I was actively involved in the outdoors for may years – backpacking, walking, kayaking, mountain biking, it all came to a stop about 16 years ago for various reasons, part health, and part other stuff. When I moved to Spain 9 years ago I weighed 10.5 stone. At the start of last year I was over 96 kilos as a result of integrating too much into the Spanish culture which involves a lot of good food and wine!

At the end of last summer, I realised that this year I would be 50, and I was a fat lazy bastard who had stopped doing a lot of the things he had enjoyed and had become disconnected from some pretty important things. So I started walking, exercising, exploring the Catalan natural parks. Got the weight down to 79 kilos, 40 mins of cardiovascular every day etc etc

I like walking alone, the silence, going at your own pace…

As a birthday present from my wife, I decided I was going to re-equip myself to get back into backpacking. So I started looking around for gear, and realised there was a wonderful world of Ultralight backpacking. Carrying a lighter pack meant that my bad back would be hurting less, and I’d be able to go further. And,what was more, some of the things now popular to reduce weight, I’d been doing years ago. I’d been a pioneer! OK, perhaps not.

For instance, my old solo tent was a Saunders Jetpacker. I had a hateful relationship with that tent. I could never get a good pitch. The inner would always touch the outer in storms, the outer would flap around making a hell of a noise. Until one night below Helvellyn, in the middle of a storm, I got so fed up I unclipped the inner and slept on top of it. I never used the inner again. Just the Jetpacker outer and some black garden plastic as a ground sheet.

Folk now seem to appreciate the value of a hood-less quilt in place of a mummy bag. I used to use a Mountain Equipment synthetic bag which I ripped the hood off and always slept with it with the zip open.

There are some truly inspirational people doing some stuff with incredibly light loads. When I started looking around for gear, I came across Colin Ibbotson. This guy is serious about his weight! Using a lightweight tarp, he takes on anything, including the TGO Challenge.. So that was kind of settled. A tarp. Made of cuben. By MLD

And just to publish a statement of intent – I’m aiming for the TGO Challenge in 2011. before that I need to get the mileage up, mountain skills back, and do some Scottish training.

Then scooting around the internet, I came across Andy Howell who had just put his tarp to one side in favour of a DuoMid. He was kind enough to share his thoughts, so the idea of the tarp went in favour of a cuben DuoMid. But there is a MLD tarp in my future for the summer months.

The incredibly adaptable Tim Marshall agreed to make me a 22oz quilt and a 7/8 oz bivy. So done and dusted. That, with the addition of a not-yet-released pack from Aarn make up my big three. The pack is heavier than I’d like but will help my Ankylosing Spondylitis along. I’m aiming for a base weight of 5 to 6 lbs.

This post celebrates the successful paypal activity, that has this stuff winging its way.

More soon.