Ultralight TechniquesHere are some examples of how we reduce weight: Use a Minimal Sleeping Bag and Wear Clothes in Your Sleeping Bag—Summertime low temperatures in the mountains can drop below freezing. Rather than carry a 20 degree bag, which weighs more, we choose to use a 30 degree bag and wear our camp clothes in our bag to extend its warmth when needed. We typically wear microfleece long johns and a jacket in camp, so at night we wear at least the long johns in our bags to serve as a bag liner, and wear our jackets too if needed for extra warmth. In the morning, our clothes are already on and warmed up! This technique lets our warm clothes serve multiple uses, and saves a half pound or more. Use a 1-Person Tarp as a Poncho—We added a hood, some extra length, and some Velcro tabs so Will’s one-person tarp can also be used as a poncho. You can purchase a poncho/tarp from Campmor or Backcountry Gear. The modifications added about two ounces to its weight, but it eliminates the need to carry a rain jacket and a pack cover. The net weight savings from this multi-purpose technique is 10 ounces. Will still prefers to carry rain chaps to wear with the poncho. Scoop and Drink Method—Using a filter bottle in the mountains, where water is usually plentiful, is a good method to save weight. Instead of carrying a pump-type water filter and a full day’s supply of water on your back, which can weigh 6 pounds, you scoop and filter water on demand. We usually keep our filter bottles at least half full to provide a drink or two between water sources. This technique can save as much as 5 pounds. One alternative to a filter bottle would be to carry a lightweight pump filter such as the Timberline. Another option would be to use a chemical water treatment (like iodine or Aguq Mira) and treat a quart at a time. Note that this technique only works where water is plentiful; we don’t use it in the desert where water is more scarce and uncertain. Aluminum Foil Windscreen—A windscreen definitely increases stove efficiency, and is a necessity with canister and alcohol stoves. Instead of carrying a heavy windscreen such as the MSR, we made ours out of heavy-duty aluminum foil. I usually put three rocks around my canister stove to support the windscreen at the right height. The windscreen should be tall enough to shield both the stove’s flame and the bottom part of your cook pot, and be about one inch larger in diameter than your cook pot. In my publication FAQ's About Canister Stoves and Fuels, I provide a lot of good information and tips about using canister stoves. Note that ALL manufacturers recommend against using a windscreen with a canister stove, because the canister may overheat and explode. If you choose to use a windscreen with a canister stove, do it with full knowledge of the risks and safeguards. Boil and Set Method—We found that you don’t have to simmer food to get it cooked. If you use simple meals that don’t require much cook time, all you have to do is bring water to a boil, dump in your food, bring it back to a boil, put the lid on, turn the stove off, and wait 10 minutes. This saves fuel and weight. Any cooked breakfast cereal will cook this way. For dinners, we take packaged dinners that we fortify somewhat, and they cook great using this method. Just make sure the simmer time on the package is less than 12 minutes. The method works with both pasta and rice dinners. Use Only a Pot and Spoon—You don’t need to carry an entire cook kit. All you need for one person is a pot and spoon; your pot doubles as a cup. For two or more people, we take lightweight cups like the pint cups you get from the deli. If you plan to cook fish, consider boiling your fish instead of frying it. It works great, and you don’t need to carry a fry pan. An alternative would be to use aluminum foil to wrap fish in and cook them on a campfire, but that is not a very good Leave No Trace practice. If you want to cook pancakes, go back to the "Ultralight Philosophy" page and re-read the part on "keep it simple". Discard All Packaging—Remove all food from its original packaging at home and put it in lightweight plastic bags. We compared the weights of a lot of plastic bags and found that the ones your newspaper comes wrapped in on a rainy day are the best. Also, consider saving the bags and reusing them. Burning any trash in the backcountry is contrary to proper Leave No Trace practices, and produces a lot of toxic fumes. Silnylon Stuff Sacks—When you purchase many lightweight gear items, they arrive with a fairly heavy urethane-coated nylon stuff sack, which doesn’t make sense. We make our own stuff sacks (click on "The Workshop" and then click on "Silnylon Stuffsacks") from silnylon, so they are exactly the right size and minimal weight. Another trick is to minimize the number of stuff sacks you use. Use Your Sleeping Bag Stuff Sack for a Pillow or a Bear Hang—Let your stuff sacks do double duty. We use silnylon stuff sacks, which are waterproof, so they work great to hang our food in to keep it away from bears and other critters. Bears are not a big problem to backpackers in the Southwest, and bear canisters are not required. A stuff sack can also be stuffed with unused clothing and used as a pillow. Use Paper Towels for Toilet Paper—We usually cut one paper towel sheet into 4 or 6 pieces. Paper towels work great as TP, they’re tough and you use less of them compared to conventional TP. We use a double plastic bag system so we can carry out our TP, which is trash. It is especially important not to bury TP in the desert; it can last for years without decomposing and animals often dig it up—Yuck! Practice Leave No Trace and carry it out. No-Cook Meals—For 1 or 2 night trips, consider not taking a stove and going to no-cook meals. You may not want to do this on longer trips or in colder weather, but for shorter summer trips it is a good way to simplify and save weight. You can eliminate up to a pound of weight this way. Tarp Tieouts and Stakes—Using heavier cord and stakes with your tarp can add a significant amount of weight. We use braided 100# Dacron line, which is about 1/16” in diameter. Dacron line doesn’t stretch as much as nylon line. For stakes, we use thin aluminum pins that are used to secure landscaping weed-barrier fabric. They weigh 0.1 ounce each. Yes, they are flimsy, but the trick we use is to put a rock on the tieout cord in front of each stake. And there is no shortage of rocks in our part of the country. |