When it comes to adventure gears, forget all you have been told by marketing, less is more ! Here is why.
When I started this blog I thought I’d be reviewing all sort of gears provided by friendly sponsors looking for a cheap promotion. At the time, having the latest gadget seemed essential to me. A good student has the right tools they say. So, like a sucker, I did my research and just to be “safe”, I bought everything !… It had to be the best, the most expensive, the lightest, the brightest, the most tech savvy… It also had to be color coordinated, make me look like a pro, give me a sense of confidence, etc… To get it all the way I wanted it to be and look, took me a while, a long while. And all this while I was staying at home studying charts and reviews instead of going out.
Once finally ready, looking like a adventuring magazine cover, loaded like an abused donkey pilling under the weight of all the ultra light gismos, I took off for my big adventure… Only to return home the same day, too embarrassed to tell anyone ! All this ultra light shit combined was so heavy, there was no way. It couldn’t be the gears, it had to be me. I was too weak to carry the load of a real man ! I needed to work out, I was unprepared… So I postponed my trip again, to the point I not only looked good with the gears, but without as well :)… And all of that for the exact same result. It was still too heavy. I could carry it fine, but there was no pleasure in it. Worse, by the end of the trip, I hadn’t touched the vast majority of what I had brought with me. All dead weight carried along at my expanse for no reason. So I began to slim up the list. Each trip a bit less, till one day, on a steep rocky climb up an Oman mountain, I saw and old men wearing old flip-flops passing me and my tech gears with a smile. That day I realized that we westerners are just suckers for marketing.
It is not about the gear, it’s about you.
How you are physically and mentally prepared, not what you bought for the occasion. From that day on, I carry with me close to nothing. Or at least nothing special worth making too many detailed gear reviews about. There will be some, yes. But usually to tell you how it is best to avoid the unnecessary.
Cover picture by Alexander Andrews found on Unsplash.com