The Incredible Shrinking Gear/ Newest outdoor equipment is smaller,

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 3, 2002 | by Deb Acord

Did you hear the one about the guy who was trying to make his backpacking load lighter and more compact? He sawed the handle off his toothbrush.

Nobody really knows if that weight-obsessive guy really exists, but since that first supposed act of lightening up, untold numbers of backpackers have gotten out the hacksaw and ruined a toothbrush or two.

They've fallen hard for the idea that lighter and smaller is better, at least when they're carrying it on their backs.

And outdoor gear companies have been glad to oblige, using all their resources to lighten and miniaturize their products.

Dan Foster has watched the evolution of gear his whole life and has been especially interested in it since he bought Mountain Chalet, the downtown outdoor gear shop, in 1985.

"It's been a gradual evolution," he says: from wool to fleece; down to synthetic and back to down; cast-iron to aluminum to titanium; canvas to nylon.

Foster, 50, recalls a childhood summer camp when he had to strap on a canvas backpack. "It was like walking around with two-by-fours on your back," he says.

MacDonald Stata, also 50, is a trail runner and assistant manager of Eastern Mountain Sports. He has been backpacking since was a boy and remembers wearing a heavy, uncomfortable Boy Scout Yucca pack on his back.

Stata also remembers clunky, state-of-the-art (at one time) hiking boots - often called waffle stompers. "They would last a long time, but it took forever to break them in."

Break-in time is hardly ever discussed any more. Instead, buyers discuss the selling points of aluminum vs. titanium; digital vs. analog; glue technology vs. stitching.

Here's a look at some of the newest, lightest, tiniest gear on the market and what it has replaced:

Old: Bulky flashlight or miner's headlamp.

New: Hands-free light

Remember your first headlamp? It was small and lightweight, and you didn't get a headache wearing it. It weighed about a pound and a half. And when you put it on today, it feels like you've strapped a dumbbell to your forehead.

That's not surprising, considering you've been spoiled by the teeny tiny Zipka, a Petzl lamp that attaches to your head with a retractable cord and weighs just a little over two ounces ($35).

Princeton Tec sells the tiny Aurora, which also weighs in at a little more than two ounces and offers five different light settings ($30).

But the newest headlamp makes even these little guys look like relics. The Black Diamond Ion weighs just 0.9 ounce. Also an LED lamp, it runs on one AAA battery ($22).

The Photon microlight is perhaps the tiniest piece of outdoor gear you'll ever buy. About the size of a nickel, it hangs on your key ring or zipper pull. Also an LED light, it comes in a variety of colors with a momentary squeeze and release switch and sliding off- on switch. Its weight: 0.17 ounce ($18).

Old: Fry pan or weapon

New: Cooking magic

First, there was cast iron. Not really made for backpacking, it still found its way onto the backs of diehard camp cooks who couldn't imagine that mess of fish fried any other way.

Then, there was aluminum, easy to carry, easy to clean. And it's still used in camp cookware today. But there's a new metal in town as well: titanium.

A three-piece titanium cookset from SnowPeak weighs in at just seven ounces, and the pans are compact and fit together in an easy- to-carry nest ($40). It's also available in aluminum.

The ultimate in compact cookware is the SnowPeak spork, a combination fork/spoon that weighs just 0.6 ounce ($11).

Old: A stitch in time

New: Glue

That pesky stitching in tent walls makes them more stable, but also heavier. Unfortunately, there was no way to piece together panels of nylon - until now. Mountain Hardware's new tents are held together with glue, not stitches. The result: A one-person tent that weighs just one pound, four ounces. The two-person variety is two pounds, nine ounces (price not available.)

Old: Prime that baby

New: Flick the switch

The new environmental ethic and fire bans have made camp cookstoves more popular than ever. And backpackers are nuts about the petite MSR Pocket Rocket. Aptly named, this three-ounce stove could fit in your pocket. And its size is overshadowed only by its simplicity. There's no priming, no pre-heating or pressurizing required. You just turn it on and start heating. In less than four minutes, you'll have a liter of water boiling for that spaghetti ($40).

Old: Mapping madness

New: Just compute

Here's a trip computer that calculates your current and average speed, sunset and sunrise, trip time, distance, altitude, latitude and longitude in a unit no bigger than a cell phone. The Garmin eTrex GPS unit isn't much bigger than a plain old compass and weighs around five ounces ($119).

Rather wear your way on your sleeve? The Nike ACG Ascent Compass is a digital watch, compass and altimeter, with a weather mode, temperature sensor, data recall and ski-run chronograph, along with seven alarms - four for time, two for altitude and one for temperature. It weighs just two ounces and is 2 by 1.75 inches ($200).