Fall 2004

Skills Section — Lightening Your Load
You love getting outdoors—mountain views are inspirational and the fresh air is cleansing—but the 60 pounds you just carried seven miles on your back is knotting your back and shoulders like a macramé plant holder. Worse, your knees are signing off for the rest of the trip.

You’ve vowed that the next trip will be different, but where to start? Wilderness Outings Ultralight Backpacking Director Glen Van Peski offers some suggestions:

Get a Scale
The first step to lightening your load is an honest assessment of your current equipment:

Start with the Big Three
Most likely, the three heaviest items you carry are your pack, your tent and your sleeping bag. Commonly known as the Big Three, you’ll get the most weight savings with the best dollar value if you replace one or more of these items.

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Pack While there are many pack choices from major manufacturers in the 3-pound range, try out some packs in the 1- to 2-pound range for better weight savings. If you really get serious, you can find packs suitable for week-long trips that weigh as little as 7 ounces! Remember: the lighter your contents, the less carrying capacity you’ll need from your pack.

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Tent Your tent options will vary based on whether you’re seeking shelter for just yourself, your family or you and your partner, and may also depend on climate and season. But in just about any scenario, options exist for less than two pounds per person. And if you are diligent in your search, you can find one pound per person choices—even if you’re solo, as long as you can make the jump to a tarp.

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Sleeping Bag Of the Big Three, the sleeping bag most often represents a fairly high cost for reduced weight, and will probably offer the least opportunity for weight savings. So to make your investment worth it, be sure your weight savings are significant. Some manufacturers offer down bags that range between 1 to 1-1/2 lbs, but keep in mind, as always, your intended trips and seasons of travel, and how warm or cold you sleep.

Carry Less
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But you’ve probably tried and discovered how hard it really is. However, as you gain more experience, you’ll find that you’re able to take less equipment because you can rely more on your skills and expertise…so get out more!

Finally, Glen points out, “You should make changes slowly so you build experience while staying safe. Never take less equipment than you need for your intended trip and experience level. And don't forget to consider the experience level and pack weights of your trip companions!”

Need some more help in rethinking your gear? Check out our Ultralight Backpacking Courses.

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Autumn Destinations
Did summer pass you by? Too many weddings, graduations and family reunions to make plans for a real outdoors adventure?

Southern California is blessed with beautiful autumn weather, and both mountains and deserts are ideal destinations for an outdoors escape. This year, however, fire danger may limit access to some nearby locales like our backyard playground Idyllwild or the San Gabriel and San Bernardino ranges. So where to go? Here are some thoughts for your next weekend away:

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Anza-Borrego Desert State Park With over 600,000 acres and hundreds of miles of hiking trails, this is the largest state park in the contiguous United States. Badlands, bizarre elephant trees, and palm groves are just a few of this area’s many wonders; and hot springs in the southern part of the park can help ease your muscles from a hard day of discovery. On your way home, take in the beautiful fall weather and a slice of fresh apple pie in the mountain town of Julian off Highway 78 in the Cuyamaca Mountains. link

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Alabama Hills The rock formations may look like Joshua Tree, but the backdrop of tall granite spires like Mt. Whitney and the rest of the Eastern Sierras tell you you’re in the Alabama Hills. Once busy with movie productions and television shows such as the Lone Ranger and Butch Cassidy, the Alabama Hills now boast over 200 sport climbs and cracks with lots of moderates in the 5.9 to 5.10 ranges. Camping at nearby Tuttle Creek Campground is free and Lone Pine is 5 minutes away for a beer and pizza dinner. link back to top ->

Staff Profile: Monique LeMay and Michael Habicht
Longtime Wilderness Outings Instructors Monique LeMay and Michael Habicht have recently returned from a 4,000 mile roadtrip where they hiked, biked, and climbed in some of the most amazing areas in the United States. Read on for a vicarious adventure!

Waking up to an alarm at 2:45 AM is, well, alarming. Our brains are not prepared for the barrage of sights, sounds, and smells that attack our senses while camped at 10,000 feet. First we have to remember where we are, which usually comes back quickly as we brush a cheek against the side of a cold damp tent, then we have to remember why we came here. Ah, yes, the summit! It looked so peaceful and desirable from afar! But we haven’t seen the summit since we started hiking and the cold morning air removes any thoughts of basking in the afternoon glow at 13,000 feet. Slowly things come into perspective, we find our headlamps, talk about the day and start to realize that it’s rather noisy inside the tent. Is it windy or is it raining? It almost sounds like a thousand mice crawling everywhere. We have to open the tent flap before we realize that it’s hailing. A constant drone of hail created the white noise. This is no way to start a climb! Secretly we are both counting our blessings as we drift back into sleep. Tomorrow, we will try again.

Timing is everything in the outdoors. You can make or break a trip by rushing through or by delaying your assault too long. The more time you spend in the outdoors the more you learn about when to push and when to wait it out. Monique and Michael Habicht got the chance to wait out the weather more than once while on their four and half month road trip to rock climb and mountain bike around the U.S. “It’s not always about the summit,” Monique recalls, “We spent two days in a tent waiting out storms to get to the top of the Grand Teton. During that time my husband and I got to know each other better, we saw a rare golden ferret, and we played a lot of hangman! After all of that we still didn’t make it to the top. With only a few hundred feet to reach the summit, another storm rolled in and we had to back off. We were out of food and out of time but the funny thing is I remember the Exum Direct on the Grand Teton as one of my favorite climbs!”

Monique and Michael also got the chance to push themselves by climbing some of America’s premiere mountains, including Mt. Whitney, Shasta, Rainier, Pingora and a host of others throughout the U.S. “It’s an amazing feeling to move that quickly!” Michael explains, “When you know what you are doing and you feel comfortable in the outdoors it can be effortless! We decided to climb Mt. Shasta in one day even though we are not the best athletes in the world. We were well prepared for it mentally and knew it would be one hard push. Fortunately the weather cooperated and we made it. Fourteen miles and over 7,000 feet of climbing! We felt great…tired, but great!”

After rock climbing or mountain biking on their full suspension tandem almost every day of the week for such a long time, Monique and Michael had fine-tuned their skills and had a blast though it all. These two guides actually met through Wilderness Outings, dated, climbed together, and not long thereafter, married. When they aren’t on the road or guiding clients, Michael studies medicine at UC Irvine and Monique is a graphic designer.

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Upcoming Courses
Hey...it's Joshua Tree Season again! Check out our upcoming rock climbing courses:

> Beginning Backpacking : 9.18, 10.16, 11.13
> Parent n' Kids Trek & Climb : 10.22
> Day on the Rocks : 9.26, 10.24, 11.21
> Anchor Skills : 9.25, 10.23, 11.20

Of course you can also find plenty of backpacking, navigation and first aid courses on our site.

Climb Smart 2004 , October 1-3
This popular weekend event is back! Learn how to push your rock skills while being safe and be a good steward of your local crag. Wilderness Outings will be supporting this event by providing some of our best instructors to benefit the Friends of Joshua Tree and the Access Fund.

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