First (and failed) attempt at minimalist hiking

I recently came across the concept of minimalism, and have since decluttered most of my belongings, with huge benefits to wellbeing and happiness. Since then, I have tried to expand minimalism to other aspects of life, such as work, nutrition, exercise and social relations. However, one context stands out in particular. For what better time to apply minimalism than when you’re hiking for days at end, with nothing to hold you back besides the things you actually put on your back?

However, my introduction to minimalist hiking was no immediate success. Quite the contrary. The great news is that failures make for the best learning and the funniest stories. And with that promise, I invite you along to my first and failed attempt at minimalist hiking!

Our destination, the stunning mountains of Reineskarve nature reserve in Ål, Norway, is where I spent most of my childhood summers, and it is probably my favourite place in the world. With a backpack weighing 14,2 kg (not very minimalist!) I set out to spend two nights in the wild, one with my brother, and one alone. Here are the seven lessons we learned the heavy way (literally).

Downsize your backpack

The first part of any journey is preparing your backpack. A common saying among hikers is that you always end up filling your backpack, whether you bring the small one of 35 liters or the monster of 80. I brought the latter, and did indeed fill it completely. The psychology of this is that the extra space means you won’t have to make the difficult choice of what to leave at home, because you can – and do – bring everything.

Learn instead from my brother, Øyvind, who brought a small backpack and filled it with his camera gear, meaning there was no space for shared items such as our tent, stove and food. Guess who had to carry those…

Do I really need it?

Having chosen your backpack, step two is to decide what goes in it and not. Here, there are two questions that will guide us towards a lighter journey. The first question to ask whenever putting anything in the backpack is “Do I really need it?”. If the answer is no: leave it at home.

If the answer is yes, you ask yourself the second question: “But do I reeeeeeeally need it?” Answering this questions correctly takes some practice, but with time, you’ll find that a lot of the things you think will save you out there, in the cold and dangerous wilderness, actually end up laying unused and heavy in your backpack the entire trip.

Accoirding to Øyvind himself, reading two pages in his book was worth also carrying it up a mountain. If that is true, that book is definitely worth a read. However, unless you’re expecting a lot of raing and long hours in the tent, a book is among the first things I leave at home when hiking. / I remain sceptical/ I would have prioritized differently.

Is there a lighter alternative?

This lesson is an extension of the last question, and is about finding smaller alternatives to the things you actually need. The popular example here is from extreme lightweight hikers who cut their toothbrush in half to chip off a few grams. This might be a bit extreme for some, but a good start for most of us would be to leave the electric toothbrush at home in favour of a normal one. Here, Øyvind was less clever, bringing his electrical coloss of a toothbrush.

A lesson for me in this regard, was that I actually don’t need a heavy DSLR camera and multiple lenses in order to get good footage. In fact, I filmed our entire hike with my phone. This could have been a significant minimalist victory, had it not been for the fact that I still brought my camera gear, and didn´t use it simply because the battery was flat. This might sound like a strategic victory for me, had it not been for the fact that I actually did bring my Nikon, and the only reason it remained unused was because the battery was flat.

Substituting one item won’t make a big difference, but if you go through your entire packing list, it can make a big impact.

Do you need a camera and multiple lenses, or can you film with your phone, like I did? This would have been more clever, however, if the real reason for using my phone was not that I had forgotten to charge my my big Nikon, which made it to the mountain top as a free rider.

Real reason I used my phone, however, was only because I forgot to charge my heavy Nikon, which nevertheless made it to the mountain top.

Do you need all of it?

Following these tips (hopefully a bit better than we did), you have now likely left a lot of things at home. Nevertheless, some things you do in fact need, but do you need all of it? It is fine to buy sunscreen in bulk to save money, but don’t bring that same kingsize “tube” hiking. Had we brought only what we needed of sunscreen, toothpaste and deodorant, we would have shed almost half a kilo.

Communicate

If you travel with someone, you can also save weight by sharing the load, and not bring double sets of things you could share. As a caring older brother, I of course brought two sets of cutlery. Øyvind, as a younger brother who has learned to watch out for himself, had already brought one. Obviously we didn’t communicate.

Bringing an extra set of cutlery was a bit frustrating – imagine accidentally bringing an extra tent!

The clean, the dirty and the very dirty

One thing that worked really well on this hike was the clothes. I brought nothing I didn’t use, and if I would be travelling for 30 days instead of three, I would have brought exactly the same amount.

The trick is to organize the clothes in two sets. A dirty set for hiking and sweating, and a clean and warm set for the nights. The hiking set was fast drying, so I could wash them daily if I wanted to stay fresh. The camp set contained a shirt, wollen underwear for legs and torso, pants, a jacket, a new pair of socks, and a neck warmer. And that’s it.

No matter how successful this was, Øyvind still beat me, though. How? He brought only the dirty set. What worries me slightly, however, is that I don’t think this was an intentional action to lighten his load, but rather everyday boy´s behaviour.

The less clothes you bring means that it also becomes easier keeping track of everything, which reduces your changes of leaving things behind. I still managed to forget my jacked after playing stone skipping at a pond, and the rescue mission ended up costing me another hour of hiking, while Øyvind rested peacefully in the heather. At least the book came to good use!

The last lesson

The last lesson from this hike was that minimalist hiking is not mastered overnight. This particular hike was done just after the spreading of the ashes of our grandfather, Arnfinn, who wanted his soul to rest in the mountains. He was also the person who frequently brought home 30 kilos of rocks, and taught me “just put it at the top of your backpack, and you barely feel its weight”. Maybe our attempt at minimalist hiking wasn’t that bad after all…

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