Focus on Maximizing the Experience Not Minimizing the Gear

Too often when start talking about this subject or that we overlook the obvious or at least what we assume to be obvious. We dive directly into the meat of the matter without bothering to elaborate on topics which we presume is generally understood. The danger of avoiding the obvious is that we can easily overlook its importance.

Far too often our discussions of the ultralight hiking experience revolve around the joy of unencumbered travel. Drop a few pounds and your backpacking experience will improve. Drop down into the ultralight range and the improvement will be remarkable. With the constant equating of lighter weight equals better, one might come to the notion that backpacking naked would be nirvana. Well maybe for some.

Others, concerned at the potential loss of safety and comfort, couch their discussion of the UL experience in foreboding terms. "Sure you hiking may be easy, but your nights will be dreadful. And God forbid you should encounter a stretch of foul weather. If so, surly your life will be forfeit." At least that's how some people feel about this madness we choose to undertake.

Its true there is a connection between your pack weight and an improved backpacking experience. For many the improvement is great enough to allow them to continue backpacking years after they would have otherwise quit. Also despite the claims by some, going ultralight is not a sign of mental handicap nor will it put you on the fast lane to the hereafter.

Focus on Maximizing the Experience is the first and core principal of the Ultralight Backpacking Philosophy. It is the first principle simply because it was the genesis of the whole Ultralight Hiking movement. In its infancy, the primary reason to shed all that pack weight was to make hiking long distances more enjoyable. With 14 to 16 hours a day spent on trail between camps, most of camp time was spend either sleeping, eating or taking care of gear. No need to carry a fancy camp outfit if you don't spend much time in camp. 

Almost immediately the focus shifted from the experience to the absolute reduction of gear, no matter how ridiculeous the reduction. Indeed, much of what's published online, in books, taught in UL Backpacking classes, discussed ad nauseam in web forums and whenever two or more UL hiker meet for more than a couple of minutes is all about the gear. I don't suppose that's too surprising, after all gear is something visceral. We can see it, touch it, wear it and wrap it around ourselves. It infuses itself into all of our senses. Plus it's damn easier to talk about gear than something ethereal like The Experience.

When we talk about experiences we're much more likely to frame them in terms of war stories. "Man you should have seen that storm. Fifty mile an hour winds, lightening and hail the size golf balls pounding us. It was extreme!" Or we talk about how much better we felt strolling into camp after a 15 mile day carrying a 15 pound pack.

Since gear is physical, we easily quantify it in terms of weight and volume; it's easy to fall into the trap of discussing gear solely on the basis of one or two key elements. So we say, "Look how great this gear list is! The pack's only 9 ounces the shelter is 8 ounces and the sleeping bag is a pound. It must be a fantastic setup!"

There was a day when manhood was measured by how much we could carry. As if suffrage could be equated with virility. Today it's more macho to say I walked a hundred miles through the wilderness carrying a 6 pound pack. Our manhood is now measured by how much we can hang it out on a line and somehow seem to get away with it.

When was the last time you hear a hiker talk about taking a leisurely stroll along a high mountain ridge and spending a delightful hour or so watching a bee dance from flower to flower all the time soaking up the warm summer's sun? Yet taking it slow and escaping the frenetic hustle of daily life is a damn good way to spend those precious few days of freedom we're allowed every year.

In an attempt to shift the focus back to the Experience. I've extended Focus Maximizing the Experience by appending Not Minimizing the Gear. It is, or at least should be, the quest for the ultimate Experience that drives us to travel into the remote sections of our country. Our gear is simply one of many tools in the UL arsenal that allow us too comfortably and safely travel where others fear to tread (unless encumbered by a ton of "necessary" gear).

What is the Experience?

In order to maximize the experience, we first need a way to quantify it. We need break the Experience into manageable components that we can explore well before we even step foot on the trail.

It turns out that it's pretty easy to breakdown Experience. Simply put, it is the sum of the four parts You, the Environment though which you're traversing, your Gear and a Strategy that binds it all into a workable plan. As we look into each of these components, they can be further divided. As go through the process of bits and pieces that combine to make up the experience, you can begin to get a handle on what changes you can make to mold the experience to suit your desires.

Takeing on the process of identifying and exploring all the individual components that make up an experience is important for anyone venturing into the out of doors. This exercise is bentifical wheither you go out to hike, hunt, fish, ski, mountain climb or undertake any outdoor activity.

This step is more critical to the Ultralight Backpacker. The ultralight backpacker doesn't simply float across the landscape, expecting their gear to provide all the necessary security and support. No, they create stategies that allow them to fuse together their gear, the very envirornment through which they travel with their own unique skills and capibilities.  When combined they give the backpacker the power to travel safer, faster, lighter and derive a greater joy from their trips.