Mr Trail Safety Speaks!

Kilimanjaro at twilight, Shira 1. I started building my Kilimanjaro gear months before wheels-up Feb 28. It was a balance between realism and very real weight limits, hedging my bets at every turn; to the extent of buying a new digital scale. In the end, it's not your scale that counts. It's the airline's and then the tour group. Then add in that I was doing a post-Kilimanjaro trip, and needed to figure that out. I got expert advice from Dave Turner, who's forgotten more about mountain travel than I'll ever know. The Four Main Components 1/ The LARGE BLACK DUFFEL , the 1997 Eagle Creek Black Whale held all the trek gear. Inside it were [depending on trip phase] 2/ PORTER DUFFEL 3/ ARCTERYX DAY PACK 4/ GREEN BURRITO PACK: for off mountain travel [see below] The following list is what I dragged/carried to Kilimanjaro and further on. Black Whale, with Green Burrito visible. Porter Duffel obscured. 1/ LARGE BLACK DUFFEL 20L compression stuff sack [for sleeping bag] Sle...

I'm shattered, shattered... So you're putting together a playlist for your Next Big Ultra. OK! This is part of the Enthusiasm For The Sport®™ that is so endearing. I don't buy into it. Its one more piece of gear that will entangle, distract, and fuck you up. You also might miss an important sound cue from outside your bubble. Batteries, cable, playlist, BPM, and the unplanned mockery when those inspirational lyrics are the soundtrack to you doubled over, talking to the ants.  Its even more annoying when you haul into an aid station, and whoever's in charge thinks you really want to hear Journey, or whatever at volume, because its a party. And everybody's in some costume [another story altogether]. Shit makes me crazy. I'm trying to think, get a grip, and a PA is drilling into my head. I've fled aid stations to get away from the noise and discovered my bottles were unfilled.  Over the years I've relied on memory. Music emerged from deep tissu...