Note: For the most part, the cover photo is keyed to this list, starting at bottom with staff, boots, and other Foundations, and circling counterclockwise through Walls, Kitchen, Bedroom, and Clothes Closet to finish up with Furniture & Appliances and Housekeeping on (and below) the blue Therm-a-Rest pad. The obscure little black pouch (below the Atlas snowshoe, center right) is a rain cover for the Mountainsmith pack. The blue and black hieroglyph above the ice axe (bottom left center) is a Tidelands Casting Handline. Other mysteries have been solved by your reading of the book, or so we hope.
CHIP: In time, you’re sure to evolve your own list—or lists, since your needs will change according to season and terrain. I try to anticipate the country and weather, and then imagine myself passing through: an enjoyable process that gives me ideas about what to take.
But any scatter-gun list of gear—one that tries to cover every exigency—will be too long and the resulting pack too heavy. So your next step is to make a trip-specific list that leaves out quite a lot. This leaving-out will make further demands on your imagination, as you consider ditching the tent (6.5 lbs.) in favor of a tarp (2 lbs.) and think of ways to cope should the weather shift dramatically.
The third step, and the charm, is the final paring-down. Just remember Colin’s dictum: “Look after the ounces and the pounds will take care of themselves.” But however you go about it, your end result will be somehow more than a list.
This basic list is weightless. For any given item the weights are so various that an average is meaningless. Sample lists with weights for some of my recent trips follow in Appendix II.
COLIN: Suggestion: Photocopy the following basic list, rule columns in both margins, and before a trip check off each item as you put it ready (on an old groundsheet or whatever), perhaps again as you transfer each item to the pack—and possibly even once more, at trailhead, before you finally strike out and away from civilization.
Remember, your final selection for any trip will always fall far short of the complete list. (Italics are in the hope of warding off the occasional misreaders’ letters that bleat, “Surely you don’t take all that stuff along with you?”)
Stove cleaning and maintenance kit
Sleeping-bag liner (VB or other)
Mittens (shells and/or liners)
Repair tape (ripstop, duct, etc.)
Spare clevis pins, plastic buckles, etc.