This week is a huge deal for me. My vacation is starting at the end of the week and now I have some big plans. Within one week I will be backpacking a trail in my state that is 55 miles long and filled with lots of elevation change. It is going to be a really hard and complicated trip and I am going to be heading out with a few friends. One thing that I have to take into account is going to be my ability to do this trip safely with my stoma. I am an ostimate and will be taking along some extra gear that no one else will. This can be a really hard thing to do when it comes to backpacking because gear means more weight and more weight usually means a harder trip and less fun all around. That is why I am planning on taking my gear to a super lightweight level and I want to prepare for the lightest trip of my life.
I am first starting off by lowering my pack weight by going through my big three. In backpacking, this means your backpack, your sleeping gear, and your sleeping shelter. This is going to be a process for me to cut down on that weight so I can put more ostomy gear in its place. I think I can actually cross the line of being lightweight and moving into the ultralightweight realm. This means that my base items keep me under 10 lbs. That would really be nice because since I have a stoma I am not going to be able to use a normal backpack.
My stoma location is going to prevent me from using a normal backpacking backpack that allows people to use hipbelts to transfer some of the weight to my hips. But since my stoma is in the way, I will have to settle for a backpack that only has shoulder straps. This means that I need some super lightweight gear to go along with this backpack because I know that anything over 20 pounds will be hard to carry for a long distance. This means that my backpack needs to be super light. I have looked at a lot of packs, but in the ultralight realm, they usually do not have hipbelts and are created to only have shoulder straps. Usually, these packs are made of dinema and are not only waterproof but weigh around 1 pound. This is amazing because with it being waterproof as well I can eliminate a pack cover. This lower the weight of my backpack in general.
The next step was to find a sleeping system that was super light. The truth is that quilts that are made of down are much less heavy than sleeping bags. This is because they have half the amount of material in that they have no bottom. So I found an enlightened equipment one that will allow me to sleep warm for 1 pound. That is 1/3 the weight of my sleeping bag so I can substitute that weight with more ostomy gear. Right there I made up all the weigh tI needed for this trip. With a super dinema lightweight tent, I got under 10 lbs for all my main gear and I just added water and food. my 15-pound pack was perfect for my trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment