In the West you have to carry way more shit because you can't rely on natural resources to improvise. For example, the only sleep pad you need in the East year-round is an ultralight closed cell cheapo pad, because you can just pile as many hemlock boughs underneath it as necessary for insulation and comfort. For shelter you can use a bivvy style tent and make a vestibule or other expanded living space from saplings and branches and bark. You can save tons of weight by just using a hammock tent. Dry firewood is absolutely everywhere and you don't need a stove. You don't need trekking poles because you can just make a walking stick. A folding saw and a sturdy fixed blade combined with some skill can replace almost half the shit people carry. Very hard to pull that off when you're in a place with very few trees that are all weak softwood and where touching them is banned. Lots of conventional backpacking gear and strategies considered basic and critical by others I just don't give a shit about because I've always just relied on bushcraft instead and see no reason to change. I don't even own a single inflatable sleep pad or fuel burning stove anymore, I would never carry such a thing.
>>2789306It's true. In Arizona I use a closed cell pad because there are thorns and spines everywhere. I carry all my water, 6-8L for an overnight. Since I'm carrying water anyway I carry pre-hydrated food. Since I'm carrying pre-hydrated food I don't need a stove or fuel.
>>2789306true some really good points but a few of those aren't super necessary or there's other ways for us to circumvent their importance:>Dry firewood is absolutely everywhere and you don't need a stove.can just go cookless and not even need a stove in the first place.>You don't need trekking poles because you can just make a walking stick.walking sticks provide stability but you can't really move the load of your hike from your back and legs to your arms like you can with trekking poles. and if your trekking poles integrate into your tent they're basically free weight anyways, they don't weigh a whole lot more than the tentpole they replace.>A folding saw and a sturdy fixed blade combined with some skill can replace almost half the shit people carry. wood's plentiful for me where i am on the west coast but honestly taking the time to booshcraft with it is a waste of time if you're trying to cover a lot of miles in a day. >I don't even own a single inflatable sleep pad or fuel burning stove anymore, I would never carry such a thing.me neither i only really use my stove on day hikes to cook goofy food at the summit and when i'm doing trail service. inflatable pads are kinda a meme as much as they're really good on paper they just can't be relied on. learning how to sleep on your back goes a long way towards tolerating less luxury.
>>2789306>In the West>t.never beenthis is a very retarded thread but...its hard to generalize a place like "the west" with a bazillion different biomes ie; in the northern rockies none of what you claimed to be impossible in "the west" is accurate. Plenty of wood, plenty of water, plenty of boughs for sleeping lol>where touching them is bannedoh its a b8 thread. sorry. my bad.
