Ultralight Backpacking and Minimalism

We’ve been hearing a lot of fuss about ultralight backpacking lately. And I am a bit annoyed when the weight of each item in your pack is detailed to the last 0.001 gram. But that’s just me.

However, I just want to point out that I am concerned that the focus of the naive audience may be confined in the issue of weight alone. It’s not totally bad. I go for minimum weight myself. But minimal weight is not really an end in itself. In my case, it is just a by-product of an ultimate goal. And my ultimate goal is MINIMALISM. Minimalism should not be confused with ultralight backpacking. Minimalism is the pursuit of achieving something with minimum or zero aid. The ultimate goal really is to rely on your body alone. It wouldn’t be minimalism to carry a proud 5-kg load that includes an ultralight sleeping pad, an ultralight camping chair, and an ultralight power bank.

Some say I was irresponsible trekking for ninety days on my own without safety equipment such as a rope, a first-aid kit, or even a compass. But I was just being me. And [ME]= [my body, wits and spirit] not my compass and other gear. 

This recent fuss about ultralight backpacking seems to be shifting the goal to how smart you could get at improvising stuff or how rich you are by being able to buy expensive ultralight gear. I'm sure this is not the intention of the proponents of ultralight backpacking but the admonition to be FIT and EXPERIENCED has been accidentally relegated.

Again, it’s not wrong to pursue minimal weight on the load you carry. I just suggest that on top of your mission to keep the weight of your load to the minimum, it would be great to keep training—to keep honing your skills—to reach the maximum potential of your body—so that ultimately, you won’t have to rely on a lot of gear, so that in the end you can rightfully say ‘I did it!’ and not ‘My ultralight gear did it!’

Yuji Hirayama, a three-time record holder for the fastest ascent on El Capitan's The Nose, echoes two of my main guiding principles in trekking:

1. Rely on your body more than your gear.
2. Travel only with thy betters or thy equals. If there are none, travel alone.

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