201–210 of 327 posts
I traveled ultralight until I got into landscape photography. Those tele zooms are heavy AF. I got bigger quads and biceps.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you (overnight) camping or only day hiking with all of this kit?
Not op but my backpacking (overnight) kit contains similar. When people talk about "10 lb base loads" I assume they are talking about overnights? 10 lb base loads for day trips would not be impressive.
I don't have a fancy pack. My old crown vic is about 2lbs.
I like my hot coffee and meals, so usually bring some sort of cooking and water filtration. 600ml pot, some sort of stove (stick, alcohol, or hexi), spoon, ursack, pot grabber, and befree - and I'm over a pound.
Ounces start to add up fast. 6-7lbs with just the basics does not pack any clothing or food. Both tend to burn the folks I hike with. Always the poor soul who packed in 3lbs of gorp or three sweaters. There is nothing magical about 10lbs. Plenty of people in the ultralight community could look at my pack and say I had an extra 2' of dental floss as well as no business to hike with cards and a kindle. It does set a target where you may not be able to just pull out gear that does not consider weight. Personally, I like to try to target about 8-12lbs + food/water. I don't know how some of the other guys we hike with pull off their 30+ pound packs. I'm not strong enough to do what they are doing.
> Ultralight culture seems a little nuts to the uninitiated. I prefer "Durable, but as light as possible", not the other way around. Most ultralight gear breaks after a few uses or when it is mishandled in anything-less-than-perfect conditions, which, happens a lot outside.
I feel like advances in manufacturing and materials science have really made some massive strides in the past 10 years or so—my sub-2lb 2p tent feels just as durable as my 7lb backpacking tent from the late 90s did.
My Big Agnes is treated as if it is tissue paper where the Eureka somehow survived containing teens wrestling inside. I hope my BA lasts the rest of my life.
I will agree with the advances in materials, they are amazing - I just think we've made some amount of trade-off in durability.
20Ah for 23 bucks? Seems like it's almost too good to be true. Wouldn't surprise me if it was just half that, would explain the price and weight.
This is a very poorly researched article. A few things worth considering: - 20,000 mAh is the rated capacity. Anyone who has tested 18650 batteries (which are the cells typically used in these battery packs) knows the rated capacity != tested capacity. - Watthours is more important than amp hours - Tested watt hours as typical loads is more important than amp hours - It's very normal to see tested capacity to be roug…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That the purpose of the sleeping pad is characterized as thermal performance and not comfort is proof that I am not capable of the ultralight mindset.
I spent time in India as a kid sleeping on the hard floor of my grandmother's home. Maybe my sense of comfort is different IDK, but I don't consider a pad essential on a warm night
But unlike India British Columbia is a completely different climate. We can go from very comfortable sunny warm days to very cold nights. The last time I went camping it was May and the days were nice but the night dropped down to like 5c. I have teens and told them all to pack lots of warm clothes, told them it will be cold at night, made them bring extra blankets. But in the end they still did not have enough and in the middle of the night were so cold. So I gave them 2 of my blankets and some of my clothing. This left me absolutely freezing. I had to finally get up at 1am and make a fire. I struggled to warm up and even had to go start my car and put on the heat for a bit. I put a large rock on the fire and got it hot. I put the rock into a cast iron pan I brought and put it onto a couple sticks in my tent so it would not burn the floor. I had to keep that rock close to me all night and I still was cold and miserable.
So yes on a warm night, and we have those here in BC, a pad is not essential at all. But for the other 10 months of the year if you don't have the right gear you will be cold and miserable. Being directly on the ground is like sleeping on a cold water bed (yes I am that old). It feels refreshing at first but then you fall asleep and wake up with your core temperature stolen and cold.
This is a very poorly researched article. A few things worth considering: - 20,000 mAh is the rated capacity. Anyone who has tested 18650 batteries (which are the cells typically used in these battery packs) knows the rated capacity != tested capacity. - Watthours is more important than amp hours - Tested watt hours as typical loads is more important than amp hours - It's very normal to see tested capacity to be roug…
>18650 batteries (which are the cells typically used in these battery packs) Absolutely not. Pouch cells are what most powerbanks have.
https://www.benzoenergy.com/blog/post/type-of-cells-used-for...
> Ultralight culture seems a little nuts to the uninitiated. I prefer "Durable, but as light as possible", not the other way around. Most ultralight gear breaks after a few uses or when it is mishandled in anything-less-than-perfect conditions, which, happens a lot outside.
I think people that do long distance hiking are a little nuts but to each their own.
You can learn a lot from the ultra light dudes. I replaced all my travel electronics to be powerable from USB-C. This saved me from a lot cables and adapters. Even re-soldered the cable of my electric shaver to use a USB-C PD adapter PCB. As long it's somehow close to the standardized voltages (5/9/12/18/etc.) there will be no problems.
I'm not trying to be gatekeepy or anything, but in 2009 (not so long ago), I did an "ultralight" 40-day on-and-off-road motorcycle trip without any electronics. A few years before that, I did a 10 week "backpacker without a backpack" trip with no electronics. This is still very possible. The weight savings, the "escape from electronics" bonus... It's not nothing.