One pack between eight

Every line has a pack that belongs to nobody. It is the biggest pack at the trailhead and it holds the stove, the fuel, the tea, the first-aid kit, the rope, the spare shell and the ash tin. It gets weighed at the gate, once, in front of everyone, and then it gets handed to whoever is standing nearest. That person carries it to the first stop. Then it moves.

We started doing this in the second season because the guide's pack was getting heavier every year and the guide was the one person who needed to be light. But that is not why we kept doing it.

A group that carries one thing together is a group. A group that carries eight things separately is a queue.

How the pack moves

It changes hands at every rest, and there is a small ceremony to it that nobody planned.

1. The person carrying it takes it off and sets it down in the middle of the group, not to one side.

2. Whoever is taking it next picks it up. Nobody is assigned. It has never once needed to be.

3. They adjust the straps. This takes a minute and the group waits, and the waiting is part of it.

4. They say what is in it, out loud, if they have not carried it before. The stove is on the left. The first-aid kit is on top. The rope is at the bottom because we hope not to need it.

By the third stop everyone has either carried it or knows they will, and something has changed in how the group walks. People wait for each other at the crossings without being asked. The person with the pack is never at the back.

What is in it

• The stove and a litre of fuel. Enough for tea at every stop and one hot meal at the pocket.

• The tea. Loose, in a tin, with the cups. This is the heaviest single thing and nobody has ever suggested leaving it.

• The first-aid kit, which is mostly tape.

• Ten metres of rope, for the crossing after rain and for nothing else.

• A spare shell in the largest size we have, because somebody's will fail.

• The ash tin, empty on the way in, cold and full on the way out.

It weighs about seven kilos at the gate and about five by the pocket. It is not heavy. It is heavy enough to notice, which is the point.

What is not in it

Your water, your lunch, your own layers. Those are yours and they stay on your back. The shared pack carries what the group needs, not what you need, and the line between the two turns out to be very clear once you have to draw it.

Why we will not change it

Every season someone suggests splitting the shared kit across everyone so nobody has to carry seven kilos. It is a reasonable idea and we have said no to it every time. Seven kilos spread across eight packs is nothing, and nothing is what it would become. The pack matters because it is a thing, one thing, that the group takes turns with, and because every person on the line has, for one stretch, been the one the others were relying on.

If you are coming

You will carry it. Probably for about forty minutes, somewhere in the middle of the walk. Adjust the straps properly, take your time about it, and say what is in it. Then walk near the front, because that is where the pack goes.