I've never read Jardine's Beyond Backpacking which is supposed to be the bible of "light-backpacking" but there is a good article about him in the Adventure Sports Journal. From the article you get the sense that he wants nothing to do with being associated with the whole marketing machine that is now "ultra-light" backpacking, particularly after his little public spat with my my favorite war profiteer, GoLite:

“I don’t even know what fastpacking is, nor do I want to. I think whatever pack weight someone has, heavy or light, that’s great. The important thing is that they hike and camp,” Jardine related from his Arizona home.

In fact, after reading this article and about the GoLite saga, I think this is a man I can sit down with and have a beer while the ghost of Edward Abbey rustles in the background. Particularly since Jardine seems to be, with all due respect, every bit as nutty and controversial as Abbey.

In many ways Jardine’s philosophy of going light—winnowing extraneous gear from the pack and replacing overbuilt “bombproof” gear with gear designed to do the same job functionally and adequately—employs common-sense approaches used by kindred predecessors like John Muir, who would embark on exploratory hikes in the High Sierra with coat pockets filled with nuts and sleep on a bed of soft pine duff. But the Ray Way is much more than cutting the handle off your tooth brush. And it is certainly not about rushing out to buy the latest in ultralight gear. On a deeper level, it is more about overcoming the commercially promulgated view of nature as an adversary that one must continually prepare to do battle against and adopting a more rhythmic, harmonious approach to backcountry travel.

Did someone say something about the outdoor industry becoming a fashion driven reality show? Not me. So, for those of you that just bring and old day pack, a stove, sleeping bag, tarp, and a z-rest for your overnights, here are a few tips from the man the myth, also from the same article:

• Tarps not tents: As a wilderness instructor in his younger years, Jardine and his students used cheap, plastic tarps with great success in mild and inclement summer weather. Their cost was a fraction of a tent, they weighed much less but provided more sheltered living space, and had no poles or zippers to break. A decade and a half later, when he and Jenny were planning their first PCT thru-hike, they were persuaded by backpacking books and marketing hype to use the latest ‘lightweight’ (four pounds) tent instead. They soon found that poor ventilation and condensation buildup made it a liability, particularly in extended wet weather. By their fifth thru-hike in 1994 they returned to using a tarp, which cost $15 and weighed under two pounds

• Lighten your feet: Running shoes and sandals, not hiking boots, are the preferred footwear of Ray and Jenny for most hiking conditions. They’re much lighter, are easier to walk in, provide greater breathability, dry quickly, are less likely to cause blisters and other potentially crippling foot problems, and for the cost of one pair of heavy-duty boots, you can buy several pairs of quality running shoes. He recommends carrying a spare pair, rather than rely on one pair of boots. With a lighter pack, the extra ankle support boots provide is usually not necessary.

• Rain? Grab your umbrella: Instead of expensive rainwear, Jardine reaches first for an umbrella in all but the windiest, coldest conditions. An umbrella allows you to hike more comfortably, without the clammy feel that rainwear may induce, while covering your head and the top portion of your backpack. Keep a waterproof/breathable parka ready for when conditions demand.

• Sleep with your feet uphill: Counterintuitive, yes. Most of us search for flat ground to camp, and if we must sleep on a slope would rather have our head uphill. In potentially wet conditions, a slope may be the best place to camp since rain will not pool. By sleeping with your feet uphill, it prevents blood from pooling in the legs and restricting