Rattled by Reddit

I'll be honest, I had my confidence rattled a bit over the last two days when seeking input on my gear list. What I thought was a pretty good starting base-weight apparently was about 9 pounds over what is generally recommended.

A thread on Reddit in particular turned into a real shit show. I managed to shave 4 of those 9 pounds off with the help of one particular respondent, but that fact got buried in a sub-thread and other folks coming in only saw half the leg-work and the cascade of Internet Assholery (tm) thus began.

I admittedly let it get under my skin this morning, having some particularly shitty comments and seeing basically half the crowd there making assumptions and implying that I wasn't listening to advice, when I obviously was... it wasn't the thing I needed to wake up to.  WTF, I took a ton of suggestions and put them to use... just not every single suggestion.

The major factor being how my anxiety disorders have informed some of my gear choices, and how the accommodations I have to make to cope with my mental illnesses are adding a couple of pounds via an extra power bank and two separate water treatment options.

For some crazy reason, I was expecting a degree of empathy from Reddit. It didn't take long to realize the flaw in that logic. Jesus.

After politely explaining my unique situation about, oh, forty-five fucking times to people who clearly lack reading comprehension, yeah... I started to get a bit frustrated.

Just like at work, some of these folks simply cannot differentiate between the severity of a anxiety disorder in compared to common every day anxieties.

It's like comparing a windy Autumn day to a fucking hurricane.  Same game, but in entirely different leagues.

For the first time since leaving work last month, these people were making me feel hopeless and useless, making me second guess myself and feel like my mental illness WILL prevent me from my goals here.

I'm past that now, for the most part. The sobering reality is: I do need to lower my pack weight as much as I can, and I've been working on doing so over the last 48 hours.

There are some roadblocks, however. There's not much left I can lose, to be frank. The way the GoPro chews up battery life makes that second power bank essential if I want to film... and I DO plan to film as often as I'm able to.

I've cut down on the GoPro accessories by about half, with my entire camera kit together runs about 2lbs. This is unreasonable to others... but I'll take those 2lbs so I can capture the best footage possible in my once-in-a-lifetime experience. They say to just use my phone.

No.

I'm not quite a pro, but I am above a rank fucking amateur when it comes to photo and film production ... and this is the best chance I've had in my life to date to gather some of my own footage that could be worth a damn that I can use as I please, royalty free. I know some people think their iPhone camera gets some keen shots, but play that shit on a 60 inch 4k screen, motherfucker and then get back to me.


I may not know much, but I have pixels in my blood god dammit and I'm already leaving behind two other action-cams and my DSLR camera. I can't scale back the camera stuff a single ounce more.. and to be frank I'm tempted to still add one or two minor things to it for my convenience and the haters can eat a crusty butthole for all I care.  

I need other areas to cut weight, and about the only place I see to cut anything of significance is that sleeping bag. By switching to a down quilt, I can lose a full pound and a couple ounces along with it. The only problem with that is .... well, down quilts are fucking expensive bro. I'm looking at abour $300 for a mediocre one, closer to $400 if I want one that won't shit out on me after a month or two.

I'm not comfortable with that yet... maybe when my tax returns come in. Maybe. It depends how much that ends up being.

Otherwise.. I don't know man. I could spring for a lighter backpack, but at the size I need we're talking a good $350, and that'll save me 3-4 ounces at BEST. That's just not worth it, not when I don't have a fucking job anymore.

And still my clothes have not been factored into that weight, so god forbid.....