Ultimate Camping Thread

I sit right around 15-20 pounds I would say. I just won't spend tons of money to cut ounces on somethings.

But I go for 20 pounds since it leaves room for the other stuff. For just backpacking it let's me go further and not be uncomfortable. When its a skiing adventure the weight can really add up. Take climbing, can have your base 20 pounds, then 10 in skis and associated stuff, then rope, crampons, harness, ect and its up to 40 pounds total pretty quick.

Plus when you only weight 140 I don't care to be carrying half my weight lol

 

I want to start building an UL setup. I know in my bag I could drop almost 5lbs if I ditched the tent and my new chair.

It seems like it comes down to level of comfort with pack weight.

 

I sleep in a hammock its the best! If I had the money for a new sleeping bag I could probably drop 2lbs.

 

So are some of you guys making gear? I know all of the UL stuff I have seen is super expensive. It makes truck parts seem not so bad.

 

Yeah most Shelters look like they are all made from that silnylon stuff.

 

How is that stuff to cut and sew?

 

Haha I seem to collect backpacks and knives. I need another backpack for canyoneering because I dont want to destroy any of the ones I've got. Thinking walmart special and then put gromits in the bottom to let the water drain

 

I know all about the backpacks lol! I have 5 right now. 1 small pack for shorter hikes and for sidecountry skiing, 1 medium sized pack for longer backcountry skiing days (and climbing), another medium sized for longer day day hikes, 1 larger just for backpacking (doesnt get used much anymore), and 1 more larger for backpacking and mountaineering.

But you got to have the right gear for the job!

The part i hate is carrying the glacier rope, harness, and all the other gear and not even coming close to needing it. But alas if you didnt have it that would be the day it costs you dearly.

 

Ive never done any glacier travel or ice climbing, but canyoneering the backpack, dry bag, rope, rack, harness, wetsuit (sometimes) dry shoes, shirt, water and misc stuff to make "epics" less likely/ nicer haha

 

haha yeah its amazing how much crap you need. I mostly do backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering (ie climb up ski down). So depending on where you go its ski boots all day, skis on your back or feet depending, climbing skins, shovel, avy beacon, and probe. Then you have all the other crap depending on route....rope from 30m-70m, harness, 2 pulleys, belay device, prussiks, some sort of snow anchor (picket for me), carabiners, ice axe, crampons, some webbing, and i think thats mostly it

And ask how many times ive had to use any of that stuff for something other than practice and it would be zero...but the day you forget it is the day you need it

 

Yeah no kidding I need to get some more stuff under my belt, so far I've done a few easy leads, one multipitch and top roped a lot outside. Want to do some more multipitch stuff!

 

do most of you guys from az hike out, set up camp and stay there to climb? or do you hike loops? and what sort of distances and elevation gains are you doing? seems like most of you are in the south. just curious cause i havent spent any time down there but from what ive seen its all flat with a huge canyon in the middle

 

Haha you can do some of everything, I dont usually hike just for the sake of hiking but I do some backpacking. Most of the time for the climbing spots I've gone to we drive out as close as we can get to the area we want to climb at climb all day and head back to camp at the cars or back to the cars and drive home.

I think most of us are in the valley which is somewhere between the middle and the southern third of the state. You should really look at a topo map though because this state is far from flat, the colorado plateau cuts across the top half of the state. It gets much cooler up there so the summers arent so scorching. Az also has some of the best canyons in the world, besides the big one

 

haha i figured i was missing something!

 

Yeah but the stereotype that it's one ridiculously hot desert is there for a reason, the valley is already getting too hot for me. I want to live somewhere where it rains more and never gets above 80deg F. But I like some of the freedoms we have here waaayyyyy too much to leave

 

haha yeah just be thankfull that its not supposed to snow there on saturday like it is here! I think washington or bc is your best bet haha

 

Pretty cool idea.

 

That's cool, looks like alot of thought went into its design. How much can it compact for backpacking? They didn't show in the video

 

http://www.campsaver.com/search/?page=1&keywords=backcountry+bed&refine=y&Brand=Sierra+Designs

Here's the link to its page that was I'm the video description