When mountaineering and hiking, carrying too much weight is one of the surest ways of slowing you down and wearing you out. Even if you crack a blistering pace through the mountains when laden down with heavy gear, you will arrive exhausted and probably enjoy your trip far less than if you were to have moved quickly with a light pack and lightweight tent. Travelling light means you will not just arrive far more refreshed and have more fun on the trail but also that you will have more time to take off along the trail to swim or enjoy nature. Then you can set a rapid pace to quickly get where you are going.
The great thing about modern hiking and camping equipment is that it does not mean living especially rough. Modern backpacking stoves are small, don’t weight very much and boil up your supper in a flash. A good down jacket and down sleeping bag will pack away to almost nothing and will be, excuse the pun, light as a feather. And when it comes to ditching the pounds, there are few better way of doing it than by using a very light tent. One solution is to get a mountaineering tent that allows you to pitch it using only the outer fly sheet. In ditching the inner tent you will not be as warm and you won’t keep the bugs out, but you will still keep the rain off and can have a comfortable night. If you are really determined to go even lighter than that you can go for a simple tarp shelter. Some of these come in a design that allows you to pitch them as a tent using your hiking poles (sometimes called trekking poles). That way you aren’t carry tent poles as dead weight. And money should not be a barrier to travelling light either. If you are short of cash you can dump your tent entirely and take a simple and cheap tarp that you can string between two trees. It won’t keep you warm and dry in a blizzard but for simple downpours should be more than enough to keep you happy. What’s more, it is light on the trail and light on your wallet.
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