AskMeAnything
Ask
Ask
26
@tarp_curious ·

Cut my base weight from 6kg to 4.1 and enjoyed the trip less

Four years of shaving grams. Tent went for a tarp, cut the sleeping pad down to torso length, drilled the toothbrush, the whole embarrassing routine. Got base weight from just over 6kg to 4.1.

Did five days in June with it and walked further and faster than I ever have. And I was thoroughly miserable by day three.

The tarp is fine right up until it is not, and I spent two nights half awake listening to the weather instead of sleeping through it. The cut down pad meant waking every ninety minutes with cold legs. No sit pad, so every break was on wet ground, which means you stop taking breaks, which means you just walk until you are angry.

I had shaved off precisely the things that make the evening survivable and kept every gram that makes the walking easier. For me that is the wrong way round.

Carrying about 800g more this year. Slower. Much happier.

11 answers Share
Report

11 answers

BestTopNewOldControversial

Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

  • @quilted_not_bagged · 2w ago · 3 replies
    @quilted_not_bagged ·

    My numbers for comparison. Base is 5.2 and has not moved in three years. Full length pad at R4.5, a shelter with an actual door, a 40g foam sit pad, and a 90g chair frame that everyone mocks until the third evening.

    I am consistently the slowest in the group and consistently the only one who is cheerful at dinner. Happy with that trade.

    17
    Share
    Reply

    Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

    Report
    • @nightshift_nora · 2w ago · 2 replies
      @nightshift_nora ·

      Which pad

      6
      Share
      Reply

      Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

      Report
      • @quilted_not_bagged · 2w ago
        @quilted_not_bagged ·

        Nothing exotic, a standard full length inflatable in the R4 to R5 range. The R value did more for my sleep than anything else I have bought.

        1
        Share
        Reply

        Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

        Report
  • @grams_not_kilos · 2w ago · 3 replies
    @grams_not_kilos ·

    Going to push back a bit. This reads less like ultralight failing and more like the specific 2kg you cut being the wrong 2kg.

    Torso pad and no sit pad are the two cuts that consistently ruin people, and both have light fixes that do not put you back at 6. A full length pad with a decent R value is maybe 200g over the cut down one. A sit pad is 30g. You could have kept most of the saving and fixed both complaints.

    19
    Share
    Reply

    Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

    Report
    • @tarp_curious · 2w ago · 2 replies
      @tarp_curious OP ·

      Fair, and I think it is also how everybody ends up at 4.1 in the first place. Every single cut has a reasonable sounding version. It is only in the aggregate that you notice you have removed the entire evening.

      14
      Share
      Reply

      Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

      Report
      • @grams_not_kilos · 2w ago
        @grams_not_kilos ·

        Yeah, alright, that lands. Death by a hundred defensible decisions. I have definitely never audited mine all at once either.

        10
        Share
        Reply

        Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

        Report
  • @one_more_ridge · 2w ago · 2 replies
    @one_more_ridge ·

    The thing nobody says out loud is that base weight is a number you can measure and "did I sleep" is not, so the measurable one wins by default. That is not a philosophy, it is just what happens when only one side of the trade has a scale under it.

    Four years in I started tracking a second number, which was how many hours I actually slept. Turned out my good trips and my light trips were never the same trips. Once you can see both numbers the decision makes itself.

    27
    Share
    Reply

    Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

    Report
    • @wet_socks_club · 2w ago
      @wet_socks_club ·

      "Only one side of the trade has a scale under it" is going in my head permanently.

      11
      Share
      Reply

      Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

      Report
  • @third_season · 2w ago
    @third_season ·

    You drilled the toothbrush and then wondered why the trip was joyless.

    1
    Share
    Reply

    Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

    Report
  • @nightshift_nora · 2w ago
    @nightshift_nora ·

    Worth adding that this shifts with age and nobody warns you. What I could sleep on at 25 is not what I can sleep on now, and it moved faster than I expected, over about three seasons.

    The gear did not get worse. I did. Adjusting for that is not a failure of discipline.

    1
    Share
    Reply

    Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

    Report
  • @mrs_beeton · 2w ago
    @mrs_beeton ·

    Slower and happier is the entire point of walking somewhere.

    1
    Share
    Reply

    Answering anonymously, a moderator will review it first.

    Report