<
TECHNICAL FEATURE
Winner Chris Townsend for A Lightweight Approach to Big Hills
Judges Carlton Reid, executive editor of www. bikebiz. com, and Elizabeth Multon of Bloomsbury Publishing
What the judges said...
Elizabeth Multon Amongst a good number of well-written travel pieces( which gave me a dangerous number of ideas for holidays and challenges), articles that stood out for me were of course those that were especially well written, but also ones that gave us insight into the writer’ s mindset, and that made me think again about how I relate to the outdoors.
Carlton Reid As per usual the standout articles stand out; evocative writing, great intros and, mostly, the accompanying photographs whet the appetite nicely. Could be just me but editing seems a bit sharper this year, especially for the best pieces, but lower down the ranks there are some howlers that show that writers need to put their pieces through Grammarly or similar( cos editors clearly ain’ t gonna do it). Digital presentation for some of the pieces is also showing a strong improvement, which can only be good.
<
Chris Townsend receiving his award from Cicerone’ s Joe Williams
About Chris...
Chris Townsend is an outdoor writer and photographer and a passionate wilderness hiker. He is the author of twenty-five books, including the award-winning Backpacker’ s Handbook, and is Equipment Editor of TGO magazine.
www. christownsendoutdoors. com
The Technical Feature award is sponsored by Cicerone, a specialist publisher of walking, trekking, mountaineering and cycling guidebooks.
www. cicerone. co. uk
A Lightweight Approach to Big Hills
Chris Townsend
Ultralight backpacking is often portrayed as risky and masochistic, as heading into the wilds with barely enough gear to survive and certainly not enough to be comfortable. It doesn’ t have to be like that. I don’ t go into the hills to practice‘ surviving’ or to suffer. I go to enjoy myself. But part of that enjoyment is having as light a load as possible. How light depends on the time of year and the destination. The key factors for combining comfort and safety with a light load are the right gear for the time and place and the skills to use that gear in the severest conditions that could occur.
Whilst equipment testing means I’ m often carrying gear that is heavier than
20 Outdoor focus | winter 2017 is strictly necessary I always try and keep the weight down. An opportunity to really do that came in June when Peter Elliott of PHD suggested a trip to try out some new ultralight down items. That was an ideal chance to really see how light I could get my load for a two-night, three-day trip in the Cairngorms. The forecast was for cooler than average temperatures with highs around 15 ° C and lows of 4 ° C plus a brisk westerly wind, frequent showers and little chance of sunshine. Good conditions in fact for seeing just how an ultralight setup performed.
What weight constitutes‘ ultralight’ or‘ lightweight’ though? I don’ t think you can or should put a figure on it. Aiming for a target weight could mean omitting something essential or taking something too light for the conditions just to achieve it. Take the lightest items that will do what’ s needed and that fits the definition in my opinion. I also think there’ s a difference between the weight of essential gear and any optional extras such as reading matter, cameras and other non-backpacking items. Reduce the weight of essentials and you can carry more of the extras! I can’ t imagine going without camera gear, notebook and e-reader or paperback under any circumstances.
So to keep the weight of a backpacking load low the weight of essential items is the key, especially the weight of the big items – pack, shelter, sleeping bag, sleeping mat. For