The thing that was remarkable about Brian was more about doing all the trails that his speed. His speed was high, but there have been numerous thru-hikers who have done the PCT at approx the same rate Brian did. 20-30 miles on the long trails is not an uncommon pace for ultralighters. Check of some the trail journals from past years to see numerous examples of people putting in this sort of on their 2000+ mile treks. But I see this sort of millage (or higher) from weekend warriors who run off for a quick and fast weekend. When you have 16 hours of light, mostly spend you time walking, take short breaks, that is something like 14 hours of hiking. If you are slow (like me), that means you can get in approx 28 miles in a day. If you are a faster walker like some of my friends, you can get 42 miles in. This sort of millage is not uncommon with ultralight backpackers.

Of course when it's winter, I am using snowshoes rather than ski, and the days are shorter... I don't get 20+ miles in during the day.



One of the key advantage of ultralight backpacking is that you are carrying a lot less weight. Until hard winter hits, my 3 day backpack is less than 20lbs. When I am really trying to go light and decide to give up my comfy air mattress (alpine summer in the sierras, lows to 30F) my 3 day pack is down to just over 10lbs. So think about my milage as you would a day hiker rather than a backpacker. In fact, my standard 3 day weekend backpack including food and water is typically lighter than my day hike backpack because I am not carrying 8 lbs of camera gear, other family members's clothing, etc.





Depends on the person. My approach is that I use a shaped tarp which can be pitched in a locked down configured. Most of the year I used a 9oz gossamer gear spinnshelter. In the winter I use a 2lb GoLite Hex. You can think of these as single walled tent structures without floors. There are two other approaches. One which is popular with quilt users because it helps lower the impact of side winds are smallish tarps with bivys. The other approach is using tarps which are large enough to provide adaquate protection.

I have used tarps or tarptents in fairly serious conditions. Winds that I measure at 50mph (I love my Burton ADC Pro WeatherStation) and pouring buckets. So far my quilts been fine except for the one trip that I didn't take the time to stake down the tarptent properly and the wind pulled up the stakes leaving me exposed until I restaked the shelter.