The President and founder of GoLite, a specialty firm that makes ultralight hiking gear, decided to go for a world’s alpine style hiking record. That means no re-supply, you carry everything. Hit the link for the extended article.
Demetrios Coupounas, founder of GoLite, set out to spend 40 days and 40 nights hiking the Appalachian Trail. In an extravagant, almost biblical, field test, he declared that he would not re-supply, but rather strap 127 pound of stuff to his back and just keep going. But, Coup quickly found, and oddly seemed surprised, that hiking with the weight equivalent of your average lady fastened to his back “really sucked.” Forty days turned into four, and he gave up at Neel’s Gap where the fine folks at retailer Mountain Crossing helped him take a load off.
“By the end of the first day, I had this massively profound and deep feeling of ‘I don’t want to carry this thing for any reason,’” he says. “127 pounds turned out to be too much.” Umm, yea.
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