Making a better packing list

My old packing list was a warehouse inventory. It proved I owned things. It did not help me decide which things belonged on a particular trip.

The new list begins with conditions: distance, elevation, expected low, water availability, exposure, and the slowest exit. Only then does it mention gear.

Pack for the problem

Every item now answers a sentence. The rain shell answers I may need to keep moving while wet. The repair tape answers a small failure should not end the trip. A second stove does not answer anything that one stove and a cold dinner cannot.

This turns omission into a deliberate act. I can leave an item behind without pretending it has no value. It simply does not solve one of this trip’s problems.

The categories changed too. “Kitchen” became “water and calories.” “Clothing” became “warm while stopped.” The names are less tidy and more honest.

Leave evidence

After each trip, I add two marks: what I carried without using, and what I wished I had. Unused safety equipment does not count against itself. Everything else has to make its case again.

The list is shorter now, but it contains more judgment. That seems like the right direction. A packing list should not remember every object for me. It should remember how I want to think when leaving home.