Ultralight in 2011 - Some thoughts

In 2010 health issues and work pressure meant that I took a break from through-hiking all together and only managed a few short day walks as well!!!

The last big walk that I did was late in 2010 and was my second successful attempt at Offa's Dyke. On that trip I took lots of different bits of kit for testing and even made some kit en-route!!! I had plenty of time to experiment once more with realistic conditions and to work out what I liked and what I didn't and what I felt happiest carrying. On this trip I added in some luxury items as well - things that are not ultralight but damn useful....

Ultralight Shelter

On that trip I knew I'd be crossing and maybe sleeping in open moorland and mountainous areas. I took with me a Gore-Tex bivy bag (home made) and an ultralight micro tarp - a smaller version of this one.

The Gore-Tex bivy bag was made by taking a pair of scissors to a new Army Surplus bag and then creating new seams and sealing with Gore-Tex seam tape. The final result was a nice 650g full Gore-Tex bag in Camo for less than £50. This worked very well in both rocky terrain where I couldn't pitch a tarp at all and of course lowland terrain.

This is me rather cold and tired after a night when I didn't sleep very well and had been a bit cold. I'm wearing a merino tube hat which I'd bought because I didn't pack a cold-weather hat. Although I love sleeping outdoors I don't always sleep very well. The previous night I'd been sleeping on rocky ground and it was uncomfortable. On this night the temperatures went sub-zero and I had a sleeping bag that wasn't really designed for sub-zero AND freezing fog.

After this night the idea of hotels and B&Bs seemed rather good. A B&B after all gives you everything you need and weights nothing. The second picture shows my home-made ultralight pack (which has now done several years and 4 long trips), a home-made chest pouch and a home-made side pocket which I use for maps and knick-knacks.

For 2011 I'm seriously wondering if I should look at using B&Bs as the standard for overnight accommodation and maybe just taking a 500g bivy bag with me for emergencies. This would save me the weight of a tent/tarp and sleeping bag. I'd still need to pack a camping mat. This would give me a survival-mode setup but save a lot of weight. For Offa's Dyke there were two nights where I was camping out because I couldn't find or reach accommodation in time.

Clothing

I did a lot of experimentation with clothing and have more or less standardised what I take.

Here you can see an Ice-Breaker Merino base-layer worn with some zip-off hiking trousers. I'm also wearing an ultralight vented sun hat that I made. The hat was experimental but worked well and meant that I didn't bother to carry any sunglasses.

I also carried a Rohan hiking shirt, an ultralight fleece, assorted underwear, a SilNylon knee-length coat that I'd made, some SilNylon spats and a Gore-Tex paclite hat. Bizarrely I found myself carrying three hats - a wet-weather one, a sun hat and a cold hat. Last year I tried to get by with just one hat, this year I was happier with three. Each hat only weighs a few ounces but it does move away from the ultralight ethos a little and towards a little comfort.

For 2011 I've made some micro-fleece mid-layers using a standard sewing pattern (available from my local fabric shop) and some of their stock fleece fabrics. I wanted to have a fleece that was a better fit for me - longer in the sleeves and body and with elastic that didn't cut in.

I thought that the fleece wouldn't be as good as the expensive commercial garments that I've bought in the past but in fact it was great and I'm very happy with it.

I've also standardised on carrying an ultralight shirt and trousers for use in the evening if I'm staying at a B&B and also as a daytime backup. At 300g for two garments it's a little bit of luxury that means I can look presentable at the end of a day's walking.

Footwear

I'm a bit of a convert to using trail shoes for all my hiking but they are not perfect. Every year I've had issues with EVA soles collapsing and leading to blisters on the boundary of the insert and the shoe.

The shoes tend to be fine for one week but not so great after that. I use a Compeed Anti-Blister stick (Lanonlin + stuff) on all the areas where I expect blisters. That helps a lot but doesn't in the end prevent them. Mostly it helps to prevent them popping.

Fundamentally I think the shoe soles are too soft. This year I'm looking at a number of minimalist shoe solutions including the Salomon Speed Cross 2 (because they fit me!). Innov-8 are well worth a look but they are too narrow for my feet. Basically these things have very little sole and so there's nothing to collapse AFAIC. I'm also keeping an eye out for the Merrell Trail Gloves which have almost no sole and are the closest thing to a practical Vibram Five Fingers. I'm a big fan of Five Fingers for training, scrambling and some walking but I don't think they are great in the mountains where small things bite your ankles. They are also rather cold when your feet get wet - which in the UK is about half the time!!!!

My own experiences suggests that most shoes do not help you to walk and balance naturally and just interfere. The 'barefoot' shoe philosophy takes away all the padding in a shoe so that it's more like a moccasin. The result is that your body receives the correct feedback from the ground and eventually you learn how to walk properly using your whole body and force-feedback from the ground so that feet are placed rather than just slammed down.

After many hundreds of miles carrying a pack wearing ultralight shoes I'm perfectly happy that leg muscles and ankles can be trained to carry the weight and to move over rough ground safely. The only issues I have are the blisters and I'm hoping this next generation of shoes will solve that. If not I can always dig out my rather heavy boots that have no padded soles and don't cause me blisters at all.

Cooking

I started off with the best of intentions. I brought with me a commercial ultralight jet alcohol stove and it's accessories - a windshield and base. I found it to be a PITA. Basically I'd get the thing up to temperature and the jets were shooting out all well and good and then as soon as I put a cup on it - phut! - the thing would splutter out. Maybe water from the damp grass would cool the stove or maybe air was cut off or whatever. Sometimes I tried 2-3 goes at using it before I just gave up with it in frustration. Even if it had worked it's still quite fussy to use with preheat and everything else.

Fortunately my main stove was this Ultralight Esbit Wing stove which worked very nicely even if it was tricky to light at times. I have a home-made version of this that I'd used on previous years. An Esbit/Hexamine stove after all is just a platform with a pot-holder about 2" above it. I'm a fan of Esbit - it's fast, reliable and quite fuel efficient gram for gram. The only downside is that the base of your pot (cup) can become sticky and need wiping clean. I kept everything in a polythene bag inside a SilNylon bag and it was fine.

On previous years I've used gas which is faster and slightly more efficient however after logging how many drinks I actually made I worked out that I'd be better off carrying the Esbit stove(1 small tab = 2 drinks) and save about 100g. This year I might go back to gas or stick with Esbit and Alcohol as a backup.

On the Offa's Dyke trip I ended up making a basic Alcohol pad stove to use as a backup. I could buy everything needed in a car spares store (Halfords) and a Chemist. The pictures below explain it all. Basically what I've done is taken a small pocket-sized metal tin and filled it with glass-fibre tissue wrapped in Aluminium gauze. It's based on a design I know works. This little stove fits onto the Esbit stand (or a proper stand that I've made) and will boil a cup of water reliably on 15-30g of fuel. Since you can find burnable alcohol in lots of places I often carry a stove like this as a backup.

I've tried lots of alcohol stoves and they all seem to use the same amount of total fuel to boil a cup of water in the outdoors and they all seem to take about the same amount of time. The above pad stove works as well as anything and has no preheat time and is safe and easy to use. I like stuff to be simple and work and this just does. I have made several and regret not taking one with me - hence one got made.

I've found that using an alcohol stove mixed with an Esbit stove helps to clean the pot base a little. Alcohol tends to take 10-15g of fuel to boil a cup of water and Esbit/Hexamine around 5-7g. It can soon add up.

Trekking Poles

I did a lot of experimenting with some ultralight poles in 2009 and in the end gave up on the grounds of reliability. I bent at least one pole during 'expected' usage and figured that the 100g weight saving wasn't worth the stress of a possible on-trip failure. I've looked at fixed carbon fibre 'ski' poles but they are often too long to import and a fixed-length pole is a total pain for moving through some terrains or jumping over styles for instance. I much prefer to have a pole that can be stowed. For expedition use I have now returned to using a Leki pole which is bomb-proof and well tested. This pole will work as a support for a tarp/tent and of course as a walking pole. I only ever carry one and often I leave it hooked into the pack with an under-arm sling. It can also be strapped to the side of the pack close to the shoulder straps. The sharp end of the pole goes through a small custom loop on the pack and often has a rubber bung on it to keep it in place and prevent damage to the pack. I carry a pole like this to both make it easily accessible and to minimize the perceived weight of the thing. The underarm sling is the best position for weight distribution. The second best is strapped to the side of the pack close to your back. On some shorter trips I may instead carry a carbon fibre tent pole instead. On some longer trips I may also carry a carbon fibre tent pole to use as a secondary pole.

Luxury Items

Decent GPS! At 180g a GPS seems like a luxury item but in fact I found I quite liked this bit of luxury. I'd pre-loaded the GPS with the entire route (some waymarks were quite sparse) before setting off and it just made navigation a little more relaxing. On a previous Offa's Dyke trip I'd managed to go astray in a couple of places despite using a map and compass and micro-navigation skills. With the GPS I managed to work out how it had happened and avoid it. A GPS is a luxury item but I think there were several times where it earnt it's place. It was also helpful to track actual distance and speed so that I could easily see how slowly or quickly I was covering distance on a particular day.

Smart Phone I took a smartish-phone with me which had Radio, GPS, MP3, Internet and Camera in built. I think the Camera was pretty crappy for my purposes but just about tolerable for 'happy snaps'. The radio was fine as was internet access and a battery would last several days if I was careful. I carried spare batteries and a charger so I was relaxed about using the thing a lot. GPS ate batteries as did internet searching. It was however nice to be able to Google for hotels/B&Bs as I approached a village and it was also nice to be able to pull up a street map on the phone as well.

I think in 2011 I'll end up carrying a 'proper' camera AND a smart-phone. The picture quality is just a little too poor for me but everything else is fine. I'm not sure which phone I will take yet. The one I took in 2009 still works but has a tiny screen. My current phone has a much bigger screen and about half the battery life. I like the bigger screen so it might well win. Internet access is surprisingly useful.

Food and Water

After being caught out with supply issues I now err more on the side of caution. I now tend to carry 2-3 days of 'junk' food in dry no-cooking-required-form and try to ensure that I always have at least '1 day' of food in reserve from this total (1500-2500 calories). I've found that shops may be shut or have closed and the next one might be a day or two away. Where possible I will eat food that I buy on the day and keep the food bars and other stuff for emergency or overnight use. Food weighs a lot but going without food for a day can be lousy as well.

With water I have a reasonable idea of how much I need and tend to dress cold so that I don't sweat most of the time. I try to ensure that I have enough water plus 0.5-1L of spare to get me between guaranteed water supply points. Sometimes even 'sure thing' supply points disappear. On the first Offa's Dyke I did a tap was there, on the second it was gone. I know how I behave when slightly dehydrated and I know how to monitor my body. For example burning blood-sugar reserves also releases water into the body reducing your hydration needs a little. (You can watch what you eat and drink and watch your urine colour and see how it changes over time). Going without water is much worse than going without food for me because I find my ability to think and therefore navigate and survive can tail off quite badly. I try to avoid that.

I therefore carry a little more than I think I need and then a bit more again. When you get down to your last food bar and don't know if you can arrive at the next supply point in time the fun can go out. Especially if you know the store might not be open by the time you get there.

2011 Ultralight Summary

The big thing for 2011 is going to be trying to find some footwear that is suitable for 1-2 week hikes without blisters. I'm looking at a number of ideas and hope one of them will pay off.

In general I'm no longer minimalist although I am ultralight on a large part of my kit - and a lot of it is home-made. The little luxuries that I add in are the things that make a trip fun rather than an expedition for me. Having clean clothes to change in to and being able to listen to a radio or MP3 during the day and being able to take photos all help to make it a holiday and not an endurance event. Of course luxuries add weight and 200g lumps soon add up.

In previous years I've gone for the absolute minimum that I could get away with and found it too little for me. In the UK I couldn't dry socks in a day for instance - it usually takes two days or more if it rains.

If anything the real surprise is how much of the essentials are actually home-made and reliable - pack, stove, mid-layers, coat, hats, bivy, tarps, assorted bags and pouches and so on. I never expected my SilNylon framed pack to last so long but it has - albeit with one patch now due to a wayward tent peg.

When I'm packing I think "Do I REALLY want to carry this". Sometimes "Yes" and sometimes "No". When I stick the pack on the scales and go "Eek!" some "Yesses" become "Noes".

At the end of the day I want to have fun and have a holiday. Carrying as little as possible helps with that but if it's too little that causes problems or adds too much risk or takes away some fun for me and so I make my choices. The bottom line is that 20 years ago I was carrying 34lbs+ and now I'm carrying 12-16lbs and that is a big difference. I travel faster, lighter and further despite being less fit.....