Originally Posted By: verber
I actually haven't read the article in question. I pretty much gave up on backpacker mag several years ago. Rarely have I found anything useful in the articles and have been very disappointed with their gear reviews.

Lets see... to answer the questions:

Carry 1L of water? There have been a couple of trips that I didn't carry any water... I knew a lot about the water supply and was following a system of river and lakes for whole hike. I would walk the short distance to the rivers edge and dip my cup in. Seriously though, I almost always start out carrying >=1.5L. How much depends on the water sources and the conditions (largerly temp). I normally have around .5L left in my pack when I get to the water source I plan to fill up at. When I was figuring out my water consumption rates I would sometimes hit a water source dry, but that hasn't happened for several years. If perceive a high risk of running out of water... e.g. I am in dessert conditions, have reason to believe that the water source is unreliable, or there is a large distance to the next water source if the one I planned on using was bad for some reason then I will bring enough water to give me a safety margin. The worst case was a hike that had be starting out with 8L and not dropping below 2L frown

Knife? I tried an experiment with using just a razer blade.. it was really annoying and not worth the weight savings. Most of the time I take my EDC, a Victorininox Rambler. I sometimes add a Benchmade 530 or Opinel if I am doing fancy cooking that needs a longer blade. In days gone past I would bring a full tang fix blade survival knife. I haven't done this for years. As an ultralighter... I always have my pack so it's unlikely I will need to improvise a shelter etc. On trips that are serious off the beaten trail and it would take a week for people to even know I am missing I would rent a PLB and not worry about living off the land for weeks.

Map & Compass? Compass always. I can imagine places that I would consider not taking a map. For example sections of Yosemite where the trails are like super highways and the landmarks are pretty hard to miss, or places where you are so close to urban (like the sky to sea trail on the california coast) with a road almost always within earshot frown. Seriously though... a map is light and very useful. I think it's a silly way to save weight. When I don't expect navigation to be tricky I would print out what I was interested in on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of the National Geo paper. If I go cross country I typically carry a full map of the area because I might end up having to deviate from my original plan.


Mark, it sounds like you've got your head on straight. Everything I hear you saying sounds well reasoned, and you sound like you know the trade offs and how to strike a reasonable balance. I think you'll be in far better shape than someone who is rigid and doctrinaire.

For example, sometimes people act like water purification is some sacred tenent from on high. The reason that I posted articles about water purification was simply to suggest that we shouldn't take such a hard line on the subject. I don't intend to stop filtering, but let's not be to heavy handed on the subject. That, and based on the article, people should put a bar of soap or alcohol based hand cleaner in their PSK's and BOB's!
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