NOLS Instructors Lighten Packs

This last week NOLS Southwest was once again the proud host of the Lightweight Backpacking Seminar for NOLS Instructors. This annual training followed on the heals of two lightweight backpacking courses that successfully educated twenty new NOLS graduates.

NOLS has been offering lightweight courses for five years, both out of the Rocky Mountains and the Desert Southwest. The Southwest is currently the location that trains instructors in the special considerations and additional skills that this unique course type requires. The four day instructor seminar that just took place was generously supported by our friends at GoLite who provided gear for the participants.

GoLite led the fast and light revolution and refined how
people experience nature by thinking differently. Not just about weight,
but about how outdoor gear is designed and built. Today, they develop simple,
beautiful, high performance gear that they intend to be light on the planet. The GoLite company is motivated by a philosophy of using
just what is needed. It’s about being light, but not fragile. Simple,
but not dumb with the idea of allowing you to forget about your gear and live
in the experience. So far we agree. GoLite has been an involved supporter of the lightweight program at NOLS since it’s inception in 2005, most notably through brainstorming gear selection for courses and support of the lightweight instructor seminar.

Scott Christy and I have been working this seminar together for the last
three years and we were excited to change up the location from the
beautiful Galiuros range to somewhere new to us. This years seminar traveled to the seldom visited Santa Theresa Wilderness Area northeast of Tucson. With only three access roads this amazing Wilderness is mostly home to mountain lion and deer.

This rugged Wilderness is punctuated by granite domes, making it a magical place for off-trail exploration. The Southwest has been experiencing remarkable heavy rains and snow on higher peaks, giving the region more of a “Southwet” feel than we are used to. We chose the Santa Theresa Wilderness to check out some new terrain and new gear, and because the area we were going to explore stayed predominately below 6000′, keeping us out of the snow still lingering on the higher peaks. Weather and terrain considerations are always important in the backcountry and play a bigger role in lightweight backpacking, often driving one’s gear selection for a trip.

For this Seminar, everyone slept in the GoLite Ultralite 3-season quilt, a 25 oz. 800+ fill down “blanket” with excellent features for the discerning lightweight traveler. The quilt concept was new to many of our participants, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all, even in the wet conditions that we experienced.

We took a variety of shelters on the seminar, including the GoLite Shangri-la 5 and Shangri-la 2, the Black Diamond Mega-Lite, and a prototype tarp from Bridge Outdoors, a Lander, Wyoming based company that NOLS works with.

GoLite is doing some cool things with shelters these days. They are using a combo sil-nylon and pu coated 15 denier nylon which is significantly lighter with better water proofing characteristics. By doing this they have been able to factory tape the seams and still decrease the weight over the previous generation of shelters!

The standard recommended pack for the NOLS lightweight program is the GoLite Jam which has seen significant refinement (with some increase in weight) over the last couple years. NOLS has worked with GoLite designers to make sure that this pack continues to meet the needs of NOLS Lightweight courses. The durability and carrying capacity of this pack is perfect for a 25-30 pound load, and new waist belts increase comfort. Because NOLS Lightweight courses go out at 25 pounds or less, this pack is our go-to choice for the lightweight program.

This seminar is for current NOLS instructors who want to work in the lightweight program and for those looking to lower pack weights on traditional courses around the school. NOLS is the leader in Wilderness education, and offering this continuing education and training is one of the ways we stay at the forefront of the industry. NOLS Lightweight program offers the best trained staff and most developed lightweight curriculum in the outdoor education industry.

The nine instructors taking this seminar were an enthusiastic bunch, eager to learn the skills to travel lighter in the Wilderness.

After an introduction to the history of lightweight backpacking at NOLS and the philosophy of going lighter, we looked at our gear choices critically using a digital scale and a spreadsheet to make informed choices.

After a morning of geeking out on the weight of EVERY piece of gear, we loaded up the vehicles and headed for the mountains.

During the seminar, we experienced unseasonal moisture due to heavy rains the previous week, and had a full day of rain. This created the perfect conditions in which to train these instructors, cold, wet and challenging.

The Santa Theresa Wilderness is not particularly large, but it provides stunning views and beautiful terrain in a compact and remote setting. We spent our days covering miles, eight miles our first hiking day, and twelve the second. We cooked on Trail Designs Caldera Cone alcohol stoves made from recycled pop cans, and bushwhacked through manzanita and mesquite graves. The heavy rains filled the washes and water was plentiful as we explored the rocky outcrops towering above us.

Evenings were filled with discussions of lightweight specific risk management and curriculum. The experience base of these instructors allowed an in depth exploration of the challenges and opportunities a lightweight system provides. Instructors left the seminar set up for success on lightweight courses and with tools and techniques to lower pack weights on traditional courses as well.

NOLS continues to offer the best trained staff and the most comprehensive lightweight backpacking program available today.

Upon our return to NOLS Southwest, we cleaned and invetoried all our gear and then took a look at our gear lists to see what we might do differently on a similar trip. Most folks felt they could shave anywhere from a few extra ounces to almost a pound. Everyone on the seminar was excited to apply these new skills and philosophies to upcoming courses.

We closed the seminar with a NOLS SW tradition, a barbeque by the pool and wrapped up with a friendly alcohol stove building competion that created some really unique designs and was a lot of fun. I am happy to say that my new foray into double wall pop can stoves proved the most successful, if we leave
out the three burner inferno one person whipped up.

NOLS Southwest would like to thank the fabulous NOLS Instructors who participated with great enthusiasm on this seminar and a special thanks to our friends at GoLite who have supported the NOLS lightweight program since the beginning.