Nearly Idiot-Proof Packing in One Stop
By Rocky Thompson on May 4th, 2009
The site 24HourPack.com sells loaded backpacks ready for a trip into the backcountry. The idea is that you’d order one online, open the box when FedEx arrives, and then pull it out and march into the wilds. It’s a vaguely interesting idea and might make a fun weekend if you just put the pack on and started walking without even checking what comes in it. For example, you’d have a stove but no fuel, water bottles without water, and a couple handwarmers for summer. They include a headlamp and a backup light source, but there won’t be much to look at in the empty map case. The 24HourPack PREpack costs about $500, depending on pack and GPS options.
via Get Outdoors
“Please add any and all food and water, clothing, shelter, technical and other gear you feel is necessary for your outdoor adventure or mission” because our packs are useless for anything besides all-night raves at unsanitary nudist resorts. WTF.
Gee, thanks for the review there, Rocky and David!
I guess my customers–often Search & Rescue folks, like myself, as opposed to expert hikers like yourself–are the idiots. By the way, there’s a stove in there? I hadn’t noticed!
Seriously, I never thought offering some pre-equipped packs based on the ten essential idea (no, not all gear, because I’m not into selling clothing, food or technical rescue equipment) would get someone all worked up.
Why so critical of a convenient day hiker’s kit? Why would you not pull open the kit and examine the contents before you leave home? DUH, put in your own map - why expect the kit maker to magically know where you want to go when you order the kit? This is a ridiculous criticism of a product provided by a SAR team member who is trying to assist people new to hiking with a kit to address SOME of the needs of a hiker. This is certainly an improvement over hiking through the wilderness with a half liter of water in inappropriate shoes - a very common practice judging from the people I’ve met sitting alongside the trail suffering heat exhaustion on the way up to Nevada Falls (Yosemite). They should have this in the stores in National Parks. Criticizing the lack of fuel is quite ridiculous - you can’t ship fuel! Against postal/UPS regulations! Clue time!
That’s true, Lori (and thank you), I can’t even ship a Bic lighter because (to do it properly and not sneak it in, which would be a federal offense) would cost me thousands of times more than the lighter itself. (By the way, Rocky, there IS no stove, so why do you want fuel in there?)
But, hey, this is just another option. All the gear is basic stuff and regular, known brands. If hikers of ANY level experience want to go climb a mountain or hike for day with nothing at all and no backpack, fine. (Well, I hope they’d be fine.) But if they want to have a 24-hour pack (general term), which all SAR members that I know are required or at least strongly urged to carry, and they are interested in some of the gear to get one started, then maybe they’ll be interested in one of my packs. If not … again, fine! I just don’t quite get the sarcasm. Oh, but, just to make you happy, Rocky, would you like me to ship the water bottles filled?
Why would I want to trim my bushes with my lawnmower? Sound stupid? It is, but that doesn’t prevent plenty of people from trying it. That’s why the owner’s manuals have all those idiotic warnings. Rocky’s misinterpretation of your pack is nothing short of average– kind of like people who try to trim their bushes with a lawnmower.
His sarcasm, however, is well above average. That’s how he rolls. This ain’t no group hug here.
Ah, I see. I haven’t hung ’round these parts, so I wasn’t familiar with the sarcasm. Just a different kinda girl I am, I guess. But no worries, I just wanted to add my two cents about my idea. Besides, what’s a little come-back now and then to liven things up?
Wow. A whole lot of snark here. Some companies offer prebuilt kits for sport climbing, trad climbing and whatever & I don’t see a problem with that, either. I get asked a lot by new folks what to get when learning to hike or climb. This looks like a convenient and thought out prepackage. And handwarmers might come in handy if your stuck in a summer snow/hailstorm up in Yankee Boy Basin or in the Uncompaghre, for example, or the PNW.
“pack your suitcase? you’re what the french call ‘les incompentant.’” part of the fun in going on a trip is preparing for it, not having someone else pack your bag for you.
Andy, I agree. That’s why I ship the gear still in the packages, so people can UNpack it all and then pack their packs themselves, with whatever else they see fit to take.
See! (I’m kind of kidding, but it’s true–the stuff isn’t nice and compact, IN the pack, when shipped, like it will be once the owner condenses it.)
But does buying a bunch of gear at one time, either online as a “kit” or at an outfitter, make someone incompetent? Hardly. No gear has any bearing on being competent or not. And, as I’ve said, this is an option as a foundation for a 24-hour pack (a general term), not everything and anything someone might want or need to take on an outing (um, food, clothing, etc.). I mean, COME ON. This is just basic gear. No need for anyone to get their hikin’ knickers in a wad.