bell notifications so I can send you a video every time it's released I'll see you on the next one

Channel: Dan Becker

Views: 419,975

Rating: 4.7706184 out of 5

Keywords: Nemo tensor, thermarest, outdoor vitals, ugq, underground quilt, helinox, hammock, backpacking, ul backpacking, ultralight, lightweight, gear, tent camping, tent, big agnes, msr, msr wing, msr mesh

Id: pVuJoZfMXi0

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019