In the dozen or so years since the concepts of Ultralight Backpacking was first penned by Ray Jardine, much has changed. Early adopters of ultralight backpacking were forced to make most of their own gear. Aside from your basic tarps, little ultralight gear was available. Normal backpacks averaged 5 to 7 pounds and sleeping bags easily topped out at above 3 pounds. Add in big stoves, cook sets, lots of clothes and personal gear and it’s easy to see how and overnight pack could top out a 35 pounds with food and water.

The last few years have seen an explosion in ultralight gear with the arrival of new gear manufactures to the market. Tarps have dropped from pounds to mere ounces. Full size tents are available that weigh less than bivy sacks a decade ago. Sleeping quilts of a pound or less provide an amazing amount of warmth for their weight. Packs have dropped from pounds to ounces.

Today, it’s easy to acquire an ultralight outfit that’ll get you down to a 15 pound pack with enough food and water for several days of summer hiking. Still, too many people continue to carry traditional gear weighting 35 or more pounds, while hiking in similar conditions.

New fabrics are flooding the markets that promise to make our gear weigh less, be more durable and offer more protection. What amazing new products that will be produced in the next decade is anyone’s guess.

Understandably, ultralight backpacking roots lay deep in the world of long distance backpacking. Long distance hikers are faced with the need to cover thousands of miles over a relatively short time span. This requires long hours of hiking day after day. With little time spent in camp, there is less need to carry a bunch of gear whose sole purpose is to make camp time more comfortable. Efficiency of travel is the key consideration.

As ultralight backpacking techniques have spread into the general backpacking population, it’s evolved to meet different challenges. For an increasing larger segment of the population, ultralight backpacking affords them the opportunity to venture out into our beautiful backcountry. Aging bodies no longer have the energy or desire to tote heavy loads into the wilderness. With a light pack, backcountry travel is not only possible, it’s downright enjoyable.

With the increase in available gear, there’s been a corresponding increase in information available on ultralight hiking techniques. New websites are constantly popping up, new books are being published and more ultralight articles are showing up in mainline magazines.

So with all the information that’s available, what is the purpose of the Ultralight Hikers Philosophers Guide? Simply put, over the coming weeks and months, I’ll try to look at Ultralight Hiking from new and different perspectives.

The Ultralight Hikers Philosophers Guide is divided into three sections, Four Ultralight Principles, Six Steps to a Light Pack and Ultralight Backpacking Strategies. In the first section we’ll cover the basic principles of ultralight hiking. While I’m sure we’ll be covering topics that sound all too familiar, we’ll also be discussing topics that hopefully you have never thought of before. The four principles form the basis for a richer understanding of ultralight backpacking.

In the section, Six Steps to a Light Pack, I’ll cover six basic steps to reduce your pack load. Each step is designed to build a foundation upon which subsequent steps are built. All of the steps are designed to allow you to lighten your load with a minimum of expense and mistakes. In the process of reducing pack weight, many people have traveled down expensive dead ends resulting in hundreds if not thousands of dollars needlessly spent.

The Ultralight Backpacking Strategies section takes the lessons learned in the first two sections and applies them to real world scenarios. Ultralight Backpacking isn’t about which shelter, pack, sleeping bag, stove or any other piece of gear we carry. It’s about how we incorporate our gear into our backcountry adventures to make the experience richer and more fun. Doing so means we need to know as much as possible about ourselves, our likes, our fears, our interests and our capabilities. With a better understanding of ourselves, the terrain we’re traveling through and conditions we’re likely to encounter, we’ll have an easier time selecting gear that’ll help us to maximize our experience.

What the Ultralight Hikers Philosophers Guide isn’t, is a guide to the latest gear available on the market. This may come as a surprise as I make my living off of producing what I hope is some of the best ultralight gear available.

In the Ultralight Backpacking Strategies section, I’ll look at how different gear choices will affect how various strategies play out in real world. Often we select gear for purely personal or aesthetic reasons; these choices can have a significant impact on where and how we hike.

Gear is certainly important, but its primary role should be to assist in making backcountry travel safe, comfortable and possible. Just how we define safe and comfortable varies wildly from person to person. It is hoped that knowledge gained from this guide will help in your efforts to select gear that will mesh well with you particular needs. No two of us seek the same experiences in our travels nor do we bring with us the same level of understanding.

What if you’re not interested in Ultralight Hiking? While the Ultralight Hikers Philosophers Guide is geared to ultralight hiking, it is by no means limited to people carrying little if any gear into the backcountry. Much of the basis of the Ultralight Philosophy is about maximizing the experience. So the core principals apply regardless of how much gear you ultimately carry. The importance is properly applying your gear to the task you’re trying to accomplish.

The Ultralight Hikers Philosophers Guide is being published over the coming months as series blog entries. I’ll try and post a new blog entry each week; however other activities may conflict from time to time and delay the post.

Because the guide is a blog, you can contribute both to the content and potentially to the guide’s final form. In the blog comments section you can add your own insights, agreements or even disagreements with my own observations. As I write the strategies section, I’ll try and incorporate as many y to do ultralight backpacking. Clearly what works for some may prove a disaster for others. What’s important is listen to a wide variety of voices, then go out and discover what works best for you.

Happy hiking!