Archetype
The Minimalist
Less kit, more country.
You would rather carry fifteen kilograms and walk further than carry fifty and drive to the view. The vehicle, if there is one, is transport to a starting point.
You are the type most likely to see a landscape properly, because you move slowly through it. Your risk is the margin: light kit is unforgiving in bad weather, and self-sufficiency has a floor below which it becomes exposure.
Strengths
- Excellent judgement about what is genuinely needed
- Fit, mobile and able to travel where vehicles cannot
- Low impact on the places you pass through
Watch for
- Cutting the safety margin along with the weight
- Cold and wet, where light equipment reaches its limit fastest
- Being alone in places where help is far away
Kit
- A sleeping system with a mat rated properly for the ground
- One shell that genuinely keeps weather out
- Filter, map, compass and a way to call for help
- Vehicle
- Whatever gets you to the trailhead, plus a pack that carries three days of autonomy without needing it.
- First trip
- Three days on foot or on a small bike from a base camp, sleeping out, cooking on one burner.
