One of the tricks I learned on my short stint as a cafe worker with my friend about five years ago was the rule to always have something in your hands. If you’re taking something out to your patrons, pick something up on your way back. That way you can take advantage of the multiple trips you make.

I’ve just noticed that a similar philosophy has crossed over to the things I carry with me on the mountain, well, more the things I wear. I have a new pair of pants that are built for torrential rain, but they also double as snowboarding pants. My warm jacket I bought for the winter, that’s also a snowboard jacket (just a coincidence, but a good one).

On a non-clothing related note, my camera doubles as a camera for photos and also film, and I’ve been trying to get better use out of both of them too, although I think I will need to take a tripod with me in future. In this way I can lighten my load, while still performing what I need to, a win-win when it comes to hiking.

When you do do something like this though, you have to make sure these tools can at least successfully perform their target job, otherwise your plan to kill two birds with one stone, it doesn’t really work.