Ha, ha! I've hiked with Ryan! He's certifiable. I'm a lightweight hiker, but he's what we refer to as psycho-light. If you can, find his blog post about going into the Yellowstone backcountry in winter with a 9-pound pack (including food). On that very 19-mile, 9000' day in the Tetons, I was chasing Ryan Jordan and Glen Van Peski (of gossamergear.com). The next morning I started out at their pace, but when I saw Ryan trail-running up out of a steep valley with a full pack, my quads out-voted me and I slowed down.

We had a little weigh-in before that trip, and, if I remember correctly, Glen had a 12-pound pack for a 5-day, 4-night, 75 mile trip down the west side of the park, crossing over the continental divide three times. That included food. He'd done a little scientific calculation, and determined that macadamia nuts were the best food for the weight. The upshot of that was that by day 3 he was willing to trade almost anything to get something else to eat.

That was a damn fun trip. It was 9 days after September 11th, 2001, which made the flight out very exciting. Yellowstone was empty, though, when we went up there on our 'acclimatize day,' and we stood at Old Faithful on a beautiful September Saturday almost alone.