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1. 40 F means you ll be uncomfortable at the very least had a sweat soaked shirt freeze and press against my skin for an hour or so and I can tell you it saps the heat out of you very quickly Keep a down jacket handy for put ting on over the top of everything yes including the shell layer as soon as you stop to maintain your warmth before you start getting cold at rest Just make ER SKIING 59 www storemags com Not a soul but us accompanied only by perfect weather sure that the shell is not covered in snow when you put on your down jacket Pulks and Packs The pulks are simply wonderful they let you carry all your extra gear You can put thirty kilograms of bulky items like a full stainless steel thermos a snow shovel a thick foam sleeping roll down jackets spare warm clothes sleeping bags extra food and a liquid fuel stove onto a pulk without any problem While it s true that the extra weight of all that gear slows you down a little in many situations it s not signifi cant especially when you realize that 60 BACKPACKING LIGHT you no longer need to compromise on essential gear You also no longer spend time feeling like you re weighed down with an enormous pack Someone may spot the stainless steel thermos in that brief list and be tempted to say What Come on it s nota pic nic To that I would reply Exactly When you ve got a cup of warm sweet berry juice in you
2. and he invited a friend and I out before school started He had this bro en down old car and we had to drive up this little narrow mountain dirt road On the way back he hit a rock and split his oil pan so we were stuck I ended up hitch hiking a hundred miles to a town to catch a bus Ron remembered fondly www storemags com The hike was only five miles in and five miles back and though it was an awkward introduc tion to backpacking it was still enough to get Ron hooked The next time Ron would be back to the AT would be with his wife Linda Their plan was to carried very little but made or improvised al most all of her own gear She was one of the first says Ron She and others like Ray Jar dine and Dorothy Laker really inspired me The lack of gear stores available in the late 1970s also spurred them along stuff on top of that and you can still keep a pretty light pack said Ron But when you start car rying espresso machines and all that other stuff it gets heavy pretty quick With their light packs Ron and Linda were able to make good time On October 22 1977 after Ron was fascinated with thru hikers like Emma Grandma Gatewood and how she not only carried very little but made or improvised almost all of her own gear thru hike the trail south bound starting on June 13 1977 Prior to this trek the longest hike they had ever completed was just sixty miles s
3. but you really don t want to be poorly equipped when the temperature sud denly drops twenty degrees to 40 C 40 F This can and does happen Having a number of layers is impor tant as is being able to add and remove them The layer next to your skin doesn t need to be thick so thin syn thetic thermal underwear works nicely at moving the sweat away from your body while giving you the first layer of insulation Next comes a thin fleece www storemags com The combination of thin heatless midday sun and a lack of wind allows fine ice crystals to feather anything stationary over that both top and pants Depend ing on your activity level and your per sonal comfort level you might then put on a woolen jumper or a heavier fleece over that and finally a water proof shell jacket and pants Gore Tex works well in this climate but you can use one of the lower priced alternative membrane fabrics These layers will al low you to keep warm when moving and generating heat as well as keep you dry from the snow In addition to getting snow on you from falling over it happens I found that snow could fall onto you from branches especially when assisted by fun loving members of your party You must monitor how much you re sweating and you should strip off some layers of clothing as you start to exercise to keep it under control Getting sweaty means getting wet getting wet means getting cold and getting cold at 40
4. real world reliability SPOT recognizes that not all mes sages will be delivered and addresses this by sending multiple messages A single OK message is transmitted up to three times in twenty minutes A Help mes sage is transmitted once every five min utes for an hour A 911 message is trans mitted every five minutes until the batteries give out Our testing suggested that Help and 911 messages would have a high proba bility of being delivered with a perfect view of the entire sky when in SPOT s high coverage areas OK and Tracking messages would have a good but lesser probability of successful delivery with a perfect view of the entire sky www storemags com 25 seme SPOT GEAR REVIEW 35 BACKPACKINGLIGHT COM FORUM POSTS ABOUT SPOT SPOT AND KAYAKING I ve had my unit since they were first released and have enjoyed using it but that s only been for kayaking where as noted you do usually have an unrestricted view of the sky Thus any comments here reflect that usage One good test was during this year s Everglades Challenge a 300 mile kayak race from Tampa Bay to Key Largo www watertribe com This was an overnighted replacement unit as my original one malfunctioned One trick learned is that you can t have tracking on and try and send an OK message tracking must first be turned off So for that and having to let my base know where was every 24 hours the OK function was ex
5. which looks exactly like my track skis but at forty three millimeters they are sub stantially wider than my track ski boot bindings which are only twenty five mil limeters However these bindings will be at their rated torque or width of ski limits when mounted on my wooden skis well actually my skis are ten millimeters wider than the rating so we ll see if that causes any problems I m hoping that the greater torque strength of these new boots and bind ings will have some benefits in control ling my skis on slopes The boots should allow easy walking unlike modern Telemark boots but they might clog with snow when I go to get back onto my skis my track ski boots certainly do The size of these new boots will allow me to have changeable felt liners just like with the gum boots but in deeper snow proba bly need gaiters to keep snow from get ting where I don t want it Other Gear There are some items that you don t really want to go without in this coun try even though you can For example we carried a small hatchet for cutting firewood and a light alloy and plastic snow shovel just in case We also had at SKIING 69 www storemags com Mikko considering trying to climb the tree and ski down the slope We all thought this was a good idea and even put the camera into movie mode It wasn t until he noticed our anticipation of entertainment that he began to consider s
6. CHRIS EASTWOOD Matt Hace BRANDON WILSON Editor in Chief RYAN JORDAN Art Director Ben KLocek Production Director Vic Lipsey Production Editors Rick DREHER JASINS KEN KNIGHT JARED SCHLENDER Advertising Sales Manager Nicote CHILTON Shop Dog Maia OUR MISSION Backpacking Light promotes multi day self sufficient backpackable backcountry travel in lightweight style Backpacking Light Magazine ISSN 1550 4417 the quarterly print magazine of Backpacking Light http www backpackinglight com is published by Beartooth Media Group Inc 1627 West Main Street Suite No 310 Bozeman MT 59715 Copyright 2008 by Beartooth Media Group Inc Backpacking Light and its logo are registered trademarks of Beartooth Media Group Inc All rights reserved No part of this magazine may be reproduced without permis sion of the publisher Printed in China SUBSCRIPTIONS Please call toll free 1 888 362 0999 or subscribe online at backpackinglight com Subscriptions are 24 95 in the U S 40 95 elsewhere Single copy price 9 95 2 BACKPACKING LIGHT ADVERTISING Advertising sales inquiries to ads backpackinglight com Newsstands Backpacking Light Magazine is distributed by Ingram Periodicals Postmaster send address changes to Backpacking Light Magazine 1627 West Main Street Suite No 310 Bozeman MT 59715 EDITORIAL Please direct editorial inquiries to submissions backpackingligh
7. For a jacket I cannot say enough about the Montbell UL Down In ner She is one amazing jacket It is under 7 oz on my scale medium and it performs like a champ FORUM ECHOES 7 Atrue UL backpacker would have picked the slugs off the sleeping It is the only piece of light weight gear that I have purchased that has not been replaced One warning don t drink Bacardi 151 with it around a crackling campfire The smallest sparks will burn through it in a flash you need your reflexes to brush off the sparks If you are go ing to be in temps that are 15 to 60 degrees this jacket withashell fleece or cap fleece and gloves should be all you need If you think you will need to hike in it my guess hiking under 30 degree temps then I would get the thermal wrap to han dle the moisture Jamie Shortt June 11 2008 On Diminishing Returns As with things in life you get di minished returns as you approach the extreme Most of us here will agree that it is extremely entic ing and easy to fall into the trap of the lighter the better most But step back a bit and think what is YOUR pur 8 BACKPACKING LIGHT pose for lightening up Is it to enjoy your hikes more Or are you in a race against others or yourself to see who can hike the lightest and come back alive to brag about it If enjoying the hike is your goal we all have a personal spot where the load is light enough that we
8. Sections of the Kalalau Trail along Kauai s Na Pali Coast are the very definition of tropical forest Agnes tries to avoid the sharp pointed leaves on her way to Kalalau Beach TROPICAL ULTRA LIGHT 75 Yellow oleander flowers hem in the trail near Kalalau Beach at the end of our trek along the Na Pali Coast The plant Nerium oleander is said to ease deeply buried emotional problems The same could be said of a week on the island of Kauai FACING A small waterfall acts as the water source and rinsing area for those camping at Kalalau Beach Agnes Stowe takes a rinse after our hike in to the beach 78 BACKPACKING LIGHT CAMERA KIT FOR HAWAII Nikon E8400 w battery 16 5 02 Spare battery 2 5 OZ CF card x2 1002 Ultrapod 1502 Total for kit 21502 www storemags com Agnes enters Crawler s Corner the psychological crux of the eleven mile Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast of Kauai www sto gs com TROPICAL ULTRA LIGHT 81 www storemags com er 179999 A OO Jn i Agnes wakes to a shrouded forest in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park A change in the winds brought in toxic volcanic gasses that quickly put an end to our trek on the Big Island 82 BACKPACKING LIGHT www storemags com TOP Our two night stay at Kalalau Beach comes to an end and Agnes leads the charge back to the surf town of Hanalei Bay BOTTOM Agnes preps an after dinner hot drink while at camp on the K
9. around the world Our friendship with Ryan Jordan has been inspiring in part because he really gets this aspect of wilderness travel and he understands that this is what NOLS is good at NOLS should be able to in crease the awareness of and participa tion in long duration expedition style lightweight travel Ultimately that is what this is all about doing more with less Going further afoot and exploring the wilderness inside each of us through the wilderness outside of ourselves wilderness www storemags com NOLS instructors hike through fresh snow in the Galiuro Mountains of southern Arizona Instructor Training trip Eleven instructors participated in this training an intro duction to teaching lightweight backpacking skills We ran the 2008 training in Febru ary at the suggestion of Ryan Jordan in order to really put the gear and skills to the test and demonstrate to instructors that comfort is possible even with minimal lightweight gear in challenging conditions Photo by Scott Christy END NOTES 1 Podcast Is National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS Ready to Go Light by Carol Crooker BackpackingLight com ISSN 1537 0364 http backpackinglight com cgi bin backpackinglight podcast_031807_NOLS_light weight_hurdles html 2007 04 11 Groovy Biotic Cooking Quick Healthy Meals with an Ultralight Cook Kit by Mike Clelland BackpackingLight com ISSN 1537 0364 http bac
10. backpacking and hiking conditions with less than a perfect view of the entire sky and if that reliabil ity would be sufficient No Message Delivery Confirmation Another wrinkle to the possibility of an undelivered message s is that the SPOT unit cannot confirm successful message delivery The SPOT unit sends to communications satellites but cannot receive from the satellites Thus there is no way to send a message delivery confir mation back to the SPOT unit Suppose a hiker has severely sprained an ankle or broken a leg in an area of heavy tree cover or in a deep canyon with limited sky view Should they assume a Help or 911 message was successfully de livered and with a good GPS location If so they should probably sit tight and wait for rescue Or should they assume a low probability of message delivery and or the lack of GPS location and hobble as best they can towards some place where they can get help or at least have a higher chance of being discovered If our hiker decided to stay put but the SPOT unit s message was not deliv ered or lacked a GPS location they could be in for a long cold and hungry wait If they decide to hobble to a better location and the message was delivered they may unnecessarily cause a far more serious in jury to themselves and they will not be near the location of their Help or 911 messages where SAR will look first The range of problematic scenarios in this vein is
11. can hike on without even thinking about it Spending more time and expense going below that will give you ever diminishing physiological returns My own sweet spot is around 20 lbs total pack weight I can hike all day and not even think about the weight Sure lighter still is better but the sweet ever point is it won t really be all that much better for me On the other hand not having a proper sleep ing bag or pad or shelter will certainly be a damper I think you should first determine for yourself where your sweet spot lies before jumping in with both feet in some quest for the lightest only to find out later that the benefits fail to outweigh the nega tives in terms of sacrific ing safety or convenience or just plain fun Plenty of people get caught up into drilling holes in the handles of their spoons or leaving the toothbrush entirely at home Now each to his or her own and why deny any one the fun and benefits of going super duper ultra light But recognize that the benefits here are purely psychic if not psycho On the other hand if that s what tickles you then by all means have a go at it and enjoy But just make sure you know what you want before you start your gear weight shedding quest Benjamin Tang June 12 2008 On Platypus Bag Design A previous poster asked but whats up with the new design on the hydration reservoir The part where the drink tube attach
12. for the soul www storemags com SAOLNAIALNOI Contributors Nicole Chilton lives in Bozeman Montana and works for Backpacking Light Prior to finding her way to the Big Sky State she lived in Eugene Oregon and was a raft guide during her college days Living in Bozeman gives her the advantage of nearby skiing in the winter and easy to find hikes in the summer Alan Dixon is an engineer and co founder of Backpacking Light A native Californian he carried his own backpack out of Yosemite Valley at age four Since then Alan has climbed and backpacked over much of the United States and around the world He has also guided trips and organized seminars on lightweight backpacking climbing and canyoneering He and his wife Alison Simon live on the East Coast Ryan Hutchins Cabibi grew up in New Hampshire where he spent his youth playing in the woods and mountains of New England He has worked at various outdoor programs for sixteen years After graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Kinesiology with a concen tration in Outdoor Education he headed west to work for the National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS where he is a senior field instructor in climbing hiking mountaineering backcountry skiing and snowboarding and the special proj ects manager for the Southwest location Ryan currently splits his time between the Rockies and the Southwest train ing NOLS staff in the art of lightweight backpa
13. mounting the SPOT unit horizontally on the top ofa pack shoulder strap In this way only your head blocks a portion of the sky Note the User Manual instructs a vertical mounting at your waist using the SPOT unit s belt clip We agree that the top of the shoulder strap mounting would probably improve Tracking message delivery as no portion of your torso would block sky view How ever even with a perfect view of the entire sky our testing indicated average daily Tracking message delivery rates of 8396 with some rates as low as 17 in a given one hour period 34 BACKPACKING LIGHT FACING Two out of every ten messages did not get through Although there are a few obvious large transmission gaps indicated with a yellow arrows trans mission appears generally good for the trip However even in what appear to be the consistent transmission sections there are smaller and even moderate sized gaps white arrow Message Reliability In various controlled tests and our field testing we found that somewhere between 096 and 8396 of messages were successfully delivered depending on the amount of sky visible to the SPOT unit and the mode used This is a broad range In addition difficulties with SPOT unit s user interface meant that incorrect modes were sometimes activated which resulted in unsent messages These unsent mes sages were not counted in our reliability figures but nevertheless may affect users
14. perfect for cross country ski touring or era ski ing as they call it here www storemags com Sweden Finland ERASKIING 55 Ski touring is not a modern fad in Finland People have been skiing for centuries there it has been a lifestyle and an essential part of transport for cen turies People have a different view about skiing and equipment compared to other places where skiing was introduced as a form of recreation In addition snow conditions in Finland are different from those in North America or central Eu rope so the skis and equipment are also somewhat different For example using a pulk for carrying your gear is common and skis are often wider 70 mm and longer 2 5 meters than many groomed track skiers might be used to Part of the reason for this difference lies in the cold er temperatures and lighter winds found in Finland leading to softer fluffier snow conditions On this trip we went to a place called Koivusuo which literally means birch swamp on the eastern side of Finland near Ilomantsi about 500 kilo meters northwest from Helsinki If you were to hire a car from the airport in Helsinki you could drive through Lahti to Joensuu then on to Ilomantsi this is the best route for conditions and traffic and the National Park is about twenty kilometers east northeast of Ilomantsi MAPS Maps can be found on the Finnish Luontoon web site www luontoon fi Google Eart
15. rain for eighteen out of twenty one days in Austria However it wasnt all torture We savored the local cuisine Emile worked his way through vari ations on tripe his favorite dish while I discovered that nothing could warm you up quite like Swa bian sauerbraten with red gravy kraut and sp tzle Usually it was all topped off with a delicious local white wine pear schnapps or Dun kel Hefeweizen dark wheat brew that s unfiltered a meal in itself We also explored sites along the way taking about one day in ten off to rest It was a movable feast from the baroque grandeur of timeless cities like Regens burg with Walhalla its Grecian like temple dedicated to Teutonic prowess to the serene monasteries of Welten 90 BACKPACKING LIGHT Despite differences in nationalities culture and religion angels frequently helped the pilgrims on their peace walk Photo by Brandon Wilson burg from the shocking concentration camps of Mauthausen to the crown jew els of Linz Vienna and Bratislava Life was different every day unpredictable and unforgettable Even from the start we met peo ple along the path whom we called angels Spotting us wet famished or bedraggled they d invite us into their homes for a bowl of lentil soup or bottle of wine After learn ing we were pil grims sometimes they d offer us a free or discounted room or maybe direct us to the right path
16. sweet drinks e Sweet biscuits All these are light in weight and high in energy The meat may not be www storemags com so high in energy but having it means you don t get bored with the meals A hot meal can be prepared in a few minutes by melting some snow bring ing that water to boil adding some mince and dried vegetables then after a few minutes of simmering thicken ing it up with some dried mashed po tato powder After a couple of hours in the cold pulling a sled everyone simple lean to arrangements see Ed meaning that you might not need to unfold your tent In fact if you really know the country you may not need to carry a tent at all although that can be risky if anyone has an accident Inside these huts you ll find a wood stove a supply of wood and things left behind by others like candles matches partially filled gas containers and per Carrying your gear in the pulk allows you to ski more or less without any stress you can relax and enjoy the beautiful Finnish scenery has their spoon ready when the pot comes off the stove For cooking we can use the wood stove in the hut or an open fire or we can use a regular liquid fuel stove such as those made by Primus or MSR Shelters One of the very nice things about a harsh climate is that it encourages peo ple to build huts for shelter along the frequented paths At intervals along our path about every five or ten kilo meters
17. the motor oil the coolness of the aluminum hull and the violent bouncing through the waves such things that reflect the very antithesis of a Wild Place Because we were the first permitted party into that section of Yellowstone this year we were excited to achieve solitude rapidly so we wasted no time unloading our packs walking ashore and waving goodbye to the boat captains They promptly threw the engines in reverse sped away and before they became a speck on the horizon we realized we were sur rounded by dramatic quiet and soli tude interrupted only by the gentle lapping of waves on the lake shore The scene had almost immediately 4 BACKPACKING LIGHT been transformed from a motorized locale into a Wild Place This transformation does not come easy in the context of living amongst a mod ern society Unless we close our eyes to block things man made plug our ears to block the sounds of those things and pinch our nostrils to block the smells of those things we cannot even come close to a Wild Place You see be ing physically present in a Wild Place demands that our senses be opened All of those things that overwhelm the senses while living in a civilized place must be overwhelmed by the reality of being in a Wild Place in order for im mersion to happen fully And with immersion into a real and physical Wild Place comes tangible benefits rest for the body salve for the mind and glitter
18. there are lean to shelters or small log cabins We can pull up have lunch stay the night or simply warm up and shelter from bad weather If you check the Luontoon website www luontoon fi for the park that you intend to visit you will probably find that there are some of these huts or more haps a small amount of stove fuel or sometimes some of their excess canned food The general attitude is that things like this can be at least useful for some one or perhaps make a survival differ ence for people in a tight situation It s a great community outlook and one that I have found elsewhere in the region like in Sweden and Norway There will likely be dry wood cut and stacked in the shelter already The unwritten rule is that you replace the wood you ve used in the shelter from the stack It could just be that you are the one who comes in wet and cold when it s 20 C 4 F urgently needing to light a fire and start warming up Of course if you ve thought ahead at lunch you ll have a thermos of hot berry juice to give you some needed sugars and warmth while you re waiting for the fire to warm the shelter No sense in being uncom SKIING 63 www storemags com A simple lean to shelter fortable just because you re alone in the wild now is there Among our gear we also carry a small tomahawk My Fiskars tomahawk only weighs 450 grams and is well worth its weight especially since we have the pulks mak
19. wintertime it is fairly flat and there are vast open regions Putting your gear on sleds or pulks really takes the weight off your shoulders and makes balance and travel easier and safer When you have a pulk the emphasis on pack weight drops which helps let safety predominate Lightweight You might get the feeling that we re more like backwoodsmen than light weight backpackers and to some ex tent that s true However modern technology has helped substantially in reducing the weight of the gear that is essential to carry You see where I come from Queensland Australia you can go walking with nothing much more than a pair of sandals and you often don t really need those either Before the English colonized Austra lia the Australian Aborigines lived their entire lives as ultra light trekkers The term FSO or from skin out takes on a real meaning for them But the environmental conditions in the two countries are quite differ ent and no matter what you think it is ERA SKIING 65 www storemags com It s surprising how much you can have in a pulk This one looks like there s someone in it the environment that will dictate what constitutes the bare minimum in gear People might argue around the edges saving perhaps a kilogram here and there but if the environment can kill you and trust me the winter snow in northern regions can then why take the risks Just put it in the sled Com
20. 36 F overnight and winter temperatures can get as low as 40 C 40 F Daylight hours are a lot shorter here too This country has some serious hazards and safety must be the highest priority Good reliable gear is needed far more than the latest ultra light tarp and alky stove Taking risks with inadequate and nose However using two lesser quality bags is another option If one of them is a down bag use that as the in ner bag and put a larger synthetic bag over the outside If it s really cold you might keep your beanie on and maybe your down jacket too Beware of self inflating mats as these can let you down in the extreme cold of the members of this group except me have had them start to leak around the seams when taken out in less than 10 C 14 F The PU coating goes stiff in the cold and small amounts of hard ice ac cumulate inside the mat from your breath which may also do some damage The good foam mats are not really heavy and won t go flat with a puncture on un finished pine beams either We used Finnish ones called Tunturisusi they are about fifteen millimeters thick clothing food or other gear is not acceptable and while there may be plenty of room for slight errors of judgment mid summer in some countries the same does NOT apply ina Finnish winter Even so the gear we used is far lighter than the traditional gear used in this region Finland does have some advantages in
21. BACKPACKINGLIGHT The Magazine of Lightweight Hiking and Backcountry Travel ISSUE 11 Ready Willing amp Able NOLS Goes Lightweight Tropical Ultra Light in Hawaii Slickrock A Canyoneering Photo Essay 1 Backpacking Light Reviews the SPOT 70 8 In the Steps of Romans Pilgrims and Templars 144 High Performance Fabrics N N Quantum N l N Microlight m Classic ld Endurance Low 576 Equilibrium P 558 7 Discover Pertex for more info go online pertex com Helping you go farther TRENDS Publisher s Messagd Ready Willing amp Abl ONLINE 7 PEOPLE SC OY SF n 16 t s All Too Much Book Revie PLACES Blickrock A Canyoneering Photo Essay from the Escalante River Canyon my COVER Out two night st jiat Kalalau ieh comes to end and Agnes leads the charge back to the surf town of Hanalei Bay THIS PAGE Canyoneering is the opposite of mountai ing Rather than striving forthe highest point to lookidown you are inthe bottom of a canyon with the world above you At this point near the end of Buckskin Gulch one f the more famous slot canyons in Utah the walls d ng C Imost 50 you 5 2 BACKPACKINGLIGHT Managing Editor ADDIE MORSTAD Senior Editors ROGER CAFFIN CAROL CROOKER MIKE MARTIN CHRIS TOWNSEND Correspondents NICOLE CHILTON ALAN DIXON RYAN HUTCHINS CABIBI ROGER CAFFIN
22. Lightweight Backpacking course in the Rocky Mountains or the American Southwest You will leave with the skills necessary to successfully carry out your own lightweight adventures Contact us for upcoming Lightweight Backpacking course dates and enrollment information www nols edu courses 800 710 NOLS x NOLS instructor Sherill Blodget hanes her lightweight backpacking skills onven instructor seminar with NOLS Arizona s Saguaro National Park Spring 2007 Photo by Rainbow Weinstock www storemags com
23. Nicole Chilton On Slugs OK so here I am at the beginning of my UL career standing in the backyard pitching tarps hanging hammocks sleep ing with or w o ground sheet with or w o bug net just trying to generate both experience and questions So last night I throw down a sleeping pad under my newly pitched tarp Sleep ing is fine but the morning brings an underside of pad full of little slugs and their slime trails I scraped the little buggers off leav ing the pad looking like some Harry Potter troll sneezed on it So I m thinking to my self What do my new BPL friends have to say about all this It s not a crisis and maybe the philosophy is I don t care bout no stinkin slugs But it certainly strikes me as unpleasant carrying around a snotty sleeping pad Do I just suck it up and embrace my inner slug Or simply consider that ground sleeping in dampish environments is not the best choice Any practical philosophical wisdom is welcome Tom Kight June 14 2008 Reply to On Slugs Tom A true UL backpacker would have picked the www storemags com slugs off the sleeping pad and cooked them in their morning oats Protein can be heavy Mark Henley June 14 2008 On Picking a Pack amp Down Jacket Granite Gear Va por Trail is a lot of pack I use the Virga structure less cousin and it is a great pack I would think you would do well with the Vapor Trail
24. a sharing and open discussion Since then NOLS has continued to refine its lightweight program with great success NOLS currently offers lightweight courses at two locations NOLS Rocky Mountain in Lander Wyoming oper ates courses in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem while NOLS Southwest in Tucson Arizona operates courses in the sky island mountain ranges of southern Arizona and New Mexico In another move towards embracing the spirit and ethos of lightweight travel over the last two years NOLS Rocky Mountain has been working on an initiative to lower pack weights to forty pounds or less on all thirty day Wilderness courses leav ing for the field Historically NOLS students have left the trailhead with packs weighing around sixty pounds Due to its location and climate NOLS Southwest has seen pack weights close to forty pounds for years and is now looking at adapting some semester hik ing sections to encompass lightweight READY WILLING amp ABLE 19 www storemags com techniques As a school we have run five lightweight staff training courses with the most recent in May 2008 in the Rockies These lightweight courses training and initiatives have created a vibrant dia logue which we hope will continue to provide us with new techniques and methodology At this point lightweight philosophy has a strong enough foothold at NOLS that the lines between light weight and standard courses continue to blur We are lea
25. acturer s claims and the field reliability expectations for back packers and hikers These recommen dations are covered in the online por tion of this Review ANALYSIS OF TEST RESULTS Antenna Design The SPOT unit receives signals from GPS satellites on one frequency and trans mits messages to communications satellites on another frequency It uses the same an tenna to do both One antenna cannot be optimized for two frequencies If it works better for one frequency message transmis sion then it will not work as well for the other frequency GPS location reception or vice versa We asked John Dark of SPOT about the shared antenna design He said their design favors message transmission They picked fa voring transmission because they believe get tingan emergency message out is the highest priority Even without a GPS position a Help or 911 message is still of great value The choice of a single antenna that fa vors message transmission may be why the 32 BACKPACKING LIGHT SPOT unit does not have the same GPS fix performance ofa handheld GPS unit using a similarly sensitive GPS chipset The GPS only unit presumably has an antenna optimized solely for best GPS reception reduction in GPS performance has problematic implications First the last known location of the party is a vital piece of information for SAR personnel Sec ond two modes of the SPOT unit OK and Tracking require a GPS fix or they will not t
26. afety issues He didn t go any further than shown calling us vultures or something like that least one Leatherman tool on the belt and a couple of meters of thin gauge stainless wire for repairs Conclusion So with all the right gear knowing what the climate might throw at you 70 BACKPACKING LIGHT and your route planned out you can set off for a few days away from it all You ll be safe and warm with just you and the scenery ahead of you ensuring you ll have as good a time as we did www storemags com VI GRANITE GEAR AirVent Reduction DryBlocs 33 56 grams Nimbus Meridian 10 000 Miles One Year e am p www acrosstheandes com www justinlichter com Get Inspired www granitegear com Na Pali Coast on our ener k angle de au Trai Agnes Stowe tal 5 bre l yhike d Deep inthe th Kalal Tropical Ultra Light Hawaiian trails are perfect for going light by Matt Hage and Agnes Stowe November in the Hawaiian Islands is a backpacker s paradise daytime temps in the seventies enough rain to get creeks flowing and still ample daylight It s also a bit slow before the holiday travel season with less competition for permits and rea sonably priced lodging Assignment work had Agnes and me in the Islands for most of November 2007 and we planned to squeeze in a couple short backpacking trips between shoots With our lu
27. alalau Beach Though our Mini Bull Designs Sith stove is plenty powerful it doesn t take much fuel to boil water on a sixty degree night at sea level TROPICAL ULTRA LIGHT 83 www storemags com In the Steps of Romans Pilgrims and Templars A 2600 Mile Light Trek to Jerusalem By Brandon Wilson It s often said Be careful what you wish for you just might get it Well little could I imagine six years ago when the idea of walking to Jerusalem first entered my addled brain that I d find myself actually attempting that trek It all began innocently enough I d backpacked through nearly one hundred countries but after checking the must sees off my list I was looking for some thing challenging intense satisfying Well a thousand kilometer trek across Tibet in 1992 with my wife Cheryl allowed me to glimpse the possi bilities outside the usual traveler s box While exploring the remote Himala yan countryside and turmoil in the op pressed Land of Snows we discovered personal global and philosophical an swers We encountered extreme physical challenges After forty days of pushing our bodies and minds to the limits at altitudes up to 17 000 feet through bliz zards and dodging bullets my wife and I actually survived Staying with families along the path we absorbed Tibet s nu ances one step at a time We talked with weary monks over far too many cups of yak butter tea As they re
28. alms sweat Cold and high rivers can be difficult to wade Thankfully there s always some awe inspiring payoff around the next bend in the canyon frequently painted in brilliant reds oranges and yellows SLICKROCK A CANYONEERING PHOTO ESSAY FROM THE ESCALANTE RIVER CANYON 43 www storemags com A desert cactus garden nestled in the natural planter of a slickrock wall This cluster is probably Claret Cup or Hedgehog Echinocereus triglochidiatus a common canyon cactus with a brilliant red cup shaped blossom that resembles a wine glass filled with claret FACING A justifiably famous and often photographed cathedral in the Escalante River drainage A cathedral is a sudden drop in a canyon that has been hollowed out by a pouroff a usually dry waterfall The rounded out shape and overhanging roof of stone reminds one of a gothic cathedral Cathedrals usually have a pool of water at the bottom carved out by the force of water when the pouroff is running The reflections of the seep fed wall gardens in the pool the lofty ceiling and the cool temperatures create instant serenity SLICKROCK A CANYONEERING PHOTO ESSAY FROM THE ESCALANTE RIVER CANYON 45 www storemags com p A Me A 24 on rim View up the Escalante river For us has equal time onthe ca bottoman d herir 4 Most times it is far more challenging to alorf the rim than trek along thecan U E and from the cariy
29. an all oatmeal breakfast ap proach and adding in something more savory More esoteric cooking tech niques can be taught on courses as well students love muffins but I find that they consume a lot of fuel for the caloric benefit In the long run we will strive to have more variety in our lightweight ration and hope that we can invent some new techniques or standards that will keep cooking interesting Refining sys tems over time and use is typically one of our organization s strengths BACKCOUNTRY SHELTER Beyond food the question of shelters comes up frequently as well Many a NOLS grad hunkering down on a stormy night under a well pitched Thelma Fly For years we have fly camped at NOLS with these four to six person behemoths At one point we explored having them made of light er materials but the construction dura remembers bility didn t pass muster What works in READY WILLING amp ABLE 21 www storemags com a NOLS course depends on the location and season for example Rocky Moun tain courses in the summer need to have bug netting due to West Nile virus con cerns We have gotten around this to some degree by scheduling our light weight Rocky Mountain courses later in the summer August when bugs are not as big a concern In the Southwest we don t have those concerns so bug netting is not needed Our guidelines can change because we already adapt them to the times and conditions of a
30. and Print Editions now available at BackpackingLight com Roman Dial is the Pied Piper of Packrafting If you re not careful his infectious enthusiasm will seduce you to squander every spare moment of your life in search of the next classic day of fun in a packraft Brad Meiklejohn the Alaska Representative for The Conservation Fund Buy the Book at Backpackinglight com packraftingbook gt a gt gt gt gt Students left talfight Zah Yocum erry Pohl Claire Gray and Josh Varnell show off their lightweight packs after Bushwhacking up Horse Canyon Galiuro Mountains a gt Arizona Photo by Ryan Hutchins CaBibi 325 Pe 4 Ready Willin amp 5 e How the National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS has embraced lightweight backpacking and how that s changing the school and the lightweight community By Ryan Hutchins Cabibi amp Scott Christy Over a year ago BackpackingLight com published the podcast Is National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS Ready to Go Light The podcast and subsequent online discussion provided examples of how NOLS had entered into lightweight backpacking education by running a Light and Fast course how future courses could be planned and how the school perceived applying lightweight techniques and skills to a traditional thirty day NOLS course Overall the staff training in which Backpacking Light staff participated in 2007 was characterized by ide
31. at a critical junction in the trail Some days it was almost too easy Howev er soon all that would change Once outside of Budapest we became true pioneers The radweg ended In Serbia our sleek bicycle path deteriorated into badly maintained two lane roads littered with memorials to those who d passed away in the process of getting from there to here One day I counted twenty just in a morning It be www storemags com Europe s serene back roads transport you to a far simpler time Photo by Brandon Wilson came harder to find food although beer was more plentiful Each night we had to search longer for a place to stay and then negotiate harder for a local price versus the higher non Eastern one make life even more difficult midsummer temperatures soared to eighty then ninety degrees Although we attempted to stay along the Danube River in Hungary the paths swarmed with mosquitoes If we stopped longer than twenty seconds we d be covered in a black itchy blanket Then there was the humidity so thick that we d be drenched in sweat by 9 00 am and remain that way until well after sundown Soon we were eager to head into the hills and make do with a little more climbing Still even in countries as poor as Serbia and Bulgaria we were aided by folks nearly every day After finding some one who spoke English I was even able to chat more with them about our peace trek Invariably their
32. better glide than plastic surfaced skis with skins so I don t need to wres tle with skins all day The bindings are the typical Finnish style and very similar to the old Kandahar bindings used in Europe in the 1950s The spring around the back holds the toe into the wedge shaped binding quite securely yet gives you comfort to move Both the boots and bindings are essentially the same as what the Finnish Army uses which means both are Private proof Neither my skis nor the other typical forest skis have metal edges or substan tial side cuts Modern boots and skis seem to have become more like downhill skis every year which perhaps reflects the bulk of the market For back country skiing the reality is that if you re not on icy or wind packed hard snow then the steel edges will be of little benefit With out substantial downhill work there is little benefit in deep side cuts metal edges or the rigid bindings and boot Most of the hunters and outdoors men here use these rubber boots and the same bindings as the rest of our party was using Tourists in Lapland may use different more fashionable 68 BACKPACKING LIGHT skis but the Nokia Rokka boots with these bindings on 2 5 meter skis called forest skis are really common among people who are outdoors all the time border guards National Park rangers power linesmen and so on The bind ings have the advantage that you can wear the same boots to sk
33. cellent The unit even let my partner know was coming a day earlier than expected no possible cell phone coverage All this being said also carry a PLB For safety purposes do believe SPOT can be a useful addition to one s repertoire and there are stories to back this up eg Canadian sea kayaker off Tasmania earlier this year but for the fun aspect of being able to have friends and family know where you are that you re OK and that they can track you SPOT is a heap of fun Kristin Greenaway WELL DONE REVIEWERS but too late to save me the cost of a unit and activation I m delighted with the quality of your research and reporting on the SPOT Itoo have had experience with the unit most recently onan eight day Grand Canyon crosscountry route and like others had a roughly 6096 success rate on all OK messages Better than nothing guess but not what believed would be delivered by the unit I d also like to comment on the web site 36 BACKPACKING LIGHT activation process and customer service Unlike the reviewers found the problems in these areas to be ridiculous From start to finish ittook me sixty eight hours seven phone calls four e mails and an overall blood pressure increase of thirty points on both readings to activate my unit Not only that but my original order of the unit via Google was with what turned out to be an unauthorized dealer who took my money and didn t bother to ship th
34. ces and trimmed in pine and stainless steel It was also less than one hundred square feet His motivation for living in so small a space I see extra stuff as being a burden says Jay Anything that isn t working for me directly in terms of making my life better is working against me Jay s website which includes enough information slide shows and videos to be called roomy shows that living with less in less can be really be more His homes are versatile multi purpose and designed with functionality as a top priority And because some of the home designs are affixed to trailers they can easily be moved to a new location Since switching to life in a tiny home Jay has been able to live in about ten different locations all in or around three towns For someone with a touch of wanderlust the appeal of a permanent yet mobile home can be a huge draw Who is the target market for a tiny home With the exception of one design which boasts an arm stretching 770 square feet nearly all of the one bedroom designs are best suited for a single individual Even then that single individual is part of a small no pun intended group of people whose lives can comfortably fit into roughly one hundred square feet or less They re just looking for less responsibility or they spend a lot of time outside or when they re inside they spend most of their time at a desk says Jay of the folks who live in the tiny homes full time For the curiou
35. cking Roger Caffin started bushwalking at fourteen and took up rock climbing at University with the girl who became his wife and permanent walking partner Ski touring and canyoneering followed Winter and summer they prefer long hard trips with one another for company going fast and light in unfrequented trackless country Given their druthers they would be out walking skiing or snowshoeing for at least three months a CONTRIBUTORS 5 www storemags com 6 BACKPACKING LIGHT year Their move to lightweight gear much to their backs relief has been facilitated by the fact that Roger designs and makes much of the gear himself He is also an Editor at www Back packGearTest org the maintainer of the Australian Bushwalk ing FAQ web site www bushwalking org au FAQ and the magazine Editor and Web Master for the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW in Australia Chris Eastwood was born in 1964 in what was a small town on the coast of South East Queensland Australia Living with thousands of square miles of tropical rainforest on his doorstep it didn t take him long to go backpacking through there Back in the 1970s there was very little light weight gear with most being ex army and even less that was suitable to the environment being made for North American or European conditions Chris fairly quickly started to cus tomize or make his own gear which perhaps led him to better understanding the need to select the
36. e unit Told all of my problems would be looked into and the appropriate changes made by top sales personnel in the Canadian office well over a month ago and I m still waiting for the promised follow up My advice save your money Me I m thinking of e mailing Survivor Man about the dangers of delving into the dangerous world of start up high tech companies Mark O Keefe SPOT IN REAL LIFE I have a SPOT and so far continue to use it and carry it along Perhaps my expecta tions are lower than most but I m happy with it feel that it has been better than a cell phone which rarely works where go and even if only 50 of the messages get through that s enough for me Mostly know a couple messages sent will keep my family assured that I m okay but they also know that no messages does not indicate a problem also know that in an true real life emergency the 7oz SPOT might help me out if I ve exhausted every option to help myself out That s about all can expect from it right now but it seems worthwhile anyway will be taking it along for 2700 solo miles in a couple weeks on my mountain bike and that will be an interesting exercise At the very least one okay message getting through per day makes my wife feel better Christopher Plesko www storemags com It is unclear what the SPOT unit s reli ability of successfully delivering messages four types would be in field conditions likely to be encountered
37. eeping bag com pany that warranties their bags holding their rating for a thirty day life span For a normal user that could be any where from five to fifteen years For a NOLS student or instructor it could be one course Our gear gets used more in more varied conditions and by more people than an average user s gear Heavy packs have led to dropping sometimes literally packs at any oppor tunity creating a lot of internal rubbing READY WILLING amp ABLE 25 www storemags com and wear on items inside the pack We aren t likely to send students out with silnylon packs even on lightweight courses They simply take a level of care that needs to be developed by using gear in the field At NOLS we are teaching a foundation of skills for students to take with them If we teach them well they will take these skills and tools into their lives after NOLS and further develop them This applies to the gear they use the way they care for it and the leader ship skills they learn as well One thought is to rent less gear and have students buy more but it is impor tant to us as an organization that we don t alienate our less privileged stu dents Tuition for a course is already a good chunk of change and it s risky to buy everything when you don t even know if you will like the activity enough to do it in the future NOLS S LIGHTWEIGHT FUTURE What does all this mean for the scho
38. es is not at the bot tom of the bag does this make sense Also it seems that the funky big zip de sign adds unnecessary weight Pm happy with my older Platypus bag I think it s pretty fair www storemags com to say that it s a direct rip off of the Source Widepac design which has been around for four or five years now These aren t perfect The tube coming off the side wall is a pain in the bot bot and makes it hard to drain the bag completely and I still love the Platy Duck Lips The extra weight of the clo sure is a no ever and the main reason I haven t bought a Platy for three years It allows a FULL open ing rather than the 5 6 that Platy Big Zip gives with no ridges to trap grunge It seals fast AND secure Try sealing a Big Zip with cold wet hands when the temp is around brainer how freezing or when it s 40 C 102 F in the desert with the sand blowing The only downside is that I have to let my team mates fill their Platys first when we re racing since I know it will take them longer to Zip up especially if they re adding powder This is an extra ounce that pays its own way Rod Lawlor June 16 2008 On a Personal Journey I just want to say that my experience with this site and forum has been wonderful and I am grateful to all of you for sharing so much know how and experi ence in a positive atmo sphere I just signed on as a member mainly to take advantage
39. espectfully then morphs into a full blown charge of reclamation of space The things you own end up owning you Walsh doesn t people to give up prized that force possessions haven t been touched in decades literally Instead he works to get the reader to let go progressively and willingly first trash then unused items then finally the pieces that have emo tional value but no func tion such as old prom dresses baby clothes and Walsh also empha sizes that purging the home should be a family event with full participa tion and not even the fam ily pet is spared Kids do nate things they don t need while learning to respect what they have by putting their belongings away and keeping their rooms clean and tidy Like family mem bers every room in the house is addressed sepa rately While the concept of lightening the load of items in one s life is intriguing and appealing the tone of the book comes across as the new fad or cure Walsh even goes so far as to say They did it and so can you At times it feels as if the book is the written equivalent of an infomercial promising bet ter lives fulfilled dreams more productivity clarity success better relationships etc but the message is spot on Wielding a label maker is not the answer knowing how to approach handle and let go of unnecessary stuff good start www storemags com LIGHT PACKRAFTING Digital
40. f course he was welcome to dump his pack into one of the sleds lat er when he changed his mind Aside from the issues of balance and comfort carrying your gear in the pulk allows you to ski more or less without any stress you can relax and enjoy the beautiful Finnish scenery After all that s what we were there for Food The combination of cold tempera tures and the carrying capacity of pulks when touring opens up greater possi bilities for what food can be carried When hiking through the bush in my native Australia water availability is al ways a significant issue But in the snow we don t need to carry any significant amount of water although we do need to carry a reliable stove What s more some prepared food can be brought 62 BACKPACKING LIGHT along in the pulk In the cold condi tions food will stay safely frozen and ready for consumption when needed There s no need for expensive light weight dehydrated meals here Naturally exercise in the cold means higher energy requirements especially if you want to stay warm so high carbo hydrate food is always preferred On our winter trips here we typically carry food items such as Mince cooked as dry as possible and perhaps with some ginger garlic or other favorite spices Dehydrated vegetables like peas corn and beans Mashed potato powder White rice Nuts and dried fruit Chocolate Concentrated berry juice for hot
41. fe from his home in Di jon to Jerusalem some 4 500 kilome ters Although I admired his fantasy peoples dreams and realities seldom meet We managed to stay in touch over the next five years as I continued to walk historic long distance trails in cluding the St Olav s Way across Nor way and the 1 100 mile Via Francigena from Canterbury England to Rome My wife and I even managed to trek the Camino together again in 2005 Imagine my surprise one morning when out of the blue I heard from ol mile wife is unable to trek to Je rusalem as we d planned Would you like to come along It certainly took me by surprise but what could I say other than Of course It was already December and he planned to leave in April Although I of fered my assistance he d already chosen the route and rough stages along the On their quest from France to Jerusalem Brandon and mile planned to follow the route of the First Crusades and those who were to later become the first Knights Templar Map by Brandon Wilson ATLANTIC OCEAN PILGRIMS TALE 2007 86 BACKPACKING LIGHT MEDITERRANEAN SEM ALONG THE TEMPLAR TRAIL DIJON FRANCE supArdT TO JERUSALEM HUNGARY SYRIA JORDAN www storemags com 4200 kilometer trail as he d been plan ning the journey for six years Our path would loosely follow that of the old Ro man way that was later trekked by Cru saders pilgrims and Temp
42. ggage nearly maxed out with photo and com puter equipment packing a lightweight trekking kit was essential But hey this is the tropics What more do you need We were to spend the first part of the month on the Big Island Hawaii where most of the trails are concentrated in Ha waii Volcanoes National Park This is the realm of Pele the Hawaiian goddess of fire and the Island s southern landscape is charred from constant eruptions Vast crevasses spew sulphuric gasses and giant calderas sit as open wounds to the earth with molten lava flowing just beneath their blackened scabs Rangers are only too happy to tell terrifying tales of ex pert backcountry travelers who broke through thin rock shelves or stepped into bottomless fumaroles that had been ob scured by vegetation Our plan was to let the Puna Coast Trail lead us out into the vast wasteland of ga lava First we would camp at Halape eleven miles before ex Notes 1 fumarole opening in the Earth s crust 2 aa Hawaiian term for lava flows that have a rough rubbly surface composed of broken lava blocks TROPICAL ULTRA LIGHT 73 www storemags com ploring other approved backcountry sites such as Ka aha and Pepeiao All have rain catchment systems that provide the only drinkable water on the trail network very important However within a half hour on the trail we were both hacking like a couple of chain smokers Luck would have it t
43. ght it s the stuff that lets you flow through the wilderness as easily as possible and still have fun Ron is still in pursuit of the Triple Crown and is working on finishing the Continental Divide Trail To date he is a lit tle over halfway through hiking it in sections until it is completed For more information on Ron and Six Moon Designs visit sixmoondesigns com For Ron s trail journals visit fallingwater com FACES RON MOAK 15 SON3AL Book Review By Nicole Chilton It s All Too Much By Peter Walsh On the first page of Peter Walsh s how to book Its All Too Much An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff he sums up the theme and reason for the book ina single quote from the movie Fight Club The things you own end up owning you The book that follows presents a clear process of how to reclaim the space in your home and life from clutter Faced with the daunt ing task of getting rid of or organizing all the accumu lation in the closets and boxes of life many folks throw in the towel before they even begin Walsh first tries to establish the 16 BACKPACKING LIGHT relationships people have with their stuff The emo tional attachment to an item and the feeling of need despite lack of use are taken into account before any real organization takes place Walsh recognizes the emotions behind sav ing things and presents an approach that begins gen tly and r
44. gs com Brandon and mile began their 2620 mile journey by tracing the tranquil canals of eastern France Photo by Brandon Wilson a trail together share food and wine around a table an each others lives we realize that our learn more about needs are not all that different Although our cultures and religions vary we all want about the same things for our fam ilies Once you peel away the fear and paranoia it becomes much harder to harbor violence against another So this became my quest to pioneer this path way so that it might ultimately become a trail for peace for others in the future 88 BACKPACKING LIGHT Finally before setting off it was es sential to tweak my gear to make it as lightweight and flexible as possible I chose a lightweight ultra marathon shoe rather than boots more appropri ate for the Appalachian Trail Montrail now part of Columbia supplied water repellent Susitnas for the first rainy months switch after Linz Austria into their Continental Divides with a breathable web top for the sizzling road portions LEKI US donated lightweight www storemags com Nordic poles similar to what they d supplied for my cross Norway hike Then I got a pro deal from GoLite to add some clothing to one of their back packs weighing just twenty two ounc es The rest of my gear was basic I d take a Polarguard vest Capilene shirt and Gore Tex rain shell and pants for layering Pd send the
45. h can also be helpful for route planning 56 BACKPACKING LIGHT It can be very beautiful country which makes for enjoyable ski touring and it s hard to ask for a nicer place to visit We couldn t have had better con ditions for our trip good snowfall and low temperatures combined to give us a winter wonderland of perfect powder snow about knee deep Australians can only dream about this Trip Planning Picking a time for a Finnish trip is important The end of January through February is the coldest time in Fin land and temperatures in the eastern areas can be as low as 35 C to 40 C 31 F to 40 F Remember we re at quite a distance north here and you have much less daylight than in Euro pean locations further to the south which also restricts your travel dis tance For people who may not be used to skiing in these conditions less than 20 or 4 F it should be empha sized that this mal lenging times Both safety and reliable equipment are paramount What may be entirely unexpected for recreational skiers is that in these es for some chal cold conditions there is almost no glide on your skis It is so cold that the snow does not melt with contact from your skis to make them glide With your skis ankle deep in powder it s almost like skiing on a sandy beach Worse the absence of glide means that if you push on too hard in order to cover more distance the low www storemags co
46. hat a change in the winds brought in land the noxious volcanic gasses which are usually blown out to sea These condi tions persisted for the next couple days We spent the second half of No vember on the lush island of Kauai where we fit in a three day trek of the famed Na Pali Coast The eleven mile Kalalau Trail hugs dramatic sea cliffs like ancient scaffolding with some sec tions measuring a mere foot in width Hundreds of feet below waves from the Pacific Ocean crash constantly and bomb bay door style views are available in a couple sections The trail is rugged with many switchbacks and climbs out of the valleys Feral goats and pigs inhabit the dense tropical for ests along this coast giving hikers a couple of surprised traffic jams en route to Kalalau Beach it is a true par adise Camps are set back in the trees just a few feet off the perfect orange sand beach A thin cascade is the water source on the cliff hemming in the beach Though the hike in was very hot by our standards we re from Alas ka we did find plenty of shade and water Weather moved in on our last night with high winds and rain Un prepared at the moment we had to re arrange our small SilTarp just hours 74 BACKPACKING LIGHT before sunrise Things got a little wet but with the morning air sitting at a comfortable seventy degrees it was a minor inconvenience This is the per fect trail for going light www storemags com
47. hed the new Constanti nople mile regrettably decided to re turn home It was his choice and I didn t try to talk him out of it He had given it his best Considering his earlier walk from Dijon to Finisterre he had now walked the width of Europe an impressive accomplishment for a man sixty eight years old As for me after a few days rest I continued alone across the high barren plains of Turkey With the possibility of war spreading to Syria I decided to head directly south to Alanya on the coast steering clear of a new Ebola type virus infecting parts of Anatolia This route also coincided with the Crusader trail to Cyprus and then on to what was once Palestine I was initially uneasy IN THE STEPS OF ROMANS PILGRIMS AND TEMPLARS 93 www storemags com about folks reaction to an American trekking through a Muslim region since our government s policies are strongly criticized throughout the world these days However once we had a chance to talk over cay or sweet tea the Turks were surprisingly hospitable Hardly a day passed that I wasn t taken under someone s wing and welcomed Alanya s television station even insisted on shootingan interview before I caught the quick ferry to northern Cyprus This option B as I called it was never absolutely guaranteed The noto rious Green Line had only recently opened for travelers between the north and south of partitioned Cyprus so I was relieved to cro
48. hem Wet feet sooner or later mean cold feet or worse I currently use the Nokian boots with exchangeable felt liners although there are many other brands which are also suited to era skiing They look a bit like farmyard gum boots but the sole is tougher where the toe mounts to the ski for a start Most everyone here uses them and perhaps they are all that s needed Since these are higher than ordi nary hiking boots it s unlikely you ll get any snow inside them The common ar rangement usually has your waterproof shell pants outside the boots as well With the changeable felt liners you can put on warm dry liners when you ve gotten into camp Swapping them often and drying them in the hut means you can keep your feet warm and dry I also found that putting the felt liners over my woolen socks meant it was not such a shock to the system to put on cold boots in the mornings By the way wool is the key word here not cotton I shouldn t need to say this but if you re going back ER SKIING 67 www storemags com country skiing in winter in Finland do not wear anything made of cotton My skis are older wooden skis of some 1970s vintage used without skins The wooden skis are a little heavier than the modern plastic base forest skis but I personally prefer them for this kind of work as I find they give a better grip than the plastic surfaced skis do with out skins and at the same time they have a
49. i in as you do around camp Also it s almost impossi ble to have them become inoperable due to clogging with snow which can hap pen with other bindings Two of my partners were using Finn ish Jarvinen brand skis with plastic ver sions of the same ski side binding as mine On the other hand Lari the Hi Tek fella in the group was wearing Asnes Combi Combat Cap skis with Kortfell nylon skins when towing the sled with Rotefella Riva III bindings and Garmont Excursion boots with the G fit liners While not water tight they do keep your feet well protected from the cold Having a team with fewer sleds than people means that someone can lead who isn t towing sled As well as picking the better paths being able to back up more eas ily this also helps to pack the snow for the ones pulling the sleds However with the shorter narrower snes skis Lari was still sinking into the snow in some areas and he needed skins to get enough grip to tow a pulk Anita who was using the Finnish for est type skis seemed to manage pulling the sled fine with no skins on her skis A Canadian friend of mine has commented that in their conditions the rubber boots are easily torn As it happens I m waiting to field test some www storemags com Winter is the best time to visit the wetlands of Finland no mosquitoes new Asolo backcountry boots that take the New Nordic Norm Bindings These boots have a ski mounting and binding
50. ibi made from this fabric may work as well though we d want to test one for a sum mer to see GoLite has shared some prototypes of their larger packs with us and we continue to get them into the field to see how they will hold up Students do not rent group gear such as tents or cook sets So far lighter shel ters have held up to our use Backpacks have held up well too though as we go lighter durability may decrease We al ready sell lightweight wind shirts and rain jackets with good results PLAYS ROUGH WITH OTHERS People often wonder why gear gets thrashed on a NOLS course We don t have a definitive answer but here are some thoughts Many items are rented unfortu nately some students and staff take better care of things they own than things they rent We need to do a better job of teaching care for the equipment Lightweight courses provide an excel lent opportunity for this because if we don t take care of what we have we quickly do not have what we need to be comfortable Most NOLS students have never been camping before Ultimately part of the model of experiential education involves students making some small mistakes and learning from them Stu dents often have no idea what to expect from the gear and come from a culture that encourages us to throw things away and buy new It is common for them to begin courses with this philosophy We are out there for a LONG time There is at least one sl
51. ign con SPOT GEAR REVIEW 37 www storemags com sists of a few flashes of the LEDs In many situations it s not feasible to sit and focus on the SPOT LEDs for up to twenty min utes to find out what the SPOT is doing if it has a GPS fix and if a message was sent Look away briefly and you might miss an important LED flash Was a mes sage sent or not If it was sent what type of message What mode is the SPOT in This may not be the best design for an emergency safety system John Dark of SPOT told us that other users have reported inadvertently activat ing OK when they intended to activate Tracking SPOT intends to re write the manual to look for a solid LED light indi cation that Tracking has been activated rather than waiting a potentially ambigu ous five seconds This rewrite will still not change the same status flash sequence that OK and Tracking modes share Enhanced SPOT Display All our Testers noted that the SPOT unit had the current GPS coordinates in side but could not display them Many problem situations are little more than Where are we Displaying your position on the SPOT unit could possibly eliminate the need to carry a separate GPS unit As noted earlier the four LEDs convey very little information about the operation of the SPOT unit Many times we wished for an improved display for feedback on the current SPOT mode the quality of the GPS fix and number of attempted mes sage deliveries e
52. ing the firewood supply much easier to maintain As I mentioned previously in addi tion to the cabins along the route there are also some simple lean to shelters These are actually more common and are comprised of a simple floor to keep you off the ground a sloping roof to keep the snow off you and two walls to block some of the wind Such bus stop shelters are found in other coun tries around the world 64 BACKPACKING LIGHT One of these lean to shelters is just about all you need if you have the right clothes and sleeping bag Unlike the cab ins which you can warm up ten or more degrees easily you really need a good warm sleeping bag and a high density foam mat to insulate you from the ground or floor in these shelters The two bags that you see in the photo of the shelter are Joutsen 2000 EXT models which are rated to better than 15 C 35 C at the extreme or 5 F to 31 F weigh about two kilograms each and cost about US 800 each ouch There are actually persons in these sleeping bags but you can t see anyone s head as they re totally covered with only a small opening for their mouth www storemags com CAUTION Unlike a summer trip to California Australia you don t just head out in this country in the winter without some serious planning and the right gear The area described is around 62 latitude similar to Anchorage Alaska The temper ature can easily drop by 20 C
53. inted in warm jewel tones such as this section of the Paria Narrows just as the sun climbs high enough to make the sandstone in the distant bend glow The foreground is still dull and dark in late morning shadow After a few days of canyoneering you become a connoisseur ofthe subtle and sometimes dramatic interactions between sun and slickrock A Canyoneering Photo Essay from the Escalante River Canyon what barren landscapes of the high al pine mountains and slickrock desert canyons Are we looking for simplifica tion Otherness Why do we find these regions so beautiful I may never find answers to these questions I do know that the canyons of southern Utah are a spiritual center for me A cathedral like grotto at the end of a secluded side canyon reddish light filtering down from the top of a deep slot a cold dip in a spring fed pot hole under a blazing desert sun Anasazi rock art and dwellings looking down from that perfect campsite perched pre cariously high on the canyon rim each is deeply satisfying For me the ideal canyoneering trip is a combination of time on the canyon bottom and time on the rim and mesa above the canyon Canyoneering chal lenges my navigation and technical skills Routes in and out of canyons are rare and frequently difficult to find Bushwhacking through dense willows tamarisk and poison ivy can make progress slow and tedious Un rope climbs on steep slickrock make my heart race and p
54. k lachian Pacific FACES RON MOAK 13 out the seats added some basic furnishings and af ter driving 3 000 miles across the United States to arrive in Corvallis Or egon they used the bus as their home until they were able to get an apart ment a month later The thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail would ability to make his gear was both a money saving endeavor as well as a way to create the lightweight gear that he wanted After college Ron went into computer soft ware design and while the work was good it wasn t Ron s passion It s a great industry but it s troduction to the AT Both Ron and Linda kept of their hikes eventually posting them website diaries to their fallingwater com Their trail journals were among the first to ever be pub lished on the internet and are still available today By 2000 Ron was The ability to make his gear was both a money saving endeavor as well as a way to create the lightweight gear that he wanted be years away Ron began classes at Oregon State University while Linda took on a full time job Hiking wasn t completely off the table and while Ron was studying forest management he began volunteering with Cor vallis Mountain Rescue Since he was still in col lege and money was scarce he made his own gear with fabric purchased from a store that special ized in performance fab rics that had just opened in Corvallis The shop Rainshed Inc was o
55. kpackinglight com cgi bin backpackinglight quick_healthy_meals_ with_an_ultralight_cook_kit html 2007 01 10 Association for Experiential Education About Experiential Education What is Experiential Education Association for Experiential Education February 12 2008 http www aee org customer pages php pageid 47 Leave No Trace Center For Outdoor Ethics About us History February 12 2008 http www Int org aboutUs history php READY WILLING amp ABLE 29 www storemags com Review SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker Does this highly anticipated technological breakthrough live uptothe hype By Alan Dixon amp Roger Caffin The SPOT unit has the potential to be a breakthrough in backcountry safety It s lighter more compact and less ex pensive than Personal Locator Beacons PLBs which can only transmit a dis tress signal to emergency services It s lighter and less expensive than a satellite phone and has more coverage than a cell phone The SPOT also has a Tracking breadcrumb mode which automati cally sends your location every ten min utes Unlike PLBs or even most cell or satellite phones the SPOT unit can transmit your exact location plus one of several messages Tm here and OK I need help Call 911 and rescue me Several of our testers believe that a de vice like the SPOT unit would alleviate their family s worrying back home mak ing it easier for them t
56. lars on their way to Jerusalem It would take us across two continents and twelve countries Then as now the trail was fraught with uncertainties We might not have to face wolves roadside bandits brigands and Moors but we had our own challenges A thousand years ago people often traveled together for safety and support Escorting pilgrims safely to Jerusalem was one of the original duties of the Knights Templar However we would be on our own un supported for up to seven months Next there were the packing chal lenges How could I carry fifteen pounds and still be prepared for tem peratures ranging from near freezing in Germany to brutal one hundred degree days in Turkey s Anatolia Since we were traveling light we d walk without a tent and would rely on find ing safe affordable accommodation every night At times given the dis tance between villages this might force us to walk nearly sixty kilometers a day in Turkey Plus on a modest per egrino pilgrim budget of just thirty dollars each per day We d have to hone our negotiating skills and rely on the kindness of strangers Then of course there were the lan guage challenges We could do well in English French and a smattering of German but what about Serbian Bul garian Turkish Arabic Although the first part of our way would follow the bicycle path along the Danube River after reaching Budapest we d be on our own to find other trails or small r
57. ly raise questions of other gear There are three broader questions that we see here What is the lightest gear that will work for NOLS courses We think that the materials that we are currently using work well We may even be able to go lighter We have had great success with gear from GoLite and MontBell We watched students in the GoLite Wisp pant scoot down rough granite in the Galiuro Mountains of Arizona only to get to the ground and bushwhack through cat s claw and manzanita The pants came out virtually unscathed What is the lightest weight that will work for standard traditional month long NOLS student Zach Yocum enjoys the ability to scramble out of a boulder choked canyon with his light weight kit Galiuro Mountains Arizona Photo by Ryan Hutchins Cabibi courses We are not as sure about this yet We are not yet convinced that the lightweight gear available now has the durability IF it is used in a tra backpacking set up This is based on trials from a few instructors in the field this summer who tried to go less heavy on traditional courses by mixing tradi tional group gear with lightweight per sonal gear At NOLS Southwest we have had good results renting lighter gear to students We are currently rent ing the MontBell Thermawrap jacket as a mid layer with excellent results The 15 denier Ballistic Airlight fabric is re markably durable and we have seen lit tle notable loss of loft after
58. m Koivusio Region temperature makes breathing uncom fortable You might just get frost nib ble on the tip of your tongue when hard going is called for and that s not enjoyable These conditions trans late to a need to adjust your plan to suit the conditions You should expect to cover less time day than you might be used to under milder conditions Even with the right SKIING 57 www storemags com Tucked neatly into a sled gear is quickly available and leaves no weight on your back gear experienced skiers in this area don t expect to cover more than fifteen kilo meters per day on even terrain when it s below 10 C 14 F The terrain may be flat but that does not mean it s fast Clothing and Sweating Another aspect of gear worth knowing about is clothing Its a different climate here compared to sunny Queensland in Austra lia and it s made me rethink some previ ously held beliefs Proper clothing is really an important safety item and is absolutely essential in this kind of trekking It s much easier to stay warm than it is to get warm Temperatures can vary from as warm as 5 to as cold as 40 C 23 F to 58 BACKPACKING LIGHT 40 F so you need to plan to have a range of clothes and good equipment to keep yourself warm and safe depending on what conditions you find Yes this means you have to carry a wider range of clothing than you might expect
59. n t en tirely certain where the company would go You never know what you re getting yourself into said Ron but you start the ball rolling and hope you can hold on Their first product the Europa tent was a massive un der seller according to Ron Their second prod uct a lightweight back pack went the way of the tent and became an un derwhelming Ron kept trying A friend of mine told me to make sure the first two products you have are di sasters And if you still success want to keep going after that then you probably have a chance of compet ing said Ron Today Brandon works alongside Ron in their Portland Oregon based office Their products include a variety of light weight tents and back packs all of which are designed and produced in the United States They ve evolved over the years working to change their designs based on the feedback from con sumers The Ron s company which is also his lightweight phi losophy has remained Gear should be like oil in a car It should lubricate the experience said Ron If youre grinding away you re going to be miserable so you need something in core of true www storemags com Six Moon Designs Lunar Solo 23 Ounce Tent LIGHTIT DE Mean Solo Shi there to smooth things out To me that s what gear is for Whether it s your clothes or your stuff for camp at ni
60. nd what the layperson may ever put gear through While we hope that all this benefits the community of light weight backpackers we also hope to provide valuable real world testing at minimal expense to manufacturers helping companies figure out what gear works best in both durability and func tionality over large numbers of user days All this can lead to better gear for everyone NOLS has a long history of Leave No Trace education and as a founding member and the prime developer of the LNT curriculum we are well posi tioned to share more of this valuable 28 BACKPACKING LIGHT skill set with the lightweight world Al most two years ago NOLSies even taught GoLite athlete Andrew Skurka the proper techniques for human waste disposal in the backcountry We are excited to get people started with lightweight backpacking from the start of their backpacking experience Overwhelmingly stand that this is a style of travel that students are more likely to use on their own after their NOLS course and if we increase the number of advocates for instructors under backcountry wilderness travel we in crease the collective voice available to protect these beautiful places Lighter packs are just a comfortable side effect The part that is the most exciting for us is the extended expedition possibili ties that are available using lightweight techniques the ability to travel for two weeks or more unsupported in remote
61. ne of the first in the country where one could find per formance fabrics meant for outdoor sports The 14 BACKPACKING LIGHT one of those where you have to reinvent yourself every six months said Ron In 1995 Ron was diagnosed with cancer and spent three months undergoing chemothera It gave me a wake up call he said Life s too short to give up all of one s dreams After Ron had made a full recovery he and Linda and their son Brandon decided to go for a 700 mile section hike of the Appalachian Trail For Ron and Lin da it was a twenty year anniversary of their first hike of the AT For Bran don who was only thir teen years old at the time the hike was his first in once again in pursuit of the Triple Crown For the Pacific Crest Trail he left from the Mexico U S border in April Ron made most of his gear including a tarp tent and the first pack he would use on the He alone though Brandon trail started out eventually joined him for 1 200 miles of the 2 000 mile trip It was a long hike that was difficult at times but when it was over Ron had an idea for a new life for himself When he re turned to Oregon he be gan laying the ground work for a lightweight gear company and in www storemags com 2002 he launched Six Moon Designs The name inspired by the length of time it takes to complete a long thru hike reflected Ron s own history and ambitions However he was
62. o planning for the entire AT quickly became an educational experience Ron turned to books about the Trail for infor mation maps and tips about how to successfully complete it They read up on thru hikers who had walked the Trail using new lightweight or mini malist techniques Ron was fascinated with thru hikers like Grandma Gatewood and how she not only Emma in their need to make their own gear Ron turned to catalogs to see what was available and used that gear as a model not as a precedent for what they would need The lack of guidance from a salesperson left Ron to include only the basics then begin sub tracting the weight from there They kept their clothing minimal down sized their maps and cut out the items that they could either improvise or do without but more than anything they sim ply avoided the extras You buy the basics and then buy a whole lot of www storemags com just 132 days they com pleted the Trail at its ter minus in Georgia After completing the AT Ron and Linda had planned to hike the Pa cific Crest Trail PCT as well Ron had decided to go for the Triple Crown which includes the Appa Crest and Continental Divide Trails However instead of heading out on that journey they made the decision to move to the West Coast so that Ron could finish school After getting off the AT they spent a month renovating an old school bus for their drive out west They too
63. o break routine only to find that you ve re placed old routines with new ones be fore you know it After spending a night in a local privat zimmer or guest house we d have a hearty Bavarian fast then head back to the trail by 6 30 or 7 00 am We d stop to warm up at 10 00 and stop again for lunch at noon Averaging between four and five kilometers an hour we d try to arrive in a village large enough to have accom modations by 2 00 pm We were more successful on some days than others Although the canals took us through some beautiful areas we were relieved to finally arrive in Donaueschingen Ger many the source of the Danube River The Donauradweg or Danube bicycle path is an enviable example of what countries can do to promote fitness and outdoor sports Well maintained most ly flat and well marked it spans a total of 1 367 kilometers along the Danube Valley through four countries all the way to Budapest Even though I d brought a Cicerone guide to the trail we also bought local cyclist guides helpful especially for finding villages with zimmer frei or private rooms Fortunately for as busy as it might have been we were alone on the trail most brea IN THE STEPS OF ROMANS PILGRIMS AND TEMPLARS 89 www storemags com of the time Cyclists inline skaters and joggers were sensibly inside out of the frigid rain We continued to walk unde terred six to eight hours each day slogging through
64. o get permission to go on backcountry trips This is especially true for solo walkers or people who pursue dangerous endeavors like technical moun taineering in areas beyond cell phone cov However Backpacking Light makes no formal recommendations about erage what safety equipment any outdoor en thusiast should carry 30 BACKPACKING LIGHT On paper the SPOT unit is an inno vative concept for improving backcountry safety In the field it did not deliver vir tually every message as the SPOT unit s literature claims and the unit has usabili ty problems As such we believe it has yet to deliver its promised functionality and message delivery reliably REVIEW OBJECTIVE AND TESTING The SPOT unit manual claims With a perfect view of the entire sky the SPOT network is designed to successfully send virtually every message To investigate the above four Back packing Light reviewers tested two SPOT units for months We tested on two continents more than three and in both northern and southern hemispheres Over the course of our controlled testing and field testing we sent hundreds of messages The SPOT unit uses a very complex system to successfully deliver a message Any single failure in this long multi com ponent multi technology system path re sults in no message delivery Some of the components the Globalstar satellites supporting satellite ground stations the www storemags com Interne
65. oads to avoid ending up as road kill along the trucking trail to the Middle East Speaking of which as usual the region was rife with tension Would we be allowed to walk through Syria a member of my government s proclaimed Axis of Evil I was unable to get a Syrian visa in advance since they were only issued for six months and their Turkish consulate recently stopped providing them to Americans There were all these logistical questions and more Just as important were the physical and mental challenges Could our bodies survive walking a distance equiva lent to crossing North America Could we walk the daily equivalent of a marathon and have the mental stamina to do it again day after day Only time would tell As for me although I liked to explore options in advance learned not to over obsess to the point of talking yourself out of another adventure Besides in Tibet learned that you just have to have faith when you approach an odyssey like this and realize that the universe will provide Personal challenges aside in these times of escalating wars and increased suspicions I chose to trek this trail for an additional reason I wanted it to be a trek for peace along a path once associ ated with war I wanted to talk with others about choosing peaceful meth ods to settle our differences From past experience I knew that once people walk IN THE STEPS OF ROMANS PILGRIMS AND TEMPLARS 87 www storema
66. of discounts on gear that I can t get elsewhere But I am also looking forward to pe rusing all the articles I couldn t read before I first heard of light weight backpacking just 10 months ago when I visited REI in the States for the first time in years and was shocked at packs that weighed just 2 5 pounds Back in Ukraine I began reading online and gradually got the drift of things I made a bunch of pur chases early on that were decent but not truly ul tralight Then in Febru ary I visited the U S again and had a TON of gear mailed for pick up I got Beyond Backpack ing and read it three www storemags com pad and cooked them in their morning oats Protein can be heavy times to try to let as much as possible sink in Back in Ukraine I started taking a bunch of solo hikes and increasing the mileage and drop ping weight I ve gotten down to 7 lbs so far and am now thinking about 1 and 2 lbs hikes in balmy Crimea Now I m heading to Colorado shortly to do my first long distance hike a yo yo through the Colorado Rockies Its always been my dream to experience the Rockies close up now I can do it All my reading and efforts to gain real life experience have made this possible this day I have not yet seen another ultra ight backpacker in real ife In January I aunched a website in Russian for the hitherto for summer and nonexistent UL commu nity in the speaking wo
67. oking skills are a huge piece of what they take home with them We are currently unsure how to maintain that emphasis on lightweight courses Having said that the students on the lightweight this thought we ate very well and were ex cited by the majority of the food and by extra techniques such as baking muf fins The real question we face as we continue to develop this course type Because lightweight cooking is inher ently simpler do we need to try and teach advanced backcountry cooking techniques At this point we are lean ing towards simple dehydrated meals on lightweight courses while we continue to value the advanced backcountry cooking skills students learn on tradi tional courses Right NOLS lightweight courses use simple easily re hydrated foods like pastas couscous polenta and rice with sauces inspired by Mike Clelland More on these dishes can be found in Mike s article Groovy Biotic courses summer now www storemags com Students Merryl Pohl and Josh Varnell chef up some grub using a Caldera Cone Cooking is a huge part of traditional NOLS courses and with a few tweaks we have made it an enjoyable component of lightweight courses as well Photo by Ryan Hutchins Cabibi Cooking Quick Healthy Meals with an Ultralight Cook Kit We are work ing hard to balance flavor nutrition and weight and so far things have worked well There are a few tweaks that could be made particularly in ousting
68. ol Will lighter equipment mean we stay out longer go further each day or both We think it will mean that we go further each day and will be able do more on lay over rest days as well as enabling us to stay out longer This will be location and activity dependent At the very least it will mean we go more miles per day due to our ability to travel longer on any Instructor Scott Christy shows just how light it really is at the end of a thirteen day lightweight course Galiuro Mountains Arizona Photo by Ryan Hutchins Cabibi oremags com given day We have also found that it means we are able to travel during the day and still have energy to do classes we are a school after all or to do some cool ex ploring like dropping into a nearby can yon that looks interesting Course lengths are determined by much more than pack weight but there are some neat opportunities for the fu ture of lightweight backpacking at NOLS People are already talking about thirty day lightweight courses unsup ported two week courses and even lon ger unsupported courses We ll see where it goes but lightweight packing is here to stay Our expedition based history pro vides us with an opportunity to share the lightweight skills and techniques neces sary for leading and participating in lon ger duration expeditions It is undeniable that the intro duction of lightweight backpacking has had great effect on NOLS as a school The lightweight c
69. ommittee only a solitary peace pilgrim entering a city held sacred by three major religions a trekker grate ful to all those who helped him realize another impossible dream If anything was accomplished be yond personal fulfillment I only hope that I planted some seeds along the trail Perhaps they will take root and this will someday become a true international path for peace that all may walk light in brotherhood Ready to join me Along the Templar Trail by Brandon Wilson is available FR at your favorite bookstore or online bookseller www storemags com BACKPACKINGLIGHT BackpackingLight com BACKPACKINGLIGHT COM Join BackpackingLight com to learn real time about the latest trends techniques gear and philosophy of light weight backpacking and backcountry travel or to shop our store for some of the most innovative ultralight gear on the planet Join Now at ESTRES There is something to be said about falling asleep wearing your pack and your favorite hat on a well worn trail after a long day of walking Chase Jordan age ten refines technique on the South Fork Spanish Creek Trail Lee Metcalf Wilderness Montana June 2008 Photo by Ryan Jordan Sigma DP f 4 5 1 305 www storemags com The National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS is the premier teacher of outdoor skills and leadership offering courses in the world s most spec tacular wilderness classrooms Join us on a
70. on rim i but thre E e Spending quiet time with ancient Anasazi art get an eerie tingle as look at handprints and art placed there by a fellow human over 1 000 years ago wonder what they were like what they were thinking and what these drawings signified to them Looking at this art feel a strange human connectedness by our shared spiritual awe in the canyons FACING Perfect light Brilliant oranges and reds from sunlight filtering into a slot canyon For narrow slot canyons the magic hour for photography is not early morning or late evening but is typically close to high noon with the sun directly over the canyon Only then does the light penetrate causing the sand stone to come alive and glow 48 BACKPACKING LIGHT www storemags com A cliff dwelling with 1 000 year old green paint still on its walls Not surprisingly it s called Green House wonder if other ruins less shielded from the sun and elements might also have had colorful decorations on their walls FACING Squeezing up a tight chimney in a slot canyon exit to the mesa Routes in and out of canyons are infrequent and many times challenging On some trips my wife and 1 carry a rope harnesses and a minimal set of climbing gear My wife gets a belay and we haul or lower the packs with the rope get to up climb or down climb free since there is usually no way to put protection in on the slickrock On
71. ourses have brought new students who may not have consid ered a NOLS education in the past We are seeing lighter weight gear being used on more traditional courses along with initiatives to lower pack weights around the school Instructors are looking close ly at how many resources they use to teach in the field and how they can maintain the high educational outcomes by either reducing and minimizing teach ing materials or committing curriculum to memory This in turn is leading to more interactive and innovative classes We are able to teach the important gear choices needed for lightweight courses in the context of situational judgment enhancing the teaching of judgment and decision making core leadership skills at NOLS By forcing students and staff to look at all the avail able data objective weight climate and route data at the beginning of a course we are able to continue to develop deci sion making skills reflecting upon our previous choices for the rest of the course This has returned backpacking at NOLS to a skills type course instead of a one system fits all activity We can now focus on the camp and travel skill set of a standard course while also em phasizing judgment and decision mak ing in all aspects of the course not just classic risk management As backpacking is further simplified as many would argue it should be many longtime field instructors are now excited to head back into the mountain
72. pared to some pulks you might have seen in other places the ones com mon in this area are quite lightweight Ours was a homemade copy of the style used by the company Fjellpulken Weigh ing only five kilograms and measuring 120 by 43 centimeters they really are lightweight compared to what the woods men used years ago By way of compari son my old Karrimor pack weighs four 66 BACKPACKING LIGHT kilograms empty The modern pulk is not much more than a thin base with a water proof cloth covering and some poles yet it can help you to carry 50 kilograms or up to 180 liters of gear with little effort Skis and Boots If you ve skied a bit in other coun tries you might find that you ve got gear that is not suitable to the climate or the snow conditions found here in Finland The snow is not hard driven against the sides of the mountains so it is often quite soft You might find yourself sinking ten or twenty centimeters with each step making the choice of skis boots and bindings a little different www storemags com Common Nokian ski boots felt liners and cable bindings Starting with boots there are a num ber of choices here for er skiing Rubber boots Telemark style boots Hiking style boots What type of boot you choose will depend on the ski and bindings you have as well as what you like Whatever you choose should have the ability to use felt boot liners to allow you to change them out and dry t
73. particular expedition however it is more challenging than just making different decisions on a personal trip We have a risk manage ment director and parents with specific concerns We came up with some neat ideas for ways that manufacturers could 22 BACKPACKING LIGHT We have used this Golite Hut 1 two lightweight courses with great success Two instructors can cram into this 1 person shelter to save some weight given the necessity of carrying course paperwork and other institutional materials Stu dents have been using GoLite Hut 2 or Black Diamond Mega lite shelters Photo by Ryan Hutchins Cabibi design and build shelters that would meet our needs and reduce weights sig nificantly on the Southwest training trip last spring So far we haven t seen these ideas implemented and unfortu nately we are not yet in a position to make them happen on our own Ulti mately we are moving towards lighter weight shelters already Black Diamond Mega Lights are replacing Mega Mids Kivas and Dana Designs Nuk Tuks are generally on their way out and we are looking for the next best thing that will work Silnylon shelters in general hold up surprisingly well The challenge is the less durable bug netting In envi ronments without significant bugs NOLS has a long tradition of using floorless shelters so that will continue with a few exceptions www storemags com The discussion of lighter weight shelters will quick
74. r hand un numbing your fingers instead of fiddling around with a cantankerous liquid fuel stove you ll likely not be complaining that it was packed in the pulk The thing about carrying a pack on skis is that balance is much harder and the risk of falling is higher There s a lot of weight up high when you try to put it all www storemags com Towing a pulk is much easier than carrying a pack in these conditions in a pack It can be done but it s hard If you haven t been ski touring much and fallen over much you won t really appreciate just how hard it is to get out from underneath a twenty five kilo gram pack when you re facedown in a snow bank that s about meter deep with both arms perhaps still in the straps of your ski poles It does provide some good entertainment for the group who after some time may stop laughing and help you get your skis off your feet and upright again Maybe I recom mend you try this at home sometime rather than flailing around face first in the snow when it s 20 C 4 F though I ve found there s nothing quite like learning by doing In our group of four people we had two pulks although Mikko was carry ing his gear in a backpack which al lowed us to divide our gear and take ER SKIING 61 www storemags com Cooking dinner on a table in a simple log cabin shelter turns pulling There was no need for Mikko to take a backpack he just felt like it O
75. ransmit Lack of GPS reception is one possible contributor for the OK and Tracking modes to have lower successful message delivery rates than Help messag es which do not require a GPS fix One of our recommendations for im proving the SPOT unit is to use two ded icated antennas one optimized for receiv ing GPS signals and another for transmitting messages Obtaining a GPS Fix We found that the SPOT unit could not match the GPS reception performance of the best current generation handheld GPS units Heavy tree cover and other ob structions that limit sky view challenge most GPS units but recent high sensitivity GPS chipsets have decreased this problem see how the SPOT unit did with limited sky view we tested GPS perfor mance under an overhang with two Garmin GPS units and the SPOT unit At two positions the SPOT unit failed to get a GPS fix while the latest version of the Garmin H series GPS acquired a fix in both positions An early generation technology Garmin unit was comparable in performance to the SPOT unit www storemags com We also field tested the SPOT unit under heavy tree cover In this case a sub stantially older technology Garmin unit appeared to outperform the SPOT unit Note that this was comparing GPS track points to the SPOT unit s delivered mes sages so this is not an exact comparison The SPOT instructions recommend using the SPOT unit horizontally face up We found that tilting
76. response was warm IN THE STEPS OF ROMANS PILGRIMS AND TEMPLARS 91 www storemags com The Templar Trail is rife with beauty history and culture such as that experienced at this ancient Temple to Zeus in Aizanoi Turkey Photo by Brandon Wilson and often emotional as they ve suffered from wars for centuries Not surprisingly we were asked to do newspaper or televi sion interviews in the larger cities reach ing millions with a mess Upon reaching Belgrade it was an ironic shock to learn that Israel and Leba e of peace non were again bombing each other Some news pundits speculated that it was thebeginning of World War III Although 92 BACKPACKING LIGHT www sto we promised to re evaluate our route when we reached Istanbul for me the writing was already on the wall To risk it all and walk through a war zone seemed reckless even for me It ran contrary to my belief that adventurers take extra time to make good plans and smart decisions so they can live to tell the tale right By the time we reached Bulgaria the sweltering weather and fatigue were gs com Jerusalem a place held sacred by three religions remains a troubled city living in fear and on borrowed time Photo by Brandon Wilson clearly taking their toll on mile He was ready to stop by noon was dehy drating and becoming more disorient ed Yet I knew the hardest part of the journey remained crossing Turkey By the time we reac
77. right gear for locations Matt Hage works as a magazine and commercial photog rapher based in Anchorage Alaska Growing up in Fair banks has given him a soft spot for forty below He is the veteran of a half dozen Denali expeditions and has produced a photography book documenting the people and places along the Yukon River Brandon Wilson is an expert light trekker and member of the prestigious Explorers Club who has walked the 2 620 mile Templar trail from France to Jerusalem the Camino de Santiago and Via de la Plata across Spain and Norway s St Olavs Way He and his wife were the first Western couple to trek the 1 000 kilometer trail from Lhasa to Kathmandu and he was the first American to trek the Via Francigena from England to Rome Wilson is the award winning author photographer of Yak Butter Blues and Dead Men Don t Leave Tips Adventures X Africa His book Along the Templar Trail with maps gear lists distances stages and photos from this Templar Trail trek was recent ly published and is available your favorite bookstore Inter net booksellers or pilgrimstales com www storemags com 530H23 WNYIO4 Editor s Note At Backpacking Light reader feedback and input is a huge part of what we do We ve picked a few posts that got our readers talking and reprinted them here To join the discussion or to read more about what readers had to say about these subjects visit the Forums section at backpackinglight com forums
78. rizontally on the top of a back pack hip mounted it as che SPOT Manu al suggests or held the unit in front of them Each went for a one hour or longer walk in Tracking mode In two cases no messages were successfully delivered dur ing the entire walk In another a single message was received in the entire hour Careful inspection of the coordinates showed it had been transmitted when the walker stopped at a known location to SPOT GEAR REVIEW 33 www storemags com re lace a shoe In several cases the SPOT unit was placed face up on a rock under a clear sky for some time immediately after the walker returned home and in each case most of the messages from this sta tionary position were received Two possible contributors to undeliv ered messages would be reduced GPS per formance due to movement of the SPOT unit or limited sky view for the SPOT unit when it was close to the hiker s body the body blocks sky view From our test ing on a moving kayak which had higher message transmission rates than walking it is probable that close proximity to the hiker s body is the greater contributor but we cannot completely rule out movement as a secondary contributor There may even be other factors at play to prevent message delivery We asked John Dark of SPOT about our undelivered Tracking messages He said that other users had reported unde livered Tracking messages as well For best use of Tracking mode he suggested
79. rld and it has garnered a lot of inter est I want to give back some of what I have learned Russian and find new friends and contacts at the same time Anyways I just wanted to say thanks to this FORUM ECHOES 9 community and to the folks who created it On Contrail Ilive in the Mo jave Desert and find the TarpTent Contrail a great tent with lots of room for one plus gear or a dog and excel lent ventilation The Contrail is fast to pitch and great shelter in a downpour or an all day drizzle ONE CAVEAT take a light plastic floor shaped ground cloth when camping with a Tarplent on sandy ground Don t ask me how I know Tarps usually require trees or several poles to erect and take more time than most tents to set up A bivy and a tarp is a heavy combo A tarp and a mosquito net are not as good as a TarpTent The that double wall tent only problem will partially solve is a dust storm because of the fly and wall coverage How many times will you be in a dust storm In a true full on Sirocco or sandstorm nothing short of a vehicle will keep out the sand P S I almost forgot TarpTents are great at keeping out the creepy crawlies like scorpions spiders and snakes OH MY Eric Blumensaadt June 11 2008 On Trail Days in Damascus The Damascus VA Trail Days was last weekend It is timed to hit the majority of AT thru hikers although many of them hitch
80. rning that many of these techniques are applicable on a standard NOLS course if there is such a thing BACKCOUNTRY COOKING NOLS instructors are often asked how NOLS and lightweight backpacking will mesh Much of the online discus sion has been an exploration of what might work and what may not Non NOLSies NOLSies folks at NOLS often have questions about food and why it is so important on a course It is much more interesting to ask what foods of the lightweight variety will work at NOLS and what is inconsistent with NOLS dining culture We have had great success by changing some of our staple starches to versions that cook faster or re hydrate in hot water as well as simply considering taking foods with a greater calorie to weight ratio The food that has seemed the most far fetched when discussed with field staff is crushed Pringles though this one is growing on us as we wrestle with the 20 BACKPACKING LIGHT concept of weight to calorie ratio Plus we like Pringles We believe NOLS in structors just can t fathom eating the same thing over and over in the field If you are working fifteen to thirty weeks a year in the field variety becomes the spice of life Most senior staff members are moving towards organic whole foods and I think the concept of Pring les was a bit of a shock The bigger issue is that we eat so well on NOLS courses pizzas calzones etc that when students complete their course co
81. s and or skeptical individual there are video tours on the website that show it is quite possible not only to function but also to enjoy the smaller simpler life Jay does not disclose where the tiny homes are located to protect the privacy of their owners but he is happy to give understandably short tours of his home once a month 40 BACKPACKING LIGHT www storemags com ns ll ke Nt ho TINY HOMES 41 www storemags com Slickrock By Alan Dixon For most of my life backpacking was synonymous with the alpine terrain of western mountains the Sierras and Rockies the higher the elevation the better One spring about ten years ago I got a trail itch something awful I couldn t wait for the mountain snows to melt and a friend suggested canyoneer ing That May I took my first cany oneering trip in southern Utah Since then I ve spent more time in the canyons of the southwest than in the mountains For me canyoneering is mountain climbing as a reverse image Rather than striving for the highest point to look down you are in the bot tom of a canyon with the world above you It is a more intimate and envelop ing way of viewing your surroundings Some spiritual questions I ask my self Why do we strive to get either above or below our normal mode of ex istence Why are we drawn to the some There s always some awe inspiring payoff around the next bend in the canyon fre quently pa
82. s on per sonal trips with the freedoms afforded by lightweight systems We believe this may be one of the most important in fluences that the lightweight world can have on NOLS It can help us to enjoy the wilderness beyond it being our workplace reminding many of us that we came to the field of outdoor educa tion to enjoy these places and share that enjoyment with others While NOLS as a community has long been passionate about both its work and play backpack ing can again be embraced in the cate gory of play with the simplicity com fort and even excitement lightweight backpacking returns to the pursuit READY WILLING amp ABLE 27 www storemags com IT S ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS Though this lightweight revolution has impacted NOLS it isn t just about our school Without the support of Back packing Light Ryan Jordan in particu lar and Demetri Coupounas at GoLite we wouldn t be where we are today and we value the relationships that we ve built within the lightweight communi ty We hope that we can give back to that community in many ways Mike C has been a contributor to Backpacking Light sharing among other techniques the finer points of muffin making with the lightweight community Cumulative years spent traveling and camping in remote wil derness areas gives NOLSies a unique perspective on what works and what doesn t It also allows us to provide real world gear testing data based on actual use beyo
83. se home with my wife after we met in Budapest and switch into hot weather gear shorts and two breathable nylon t shirts I d carry just a sleep sheet Otherwise I d bring a first aid kit designed for possible foot problems a compact digital camera journal synthetic camp towel MagLite compass a concentrated energy drink and a few odds and ends that brought my total pack weight in at about fifteen pounds I d pick up any food and liquid I needed along the way April twenty third arrived all too quickly and after a going away party for us in Dijon we set off Our trek began along the canals of France paths once used by mules pulling barges from vil lage to town Even from the start we hit a reasonably quick pace averaging about thirty kilometers a day Although both experienced walkers mile and I were not exactly joined at the hip and each set our own pace I took the lead until reaching an intersection where I stopped long enough for him to catch up since his gear was best suited for shorter distances on rugged terrain His pack was twice my size and his boots were heavy leather so he worked all that much harder each day to keep up Asanticipated the weather in France and western Germany dogged us with numbing rain then snow through the Black Forest Then more frequent showers had us donning rain gear sev eral times a day keeping us on our toes As always improvisation was key It s ironic You take journeys t
84. sis at http backpackinglight com spot www storemags com BACKPACKINGLIGHT H T IN THE WILD Light in the Wild is a fine art poster print by Monte Dolack that explores the relationship between man and wild evoking a level of engagement resulting from man s sense of place Limited edition signed copies available Adorn your wall at SONAL Tiny Homes By Nicole Chilton Jay Shafer doesn t want a lot of stuff In fact he doesn t even want a lot of room But because small housing units such as Airstream trailers aren t necessarily meant for full time occupancy Jay found that if he wanted to live small he was going to have to design a home and build it himself Since 2000 Shafer has been building and living in tiny homes that are smaller than some American closets He built his first tiny home in 2000 and soon thereafter created the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company to be able to bring his designs to others who also wanted to live smaller The website tumbleweedhouses com became an oasis of small housing in a sea of ever growing floor plans quickly becoming a popular and attractive alternative to the American way of housing The first tiny home Jay tried was an Airstream trailer in Iowa but the lack of winteriza tion on the trailer made for a fairly cold and uncomfortable environment His next home a much more permanent dwelling was made with careful craftsmanship outfitted with closets and clever storage spa
85. some trips we forgo the climbing gear and just wing it on Class IV and V sections Photo by Alison Simon SLICKROCK A CANYONEERING PHOTO ESSAY FROM THE ESCALANTE RIVER CANYON 5 www storemags com The mother of all potholes and a superb slickrock camp After a hot and tedious bush whack up canyon and an unprotected Class V down climb we were rewarded with a refreshing swim at a campsite overlooking this deep pool These large potholes are gouged out of soft sandstone by the force of the waterfall above them In the dry sea son these natural reservoirs are one of the few reliable sources of water FACING At this point near the end of Buckskin Gulch one of the more famous slot canyons in Utah the walls of the canyon extend almost 500 feet above you At over thirteen miles long Buckskin is the longest and deepest slot canyon in the southwestern United States and possibly in the world In many places you can stretch out your arms and touch both walls Buckskin Gulch feeds into the equally famous Paria Narrows The combination trip of Buckskin Gulch and Paria Narrows draws an international crowd of canyon aficionados 52 BACKPACKING LIGHT www storemags com ren az 85 E z Er Skiing Cross Country Skiing in Eastern Finland By Chris Eastwood with editorial assistance from Roger Caffin Editor s Note Chris Eastwood the narrator is a native Australian currently living in Finland Roger Caffin is a nati
86. ss without a problem Trekking another three days along country roads through sleepy mountain villages I arrived in Limassol a city once captured by Richard the Lion heart on the island s southern coast Hopping the weekly cargo ship I made the overnight crossing to the recently shelled port of Haifa Israel Fortunately while in Turkey I d learned about the new Israel Nation al Trail transecting the country and had a chance to meet its founder in Haifa Dany was very generous with his time supplying me with topo graphic maps and a list of angels to assist along that final stretch to Jeru salem This path was a welcome change as it took me off road into the rugged hills then along the beach to Tel Aviv and finally southeast toward Jerusalem 94 BACKPACKING LIGHT Although the country was in a state of high alert my hosts were inquisitive and equally generous giving me a rare glimpse at modern Israeli life They were a varied cast of characters from the freewheeling young couple living in their van to the war hardened Army colonel from the chicken farming cou ple to the lady with kids living on a kib butz Once again I discovered that people are similar no matter their coun try culture or religion Finally on September 29 2006 after trekking 160 days over 4 217 kilometers 2 600 miles I entered through cele brated Jaffa Gate into the Old City of Jerusalem There was no fanfare and no welcoming c
87. stem in the world JOIN US Visit www cdtrail org or call 303 838 3760 ALLIANCE www storemags com Cosrixestal Divice Than S35v4 Ron Moak Faces is an ongoing column featuring leaders in the lightweight backpacking industry Ron Moak isn t new to lightweight backpacking When he and his wife Linda first hiked the Ap palachian Trail AT in 1977 they carried packs that weighed only thirty five pounds including ten days worth of food At the time such a low pack weight was practi cally unheard of but the young couple just didn t see the logic in carrying heavy packs that turned an otherwise enjoyable experience in the back country into a spine jar ring schlep through the woods Because there 12 BACKPACKING LIGHT An weren t a lot of gear stores around when they first began hiking let alone lightweight gear in the existing stores found himself making or altering his gear in order to have what he wanted This sort of self reliance and creativity stuck with him carrying through the years and the trails until finally in 2002 he started his own lightweight gear compa ny Six Moon Designs Ron s first backpack ingexperience was a short hike on the AT with two friends while he was still him in high school It was ind of a really bizarre coming of age trip in a lot of ways said Ron There was an older gen tleman who had spent a lot of time backpacking
88. t and e mail or SMS phone mes sage systems are substantially or entirely out of the SPOT unit s control We found at least one instance of a system compo nent downstream of the SPOT unit caus ing message losses in our testing It is also possible that other unexplained long gaps with undelivered messages in our field testing might have been caused by a prob lem with a downstream component Initial glitches in new complex sys tems like the SPOT are the norm not the exception In the future SPOT may or may not fix many of these to signifi cantly improve its performance from when we tested it and or come out with a SPOT unit Version 2 We asked John Dark Senior Marketing Manager for SPOT about improvements and he said that as a publicly traded company SPOT could not commit to specific changes or time frames SPOT s eventual success will be measured by 1 Improvement in message delivery reliability 2 Improvements to the user interface SPOT GEAR REVIEW 31 www storemags com and operation of the unit including the user manual 3 Possible improvements to components downstream in the communication chain that the physical SPOT relies on for successful message delivery As a result of our testing we made a number of recommendations for the current SPOT unit as well as ones for a potential Version 2 of the physical SPOT unit which could bring it closer to the performance and functionality of the manuf
89. t com Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolic ited material Published in the USA Printed in Hong Kong This magazine uses 50 post consumer paper www storemags com Publisher s Message By Ryan Jordan Tve heard people say that Wild Places can be found in the mind and enjoyed well enough in the comforts of civilization That s a very Zen concept And quite absurd Achieving a Zen state of inner peace amongst the turmoil of modern living is one thing Transporting yourself to that place so that every one of your senses is immersed is quite another Zen inner peace provides temporal relief Immersion into a Wild Place provides real healing 0 of Yellowstone Lake en Toute to the rei St spot in the Conti nental United States in July 2008 I left the grid for ten days this July to enjoy a slow walk through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem It took a few days of being immersed in that Wild Place to even understand what my sens es were and to realize the benefits of the slow process of their sensitization to Wild Things The sensitization process went quickly for me this time And I have a motor ized boat to thank for it Our party left the Bridge Bay Marina on Yellowstone Lake s north shore in a twin engine 300hp charter that ferried our packs and bodies across the lake in an hour long boat ride to the lake s Southeast Arm We experience the roar of the engines the smell of
90. tc A more sophisticated LCD text display is the obvious solution to these needs though it would decrease the impressive battery life 38 BACKPACKING LIGHT In the End It s a Personal Decision We neither encourage nor discourage using the SPOT unit No system is 100 reliable in all conditions No piece of equipment is appropriate for all situations On paper the SPOT unit is clearly an in novative backcountry safety product The question remains Does SPOT deliver messages with sufficient reliability not just for a perfect view of the entire sky but with sufficient reliability for condi tions likely to be encountered in the field when backpacking or hiking We are aware that there may be some positive reviews and significant endorse ments for the SPOT We ask the reader to ascertain if these are based solely on un verified SPOT performance claims or whether they provide a body of test data to substantiate those positive opinions In the end it is up to each potential SPOT user to determine their communications needs the level risk they are comfortable with what message delivery reliability they deem acceptable and under what conditions they expect to transmit messages We hope that our readers will use all available information this review other publication s reviews SPOT s literature and any other materials to make their best decision Read the complete review and technical analy
91. the SPOT unit sideways significantly reduced GPS per formance When the SPOT unit is stuffed into a pack some degree of tilt is almost inevitable though we found that tilt of less than forty five degrees would not sig nificantly affect GPS performance From our testing we also found that the ninety degree angle from horizontal created by hanging the SPOT from its belt clip re duced successful message transmission rates in Tracking mode Nearby cliffs and boulders can cause reflections of the signals transmitted from the GPS satellite which can make the ap parent position to be in error by a kilome ter or more we experienced this with a nearby cliff in one field test However it seems the SPOT unit is more prone to problems here than some other GPS units such as a Garmin H series unit Tracking Mode When Backpack ing or Hiking We found Tracking mode when back packing or hiking had low message deliv ery rates Antenna design and GPS per formance may be factors since Tracking messages are not transmitted without a GPS fix It is difficult to mount or hold the SPOT unit in a way that your body Field testing the SPOT in Australia especially torso doesn t block a good portion of the sky view Block some sky view and you affect GPS reception Four of our testers evaluated success ful message delivery rates while walking with the SPOT in Tracking mode They typically put the SPOT face up in a fanny pack or ho
92. three months itional of almost continuous use To really de termine what will work on traditional courses will take time testing and surely some failures One challenge is that when a lightweight piece of gear has a blowout it is easy to blame it on the fact that the gear is lightweight In fact a heavier piece of gear may have seen the same issue zipper failure is a great example of this What will be accepted by NOLS This is the hardest question NOLS will work with vendors that are easy to work with deliver on time and provide good 24 BACKPACKING LIGHT service If gear from a company blows out all the time it won t be accepted With student issued personal gear we need to at least get our purchase price back through rental So a 100 item if rented at 30 for thirty days needs to last about 3 3 courses Will lightweight gear that is currently available do this We don t think we know yet though we are learning a lot The Dyneema gridstop fabric used by GoLite in the Jam2 pack seems plenty durable for what these packs see Larger packs www storemags com Instructor Scott Christy takes in the views on the 2007 NOLS Southwest Instructor Train ing trip Saguaro National Park East Arizona This training was held in April and while it was a success ful introduction for staff it did not push the limits of the gear as much as the 2008 train ing in February Photo by Ryan Hutchins Cab
93. ve Australian who would like to visit Finland Fans of Monty Python might be familiar with Finland but it s perhaps less well known to the rest of us If you are into backcountry skiing and your ideal holi day is to get away from everything and everyone for a few nights in the wild 54 BACKPACKING LIGHT then eastern Finland just might be the place for you I spent an interesting three days skiing around a section of the Koita River Koitajoki in Finnish in Koivusuo I think it was the most enjoyable light weight backpacking experience of my life although the word lightweight does have to be put into context Finland is nestled between Russia and Scandinavia and is perhaps one of the least considered destinations for international travelers in Europe This www storemags com makes it almost ideal for outdoor folks who love to get away from the regular tourist circuit and enjoy the forest un disturbed by other travelers The southeastern area of Finland near the border with Russia is less de veloped than the western areas with far less infrastructure and less agriculture Much of it verges on swampland in the summer so apart from forestry there is little development there This means you can be almost sure of having Na tional Parks to yourself especially in the winter The area is also blessed with reliable snowfall and low temperatures Combined with the relatively flat coun tryside this makes it almost
94. vealed their faith in the Dalai Lama s return I re discovered my own faith Between cups we found time to marvel at nature with childlike wide eyed wonder Plus we en joyed the meditative solitude and chance to disconnect from the frenzy of the out side world if only for a little while Most importantly for me it empha sized the necessity of traveling lightly on the trail and in life as walking became transcendental a trampoline for the mind Unfortunately it ended all too soon but not before become an addict For years I longed again for the pleasure of the trail Finally in 1999 I decided to drop everything to follow my restless wander lust That fall my wife and I set off trek king across Spain for 500 miles on the IN THE STEPS OF ROMANS PILGRIMS AND TEMPLARS 85 www storemags com famous Camino de Santiago Surprising ly it brought back rush of satisfaction on many levels and made me wonder why I d waited so long Plus it forced me to recon sider how much Pd packed for the thirty day trek as I whittled my load from twen ty two pounds down to a mere fifteen Each day after walking alone or in a small group we d run into the same folks at the albergues and share laughs over a bottle of wine Call it fate but I kept encountering one fellow in his six ties mile was a likable Frenchman with a bushy white beard and amused blue eyes One day he shared his plan to walk with his wi
95. worth consideration SPOT User Interface The SPOT unit has only four buttons and four LEDs It should be simple to use In practice we found it confusing to acti vate cancel and inactivate all the SPOT functions Different modes are activated by long or short presses of the same but ton Some modes stop by themselves some can be cancelled by button presses and others can only be stopped by turning the unit off We believe that most users would need a field crib sheet to remember all the operations We also found the few LEDs and their cryptic combinations of flashes did not provide enough feedback on what the SPOT unit was or was not doing even if one had nothing to do but stare at the LEDs which is usually not the case in the field The attempt to transmit a message is indicated by the LEDs going solid for two seconds Blink and you ll miss whether the SPOT transmitted a message or not The SPOT does not keep track of attempted message transmission Once that information is gone it s gone A usability example Pressing the OK button normally causes che SPOT unit to send up to three OK messages with the same GPS coordinates Pressing it for more than five seconds puts it into the Tracking mode which sends one message every ten minutes until you turn it off The status flash sequence is the same for both modes so you have no idea which mode is active The problem is that the feedback pro vided by the current SPOT des
96. yel low blaze north or south to participate in the fes tivities It was a great time to meet lots of friendly people and see some of the leading UL equipment There was too much for me to take in and remember so I hope there are other BPL members or gear suppli ers that can fill in the bits I missed I encour age anyone on the east coast to experience it next year if you haven t done it before Thomas Clark May 19 2008 10 BACKPACKING LIGHT www storemags com Continental Divide Trail Canad THE KING OF TRAILS The 3 100 mile Continental Divide Trail traces the backbone of America reach ing above 10 000 feet for 670 of its miles traversing hundreds of natural habitats linking ancient and historic cultures and at places so remote that the nearest road is 80 miles away This is the Trail that defines the American Continent The Continental Divide Trail Alliance now in its 12th year has championed CDT trail building and preservation With the help of 9 000 volunteers CDTA in part nership with the Forest Service BLM and the National Park Service has completed 1 456 miles of Trail 32 bridges and 46 trailheads and provided unforget table wilderness experiences for volunteers of all ages Today The non profit CDTA has deployed 9 000 volunteers raised over 14 million and built over 1 900 miles of trail Join this monumental effort to build and preserve the most significant trail sy

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