Hello all, and a very merry Christmas, happy holidays or whatever else people celebrate this time of year.
An annoying relative of mine had been asking me for some time to do a hike together during the Christmas leave period. Yesterday I broke down and agreed. He is the sort of lad who thinks himself an expert in survival simply because he has the most expensive gear and because he watches survivor man, man versus wild, and spends countless hours talking on survival forums. He was about to be humbled by the outdoors greatly. He is a BIG advocate of the lighter is better school of thought when it comes to gear. I on the other hand, I believe it best to pick the gear that will do the best job for the situations you want to put yourself in and deal with the extra weight. I suppose, just like anything else there are people who have arguments for either side. After we stepped off, he was falling back after about only 200 m into the trek, barely out of sight of the parked truck. After the first K or two, I had to wait several times for him to catch up. By the time we decided to make a quick set up for lunch and a hot drink he was soaked in sweat despite to best efforts at ventilating. His lighter theory has a few holes in it at this point. I carry a Coleman peak 1 mountain stove. It is super reliable, easy to replace parts and with it you can have boiling water from snow and ice in about 5 min when placed on high. The case makes a great pot set as well. The drawback is the weight. The solution is to get used to carrying it. I had water boiling almost as fast as he got his fancy titanium super stove even lit. Falling snow put his out three times. The peak 1had no problems when lit. Because of the small amount of heat coming from his little stove he ended up packing it away and drying his wet toque and gloves over mine. Because he had sweat so much during the walk in he needed to dry off as much as possible before freezing. The peak 1 did great without having to light a fire.(I was feeling lazy) Was the extra weight and bulk worth carrying through the snow in Alberta during winter?? You bet your ass it was. This is only one example of how his so called BETTER, LIGHTER gear was not up to the challenge. Once packed up and back on the move after lunch I still had 3 quarters of a tank of fuel, enough for a long while if used properly. On the way back to the truck, I had to stop to wait several more times for him to catch up. I train to carry my gear. Once per week as part of my cardio training I will place 25 extra pounds in my pack. The rest is packed as per the field. I will then do a brisk walk with a slight incline on the treadmill for 45-60 minutes. When you take the extra weight out, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to carry that pack. Until this trip I had no idea just how much this training was paying off. My cuz is 10 years younger than me and his pack was a hell of a lot lighter. The whole point of my long winded rant you may ask?? Lighter does not mean better, it just means lighter. Sometimes it is worth the extra weight to take the items you know will work. If your pack is heavy, then exercise. Reliable is better than lighter any day. And lastly, All the expensive, lightweight gear in the world is absolutely worthless is you can’t put your pack on your back and hump your sorry ass from point A to point B. Your brain may very well be the most important tool in a survival situation, but your brain can’t carry your gear for you. After all his bragging about all of his skill and knowledge I became very irate every time I would look back to see him wheezing and leaning on both knees unable to even talk clearly due to being winded. Up until now I had been considering purchasing newer, lighter items because honestly, everyone else was following that trend. Now I see the error of my ways. I will stick to the kit I am comfortable with and enjoy using. I apologize for the long winded rant, but I had to get it off my chest. I have ribbed my cousin many times since yesterday, (in good fun) and I know that he reads this forum religiously even though he is not a member. But I have many couch potato friends like him who think they know it all because they read books, watch TV and surf the net. The bottom line IMHO is that expensive does not mean better, lighter does not mean better and no matter how smart you may think you are your are doomed to fail if you cannot keep up with the physical aspect of survival. Your brain can only get you so far, your body has to do the rest. For all my lazy friends reading this, Get off the couch and TRAIN BOTH. In the meantime I will just shut my big mouth.