Ultrahiker Andrew Skurka's Nine Skills to Help You Pack Lighter

Photograph by Murfy Kristiadi, My Shot

When it comes to hiking lighter, we get our advice from the guy so serious about going fast and light that he uses a catfood can for a cooking stove—the master himself, Andrew Skurka. Skurka, our 2008 Adventurer of the Year, has covered more than 30,000 miles of long-distance trails, including the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide. Here Skurka shares nine skills you can learn right now to safely carry less and lighter gear on your next trip. These kinds of tips, plus much more, are covered in his comprehensive new book The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide (National Geographic Books), which comes out later this month. You can pre-order a signed copy from Andrew here.

Ultrahiker Andrew Skurka's Nine Skills to Help You Pack Lighter

1. Assess your true needs.
Where, when, and for how long you are going are the primary determinants of the conditions you will encounter. Research the temperatures, precipitation, sun exposure, water availability, snow coverage, hours of daylight, bugs, wildlife, and remoteness you will encounter. If you know the conditions you can realistically expect, you can pack accordingly. Uninformed backpackers justify poor gear choices on the grounds of unfounded “What if...” and “Just in case...” scenarios.

Hiking with Andrew Skurka: Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail in 7 Days (Video)

This video feels like a hiking reality show (luckily the only annoying buzzing sounds come from mosquitoes, not Kardashians). Exhilaration. Exhaustion. Bugs. Sock issues. Witness a seven-day hike of the entire 224-mile John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney. Hiking guru Andrew Skurka guides Gerry Morton, President and CEO of EnergyFirst, an industry leading natural products company that is home to the world's best tasting, highest quality all natural protein shakes. They keep it fast and light, Skurka's style. But nothing is fast enough to keep away the bugs.

Andrew has a new hiking/backpacking book, The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide, out this month from Nat Geo Books. We've already been reading. It's comprehensive and full of hard-won tips that Andrew was kind of enough to share from his 30,000+ miles of hiking. You can pre-order a copy here (and Andrew will sign it!). 

What's Your Adventure Personality Type? Artisan, Rational, Guardian, or Idealist?

By Steve Graepel; Photographs from top courtesy Steve Graepel, Andrew Skurka, Rebecca Rusch, Michael Tobin

The zodiac, your horoscope, tea leaves...people have been trying to make sense of human attributes since the dawn of dirt. Corporations pay big money to navigate these muddied waters and will train employees to better understand personality types to harness them for productivity. I recently revisited one such matrix, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which hypothesizes that it’s possible to distill human characteristics into 16 personality types. David Keirsey later mapped these types into four general temperaments: the Artisan, Rational, Guardian and Idealist.

I jokingly wondered if these metrics have ever been applied to an expedition setting; exhaustion, hunger, and cold, wet conditions can quickly strip insulate layers of city life, exposing our reptilian ids. What may seems like "character" over coffee can reveal itself in spades below the crux. I began to contemplate my past adventures and consider what I could glean from temperament theory to apply toward my own trips. Here’s what I found. Keep reading for discussions with ultrahiker Andrew Skurka, mountain biker Rebecca Rusch, and veteran adventure racer Michael Tobin about their "types."

Alaska-Yukon Expedition: See Andrew Skurka's Story in National Geogarphic Magazine

Photograph by Michael Christopher Brown. See the story, photos, and map in the March issue of National Geographic Magazine.

About a year ago, Andrew Skurka embarked on the hardest expedition of his life—4,679 miles of skiing, hiking, and packrafting in wildest Alaska and the Yukon. You probably recall his thoughtful blog dispatches on this website. Though the 29 year old had logged some 25,000 miles on foot since 2002, this expedition challenged Skurka like nothing before it. We're pleased to announce that you can read about his experience in "Circling Alaska in 176 Days," by Dan Koeppel, in the March edition of National Geographic Magazine, on newsstands now. Here Skurka reflects on Alaska, on understanding the wilderness, and why even elite adventurers watch The Bachelor.

You have said this expedition was your hardest ever, by far. How do you feel about Alaska and the Yukon now?
Andrew Skurka: This trip put me on edge, from start to finish. There were very few times when I was not out of my comfort zone—the conditions were usually tough, there was always uncertainty about what was ahead, and the consequences of making a mistake could easily have been catastrophic. My earlier trips, I realize now, were always in a very controlled environment; this one was not. I’m strongly risk adverse, and I have wondered whether a thrill-seeker would have handled the stress and uncertainty better than I did. I think this may be true, but I also think that my cautiousness explains why I came out alive, and successful.

Do you think the difficulty of this expedition has changed or matured your connection to the outdoors?
AS: I certainly have a much better understanding of true wilderness, due in large part to the final third of the trip across Yukon’s Arctic and Alaska’s Brooks Range. This included the 657-mile, 24-day stretch without crossing a road or seeing another human. I was so unnerved by the first two-week stretch, between Dawson and Fort McPherson, that I called Roman Dial for assurance. “Roman, I’ve never felt so exposed or vulnerable before. I might even say that I was scared.” His response was perfect: “True wilderness is not a place where you will ever be comfortable. Just look at the animals that live out there—they are constantly looking over the shoulders, always on edge, just trying to make it to tomorrow. We’re no different than them.”

What's your normal, non-expedition life like? We know you are a huge fan of The Bachelor.
AS: I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve become a The Bachelor junkie—it’s my guilty pleasure on Monday nights, too entertaining to miss. Overall, I think my “civilian” life is pretty average. I spend most of my day working at my computer. In the afternoon I try to get out for a run. On the weekends I usually go skiing. After my trip was over I was intentionally unproductive through the New Year, so that I could recover and reenergize again. I preoccupied myself with training for a 50-mile ultra-marathon in California’s Marin Headlands in December. My finishing time of 8 hours 8 minutes was respectable in light of the course’s 22,000 feet of vertical gain and loss, but I definitely don’t have the speed that I used to.

What's next?
AS: I’m excited about this year. Over the last seven weeks I have been writing a book on backpacking gear and technique; it should be available in May or June. I’ll start a book about the Alaska-Yukon Expedition soon thereafter. Next week is the first of about 35 presentations and clinics I have scheduled through October. And this summer I’ll be guiding a few trips in the High Sierra and Alaska. I’d like to get out on a short personal trip too but I may have to wait until 2012. I may have a dream job, but I have economic realities like everybody else.

Top Athletes and Explorers Reveal Their Own Bucket List Adventures

Ace skiers Kasha Rigby, Hilaree Nelson, Margaret Wheeler, and Alison Gannett on their successful first ski descent of the northeast face of India's Hanuman Tibba. Photograph courtesy of Alison Gannett

In our new Ultimate Adventure Bucket List, we spun the globe to find 20 extreme adventures paired with 20 comparable doable adventures to inspire your quests into the great outdoors. Then we wondered: What do the adventure pros have on their own Bucket Lists? We asked some of the world's most elite athletes and explorers to tell us which trips they have loved the most and what dream adventures they hope to knock off someday. Read on, their answers may surprise you.... —Mary Anne Potts

Skier Alison Gannett
Best Trip Ever: "I would say our first descent of northeast face of Hanuman Tibba in India—great team, spicy food, colorful country, and a sketchy route that we managed to pull off [pictured]."

Dream Adventure: "I'd love to do first ski descents of several peaks in Colombia because the glaciers will be gone in our lifetime, the country is rumored to be the friendliest in the world, has interesting mountains, and great surfing."

Ultrahiker Andrew Skurka
Best Trip Ever: "That’s like asking a parent which of their children they love most—you’re never going to get a straightforward answer. One of my lesser-known trips is the Sierra High Route in California.  This 200-mile route runs parallel to the John Muir Trail, but sees a tiny fraction of the JMT’s traffic because it features over 100 miles of off-trail travel through some of the most remote parts of the High Sierra."

Dream Adventure: "I’ve been eyeing the Canadian Rockies and the Andes for a long time—both regions appear mountainous and wild, and they have more than just rock and ice."

Diver, Marine Ecologist Diver Enric Sala
Best Trip Ever: "My best trip was exploring the Southern Line Islands, five uninhabited, pristine coral reef islands in the middle of the Pacific. They are the wildest place I've seen in my life, and we were the first to dive in most of the places we visited. I've never seen such a gorgeous, healthy marine ecosystem, full of corals, sharks, giant clams, and so many fish everywhere I looked."

Dream Adventure: "I have fulfilled my dreams a few times already, and I hope that I'll continue dreaming so there's always a new adventure. But one of these dream adventures is exploring the most remote islands in the Arctic, a world that's disappearing because of global warming."

 Mountaineer Ed Viesturs
Best Trip Ever: "My most amazing adventure would have been my third—and thankfully succesful—attempt on Annapurna in 2005. I had walked away on two previous attempts because of the risk. When I returned for the third attempt, I had no idea of the outcome. I envisioned potentially walking away again due to the risk, but for some reason the mountain seemed different—safer, colder, more 'glued-together.' Then and only then did we make the decision to climb, and my partner Veikka and I launched ourselves up the north face. Five days later I stood on the summit of Annapurna and my dream of climbing all 14 8,000-meter peaks had finally come true after 18 years."

Dream Adventure: "I've always been intrigued with the Polar regions and a journey to the South Pole seems to be an interesting personal challenge. The complexity of calculating and organizing the exact amount of supplies and food to take, combined with the physical and mental challenge of skiing and pulling a loaded sled mile after mile, day after day, while being completely self-sufficient seems very interesting to me. It's quite similar to a mountaineering expedition, except this would be in an almost featureless and horizontal frozen arena." Editor's Note: Ed is in attempting to climb Antarctica's Mount Vinson now. Read expedition dispatches >>

Snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler
Best Trip Ever: "There have been so many, but the freshest one in my memory was a trip to South Africa that I just took with Oakley. I was invited to volunteer at a two-week clinic called One Sight in a township called Mamelodi. During that time, Oakley offered 10,000 people free eye exams and prescription eyewear. I was able to do everything from giving the manual seeing-eye exams to operating the machines that automatically measure a person's prescription to putting the prescription eyewear on each face! It was a totally eye-opening and rewarding experience!"

Dream Adventure: "I would love to take a step away and go with my husband to India and meditate! Haven't figured out the logistics or if we would stay at an ashram, but I do know the power of meditation and think it would be another life-changing experience."

Explorer Kenny Broad
Best Trip Ever: "The most amazing adventure, full of good and bad, was a 1994 expedition led by Bill Stone to one of the deepest known caves in the world in Mexico. It was the combination of climbing, caving, and diving with experimental equipment that made it unique."

Dream Adventure: "I dream of being able to do an expedition that studies the link between the upper atmosphere, the ocean, and underwater caves. I think it will demonstrate how interconnected these ecosystems are—and how important they are for human health and well-being—as well as the myriad of creatures that live in these realms."

Kiteskier Sarah McNair-Landry
Best Trip Ever: "All my adventures have been amazing, each in their own way. The Pittarak expedition, a 2,300 kilometer traverse of the Greenland ice cap, remains one of my favorite. It was a great challenge and an amazing team, not to mention Greenland is a kite-skiing paradise!

"I must also mention the most amazing place I have ever traveled across is the Arctic Ocean, while en route towards the North Pole. The ice is always in drift and motion, heaving up massive walls of ice, or breaking apart revealing the ocean water, reminding you constantly of the forces of nature."

Dream Adventure: "I would love to kite-ski the Northwest Passage during the winter. For one, it would be a challenging expedition, as it has never been done. Over the last years, I have always turned my attention towards other parts of the world, but this expedition would take place in my backyard, Nunavut, Canada."

Ice Climber Will Gadd
Best Trip Ever: "The next adventure is always the greatest. Once you've been there and done that it's an experience; adventure is uncertainty, evolution, dynamic."

Dream Adventure: "Flying the Rift Valley in Africa. Hopefully 2012!"

Andrew Skurka Answers Your Questions on Expedition Planning, Grizzlies, the Ladies, More

Here Andrew Skurka answers your questions about his 4,700-mile Alaska-Yukon Expedition.
See a photo gallery from the expedition and watch for the article in National Geographic Magazine in spring 2011.

1. What would you do without your mother? -- George Eichman III

My mother is certainly an integral and critical part of my trips, though my father should get some credit, too. My mom’s most functional role is serving as my logistics coordinator: She ships me food, supplies, and fresh gear; acts as a messenger for sponsors and media; and resolves things that I can’t from the field (e.g. purchasing my flight home). Over time I have learned how to reduce her workload. I do more things before I leave, e.g. box up my maildrops; I do more things from the field, e.g. blog; and I have plugged her into simple systems for tasks that need to get done, e.g. USPS home shipping. On short trips (less than a month), I can coordinate my own logistics. But on longer trips it’s definitely helpful to have someone else involved. My parents play two other important roles, besides coordinating logistics. First, they are my safety check. I call them every opportunity I get, in order to update them about where I am, where I’m going (if it’s different than the itinerary I left them), and when I’ll call next. Second, they serve as emotional outlet for me, since as a solo traveler I don’t have a regular opportunity (i.e. a travel partner) to talk through my stresses and feelings.

Alaska-Yukon Expedition: Three Ways the Expedition Changed Me

By Andrew Skurka, written from Boulder, Colorado, after finishing his 4,700-mile Alaska-Yukon Expedition

See a photo gallery from the expedition and watch for the article in National Geographic Magazine in spring 2011.

This past weekend, just two weeks after finishing my trip, I moved back to the exceptional city of Boulder, Colorado. My life does not appear to have changed much since I left seven months ago: I’m living in the same house, hanging out with the same friends, and running the same trails; I still don’t get recognized by employees or other customers at REI; and my net worth is still laughable because I still have the same “job.”

The Alaska-Yukon Expedition (AYE) was not my first time at the rodeo and I suspected beforehand that it probably wouldn’t be a game-changer in terms of my personality, goals, opportunities, or outlook on life. If, before this trip, I had been an overworked desk jockey going through a midlife crisis, or a disillusioned youth with overly romanticized ideas about Alaska, the potential for radical transformation would probably have been greater. However, just because the expedition may not have been life-altering does not mean that I haven’t changed—it just means that the changes are more evolutionary than revolutionary and/or that they are simply boosts to longer-term trends. This type of change might be better described as personal growth and development, which I’ve found is accelerated by the intentional stepping outside of my comfort zone, whereby I’m forced to adapt to new realities and to acquire new skills and knowledge.

Ask Andrew Skurka: Get Hard-Won Wisdom From the 25,000-Mile Man

On many days during his Alaska-Yukon Expedition, Andrew Skurka would take just one long break for about an hour in the early afternoon. This was an opportunity to dry his feet and gear, to make notes on his maps, and to take a cat nap to re-energize for another long push to camp. See the photo gallery >>

At 29 years old, Andrew Skurka has managed to build his adult life around planning and going on great expeditions. So far he's pulled off a dozen remote trekking adventures and covered some 25,000 miles, including his latest 4,700-mile loop of hiking, skiing, and packrafting in Alaska and the Yukon.

Now here's your chance ask Andrew how he pulls off his adventures. How does he determine his food needs? How does he approach orienteering? Does he use a compass or GPS? How does he deal with being alone in the wilderness for big chunks of time? Then how does he deal with being back in "normal" society with cable TV, well-stocked refrigerators, and no risk of bears sneaking up on you? How does he get funding to do this stuff?

Ask Andrew your expedition questions now, and then get started planning your own great adventure, big or small. We'll post Andrew's responses next week.

Alaska-Yukon Expedition: A Few Words on Finishing - Chocolate, Bears, Feeling Humbled (Photo Gallery)

On Monday Andrew Skurka finished his epic Alaska-Yukon Expedition, covering 4,700+ miles and finishing a few weeks early, even! We'll hear more from him later in the week. Until then, here are some of his initial thoughts on finishing. Check out our photo gallery with highlights from the expedition.

THOUGHTS ON FOOD?

After six months of eating the same stuff, my favorite food items during this trip were anything that contained chocolate. My least favorite items were anything that didn’t contain chocolate. Next time I go on a long trip, I’m only bringing chocolate, at least for breakfast, snacks, and desert. The sesame sticks, Bear Valley bars, peanut butter-filled pretzels, and summer sausage will not find a way into my pack.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT BEARS?

Number of bears that I scared the crap out of, literally: 1. Quick story: It charged from across a braided river, I saw it last-minute and threw my trekking poles at it because I didn’t have time to reach for my bear spray, it was so rattled by the throwing and the yelling that it took a 90-degree turn and ran away. It pooped itself as it went.

CAN YOU SUM UP THIS TRIP IN ONE WORD?

The most appropriate one-word wrap-up of the expedition is...humbling.

Alaska-Yukon Expedition: Approaching the Unavoidable, Bittersweet Finish

 
Follow adventurer Andrew Skurka as he skis, hikes, and rafts 4,720 miles through eight national parks, two major mountain ranges, and some of North America's wildest rivers in Alaska and the Yukon from March to October. Read his blog updates here.

For the last 12 months, my life has revolved around a singular purpose: to complete the Alaska-Yukon Expedition. In the first six months I planned how to do it, which entailed intricate spreadsheets, goodie boxes from sponsors, and Sam’s Club shopping carts overflowing with food. And for the last six months (168 days, to be exact), I’ve actually been doing it: I skied along the Arctic Coast and through the Alaska Range, I paddled my 4.5-pound inflatable boat across terrifying Icy and Yakutat Bays, I endured the Yukon’s ravenous mosquitoes, and I traversed the length of the Brooks Range.

But now that I’m just 200 miles and 7 days away from finally achieving my goal, I find myself pouring over maps looking for ways that I could extend the experience--side trips, detours, and even backtracks. I just don’t feel entirely ready to finish yet. The journey really is the most important part, not the destination.