1:19 p.m. on February 8, 2013 (EST)
Where to prioritize?
It’s said that it is silly to start drilling holes in your tooth brush handle until you first take a good hard look at the weight of your “Big Three” first –
The three heaviest things most backpackers carry is the shelters, the sleep system and the backpack itself.
My pack is a 70 liter Golite Jam, weighs about two pounds.
If traveling solo I use a Kelty Light Year 20 degree down bag that is about 2-1/2 pounds ( it’s a women’s long bag ) and I am quite happy with a simple walmart foam pad in the summer.
For a shelter I have a number of options. I like tarps and my Spinn Twinn is under a pound with ground cloth, stakes and what-not, but I also have a fantastic Tarptent Squall 2 that is just a tad over two pounds, and we also have a 3 man Rainshadow Tarptent that I use when my wife comes with me, which is a little over 2-1/2 pounds.
It’s pretty easy to limit each of the “Big Three” to three pounds each with modern gear, especially for easy beginner summer trips.
Getting this stuff down to two pounds each takes some work and skill, but the payoff is being able to almost “float” down the trail with almost no fatigue, rolling off the miles – If you want to roll off miles – Almost effortlessly, as compared to laboriously hauling a fifty pound pack three miles and calling it good!
Want an example?
The Grand canyon in winter was mentioned above. For a January Grand canyon trip this year with my wife I packed the following –
My backpack, two pounds. Inside it was the following -
Clothing bag --- 41.8 ounces
Contains REI long johns, ( top and bottom ), Uniqlo nylon and fleece pants and, “heattech” synthetic T, 2 pair merino wool socks from Costco, and a very warm quilted hat that is to silly to be seen in public with.
Cook kit – Two quart aluminum cooking pail with lid, two plastic bowls and two plastic cups. --- 13.2 ounces
MSR Whisperlight stove, complete with wind screen, pump/ fuel bottle, a book of matches and homemade cotton stuff sack that doubles as a pot holder --- 18.4 ounces
Tent with pole, lines and stakes --- 42.8 ounces – This was a huge Tarptent Rainshadow 2, a big single wall three man tent.
Food bag --- 4.1 ounces (!) I need something lighter for this!
Big polycro ground cloth --- 2.9 ounces
In the big outer pocket where I could get to them was - Frogg Togg rain suit --- 10.1 ounces, and Uniqulo down parka --- 9.3 ounces and my repair kit, Contains 10 or 15 feet of “triptease” line, matches, fire starter, sewing kit, adhesive tape, patch kit for thermarest sleeping pads, compass with sighting mirror, two packs eye glass cleaners and maybe some other stuff that I forget…3.7 ounces.
In the mesh side pockets were - 1 liter platypus bladder and two one liter power aid bottles for water --- 4.2 ounces
Huge probably rayon square scarf tied to outside of pack --- 1.1 ounce
Total, 147.6 ounces, or 9,225 pounds
And that’s where I stopped weighting things. At the last moment I threw in my prescription sun glasses, spikes for my boots and a garbage bag to line my pack in the case of rain.
Base or “dry” weight, under 11 pounds!
Clothing worn at start at rim –
Army surplus BDU trousers --- 26.8 ounces
Fleece anorak --- 14.6 ounces
Fleece shirt --- 15.5 ounces
“heatech” turtleneck --- 5.8 ounces
REI merino wool socks --- 3.6 ounces
Merrell something-or-other boots 36.7 ounces
Total, 103 ounces or 6.4 pounds
Much of the upper layers went into the pack down in the canyon.
Carried on person –
Gerber LST pocket knife --- 1.2 ounces
Flashlight --- 1.9 ounce
Bic --- .6 ounce
Handkerchief --- .7
Gun, Keltec P32 --- 9.8 ounces loaded with 8 silvertips
I carried all our food for the trip except for some snack my wife carried, and it totaled about ten pounds for the three night, four day trip.
Thus, my total FSO ( From Skin Out ) load ( with three quarts water ) was about 35 pounds.
Heh, you may notice I carried no sleeping gear at all!
My wife carried our sleeping quilt, a home made Ray Way 2P kit with two layers of Alpine insulation, and our two thermarest inflatable pads.
She also carried our dopp kit, first aid kit, her own clothing bag, tiny flashlight, and some snacks.
She always packs in a whirlwind the night before the trip ( drives me nuts! ) so I couldn’t weight anything, but her total load was probably no more than 12 or 13 pounds total.
As you can see, we lacked nothing at all on this trip. Our weights were not considered “ultralight” but were pretty durn low by traditional standards, and this sure as heck helps on those big elevation changes!
In fact, my wife has downright bad knees. This was a primary motivation for me to re-learn and re-equip with lightweight gear in recent years, so she could continue hiking with me. Un-necessarily heavy loads are murder on the body!
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