Over a rural rail crossing on the trail from Lyon to Le-Puy, France 2009.

Making Light ~ Sharing the Load

It’s nice to have a friend…

I’ve started planning a long walk for 2011, probably through France. This time, I’ll be joined by my wife for part of the walk. Until now, I’ve always walked solo, so I’ve been looking at ways we can share our total load and still have everything we need.

Other than clothes, personal medications and some toiletries, it turns out that a lot of the gear can easily be shared. Of course, we’ll probably choose to each take a camera, but quite a bit can be left behind by one or the other of us. Here are some examples of things that might be shared by two people walking together on the grande randonnée trails of France, and the caminos of Spain: (more…)

On the trail from Lyon to Le-Puy, France 2009.

Making Light – Introduction

A Stroll Through Longwalking Tips & Techniques…

Making Light is a series of articles on observations and lessons learned about how to lighten the load of your backpack. The focus is preparation for a long-distance walk, mainly on trails and back roads, with occasional off-trail forays.

The context is 3-season hiking, from village to village, inn to hotel to guest house to gîte d’etape to chambre d’hote, etc. – or at least, to a dry place to throw down a sleeping bag. The pro forma trip duration is 30 days. (more…)

Standard tools – Single-edge razor blade.

Gear ~ Single-edge razor blade

Generic Single-edge razor blade — 3.9 grams

One of the fundamental human tools – the wedge – doesn’t show off simple refinement better than this. Useful for trimming gear, First Aid surgery, and other basic tasks that need a super-sharp blade. Oddly enough, shaving is no longer one of them. They’re both delicate and dangerous, but when it’s the right tool for the job, a single-edge blade is indispensable.

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Standard tools – Victorinox SwissCard™ Scissors.

Gear – Scissors

Victorinox SwissCard™ Scissors — 6.7 grams

These are the endlessly useful, remarkably sharp, effective, and durable scissors from Victorinox™, maker of the venerable Swiss Army™ knife. It’s the stand-alone version of the tool found on many models of Swiss Army knives that comes in the credit card-sized Victorinox SwissCard. (I also like the Swiss Army™ tweezers, but usually leave the rest of the stuff behind). (more…)

First Aid Gear – Uncle Bill’s™ Sliver-Gripper (top), Swiss Army® tweezers.

Gear – Tweezers

Tweezers are the right tool for the job, when the job is pulling some tiny sliver or thorn from wherever it’s painfully hiding. Fortunately, it’s a relatively infrequent little task, but I’ve rarely walked very far without meeting a brier patch along the way. This “insurance” tool should be considered for your first aid kit.

One of my favorites is the simple one-piece precision Uncle Bill’s (more…)

Gear – Whistle

Fox 40 Micro Pealess Safety Whistle — 4.8 grams

Here’s a nice little piece of insurance, a basic communication and signaling device. Like all emergency gear that you hope to never need, if you ever do, it has to perform reliably. A whistle is basic safety gear, an essential on remote trails for summoning help and rescue, but also potentially useful in any town or city in the world for warding off danger.

To make the most of your whistle, which has limited musical range, learn the International Whistle Signaling Code.

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Gear – Digital Scale

Once you decide to lighten your load, the first essential equipment is something you’ll never carry on trail – a good digital scale. There are all sorts of them to choose from, but here are some basic features needed to weigh the various gear and clothing components of your ultralight (let’s hope!) packing list.

I use a scale that measures increments of a tenth of a gram, to a maximum of 500 grams. Ideally, get one that has grams and whatever other units are meaningful to you, such as ounces. Increments of .1 grams yield exceedingly precise measurements. For those who don’t think OBSESSIVE is always spelled in ALL CAPS, just round to the nearest whole gram.

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Classic French Opinel® folding knives, #8 (top) and #6.

Gear – Knife

Opinel® Folding Knife, N° 06 — 28 grams

A knife is among the most basic and useful tools and one of the essentials I carry.  Say “pocketknife”, and you’re likely to think of the famous Swiss Army knife from Victorinox®.  Though undoubtedly useful for one thing or another, they have never been my first choice.

A basic Swiss Army knife weighs 75 grams (2.7 ounces) and has two stainless steel blades – 55mm and 35mm (2 inches and 1.4 inches). It also has various screwdrivers, an awl, toothpick, scissors and tweezers. In my experience these last two are the most useful gadgets on board, but overall, these ubiquitous red tool kits are stuffed with too many little gadgets that I don’t need; the stainless blades are too short and they don’t hold a keen edge very well. And did I mention 75 grams?

My favorite is the little pocket knife made by French manufacturer Opinel®. (more…)

Gear and Loathing

Or is it Fear and Clothing?

One of the first steps in becoming an ultralight hiker is taking control of your gear.  Most backpacking gear and clothing is manufactured to appeal to as wide a market as possible, which seems like a reasonable business imperative, and at least to some extent, keeps consumer prices lower – better economies of scale.  In doing this, there’s a tendency to add “features”, some utilitarian (but not necessarily useful for you) and some purely for fashion and marketing (they look cool).

There has been an ongoing trend for many (most?) of the big outdoor apparel and equipment manufacturers to slap “ultralight”, “featherweight” and similarly loaded adjectives onto entire lines of merchandise. Initially, some of these products weigh less than earlier offerings, but thereafter another trend takes over. Each season, the gear seems to get bigger, more robust, feature-packed, and HEAVIER! Memo to whoever you are – “This is not helping us, guys! (and gals!)”

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Weights & Measures – part 3

Across France in Spring – budding Champagne vines…

Expendable Weight: weight that declines toward zero at a relatively constant rate over the course a known period of time. This class of weight declines at a steady pace over the whole span of a walk. With a bit of time and forethought, the rate of decay can be calculated for supplies such as vitamins, medications, toothpaste, toiletries, razor blades, foot care kit, batteries, film and fuel.

It’s always beneficial shift one class of weight to another to a higher (more temporary) one. Trail guides, for example, don’t have to be static or temporary weight, but can be expendable, if you remove pages as you move along the trail. These are excellent candidates for minimizing weight, partly because paper can absorb quite a bit of moisture, and water is heavy.

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