[at-l] Another Cottage Industry - MLD

[tinman at antigravitygear.com (George (Tin Man) Andrews)]

I have ultra-lightly followed this thread and have the following $.02: 
Those Mountain Laurel Design people may or may not be real but there ARE 
people like that out there.  For real.  The founders of Fanatic Fringe come 
to mind.  Ralph Shelton has been working on a pack that weighs 3 or 4 ounces 
and a sleeping system that weighs almost nothing with a target of less than 
2 pounds for the big 3 of shelter, sleeping gear and pack.  While he wasn't 
raised by wolves, his parents were in the forrestry business while he was 
young and he spent his summers as a child sleeping under a tent fly.  His 
winter pack weight is right at 10 lbs and this guy 'walks the walk".  I 
suspect the folks at MLD are for real but then I've been fooled before.

The example that comes to mind is the 5,000 year old guy they found 
mummified in the Alps.  This guy was way above the tree line and his 'gear' 
consisted of a bow w/ arrows, a small copper axe, a flint knife, some 
trinkets and stuff in a small amulet type bag hanging from his neck and his 
leather clothes and shoes stuffed with dried grasses for insulation.  That 
guy LIVED and thrived in his environment - didn't just visit it for 3 or 4 
days between town stops and zero days.  Even considering his bow and axe, 
his base weight for the high mountains was probably less than 4 pounds.  The 
MLD people, if they exist, are probably closer to that Alps dude's mindset 
than any other group out there.

(Insert Felix's quote here- TAIS )
Tin Man