Wisdom from PCT & CDT hikers en masse

[emma_melbourne]

As I'm a bit of a gear geek, I always enjoy the major survey done on PCT thru-hikers and more recently also CDT thru-hikers, by "Halfway Anywhere".

There were 846 hikers that did the PCT survey for 2019, which is quite a decent sized sample to draw wisdom from. The survey participants list their gear, and rate each out of 5, with room for comments, and all that data gets analysed etc. You can click here for full report: https://www.halfwayanywhere.com/trails/ ... uide-2019/

[wildwanderer]

Thanks for the link. Always a interesting read.

Wow zpacks got smashed.. (very negative reviews on their packs particularly for durability)

[Warin]

Thanks for the link. Always a interesting read.

Wow zpacks got smashed.. (very negative reviews on their packs particularly for durability)

Altra also criticized, as is sawer mini.

An interesting read.

[slparker]

always interesting as it is a high volume of respondents using their equipment for a lengthy period. Not always applicable to the Australian context but still interesting.

[headwerkn]

always interesting as it is a high volume of respondents using their equipment for a lengthy period. Not always applicable to the Australian context but still interesting.

A lengthy continuous period at that too. Even those of us who get out 2-3 times a month probably aren't thrashing their gear to the extent of a thru hiker on a 6+ month jaunt.

As an aside it is interesting to see how so much gear - particularly UL gear - is designed around the specific needs of a handful of major thru-hikes. I amazed myself last week by seeing a US hiking video whose terrain, rather than just endless open mountain ridges - almost resembled Tasmanian scrub. You know, with scratchy stuff at the trail's edge that rips everything. They called it 'bushwacking', but unless you needing a running jump to actually push through the scrub, it's really just off track walking...

[Turfa]

There is some useful information in there, but I always try to put it into context, especially with regard to gear durability. Many PCT hikers are not very experienced when they start out and I think they can have unrealistic expectations of how long ultra-light gear should last. Couple this with not understanding how to treat lightweight gear, and they are often disappointed. I saw a lot of rough treatment of UL gear on the PCT
I used a Z-packs arc-blast on the PCT and it held up just fine, as did my Altra Timps that lasted over 1000 miles per pair.

[Petew]

I'd imagine a lot of the footwear complaints relating to injury would apply to any brand of shoe when starting out. Walking 20 miles a day,day after day, will cause foot shenanigans in a lot of people if not used to it.

[Al M]

Certainly interesting read as mentioned to put into context of where one does their local hikes most often and level of comfort vs acceptable weight.

For example, use of non water proof shoes to dry out quicker over a longer period of hiking and long term feet health vs Aust local hikes where it may still be worth having water proof shoes for 2-5 day duration wet walks but not fording creeks with increased comfort factor and longer term feet health less an issue.