Is Weight Evil?

Background

In 2006 and 2007 I have played around extensively with the contents of my pack and of course the pack itself. I have bought some lightweight stuff including some really good quality down sleeping bags - one for summer and one for winter. The result is that my pack weight is now down to something that feels reasonable - around 5Kg base weight for typical UK weather.

At 5Kg I have kit that works and is reliable with no compromises being made as to performance, but maybe a little comfort being sacrificed.

To drop the weight further would require something quite radical - like making stuff out of Cuben Fiber (at $25 / yard + Import fees) or maybe slightly lighter SilNylon or maybe being more aggressive about water - planning to refill from wild sources more often.

Higher or Lower?

In fact, I think that for some trips and some items I have reduced the weight below what I am comfortable with using.

For instance, the smallest DIY Potty Trowel I made is barely usable but less than 1oz. However, it's bigger brother DIY Potty Trowel is maybe 12g heavier and a lot more usable.

So, now my thinking is starting to alter a little. Sometimes, there is a trade-off between weight and functionality and sometimes it might be 'better' to take the weight penalty.

Is Lighter Always Better?

Let's rewind a little. Why did I start dropping the weight in my pack from a traditional peak-load of 34-36lb to a more lightweight 16lb?

Because it's heavy. Because it's uncomfortable. Because it slows me down. Because ti throws me off balance.

The weight itself was not the issue. The issue was the consequences of the weight. When I'm trying to lighten my pack I am doing so to make life easier for myself and to make life safer for myself. The fact that this results in me carrying less weight is a side-effect.

A Recent Winter Trip

Last weekend I decided to do a winter-overnighter with a night-walk in and a camp-out using the Solo Micro Tarp and a DWR bivy bag. My total pack weight was 7.4Kg / 16lb.

This weight included spare clothing, hat, balaclava and gloves, down sleeping bag, camping mat, two backpacking stoves (with fuel), a waterproof coat and trousers, a windproof shell, a Lekki Trekking Pole, a GPS, map and compass, a medicate, a head-torch (plus a 10g backup torch), mobile phone, a spare tent!!!, 1 generous day's food, 2L of water plus other bits and bobs.

So, in fact in my lightweight load not only did I have kit that was more than ample for the weather conditions (and freak conditions) but I also had emergency supplies and backups. So, in practical terms I was much better equipped than on any of my heavyweight camping trips.

In fact, I had a comfortable night sleeping outdoors and a hot coffee in the morning at breakfast.

[I was carrying an extra stove and an extra tent (515g) because I was field-testing new kit and needed a backup plan.]

With a 16lb winter pack I was carrying a very comfortable pack and was fully equipped for the conditions with plenty of safety-margin. The pack I was carrying was a heavily modified GoLite Jam

Ultralight Packs - are they a pain?

The Jam has not in fact been used too much in the last year.

It is a typical ultralight pack but made with a very tough mountain-proof fabric of Gridstop Dyneema.

The pack design is typical of an American ultralight pack - a poorly padded back with no ventillation, a roll-top closure, a single compartment and almost no hip belt.

I've found the pack to be not very waterproof, a little too large for my needs and difficult to stabilise with a typical load of lightweight kit - small heavy things amongst large light things.

I've also found the shape when loaded - of a bottom-heavy pear to be less than ideal.

The pack weighs about 600g so it is amazingly light. But it's not very good at doing it's job - of comfortably carrying stuff. It's on a par with many in it's class but it's hardly ideal.

Ultra heavy Packs - are they worth their weight?

I've been doing a lot of research on load-carrying this winter. In particular I've been looking at how the military do it. The typical soldier on a light day is carrying maybe 45lbs of gear plus a rifle and is travelling up to 30 miles. He may be fitter but he is putting almost all ultralighters to shame. He is not superhuman and his kit weight does not include his clothing which is also heavy.

If you look at photos from any recent military intervention around the world you will notice that if soldiers are carrying packs they are carrying one that is probably 20-30 Litres plus they have a body festooned with pouches. Those pouches will be full of heavy things - bullets and grenades.

I've also been looking at the design of a typical military pack. The classic for this is ALICE. In fact just about every army around the world has something similar.

As an experiment I bought such a pack at an Army Surplus store.

It's a 35L pack and weighs in at just under 5lb. It consists of an external frame onto which the pack is strapped. It has no padding on the back and no hip belt. The back support consists of two pieces of webbing - one at the shoulder blades and one at the waist.

I loaded it up with 7Kg of dead weight and went for a walk with it. It was the most comfortable pack that I've ever carried!!!!!

The big difference in the pack was how it distributed the weight and what effect it had on my centre-of-gravity.

It's always been the case that no matter which pack I've worn and no matter how I load it up it seems to make me feel less safe and less stable when moving over rough ground (which is of course par for the course in the UK hills and mountains).

Yet, her was this big heavy pack that was maybe cutting-edge in 1950 that did the job so much better than it's ultralight descendant and most important of all had almost no effect on my balance.

It was a lot less tiring to carry ALICE than it was to carry JAM even though ALICE weighed a lot more.

Why?

The conclusion is that the way that a framed pack carries and distributes load is just so much more natural and comfortable.

Now, there is just about no way that I can every justify carrying a 5lb pack for a 15lb load - that is the way to madness! BUT what if we could take the ideas behind ALICE and make them into a lightweight alternative that worked almost as well.

In fact, that is what I've done. I've taken some of ALICE's DNA and injected it into the JAM to create JAMICE.

JAMICE was what I took with me for that overnighter and it was bliss. It was comfortable to carry, stable and I was perfectly happy climbing a slippery rocky path at night.

The next day my body thanked me as well. It was all so much more enjoyable. For once I had a backpack that actually WORKED!!!!

The weight penalty of JAMICE was 120g. That's right, 120g. The JAM pack had increased from it's virgin weight of 608g to 728g. In doing so it had been transformed.

You can read more about JAMICE on another day.