Ultralight Gear

[daxs]

Continuing shoulder problems are leading me to evaluate my gear. If I want to continue backpacking I need to "lighten up". Is anyone here an ultralight hiker? I am looking for suggestions on light gear, especially packs, sleeping bag and stove. I am leaning toward replacing my tent (Sierra Clip Flashlight) with a tarptent. I can save more than 2 pounds by making that switch. Has anyone used a pepsi can stove? I currently have an MSR whisperlight stove. I tend to overpack for any trip so cutting back will be challenging and traumatic for me. Suggestions please.

 

[afka_bob]

canoe camping

You aren't far from some great canoe camping in southern NJ, and that way, you can pack the sofa, TV, and generator w/o having to carry it (far).

 

[Capoken]

Welp, here's my 2 cents:

1) Use a bivy. Try them out first. A bivy will weigh only 1 or 2 lbs.

2) Buy a down 2 lb three season bag. You can find one for as little as $110.

3) Use hiking poles. Buy real ones, and use them, this will make it feel like you have less weight.

4) Alcohol and esbit stoves are great and save a lot of weight.

5) Don't pack too many extra layers. If you get cold after the hike, get in your sleeping bag and read or something.

6) Gortex is heavy and seldom necessary. Use a light poncho unless you expect a lot of rain.

That's a good start if you don't do these thing already!

 

[Rick]

Daxs,
I just gave a pepsi can stove workshop at our AMC backpack workshop, but the instructions are here, and it is very easy to make. http://www.pcthiker.com/pages/gear/pepsiGstoveinstruct.shtml

Those that are mechanically challenged can buy them on Ebay for around $11.

One of the best groups for ultralight ideas and help, year-in year-out is [email protected]. sing up for the daily digest, because there are many, many posts per day there.

Now for your gear, you could probably lose half the stuff in your pack, or at least half the weight without too much effort. Ideally you should be able to get your shelter, pack and sleeping bag to weight under 10 lbs. I would move to the lighter sleeping bag and the lighter backpack first, as the Clip Flashlight will do for now and it will do well for bug season - After the bugs are gone, you might want to move into a sil-nylon shelter (I now use a Black Diamond Betalight - lighter version of the beta-mid.) or sew mosquito netting to the bottom edges of your syl-nylon tarp.

Besides moving to a lighter pack and lighter bag (While I have 6 down bags and swear by them, I did get a superlight TNF Synth bag for my wetter spring trips under my tarp as well as my trip to Alaska - But so far my bag has still stayed quite dry every single night.

Here are some other tips:

Cheap pot - Wal-mart sells grease pots for around $12 - Hold about a quart and weigh around 2-3 ozs. Look in to the cookware section towards the bottom shelves. Dump the lid and use a piece of foil. Use a bandanna instead of potgrippers.

Make a pot Cozy form an ultrlaightweight piece of reflectix - Alows your boiled water to stay very hot, thereby rehydrating your food without using aditional stove fuel.

What are your trips like - less than 4-5 days? Strip your clothing down to what you are wearing and a replacement pair of like clothes, Keep a light fleece for your upper and superlight tights for your legs. If you get really cold stop, set up your shelter and crawl into your bag.

When it is not winter, I now wear a Marmot Precip jacket and LL Bean Gore-tex Paclight rainpants (though in the summer I don't carry rain pants at all) both are super light.

Sell your petzel headlamp on Ebay or save it for winter and get a superlight LED healamp. Incidentally, IIRC it was back around 1999 that the LED headlamps and the catcan stoves started showing up - makeshift items by contributors to [email protected]

Water Filters are nice, but to be truly ultralight, Dump your 1 lb filter and use either a gravity filter or just plain old tincture of iodine (couple of drops in your water bottle) or regular Iodine tabs.

Go to a 3/4 length sleeping pad. IIRC, Z-rests are lightest, then ridge rests. Carry a small piece of foam to sit upon and put under your feet at night, or just put your pack under your feet.

A gatorade or country time lemonade container with the top cutoff and a pice of closed cell foam aoround it makes an ultralight coffee cup, but I went back to my old insulated plastic mug because I really like drinking out of it.

Dump everything from your repair kit and make do with a small peice of wire, a glue stick and a bit of duct tape (roll it around a pencil and break off both ends).

Dump everything in your first aid kit except an ace bandage, a safety pin, a couple of bandaids and a strip or two of cloth (duct tape will hold it over the wound) and swipe a couple of anctibacterial wipes from you doctor's office. Don't foget a few tabs of aspirin, acetaminophen or Ibuprofen.

Lose the boots and get a pair of New Balance AT806 Trail shoes (Made in the North East) and don't worry about getting your feet wet - they'll dry quickly in the 806's

Dump your bowls and other cookware - pot and spoon is all you need - pick up som Coughlin's coffee filters to make coffee (and filter drinking water into your platypus before adding the iodine..

Dump your nalgene bottles and use a platypus or similar - much lighter and hold more water.

Get rid of all of your OR stuff sacks and use 1 gallon ziplocks (If I recall 4 OR stuff sacks weigh almost a pound)

What is under your shelter - You might save almost 1/2 lb by going to a lighter grade of plastic or even tyvek, though it now appears not to be as impervious to water as what was once thought.

Hope this helps

 

[dave.m]

Is Weight The Real Issue?

I often find that my lighter day pack with light to medium loads hurts my shoulders more than my heavy full-sized pack with a heavy load. Putting it another way, I would rather carry a light load in a heavy pack with a really good suspension that puts the weight on my hips (and off of my shoulders) than to carry a heavy load in my light pack.

Lightening your load is almost always a good thing. I'm not an ultralight zealot (yet) but I sure do enjoy myself more now that I carry less.

But before you start spending $$ to shave ounces, I would take a good hard look at your current pack. IMO, many packs have inadequate hip belts which sag under weight and worse, many shop droid fit customers into packs that are too short for their torso, which renders load lifters useless.

In terms of dumping weight, I know some folks argue with religous zeal that you need a smaller pack to FORCE yourself to carry less. IMO, that's hogwash. Scrupulous use of packing lists and constant review of it will shed light on what you can drop.

Again, losing weight is great. But if the problem is painful shoulders, I would look at your pack first.

 

[daxs]

Lots of good suggestions. My day pack is new and comfortable. My backpack is ancient - an external frame womens kelty that has served me well. My first goal is to get a new pack. I've been looking (internet wise) at the golite packs. I won't need anything huge but with ADK packing it needs to accomodate a bear container. How do the ultralight peeps handle That one??????. I will need to try the packs in stores loaded to about 35 pounds to get a good idea on how they feel. I prob need to plan a full day at a store, prob Campmor, driving the clerk insane.

The hard part will be packing light. I know I overpack, I plan for every contingency and end up trudging down the trail with a 50 pound pack. I tend to get cold so I pack for that. Pulling off the trail and getting into the sleeping bag to warm up is something I never thought about doing but is a good way on saving on weight by not packing every piece of fleece I own. Leaving the rain pants at home also good. I always pack them and rarely, if ever, wear them in the summer.

 

[poison ivy]

I wholeheartedly agree with Dave... I find that I get headaches when I hike with my lightly loaded daypack because it pulls on my shoulders. (At least that's my latest theory.) I never have this problem when backpacking with my full pack because it has great a great suspension system & rests on my hips like it should.

As for the lightening up -- I use both the tarptent & the pepsi can stove. I have gone on & on about how much I love the tarptent in many posts, so I won't here (so everyone doesn't start thinking I'm a broken record.) I'll just say it's worth every penny and it's a great way to pare your weight down.

If you're planning to buy, rather than build, a Pepsi stove, check out: antigravity gear ... I really like his stoves because the burner holes are on the sides, eliminating the need for a pot stand.

- Ivy

 

[dave.m]

Daks,

I'm interested to hear that you have a day pack and an old Kelty external frame pack. IMO, both of these shoulder hurters.

I'm also not impressed with many of the ultra light packs that I've seen. It's not that I think they don't have merit -- they do. Just super-highly specialized in their use. I don't think a 30lb pack is heavy for most northeast overnights. Our mountains are cold and wet, which means that you need stoves, fleece and shelter imo. Also, fast retreat won't make as much of a difference here as it does out west. Fast retreat out of harms way is one of hte basic tenants of ultralight and it can work in places like the Sierra or Rockies where a bit of elevation change can lead to huge climate changes. But here, 45 degrees and rain is going to be 45 degrees and rain no matter how fast you run. If you can realistically get your overnight pack to under 20 lbs, then the ultralight packs make some sense as lighter alternatives to a normal daypack.

But for a normal 35lb pack weight, my pref is for something with a plastic reinforced hip belt. Brands to target include (but are not limited): Gregory, Dana Design, Osperey and EMS (maybe). One example would be the Gregory Womens Electra:
http://www.gregorypacks.com/prod.php?ID=49
This type of pack will carry 30 - 40 lbs in comfort. As I said in an earlier post, I would rather carry 30 lbs in a pack like that than carry 30 lbs in a day pack. Despite a 3 lb difference in pack weight (give or take) the better suspension will do a better job putting weight on my hips and off my shoulders.

 

[ripple]

An easy cheap way to lighten your load is to weigh everthing you carry, from tweezers to your t shirts. Then go through all your stuff and put aside everything you won't use everyday. You will be amazed at how many lbs you can drop by just cutting things out that are not used, and you carry for "just incase". Besides my little med kit if it doesn't get used everyday, then it doesn't come along. If you keep your big 3 (pack, shelter and sleeping bag) under ten pounds you can easily do 2 nighters carring 15 lbs.

 

[percious]

hey, if you are interested, I sell a whole kit of pepsi can stoves on ebay. I can cut you a deal if you want. The only reason I even charge for them is that they take a while to make. All in all, i probably make <$5 per hour. But who cares! its fun!

 

[shadowcat]

ultralight gear/pack

i have the gregory advent pro ultralite pack. i love it! it's only 2200 cu so it's not really big enough for overnighters. however, golite has some larger packs that are 2# or less. they have the race, team & speed - can't remember which is larger. northern mountain gear has a couple of the golites on sale for a great price - you could try one to see what you think. i know they came out with another one this year, northern mt has it also, it is slightly heavier but they added a bit more support and side compression straps. when you go ultralight you do give up some of the support and comfort so there's a trade off so be careful, especially since you have shoulder troubles now. for a sleeping bag i have the golite force, rated to -20. it is incredibly lite, i think around a 1# or so and filled with 700 wgt down. it also is great and packs down very small. that's about if for light gear so far for me. just remember the trade offs and balance them with keeping comfortable while down-weighing your gear.

 

[Neil]

Another way around your weight problem is to change hiking styles.
Try hiking in to a lean-to, setting up base camp for a few days and do ultra light day hikes from there.

 

[trailbiscuit]

An addendum to ripple's post: Weigh everything.
Grab yourself a small kitchen scale. My wife and I input every piece of gear we have into a spreadsheet. (It's also a great way to make sure you don't forget anything, like pots...which we have done before!) Then use the spreadsheet to find out exactly how much your set up will weigh. After your trip analyze what you used vs. what stayed in the pack. Then you will have a list of everything you need for the length of your trip and how much you can expect to carry. Granted, it's a little dorky...but then again look where we're discussing it.

Interesting point about packs, I just purchased a new pack, Osprey Aether 60. I took a long look at the GoLite packs, but I wasn't sure that the shoulder straps could handle a load for 5-7 days. That's why I went went with the "heavy" Osprey, 3lb. 6oz.

 

[rambler]

Here is an easy way to make a soda can stove: YACCS

For a variety of packs and some reviews check out the store at : Thru-hiker

Another lightweight pack Six Moons

Gear List and Links

Have trouble doing the math? Download a weight calcultor to see how much you are carrying.Weight

Don't forget your feet. Switch to low cuts (trail runners).