The pictures with captions are not the report. Still working on a better one.
I would NOT go off trail alone in such remote places without a Spot or something similar. The SPOT sort of gives me a longer leash to what is ok for my family to tolerate and for me to feel like I have an emergency backup.
I see Zpacks doesn't offer the plain "Blast" pack anymore. It was 8 oz. The Cuben Fiber fibers are delaminating at key stress points, so it needs to be tossed. I am sad that they don't have it anymore. I would order exactly the same thing. All it had for frame was two carbon fiber rods, about 18" long. Main compartment, rear stretchy big pocket, two side pockets, two belt add-on pockets.
Esbit tabs: Half a tab or less heats my one-man Mountain House dinners. I usually put the dinner in the cup, add water, then put it on the stove. I'll eat the stuff before it boils. The last two nights, I just let the tabs burn up, since I'd have to carry them out otherwise. A fresh tab worked well on Mt Whitney. When you reuse the older ones, they don't burn very hot once they are small. I skipped two nights--friends had fish one night, broken lighter on the 3rd night. First hikers I met the next day gave up a spare lighter.
All wood, kindling, twigs were very damp where I broke the lighter. Seems like the area had a big downpour, soaking everything, in the past 24-48 hours. There were fresh clean gullies all over. Must have been a localized cloudburst. In hindsight, I could have started a fire with the esbit tablet. That would have maintained enough heat to dry the first batch of kindling.
