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Louise Thomas
Editor
A fitness influencer in China has sparked an impassioned debate on social media after he used a helium balloon to lighten the weight of his backpack while on a hike.
Pu, an influencer from Zhejiang, posted a video of himself on Chinese social media platform Douyin showing a white helium balloon on his bag.
“I am carrying the bag but I do not feel its weight at all because of the balloon,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post. “I feel something is dragging me upwards. This should be the way most suitable for lazy men to climb mountains.”
Pu said he had seen another influencer use a balloon to make a bag float in the air, and he opted to use helium instead of hydrogen since it’s a safer gas.
The primary purpose of using the balloon was to reduce the weight of the backpack during his hike, which Pu claimed the balloon did.
The balloon didn’t prove particularly useful in the latter half of Pu’s hike, however, as it got entangled in tree branches and burst.
“I am still satisfied with this experiment. It was a fun experience,” he said.
A Douyin user wondered why Pu called it a “lazy man mountain climbing method”. “I wonder which lazy man will bother to climb a mountain,” the user asked.
A chemistry teacher told local media that the balloon must contain a lot of helium to actually work as intended. “This would likely let the climber fly a bit and be injured by trees along the road or the balloon would possibly stick to tree branches,” he was quoted as saying by the SCMP.
“If there is a gale the person will be blown away. What’s more, the helium balloon will explode at a high altitude. Therefore it’s not convenient and not safe enough to resort to a helium balloon when hiking.”
The idea, while novel, is not unique.
In March this year, engineer Brendan Carberry experimented with using a helium balloon to make his hike easier.
Carberry’s experiment, while successful, showed problems with having a balloon tied to one’s backpack.
“In shooting this episode there were some things that really surprised me. I did think helium would make me run uphill faster, but instead it slowed me down…a lot,” he said.
“And I now want a floating backpack. That would be awesome. Not having that weight on your shoulders while you are backpacking would be the nicest hiking trip ever.”
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