Helium backpack. Is this a thing?

[Colombo]

I saw this yesterday and was quite puzzled.
It is not applicable in my environments, too many trees, but I suppose it would be quite suitable for certain British landscapes where trees are almost totally absent.

By paying the little price of putting some "pride" aside, one can really have a cheaper and more comfortable sleep at night, or a more robust tent etc.

Food for tought, in my opinion. Or maybe there is an obvious problem that makes this solution unviable, or it would already have been employed.

I knew some persons who hired a mule to get the rucksack to the refuge, as a group, for a weekend full of food and very heavy wine .

I am curious of your thoughts (besides the "real men don't use mules to bring rucksacks, nor helium").

Maybe, in the future, we will all have a helium tank in our car, and will use it for the first part of the ascent. Then we will fold the thing in the rucksack, and all refuges will have some helium tank to refill the balloon, and in not windy days above the tree lines that would be, maybe, a real thing.

Have helium, will travel🚶#backpacking #balloon #adventure #diy #inventions #engineer

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[Bopdude]

I saw this yesterday, made me both chuckle and wonder, base weight 0.0 lmao

 

[cuprajake]

I saw this yesterday, made me both chuckle and wonder, base weight 0.0 lmao

be fine in an open field, but not jungle trekking,

 

[dovidola]

Not Drone-friendly

 

[WildAboutWalking]

Bit late for April 1st.....

 

[Teepee]

Proper Trek-liters use hydrogen and pack their kit inside the balloon.

 

[Colombo]

It could be a hoax. Out of curiosity, I am now seeing the data regarding the Goodyear blimp and the lifting power of helium gas. I found "The Goodyear blimp is kept aloft by helium gas which fills a volume of 4559m^3. It can carry a maximum load of 1176kg".
If everything is proportional, lifting 12 kg would require some 45 cubic meters of gas, and being content with a 6 kg lift would need half of that, or some 23 cubic metres of gas. That would require a balloon with a diameter of 3,5 metres, give or take. It's probably "a thing" but the ballon would be larger than the one shown in the video, and the video is a hoax.

If the rucksack of the Facebook video is actually lifted by a helium gas balloon, it might be empty.

 

[tja]

Is the weight of the blimp included in the 1176 kg load?

 

[cathyjc]

Helium is not a plentiful gas and is difficult to extract. It is a finite resource that we cannot replace.
It is vital for operating MRI scanners (amongst other uses) - without helium forget having that vital diagnostic scan.

One of my hobby horses - helium 'party' balloons - just don't .

 

[WildAboutWalking]

Helium is not a plentiful gas and is difficult to extract. It is a finite resource that we cannot replace.
It is vital for operating MRI scanners (amongst other uses) - without helium forget having that vital diagnostic scan.

One of my hobby horses - helium 'party' balloons - just don't .

Well said. Once released, it rises to the upper edge of the atmosphere and is lost into space.
And I have found deflated metalized film party balloons in all kinds of otherwise pristine places.

But the video is obviously a hoax.

 

[WildAboutWalking]

It could be a hoax. Out of curiosity, I am now seeing the data regarding the Goodyear blimp and the lifting power of helium gas. I found "The Goodyear blimp is kept aloft by helium gas which fills a volume of 4559m^3. It can carry a maximum load of 1176kg".
If everything is proportional, lifting 12 kg would require some 45 cubic meters of gas, and being content with a 6 kg lift would need half of that, or some 23 cubic metres of gas. That would require a balloon with a diameter of 3,5 metres, give or take. It's probably "a thing" but the ballon would be larger than the one shown in the video, and the video is a hoax.

If the rucksack of the Facebook video is actually lifted by a helium gas balloon, it might be empty.

It is a hoax, completely impractical.
To lift 1kg, you would need approximately 1 cubic metre of helium, easy to calculate this from the densities of air and helium.

 

[old-skool-lite]

 

[Run_Hike_Meat_Repeat]

 

[cuprajake]

 

[cathyjc]

And I have found deflated metalized film party balloons in all kinds of otherwise pristine places.

Ditto
Could start by not selling them in hospital shops outside the maternity unit - goodness does that grind my gears ......

 

[harok11a]

Not Drone-friendly

Good. It's like a personal barrage balloon.

 

[Jim_Parkin]

Bit late for April 1st.....

Not sure, I could see replies from 12 days ago, so maybe it was?

 

[KVerb]

Now you can go backpacking without carrying a backpack...
And with a little gust you can go walking without moving your feet... Just pray that you land somewhere nice and soft...

 

[Colombo]

Is the weight of the blimp included in the 1176 kg load?

Thinking about it, probably not.

@WildAboutWalking reports more favourable numbers, 1 kg lifted by 1 cubic meter.

That would mean a balloon with a diameter of 2,40 m would lift more than 7 kgs. Not much practical for walking (especially on windy days) but for some use, maybe, e.g. a makeshift material ropeway.

On the Alps there are refuges which allow you to place your rucksack at the base of the material ropeway, so that you can go up those 100m or 200m of altitude without the burden of the rucksack, and recover it at the refuge. Maybe by using helium it would be possible to realize something of the kind, more cheaply.