Going lighter, faster, farther. If you move in the mountains, this concept has got a certain ring to it. It only takes one heavily laden day out to get most people dreaming of using much lighter gear, soon. Next time. NOW.
In Bill Bryson’s book, A Walk in the Woods, about his endeavor to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail – typically a 5 month, roughly 2,000 mile endeavor – he describes the amateur approach succinctly. He and his partner filled their packs so egregiously that before the first day was out, his partner had thrown more than half of his pack’s contents into the forest (off a cliff, adding dramatic flair, if I recall) in an effort to lighten up on the spot. This approach revealed itself to be problematic a day or two later when it was realized that important gear had gone missing. Stove fuel, food, these sorts of things..
That was the (simple) hiking approach. Backcountry skiing can be a much harder game conceptually since there is a lot more gear required. More gear means more weight. More weight slows one down and makes them tired. Backcountry skiing can seem impossibly heavy, awkward, and slow to outsiders. It can seem this way to people with heavy gear, or even the wrong Continue reading ‘Going Light(er), Fast(er), Far(ther)’