The first step in the morning says a lot about how yesterday went. Yesterday, Ethan, Gregory and me hiked the Flume from Osseo, starting at Lincoln Woods. The hike is 11 miles or so, a little over 3000 vertical feet, which sounds pretty chill, however, I did it on 3 hours of sleep after working 24 hours, and we did it in under 6 hours in the winter, which sounds slow but in the winter I expect about 1 mile per hour. Additionally, we spent 1.5 hours of the hiking on the last mile or so before the peak, where we were post-holing through waist deep snow. Gregory brought a tiny pack with only a puffy, I am going to rethink my packing. I wonder about packing for survival, and I'm packing for comfort and redundancy. I think I can get to a much smaller pack with better planning. - All of the emergency gear should stay. Keep with puffy pants and top, mylar, ground pad, and sleeping bag. But, only bring a dry under-top and socks, if I have the puffy top/bottom, do I need the full insulated top and bottom mid layers as well? I've never ever used them. If it's an overnight as a plan, fine take them. But we are looking for below-treeline survival. So, for my next hike, I'm going to try to reduce my pack to 10 lbs. In my pack I'll have puffy top and bottom, UL bivy, ground pad, food and water.