Brecon Beacons Trip - 29 Sep 2006

I had originally planned to test a hooped bivy bag and the MSR pocket rocket.

The bivy bag had an actual weight much higher than published and so it was sent back. Mentally I had reached the point where I thought to myself that if I was willing to carry a 1Kg bivy bag to the hills for a bit of extra comfort then I might as well carry a 1.5Kg tent and live in comparative luxury.

So, in the end this trip was a 'luxury' trip with all of life's little luxuries carried with me. None of my kit was ultralight or ultra-expensive and yet the full weight of the bag including food and water was still only 8.0Kg.

As I sat comfortable and warm in my tent with the ubiquitous wind and rain hammering on the tent I wondered how it was that 10 years ago I was carrying 16Kg + Food/Water and now I was carrying 8Kg complete and yet I was certainly not roughing it and all the equipment that I had with me was more than capable of handling the conditions that I was likely to meet in the Beacons in the Autumn.

That caused me to think very hard about what it was that I had done to make 8Kg disappear from my back and yet if anything still have quite a large safety margin for the conditions.

The simple answer was that my entire kit had been reviewed and weight had been a factor when shopping. By saving the odd 100g on the small items and 500g+ on the large items and by leaving some things at home I had saved myself that 8Kg. I was stunned.

Here is the list of things that I actually took. You will see that much of it is not actually that light either!!!

The book remained unread and the waterproofs were not needed.

The place where I camped was moss and grass and so very soft. The thermarest was therefore a luxury - the ground was soft. The Berghaus pack is bomb-proof and much tougher than I need for walking (but ideal for climbing).

For the next trip I think the Berghaus will be replaced with a Golite pack (600g saved), the Thermarest will be replaced with a Karrimat (200g saved) and the tent might well be replaced with a single-skin tent (900g saved) which will then give me a weight of around 6300g which is just on the border for Ultralight - and yet I will have lost very little in the way of comfort or practicality.