To Camp or Not: Weight Weenies?

January 2, 2015

As we travelled around Europe this past summer, we found ourselves increasingly lured away from camping. We had many reasons or excuses. Maybe it was too hot, or too cold. Or maybe a campground was too far off route, or maybe creaky knees made it too hard to get into and out of the tent. Finally there was the siren call of the fluffy beds and elaborate breakfasts in guesthouses and hotels, particularly in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

In the end I would look resentfully at the two full size Ortlieb rear bags plus large rack bag, weighing me down in back and all devoted to camping that we were not doing.

So now that we are home but planning more trips, the question is "Are we camping or not?". Naturally nothing is simple or black and white with us, so the answer came back "Well maybe 1/4 of the time". So then we asked "Are we going to carry that tonne of gear for just 1/4 of the time?". If you think this means we were spinning in circles, you are right.

As we spun, we thought we saw a way out. If we could reduce the tonne of camping gear to something more reasonable, maybe it would matter less that we were using it less. In principle, 1/4 the weight could be consistent with 1/4 the use. (Let's get really mathematical for a bit. Even going flat out for camping we would tend to camp no more than 3/4 of the time. So going to 1/4 time is a 2/3 reduction).

Bearing the math loosely in mind, we could start off looking at our tent. It is a quite excellent 3 person Black Diamond Vista, worth a little over $400 and weighing (with footprint, peg hammer, and bag) over 7 pounds. 1/3 of that would be 2 1/3 pounds. What is out there at that weight? Nothing, except maybe an emergency bivy sack. But hey, there is the 3 pound MSR Nook two person mountain tent! According to MSR it's a fitting home for two adventurers even in the high mountains!

So off we skipped into town, to the Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC). Just outside someone called out "Hey, it's the Grampies!" This turned out to be Kathy Classen and her friend Val Baker. Kathy is famous to us, for her recent blog (with Keith), Poking Around Europe 2.0. We had been following the Classens on Crazyguy during the summer as we ourselves were on the road. Kathy and Val were at MEC for no better reason than we were. When not on the road there is no better fun than looking at gear that could come on the next trip.

For cyclists (and lots of others) visiting MEC is good off season fun.

Once inside MEC we didn't stop at looking, but happily popped down $375 plus tax for the Nook. The Nook is an amazing product. So light you would hardly notice it in a day pack. We watched an installation video on Youtube - it would be simple. And there on screen was the happy and comfortable couple, up in the mountains, sitting on front of their roomy Nook!

We set up the Nook in our bedroom, and yes, it was easy. The only thing, you must peg it in at the rear, or it drags its tail like some kind of sad puppy. If you don't want to pound two pegs into your bedroom floor, there is a supplied fitting with which you can stiffen the rear using a trekking pole.

The MSR Nook (right) makes our Black Diamond Vista (left) look enormous.

The advertised width of the Nook is 50 inches, but when we put our two 25 inch Thermarest Neo air mattresses inside, they did not really fit. Maybe the 50 inch rating includes the extent to which the floor climbs up the side wall, to form the bathtub? Even if the pads would fit, there sure was no room inside for much else, not even a handlebar bag. We tried lying down, and soon got into a small shoving match, looking for space for our various elbows and miscellaneous parts. Now we maybe see the trick in that Youtube video. The couple sitting outside the Nook were younger than us (a lot younger), and probably think it more fun to sleep on top of each other!

So the Nook was a washout. Bigger tents are out there, of course, but they are naturally heavier. None seemed to have enough of an advantage to warrant the cost.

This led us to have a look at other stuff we are using for camping, like for example the sleeping bags. Dodie sleeps warm, and already has a minimal down bag, weighing 2 pounds. Mine is ultra fluffy, and weighs 3 pounds. I courageously agreed to move to another one we have, weighing 2 3/4 pounds! MEC no longer sells the 2 pound model, but offers one at about 2 1/4 pounds. Even we did not think it was worth the approximately $200 to move me from 2 3/4 pounds to 2 1/4 pounds.

The 964 gram MEC "Gosling" down bag is gorgeous, but do we need another bag?

Now Dodie stepped in and donated our bike covers (which she loves!), 1 1/3 pounds. Then how about our wonderful REI Flex Lite chairs - almost 2 pounds, each! We probably have other gear we could ditch. But it's kind of silly. I was not actually complaining originally that my bike was too heavy for me. I only felt that carrying camping gear that was not used was silly. So why would we now drop things that actually we do use? Dunno. It's easy to get crazy in the off season!

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