Gear
Talk
Shelter
Gear—The ultralight gear options are a
silnylon tarp or a bivy sack. Will uses a one-person (6’x9’) tarp that
has been modified so he can also use it as a poncho. The two of us use an
8’x10’ tarp, which gives us plenty of room. There are no problems
staying dry, we wear a head net at night if there are bugs, it’s roomier
than a tent, and it’s easy to get up at night and pee. During the
summer rainy season and when bugs are a
real problem, we use a Tarptent (30 oz with sewn-in floor). When the
weather forecast is favorable, Will likes to take a light bag cover or bivy.
It’s truly a joy to sleep under the stars, but he sees no sense in
enduring an all-night rain in a bivy. If you are skeptical about using a
tarp, all we can say is give it a try, it will make you a believer. For
extra protection, you may want to use a lightweight bag cover. If you
simply cannot let go of your secure tent (or your spouse can’t), we
have listed several lightweight tents in the Gear Options table. Look
for a lightweight double wall tent weighing around 2.5 pounds for 1
person and 3.5 pounds for 2 people. There are several single wall tents
on the market that are lightweight, and very tempting. However, be advised that if you choose a single wall tent,
condensation is a major issue and the tent must be well ventilated.
Weight Savings—Conventional 2-person
backpacking tents weigh 5-7 pounds. Going to a lighter tent saves 2-4
pounds; going to a tarp or a bivy sack saves 4-6 pounds.
Cost Savings—A tarp is much less expensive
than a tent, $50-$120 vs. $150-$450.
Groundsheet
Gear—We feel that it’s important to protect our
expensive lightweight sleeping bags, so we prefer Tyvek because it’s
tougher. There are several weights of Tyvek. “Housewrap Tyvek” is super tough and adequately waterproof, but it is stiff
and takes a while to soften up. “Kite
Tyvek” (#14 soft Tyvek) weighs half as much, it's softer, and is plenty durable and
waterproof, so it’s our preference.
Weight Savings—Using a piece of Tyvek
instead of a tent “footprint” saves .75 pound.
Cost Savings—Tyvek costs less than $5
while a tent footprint costs around $35.
Sleeping Bag
Gear—For backpacking in the mountains in
the summer (July and August), a 30° sleeping bag is all you need. Ultralight down bags
in this temperature range weigh 1.25-1.75 pounds. If you backpack in
spring (May and June) or fall (September and October) in the mountains, then you also need an ultralight 15
degree bag, which weighs about 2 pounds. A 35-40° bag is enough
in mid-summer and at lower elevations. If you want to purchase just one
bag, then get a 20 degree bag. A good ultralight bag should have
750 fill-power down or greater, and have a lightweight water-repellent
shell. Its important to get a bag that has enough shoulder girth
(60-63") to provide enough room to wear clothes inside to extend
the bag's warmth. We have slept comfortably in a 30 degree bag down to
the low 20's using this method. As a minimum we wear our microfleece long johns in our bags
to serve as a bag liner. Wearing an insulated jacket in our sleeping bag
allows us to get by with a lighter bag, and is very versatile to adjust
the warmth level of our bags. It is also very convenient, our clothes are already on and warmed up in the
morning!
Weight Savings—Many backpackers have one
sleeping bag for all occasions, the ubiquitous 3-4 pound/10° bag.
Switching to an ultralight down bag saves 2.5 pounds. A 30°
lightweight synthetic bag will weigh about 1 pound more than an
ultralight down bag.
Cost Savings—An
ultralight down bag is
your most expensive gear item ($250-$300). If you take your time, you can
always find a good discount or a used one. If you want to save money, go
to a lightweight synthetic bag, which is about 1 pound heavier
($75-$150).
Sleeping Pad
Gear—For
summertime backpacking, all you need to
pad is your torso. Janet uses a 20”x40” closed cell foam pad that
weighs 3.8 oz., but she has more “natural padding” in the right
places. For his bony hips, Will uses a RidgeRest 3/4 (8.3 oz.) for
shorter trips, which
he doubles at the shoulder and hip. For longer trips, he takes a
luxurious Therm-a-Rest Prolite 3 Short, which weights 13 oz.
Weight Savings—
-
Switching
from a full-length Therm-a-Rest to a Therm-a-Rest Prolite Short saves 1 pound, or
-
Switching
from a full-length Therm-a-Rest to a closed cell foam pad saves 1.5
pounds.
Cost Savings—A
closed-cell foam pad costs less than $30, while the Therm-a-Rest Prolite
3 Short costs $70.
Stove
Gear—We often
use a Snow
Peak GigaPower canister stove (3 oz.) because it is light, fast, and
dependable. An 8 oz (225 g) canister of fuel weighs about 14 oz and will last 7
days for 1 person and 3+ days for 2 people, using our “boil and set”
method. A windscreen is essential, and can be made of heavy-duty
aluminum foil. Many ultralighters use an alcohol stove or fuel tablet
stove. We have recently started using an ThermoJet
alcohol stove and
really like its simplicity and elegance. On short (1-2 night) backpacks,
Will takes no-cook meals and leaves the stove at home (saves about 12
oz).
Weight Savings—Most backpackers carry a
liquid fuel stove that can weigh 2 pounds or more with fuel. Switching
from a liquid fuel stove to a canister stove saves 1 pound. Switching to
an alcohol stove saves even more weight because you can take only the
amount of fuel you need.
Cost Savings—A canister
or alcohol stove costs less
than a white gas stove, $50 versus $100. An alcohol stove costs about
the same as a canister stove. Numerous plans are available for making
your own alcohol stove.
Cooking Gear
Gear—For one person all you really need is
a 1-quart pot with lid and a spoon; for 2 people, a 2-quart pot with
lid, 2 cups, and 2 spoons. A good light one-person cook pot is the
Wal-Mart grease strainer (3.8 oz. with lid). We remove the knob and
substitute a small piece of tape. For a 2-person cook pot, we use a
light aluminum Mirro sauce pan with a lid available at K-Mart (4.5
oz..). Mirro also makes an aluminum double boiler that gives you 2 cook
pots weighing 4.5 oz each after you remove the handles. We don’t take dish soap. A 1” square of pot scrubber is
sufficient.
Weight Savings—Switching from a full cook
set to a pot and spoon can save up to 1 pound.
Cost Savings—Purchase a “grease
strainer” from Wal-Mart for $7 or a Mirro saucepan for $5 and save a
huge amount over a titanium pot, which is $50 and a bit heavier.
Food
Gear—
-
Carry
simple, nutritious meals. Forget the gourmet stuff. Take the right
amount. Plan on 1.25 to 1.5 pounds of dehydrated food/person/day,
depending on your body size and the anticipated temperatures and
exertion level. Low-fat meals are ok for short trips, but for
longer and more strenuous trips, increase the amount of fat and
increase the weight to 1.5 to 1.75 or even 2 pounds/day. We tend to
put more fat calories into our daytime trail food, and in our dinner
food if it will be cold at night.
-
Leave
all packaging at home and repackage food in lightweight plastic
bags. We weighed various plastic bags and the lightest/toughtest are
the thin ones that newspapers come in.
-
Take
meals that work with the “boil and set” method, which saves on
fuel weight.
-
For
short trips take foods that you don’t have to cook or that
rehydrate with cold water, such as: dried Pea or Lentil soup mix,
dried refried beans, dried mashed potatoes, powdered
cheese, and powdered meat.
-
Examples
of food we take:
Breakfast—Muesli (a homemade nutritious cooked cereal), EAS
Myoplex nutrition drinks, homemade granola
Lunch—jerky, fruit roll-ups, gorp, cheese, hummus, crackers,
sesame sticks, energy bars, peanuts, sunflower seeds, dried fruit
Dinner—packaged dinners from the grocery store, fortified with
extra noodles, rice or couscous and dried meat, vegetables and nuts
Cost Savings—Grocery
store foods are much cheaper than freeze-dried or dehydrated backpacker
meals.
Water Filter
and Bottles
Gear—Water is heavy, so we don’t carry
any more of it than we have to. In the mountains, where water is usually
readily available and clean, we carry a Safewater Anywhere filter bottle
(no current website) that weighs 6 oz. It’s both a water bottle
and filter. Using the “scoop and drink” method, you fill your bottle
when you are thirsty and drink from it. Between water sources, when
water is prevalent, we carry the bottle about half full, which weighs
around 1 pound. Note: this method requires good backcountry savvy; you
need to be aware of the availability of water where you are going. The
lightweight alternative is to carry a light pump filter, such as the
Timberline (6 oz.), and refill your water bottle 1-2 times/day along the
trail. For a water bottle, we carry a 1-liter soda bottle (1.6 oz.),
which is 3.7 oz. lighter than a Nalgene water bottle. In camp, we fill a
2-Liter Platypus flask (1.2 oz.) and use iodine. We bring cooking water
to a boil before adding food, so there is no need to treat it.
Weight Savings—Most backpackers carry a
pump-type water filter that weighs .75-1 pound. Carrying a filter bottle
half full (1 pound) instead of a pump filter and 2 full Nalgene bottles
of water (6 pounds) saves 5 pounds.
Cost Savings—A
filter bottle or in-line filter costs less than a pump filter, $40 versus $100. A one-liter soda
bottle instead of a Nalgene bottle is free versus $8.
Rain Gear
Gear—There are a lot of options here, and
everyone seems to have a personal preference. We started out using the Frogg
Toggs rain suit. It has some attractive features—very lightweight (15.3
oz. for size L/XL) and more waterproof and breathable than Gore-Tex—but
we found that it is simply not durable enough. We wear our rainsuits as
wind gear and for an outer shell layer in camp. The Frogg Toggs do not
stand up to the abrasion from this type of use. They pilled
very badly, the membrane split or punctured, and they became ineffective
in a short time, especially the pants. They would probably last much
longer if we used them only for rain protection. We now use a Frogg
Toggs jacket (9.7 oz.) with Marmot Precip rain pants (7.9 oz) which are .5 ounce more than the Frogg Toggs
pants and a lot more durable. Some people use a silnylon poncho that
weighs about 7-8 oz. and also serves as a pack cover, groundsheet, or
a small tarp. We modified Will's one-person tarp to double as a poncho
and it added just 2 oz. We don't like Gore-Tex, its heavy and expensive.
Read this excellent review
of rain gear to learn more on different rain gear options.
Weight Savings—Switching from a
Gore-Tex
rain suit to a lightweight rain suit saves 1 pound.
Cost Savings—a lightweight rain suit or a
poncho is $40-60 vs. $200+ for a Gore-Tex suit.
Clothes
Gear—There are many options here, and it
gets down to personal preference. Some guidelines:
-
Do
a lot of research on clothing items recommended for ultralight
backpacking.
-
Take
simple clothing with few zippers and pockets. Remove tags and extra
parts that you don’t need.
-
Take
only one set of hiking and camp clothes you WILL use every day.
-
No
cotton; lightweight synthetics only. Follow the standard layering
system, adding or removing layers as conditions change (base wicking layer, insulation, outer shell layer).
-
Go
on day hikes and short backpacks in different weather conditions to
test light clothes and layering systems. It was very useful in
showing us what we really needed.
-
For
a warm base layer in camp, we like microfleece. It provides the most
warmth for the weight.
-
For an insulation layer in camp, choose a lightweight
down or synthetic jacket with a thin water-repellent shell. Forget
the heavy Tech jackets.
Weight Savings—Switching from a heavy tech
jacket or parka to a lightweight down or synthetic jacket saves about 1
pound.
Cost Savings—Take the lightest/most
functional items you already own.
Stuff Sacks
Gear—
-
We
use silnylon stuff sacks which we made ourselves to the exact sizes
needed, and used thin cord with the smallest cord locks we could
find.
-
We take the least amount of stuff sacks possible. Will
takes about 4: 1 for tarp, 1 for sleeping bag, 1
for misc. items, and 1 for camp stove. One of these doubles as a bag
to hang food.
Weight Savings—Fewer/lighter stuff sacks
reduce weight.
Cost Savings—Purchase mesh “paint
strainers” from the paint department at Home Depot, or make your own
out of silnylon or mosquito netting material.
Miscellaneous
Gear
Gear—
-
Take
only the amount of sunscreen, insect repellent, and other toiletries
you need in small containers.
-
Use
a child’s toothbrush, or cut half the handle off an adult
toothbrush. We don’t use toothpaste. Take lengths of floss.
-
Take
only part of a comb
-
Use
a tiny flashlight like the Photon
II.
-
Use
squares of paper towel instead of toilet paper, and take
only the amount needed.
Weight Savings—Minimize each item, it adds
up to significant weight savings.
Camera
Until recently we carried the Logitech
Pocket Digital camera, which weighs 1.8 oz. and takes 52 pictures at
1.2 megapixel resolution. However,
the photo quality is not very good, so we cannot recommend this camera.
If the resolution were increased to 2 MP or more it would be worth
considering. We recently purchased a Pentax
Optio S5i 5 MP digital camera with a 3X zoom that weights 5.1 oz with
battery and memory card. It takes excellent pictures, but is not as convenient to use
as the Pocket Digital.
Pack
Gear—Now that we have drastically reduced
the weight of our gear, we don't need a heavy frame pack
anymore to carry our gear; a simple rucksack that weighs as little as 14
oz, will do.
-
For
shorter 1-3 night trips we use the Golite
Breeze pack. It is most comfortable with < 15 pounds.
-
For
longer trips or spring/fall trips where Will needs more volume
capacity, he
uses the GVP Gear G4 pack
for up to
20 pounds.
-
For
extended trips and cold weather trips, where still more volume and
weight capacity are needed, he uses a GoLite
Trek pack (2.25 pounds), for loads up
to 25
pounds.
-
For a pack cover we use a plastic trash compactor bag
on the GoLite Breeze pack, and a silnylon cover of our own design
for the G4 and Trek packs. Our pack covers completely cover our
packs; we design them with cutouts for the shoulder straps and waist
belt.
Weight Savings—Most full-featured
backpacks weigh 6-8 pounds. Switching to a lightweight frame pack saves
2-3 pounds, or a rucksack saves 5-7 pounds.
Cost Savings—A rucksack is much less
expensive than a frame pack, <$150 vs. $250+. Using a plastic trash
compactor bag for a pack cover costs $.50 vs. $20.
Boots
Gear—Now that we have drastically reduced
the weight of our pack, we don’t need to wear heavy
leather backpacking boots anymore. Those boots were designed to carry a
heavy pack over rough trails. With a lighter pack, we can use lighter
trail running shoes. Subtracting 1 pound from your feet is equivalent to
subtracting 6.4 pounds from your pack. With a light pack and light
boots, you choose where you want to step between the rocks.
Alternatively, you may choose a low-cut or mid-cut lightweight hiking
boot, but you don’t need the heavy clunkers, unless you are hiking
off-trail in rough/steep terrain.
Weight Savings—Switch from heavy boots
(>4 pounds/pair) to light hikers (about 2.5 pounds/pair) or trail
runners (about 2 pounds/pair).
Cost Savings—Lightweight boots
and trail runners are cheaper
than heavy backpacking boots.
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