The Backpacker's Handbook, 4th Edition Paperback Author: Chris Townsend | Language: English | ISBN:
007175489X | Format: PDF, EPUB
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About the Author
Chris Townsend (Granton-on-Spey, Scotland), an internationally recognized rough-terrain hiker, is the author of several books, including Wilderness Skiing and Winter Camping and Backpacker’s Handbook, Second Edition.
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- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 4 edition (September 19, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 007175489X
- ISBN-13: 978-0071754897
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
It's been about 9 months since I read through the book so it's no longer fresh, but I did make some notes as I read it on things that stuck out or that I questioned. Overall, it's well written and the author is quite well-known and experienced. However, his experience is mainly with long trips with a fair bit of off-trail work, which corresponds to maybe 1% of the backpackers out there. Unlike Andrew Skurka, another accomplished long distance, off-trail backpacker, Chris Townsend has unfortunately not fully embraced going lighter so he's carrying more weight than necessary. For example, on his 75-day trip on the Pacific Northwest Trail (runs near the border with Canada) his base pack weight (everything carried in or on the pack including it) was about 20 pounds, which is pretty light compared to 20 years ago. However, Skurka's base weight never reached 20 pounds during his 6-month Yukon-Alaska trek and included almost 7 pounds of packrafting gear in some seasons.
While I did enjoy and appreciate Townsend's anecdotes, he had this annoying habit of saying he preferred various gear items that have long been discontinued. While I understand any "gear" book would quickly become outdated anyway, I didn't find it at all helpful to know about all this great stuff I can never get. He did at least give a fairly comprehensive overview of the various options available and provide some pros and cons. Unfortunately, he passed over or dismissed a few important things. One example is Frogg Toggs (or more commonly the even lighter DriDucks), which are very good rainwear for the average backpacker that won't be doing off-trail bushwhacking. The only disadvantage is they snag easily which is enough for Townsend to essentially dismiss them.
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