lightweight gear

A lot of this thread is about American gear in the American conditions. America has o few long distance trails which are well known and often referenced in a way that might suggest that hikeing in America happens on those trails and very little other places. That argument is a lot like saying that the Tearoha and Great Walks are the only tramps in New Zealand. If you look in places like Lonely Traveler and Trip advisor both ideas might seem to be true but we certainly know that is false for New Zealand but dont want to point this out because then some of our other favorite secrets will become tourist hotspots. Same is the case all over the world. If you take America and remove the cities over 5 million people and compare it to New Zealand with the cities over 100 thousand removed then what is left would show America has a lower population density that New Zealand. Add to that the size of USA and the vast unpopulated area which is the Rockies and there are plenty of places at least as remote as anywhere in NZ and the weather generated by a range of mountains bigger that our largest mountain and you have to accept that America has hiking conditions at least as extreme as here. Then you have to consider the nasties there like snakes bears etc. Ultra light might promote hiking shoes for the well made trails but you really want proper boots to protect your feet off track. Also anything ultra light becomes irrelavant when you have to carry a 2kg revolver to keep predators at bay Gear must be appropiate for the conditions otherwise people die but at the same time lighter can be a good thing

yes american weather can be worse than NZ, certainly colder, easily as windy at times, it has the windiest place in the world but three is also a lot of stable weather there as well, i'm amazed at how much consistently good weather some of the trails get there. you can certainly use ultralight gear even where there's bad weather, if conditions permit most of the time its worth looking at ultralight gear and you can wait out the bad storms where you can get safe shelter other than your ultralight shelter which is how a lot of long distance hikers in america carry out their walks.. if you've got a lot of bad weather you may want heavier duty gear to avoid having to spend too much time sitting out bad weather, how many trips have you done here knowing you were going to be in bad weather and you chose your gear for that weather? I think a lot of us here couldnt count the stormy days we've spent actively tramping... maybe you had a mix of gear, or you picked a campsite that was more sheltered to mitigate using lightweight shelter. experienced NZ trampers are used to poor weather forecasting, especially the mature ones and being surprised by bad weather, and having the gear for it.