Originally Posted by
Just Bill
My thoughts are similar...
The lightest warmth is always 'more insulation' rather than insulation supplements...
Clothing... if you are carrying the clothing for clothing's sake... use it. But adding any piece of clothing to supplement your sleeping gear is always heavier than adding 10* to your quilt(s).
So adding a pound of clothing to supplement your quilts is not as effective as simply bumping your quilt a few ounces.
Protectors... as Goobie points out... a slightly bigger tarp for better coverage generally weighs less than adding socks or UQP which are really just another shell layer.
For example... while putting a wind shell over your fleece will stop wind from cutting through your fleece... adding a wind shell over your windshell (UQP over your quilt) is not helping much.
AT thru... means different things to different people. But let's say a full three season hike. IE- winter start- three season spring conditions- then full summer and into fall three season conditions.
Really... it's three different kits. As in if you were taking three different week long trips at those times of year you'd pack different stuff.
From a budget standpoint...
20* sets cover the three season trips.
To get a winter set... add a 30* partial length UQ and stack it over your 20*.
Add a 45* synthetic top quilt to your 20* top quilt OR supplement with your clothing you are probably planning to use at camp.
To get a summer set... send home your 20* sets and use your 30* partial length and 45* top quilt.
So you basicaly get a summer set, and a three season set you then combine for a 'free' winter set.
Is it the perfect winter set... nope. But do you have a full ''thru" hiker kit out of the least amount of pieces... Yes.
From a persnickety hard nosed practical and not very romantic standpoint....
Consider a later start. Most people flounder quite a bit in a typical northbound hike. NOBODY makes good miles in winter. It's cold, you wear out, daylight is limited, everything takes longer with cold fingers and on top of that you're working on building up your trail legs in the smokies region (plus the 100 or so miles to either side) which is fairly tough terrain to slog through when you've got snow flying. Your gear gets wet, heavier and every week or so you find you need a double zero or laundrymat day to dry out and warm up.
Long story short... do that same 300 ish miles in late April or May... and you might find it takes you half as long to hike it.
300 miles averaging 8 miles per day with zero days... 38 days
300 miles averaging 15 miles per day is about 20 days with less days lost for freak storms that waylay folks for a day or two that tend to crop up in addition to normal zero days.
So very long story summed up... might make more sense to simply skip deep winter and hit the trail moving when the weather breaks.
Yar... those early NOBO hero stories and week long layovers in gaitlinberg are fun to talk about. But they sure chew up trail time, budget, and gear pretty quickly.
You're also fighting the herd and the trail.
We haven't even slipped in the pig ugly and simple truth that these conditions will wash out many a would be hiker...
And even if you're from hardier stock; injury is a sneaky ***** and more likely to strike when you're wearing bulkier clothes, pushing daylight, and scrambling on half iced up trail over ground too frozen to drain the snowmelt . So even if you don't actually fall.. it's tough to care for your feet in those conditions, at best you'll lose time caring for your tootsies, at worst you'll chew up hunks of blister or even a heel that will send you off trail to fix.
The lightest gear is the gear you don't have to take.
The SUL spiral can also kick in...
Lighter gear (and more daylight) means more HOURS per day can be hiked.
More hours per day moving, is more miles per day covered.
More miles per day covered, is less food carried between resupply.
Less food carried and no winter insulation carried is a smaller pack...
A smaller pack is a lighter pack and easier to shoulder all day...
And repeat.
Each trip around the spriral tightens into that thru hiker dream of endless days of effortless walking that deep down really is all UL hiking is about at it's core.
In april/may conditions...
Start talking 20 miles per day (2 mph for 10 hours moving) in 12-14 hours of daylight... and suddenly that first 300 miles most folks spend 6 weeks punishing themselves turns into 5 days on, one day off three times and you're out in under three weeks feeling good and rolling into trail days with much more money in your pocket and ready to enjoy better trail, smaller crowds, and easier movement. So if you do a little work ahead of time on fitness; you can still be a true NOBO and work backwards from Trail days to establish an earlier start date that leaves you outside the worst of the bubble at the start but right in the sweet spot after the first 500.
You can always tack on the Long Trail or turn around and hike more of Maine if it wasn't enough time out.
Fall in New England with 1500 miles of trail legs built up is one of the most enjoyable outdoor experiences on the planet.
March/April in Georgia/TN/NC means you miss all the spring beauty of the area in exchange for seeing it in about the worst time of year to be there.
Hike your own hike of course. But might be a better head scratching excercise to consider a later start over complex gear tricks to solve problems that father time and mother nature will resolve if you work with her a bit.
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This! Just Bill, while rather long winded
, knows what he's talking about.
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