Andy Skurka of Golite just finished hiking 6,875 miles (5 months) with 6 to 8 pounds of kit: "that way I am able to focus on the trail".

Most of us are gear freaks. But, this guy is the opposite. Who's right?

Where could I read more about this before giving you my final answer? Would you happen to have a link to his gear/story?

Thanks!

http://www.andrewskurka.com/

apparently he also did a coast to coast hike
http://sea2seatrail.org/sea-to-sea_trail.htm


he has a full gear list on his site. And while I see the pen in the recording section I don't see any paper.

Maybe he writes the log on his skin?

He's right as long as nothing goes wrong, the weather stays as forecast and he's able to resupply his expendables. We're right when something unexpected goes wrong and we can fix it without additional gear, or we have enough supplies to wait it out. Read his itinerary to get a feel for the planning to time his hike to avoid some issues.

I still don't have a good feel for how often he needed to be resupplied. How many days rations did he carry at any time.

Why would you say he is unprepared? He has 90% of the basics.
So he only has a puny knife; he has a shelter, stove, cookpot, PLB,
clothing, water containers and purification as well as solid navigation.

He could have added more fire making, a better knife, some more first aid, a whistle and mirror without adding much weight but otherwise he is pretty well set up.
He had a decent amount of food although it was mostly energy bars with some rice beans and pasta.
I don't see much of an issue. What else is he missing?
Bill

It was interesting to see that he only takes the PLB for 2 of the 5 regions. He has it in the Desert Southwest and High Sierra, but, didn't choose to carry the extra 11.3 ounces for the other three sections, which include the Rockies in the fall?

I'm thinking a PLB is pretty good insurance for 11 ounces, just keep it in the pack for the whole trip. That would be my vote, fwiw.

He's the real deal for long-distance hiking. He does have folks helping resupply him, but I'd agree with Bill that he's carrying all the fundamentals. If you look at his gear lists, he changes the mix (and adds in several more pounds) for winter and shoulder season travel on snow.

I didn't realize he only carried it sometimes .
11.3 ounces of survival is not too much to ask.

Especially considering they are down to under 10 oz. The ACR MicrOFix is 9.8 oz. Lighter ones are in development or approved elsewhere, not yet available here in the U.S.

I find the ultralight thing a bit confusing. Dropping lots of the pointless baggage and going light is fine - but the difference between carrying an 8lb pack and a 9lb one seems pretty moot, and there seems to be some sort of martyrdom about going as light as possible. You do expose yourself to some extra risk if there is a problem, but there is ALWAYS a payoff between completeness and convenience (unless you keep your BOB strapped to your back 24/7, and even then, what about an extra few litres of water or MREs? :-))

That said, some of the novel solutions these guys come up with can be pretty interesting.

I'm surprised he didn't shorten the handle of the toothbrush like he did with the spoon.

He's still quite indulgent - separate ziplocs for "in use" and "not in use" ??

Clearly overloaded.

I don't think it is a matter of "right vs wrong" but one of "more right vs less right". As RAS said, if anything went wrong, he didn't have much margin. I personally think his first aid supplies are laughable, especially when he doesn't carry his PLB in all locations.

But I'm going to take a grumble to his weight claims. It looks like he includes the EMPTY weights of his water bladders, and no food. So it was the weight of his equipment, not equipment and supplied. When I say my pack weighs X amount, that is with full water bottles and Y days of food. I also want to know how often he was replenished.

He is also using a LOT of exotic equipment provided by his sponsors. Xavier, if by asking if he is "right", are you asking if he's doing something the rest of us aren't? Sure, he's able to get companies to give him stuff and maybe pay for some of his logistics, in exchange for being able to say he used it (advertising write off). I don't know about anyone else, but I don't have a patron or sponsor for my gear. And having examined some of Go-Lite's stuff, I'm not impressed. It is fine for sticking to the trail, but so is a lot of stuff.

An interesting example of taking a sport to the extreme. But not a guideline for emergency equipment.

Not bad, but if you read Worldwalk , by Steven Newman, he pretty much walked around the world carrying basically nothing (after the first few miles, in which he pooped out, and decided to ditch most of his backpacking and "survival" gear). Instead, he mooched off of the locals most of the way...

Look at Forrest Gump, he didn't carry a thing. And he ran the entire way.

I don't know these people, nor do i know there experians level. But being focused on one thing, either equipment or weight, doesn't make something right or wrong. The keywords are experians and knowlegde. You can have all the equipment you want, but without the proper skills, you may not survive. If you have enough experians and skills, you can easily get by, with less. just look at those survival instructors or people at advanced survival training/courses. And the beautiy of experians and skills, is that it doesn't weight anything.

I think the purpose of your journey partly determines the gear you need to carry. I see walking 6000 miles for the sake of walking 6000 miles as something of a sporting event. You train for it and you gear up appropriately. I'm not sure the same gear would work as well for the overnight camping/fishing trip with my grandson, you know?

He buys gear if it is a better item than what his sponsors provide.
Or he modifies it.
And he does start with a much heavier pack when including the food and
water. Most folks doing this sort of utlralight trip for long
mileage in new territory have around 45 lbs with food.
They also talk about what stuff weighs in the pack, in their pockets and the total "skin out weight".

11 more oz can be another half day of food ie. 15 more miles
without resupply. In 6000 miles this could save you 20 days
of resupplies, not counting extra miles hiked out to the resupply.

That's 20 days less exposed to the elements, away from family,
faster than the competition etc. Not saying everyone should do it,
but why people consider leaving behind some elements of preparedness for greater speed on the trip.

He for sure didn't carry a razor...

I'm familiar with the term "skin out weight"- and it bloody well should include your consumables. Anything else is a falsehood, like calculating the take off weight of an aircraft without including the fuel. The only reason you'd lie about such a thing was to have higher brownie points with fanboys.

11 ounces of PLB can also be a SAR callout 72 to 120 hours earlier. 16 ounces of FAK can be the difference of being alive or buzzard poop in 12 hours. So don't bother peddling that schpell about 20 days to me- I've been hearing that silliness since about the time that algae tablets were the fad food of the day. Didn't buy it then, don't buy it now. I consider it stupidity on par with some of the stuff that BOSS teaches.

I think my day pack is nearly 8 pounds...