It’s all about weight isn’t it? The pursuit of buoyancy, the borderline paranoia of excess grams, fixations of featherlike fantasies and loads so light we daren’t upset them with surplus poundage.
Some thru-hikers pack out stuff that weighs too much. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and we all have our own reasons but why?
Cost – granted, sometimes we all have to make do with what the bank balance is screaming at us.
Comfort – sure, sometimes the lightest doesn’t make us feel secure for whatever reason.
Durability? Possibly, more expensive alternatives would suggest better build quality.
So why don’t all thru-hikers carry the Petzl E-Lite ? It’s the lightest, one of, if not the cheapest and surely it does everything that a comfort seeking, financially aware and weight conscience wilderness seeker could demand.
The E-Lite has been around for a few years and when first introduced it‘s selling point was not as a standalone head torch, but as an emergency backup should your main unit fail. This pretty much dropped it into its own self-made coffin as far as a thru-hiker was concerned. To a thru-hiker, a ‘spare’ of anything doesn’t register up top –
‘Sorry? Why would I want to take 2 pairs of socks? Underwear, nah, you’re OK, I’m all good thanks’.
So, a backup was how it sold, and sell well it did. Indeed I merrily went down to my local Petzl outlet during the days when my gear concern was sadly priority, and duly handed over my debit card. And I never used it because let’s face it, how many times, other than flat batteries, has your head torch failed on you? I carried it on a couple of trips, never used it and those familiar words of wisdom we read in the outdoor magazines started to haunt me – ‘Look at your gear and if there is something you don’t use after 10 trips, then ditch it’. Most of us carry spare batteries anyway, except, yes you guessed it, a thru-hiker and even if we don’t, there’s a smart phone somewhere with the torch app just waiting to impress. Or someone had a lighter somewhere.
I did meet hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail using the familiar little red and black unit that appeared to have dropped out of a Christmas cracker. They never complained about it and there were no apparent problems. The reason I never took one on a thru-hike was for the rather pathetic excuse that sometimes I thought I may night hike and wanted something more powerful to light my passage. In all my 458 days of thru-hiking I have notched up an impressive 1/2 of a night hike. That’s a half, as in a half on one, about 4 hours and then I got scared of the dark.
Make no mistake; the E-Lite is crap for night hiking. I tried going up Snowdon once with one at 3am and I could barely see 4 feet in front of me. And if you are night hiking a long distance trail there’s a pretty reasonable chance you have company, and a plausible likelihood that they’re unit is more powerful and makes up for your lack of a contribution.
So, my decision is made. Unless I plan on taking on a hair line ridge in the middle of the night, I am now packing just my little E-Lite (minus the red plastic container it comes with – grams you know).