Based on an article written by Glen van Peski
Going lighter is a passion. We love to hike along with someone and opening their eyes to a lighter world than they ever imagined existed. At it’s simplest, it boils down to taking less, so you can do more. It's a journey you must make yourself, but perhaps our tipps help you to reach your goal.
The image on the right shows my equipment used for a more than 500 kms walk across Switzerland.
And now we hope to see and to meet you along the ultralight trail
someday.
Not everyone is looking for all the benefits of
going lighter, and not everyone will experience all the benefits of a lighter
equipment too. How far you want go is up on you and your needs.
Easier on the body
Even if you do manage to find the perfect backpack or pannier, with awesome
padding, with a perfectly adjustable harness, compression straps,
load lifters, canted waist belt, amazing frame, so that your
shoulders aren’t sore, you’re STILL putting that load onto your
poor knees and feet!
Now if you’re a young person, maybe you
can get away with carrying 20 - 30 or more kilograms. But after a few years,
you will feel it, and the damage to your knees and ankles may already
be done. Carrying less weight will make your ENTIRE body thank you!
Travel
longer/later in life
Being able to lighten your load means you can keep doing travelling
well into your ‘golden years’. And what could make the autumn of
your life more ‘golden’ than travelling?
Get further
If you like to get away from the trailhead, and out past the
crowds, having a lighter backpack will allow you to put in effortless
strides that eat up the miles, and let you enjoy the solitude of the
backcountry away from the hordes. If you want to see some countryside
that not everyone can get to, taking less will help get you there.
More experience in a short time
You may not have
a lot of discretionary time. Maybe you can only go out for a 3-day
weekend for a backcountry recharge. But there’s nothing better to cure
your "Wilderness Deficit Disorder" like a quick trip. Having a simple,
light pack makes for quick getaways from town. A light load allows
you to make the most of the time you have available, it extends your
backcountry reach, and brings more of the wild within grasp.
Easier
off-trail travel
If you like to get off the beaten path, or have never tried it but
are looking for something different than the trail experience, having
a lighter load will make it easier to leave the trail and start
bushwacking. A smaller load is easier to force through brush, and a
lighter load makes for easier going up steep talus.
Safer
That’s right. A lighter load, even with a reduced first aid kit,
can be SAFER than carrying a heavy pack with a big first aid kit!
See more under What about safety?
Less gear to keep track of
Gone will be the days when you look
like a gear explosion. If you’ve pared your load down to the
essentials, you will find you’ll be quicker out of camp in the
morning because there’s just way less gear to pack up. The simplicity
of less gear will free you up to enjoy your surroundings more,
spending less time worrying about your ‘stuff’.
And isn’t that
one of the reasons you head to the backcountry in the first place?
Good news! You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to trim your pack weight. To get to some of the rarified levels of lightness, it is obvious that some significant coin may help. But a central tenet of going lighter is taking less, this means "making do with less". Leaving unnecessary stuff at home doesn’t cost anything. For some great cheap gear ideas, check out our Ultralight and Ultracheap Gear List. Some of the ways to save weight do NOT involve new gear.
Leaving stuff at home
As you analyze your gear list with weights, and think about what
you actually use on trips, you’ll figure out things to leave at
home. Most people take more gear, clothes and food than they actually
use or need.
Looking for multi-use items
This is closely related to leaving stuff at home. If you
can figure out that a bandanna can serve as a washcloth, bandage,
prefilter, emergency hat, and towel, you can then leave some of those
other items at home.
Examples:
See lots of other ideas under Multiple use Items.
Borrow or rent lighter gear
Renting light gear is hard, since most rental operations go in for
heavier, bullet-proof gear. However, depending on how old and heavy
your gear is, you may find that the rental options give you a taste
of equipment that is at least lighter than what you have.
Another
option:
Make friends with people who have lighter gear than you and
see if you can borrow it. Sometimes people that are really into
lightening their load may have multiple renditions of gear as they
lightened up, so you may be able to borrow what was their lightest
pack right before they got one that was 2 ounces lighter.
Some
outfitters, like Wilderness Outings
and Wilderness Trekking School,
run specific lightweight trips and have gear (including Gossamer Gear
products sometimes) that can be rented or borrowed.
Depending on how
heavy your gear is, you may find rentals at Swiss Fun Rent that will lighten your load at least a little.
Make your own gear
If you can sew, or are willing to learn, there are many
do-it-yourself projects that will significantly lighten your load.
Many online stores have patterns or even complete kits for making
your own gear. For example, the G4 pack pattern and materials is
available for under $40 from Quest Outfitters,
and there’s even a G4 Yahoo group if you have questions while
you’re sewing.
Making your own gear allows you to customize it to
exactly what you want. Start with easy stuff like stuffsacks and
tarps before moving on to backpacks and clothing.
We rank possible backcountry injury/illness into three categories:
Experience shows that very few maladies fall into the third category. Discussions with Search and Rescue (SAR) personnel reveal that most people, when found, had what they needed to be safe. They just didn’t have the knowledge or experience they needed. The classic example is hypothermia, where the first thing that goes is the judgment. Victims are found dead having discarded gear that would have saved them if they knew the symptoms and treatment.
Heavy packs
can actually have a negative impact on safety because of:
REMEMBER
Be smart!
Never reduce your pack weight
in excess of your experience!
The choices you make in lightening your load based on comfort will depend on how you “do” travel.
Which describes you better:
So think about
Take that into account
when making choices. If you like to be underway all the time, the greatest comfort
will be created by choices that lighten your luggage!
You’re
convinced of the benefits of going lighter, you just don’t quite
know where to start.
The first thing to remember is it’s a process.
Don’t expect to achieve miracles right away, just start down the
trail and learn and lighten as you go. One of the most powerful
things you can do is to adjust your expectations. If you try to
duplicate your everyday home experience in the backcountry, you are
going to be carrying a heavy pack.
To figure out how to get somewhere, first you need to know where
you are.
You need to know the brutal truth about the weight of your gear.
Don’t fall into the trap of assuming something is negligible,
that’s a rare case indeed. Generally, if you watch the ounces, the
pounds will take care of themselves.
Get some scales
You may be able to start this process with scales that you have
around the house. But we recommend the use of a modern digital scale that is able to weigh even small weights with precision.
Weigh all your gear
Take out every piece of gear you’ve taken on a trip or might
take on a trip. Weigh each piece of gear, and write down the weight
with the accurate description. Don’t write down ‘shirt’, and be
wondering later which shirt it was. Be sure to weigh component parts
of your gear. For instance, weigh the trekking pole baskets apart
from the trekking poles. Don’t just put down the first aid kit at 240 Grams, weigh all the pieces. Break everything down into its component
parts.
Weigh your pack
Get into the habit of weighing your pack before trips. Take a
hanging digital scale with you, and weigh your complete luggage at the trailhead before starting your journey. This will give you a true
weight, not a weight at home before you stick in a few ‘just in
case’ items into your pack!
If you have a competitive nature, you
might enlist your journey companions in this exercise also. A common way
to list pack weight is ‘base pack weight’. While definitions
vary, generally this is the weight of the pack without food and water
(since this depends on the length and locale of the trip), but
including containers you use to carry food and water, all your gear
including stuff generally carrying in your pockets, but not including
the clothes you would normally be wearing in the middle of the day
(no rain gear, jackets, etc). Since you’re just tracking your own
progress, your personal definition will work if it is consistent.
If
you find yourself cheating, you can always go to the ‘from skin out
(FSO)’ method, which includes ALL gear and clothing, but no food
and water. The FSO weight, of course, is not quite as convenient to
ascertain at the trailhead unless it is pretty remote.
Analyze
List all your gear and the weights. If you are handy with a
spreadsheet program, that is a great tool for accomplishing this
list. Then you can sort the items by weight, so that the heavier
stuff is on the top (or bottom). Take a look and analyze the total of
your standard gear list for a trip. Most people are surprised to find
how many individual items they take with them. Sometimes people look
at an item of gear they always take with them, and realize they can’t
remember the last time they actually used it on a trip. Look at how
the weights of clothes add up. Compare the weights of different
options you have, like a down vest compared to a fleece vest. Spend
some time looking the list over and see if you can write down a
couple of observations/ideas based on what you see.
Taking less ‘stuff’
So now that you’ve weighed
everything, you have some data to start with. It’s time to dive in
and start figuring out how to take less so you can do more.
Leave things at home
One of the easiest (and cheapest) ways
to reduce pack weight is to leave stuff at home! If you see something
you never use but always take, consider going without it. If it’s a
first aid item, you will want to think carefully about it, but the
same logic can be applied. Consider the ramifications of not having
it, the ‘worst case scenario’, if you will. If you can live with
that, then leave the gear at home. Consider the particulars of the
trip to fine-tune your gear list. If you are heading out in the late
fall, insects are unlikely to be an issue, so you can leave your head
net and insect repellent at home. If you are hiking in the desert,
maybe you don’t need the snow baskets on your trekking poles. If
you can figure out how to eat everything with a spoon, you don’t
need to take a fork.
Taking less items saves weight.
Take smaller quantities
The other part of taking less stuff is
taking smaller quantities. You would be surprised at how quickly the
seemingly minor weights of soap, sunscreen, skin lotion, and insect
repellent add up. Strive to only take what you expect to use on a
particular trip. Comb the travel sections of the stores you shop for
small sizes or samples of products. Buy mini containers and decant
products into them after labeling. Check out Minimus.biz for a huge
variety of items available in tiny quantities.
Somewhat related to taking less stuff
is looking for multiple use items.
If you can find a piece of gear
that does more than one function, you can leave something else at
home. Now, they may not be perfect for all the functions, but if you
decide it does a serviceable job, it’s a great way to lose weight.
Some examples to get your creative juices flowing:
Titanium cup
If you’re willing to plan ahead and adapt, you may find that you
can use the same titanium cup or pot as
Watch
It may not seem like they weigh much,
but carrying a separate compass, thermometer, timer, alarm, etc. can
add up, not to mention the hassle of keeping track of a bunch of
small stuff.
If you pick the right watch it can serve as:
Bandanna
This is one item that won’t set you
back a lot of money.
Carefully chosen and used, it can be your
Dr. Bronner’s soap
If you haven’t heard of Dr. Bronners,
you must have lived a very sheltered existence indeed, and it’s
time to expand your horizons. I prefer the peppermint style. And
while the writing on the original bottles can provide for hours of
entertainment or thought-provoking discussions, this is very
concentrated, so decant into smaller dropper bottles. It’s
biodegradable, but use responsible "Leave No Trace" manners in the
backcountry.
This miracle soap can be used as:
Pants
It’s nice to have the perfect pair of pants or shorts for every
condition, and I’m sure your trail companions might appreciate
different colors and patterns, but if you choose wisely and accept
some minor compromises,
you may find that one pair of pants can serve
as:
Hat
The right hat can provide:
Ground Cloth
One of those thin emergency blankets,
particularly if you choose the ones that are gold colored on one
side,
can serve as:
Of course, the polycryo ground cloth, besides being even lighter and having the advantage of letting you see pebbles through it before you sleep on them, can serve as a solar still in an emergency situation.
Sunglass tether
The hides sunglass strap also serves as
a
Sleeping pad
Many lightweight gear packs are designed
to use your sleeping pad as part of the pack frame. It can also serve
as a sit pad during breaks. With the proper knowledge, a sleeping pad
can be an important piece of first aid equipment. It can also make a
cool toboggan for sliding off a snowbank into an alpine lake.
Sleeping socks
Many lightweigth gear packs are designed
to allow the use of sleeping socks as shoulder strap or waist belt
padding.
The sleeping socks may also make great protection for
sunglasses.
After you’ve figured out what you can
leave at home, either because the function is covered by some other
multiple-use item, or you’ve just plain figured out how to do
without it, it’s time to start making sure that the stuff you do
bring is the lightest stuff you can find, or at least the lightest
you can afford.
Light stuff doesn’t always have to be pricey. Check
out Mark Henley’s ultralight/ultracheap gear list for ideas.
Here are
some items you might want to consider:
Spoon
You got down to one spoon, so don’t
take a big metal one. Most outdoor stores sell nice Lexan and even Titanium spoons.
A plastic spoon found in an ice cream bucket can also be of use.
Flashlight
Consider carefully how much light you really need and what kind
of features are really necessary. If you get a tiny light that can
clip onto your hat, you don’t need the heavy head strap. Lithium
batteries are a little lighter and will last longer in the cold.
Rain gear
Frogg Toggs, Rainshield and Driducks
are very breathable and very waterproof products. I’ve used
Driducks for years as my only jacket. It’s so breathable it makes a
great windshirt, so there’s no need to bring a separate one. I
don’t use the Driducks pants because they get shredded too easily
on brush and talus, so I opt for chaps. But if you’re traveling on
clear trails, the Driducks pants may serve you well.
Footwear
We recommend the use of running shoes for hiking. They work very well even on rough surfaces. With light
weight on your back, there is no need for heavy weight on your feet. If you
use trekking poles, they help with balance and can keep you from
twisting your ankle. Lighter loads will allow you to be more focused
on your surroundings. Beeing less tired will help you to deny stumbling. And last but not least the use of running shoes will help to strengthen
your ankles.
Cup
If you’re not willing to use your
cooking pot as your cup, take the lightest cup you can find. A thin plastic cup cut from part of a large drink cup
from a fast food place will do the job. Just make sure that there is something
inside it when it was packed- Otherwise it might crack.
Cooking
There’s a bunch of options for light
alcohol or esbit stoves. And you can make your own for free!
Water Treatment
Filters are heavy,
and prone to clogging. Ultraviolet treatment is nice, but relies on
batteries, and can sometimes malfunction. Chemical treatment such as
Aquamira will effectively treat water, with no waste and for a
fraction of the weight. Usually mini dropper bottles can carry a 4 –
5 day supply of this.
When you weighed all your existing gear, put it in a spreadsheet, and ranked it by weight, you probably noticed the three heaviest things were your pack, your tent and your sleeping bag. Since these are the generally the three heaviest items, it’s worth taking a look at these to shave some major weight.
A big internal frame pack can weigh over 2.5 Kgs. But today it is possible to keep the weight of the total pack under that. There are a number of great pack options out there, both by cottage manufacturers and mainstream manufacturers.
Think about what kind of trips you are going to take
with the pack
Try and stretch yourself. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, a big
pack cries to be filled. If you get a compact pack, it can be a tool
to help you lighten your pack load. Some of the superlight packs
weigh under 300 grams, and they are surprisingly robust. But, as with
much lightweight gear, one of the tradeoffs is taking better care of
it. There are people out there doing long trips with extremely small packs!
So instead of asking how much weight a pack will
carry, ask yourself how little weight you can put in the pack! Start
with where you are. Even people just starting out should be able to
fit their gear in a 30 litres pack, which weighs less than 300 grams.
Just to say
Based on own experiences we prefer today a standard not-so-light backpack with a stiff inner frame and a stiff hip belt. Even with few and low weight gear in it is way more comfortable to carry than an ultralight weak and lumpy pack on your back.
Not so many years ago, a 1.2 - 2 kgs tent was considered
lightweight. There are now so many more options. What you need for
shelter depends somewhat on the kinds of trips you take, but largely
upon your comfort level.
You need to consider
You can now get a roomy, single wall tent for one person for about
a pound, and a 2-person tent for about 1.5 pounds, so there’s no
reason to carry much more weight than that.
There’s a ton of options when it comes to sleeping bags
In general, the lightest option is going to be down. A higher fill power will be lighter and warmer. Personally I like a bag with no insulation on the bottom and no zipper. No zipper saves weight, and a completely enclosed bag minimizes heat loss due to conduction and convection, as well as keeping crawlies out. Insulation on the bottom is crushed by your body lying on it, so provides little or no insulation value. With no insulation on the bottom, you have to make sure to keep the bottom facing down when you turn. A thin Nightlight pad provides plenty of insulation from the ground.
See some of the research resources listed in More ... too to get more information in this area.
One of the main things you are doing when lightening your load is
trading knowledge and experience for weight.
The more you know, the
less you can take.
Trip planning
The more you know, either from research or from traveling in the
area previously, the lighter you can go.
Some of the considerations:
Books
I know it’s kind of ‘old school’, but books are a great way
to learn from the experience of others. Both how-to books, and books
about trips taken by lightweight hikers are useful sources of
information.
Some of our favorites
153 Amazing & Inexpensive Tips for Extremely Lightweight Camping 1st (first) Edition by Clelland, Mike [2011]
Ray's book covers the basics of backpacking without any hype and dispels many of its myths. Important items, such as footwear, clothing, backpacks, food, cooking utensils and tents, are covered in unexpected detail and clarity.
Der Leser erhält einen Überblick, welche die leichtesten Outdoor-Produkte auf dem Markt sind und wo man diese kaufen kann. Er erfährt auch, welche Alternativen es zur teuren High-Tech-Ausrüstung gibt und wie man durch Mehrfachverwendung, Selbstbau und geschickten Einsatz viele Kilogramm und Euro sparen kann. Checklisten und zahlreiche praxiserprobte Tipps helfen dem Trekker - aber auch dem Kanufahrer, Radwanderer und Bergsteiger - dabei, seine Touren und auch sich selbst auf ultraleicht umzustellen.
full of colour photos and diagrams, this new title reflects a multitude of updated information, detailing Ray Jardine's lightweight backpacking techniques, his gear, and his methods for enjoyable and safe trekking and camping.
Gear lists
Reviewing other people’s gear lists is a great source of ideas.
You get a glimpse of how they have solved the gear equation. Just
make sure it’s a list they have actually used, and not an
‘armchair’ gear list. There’s a section on our website with
some interesting gear lists, and many of our trip reports include
gear lists. Often trail journal sites will include gear lists.
Online resources
We live in an online world, and the amount of information
available online is staggering. As you check out websites, you will
see links to still other sites, so you can quickly bookmark a number
of sites with useful information. There are also online groups and
forums devoted to ultralight backpacking. We have a number of sites
listed on our links page.
Wilderness First Aid
You have always to carry your brain when you’re backpacking, and it
doesn’t weigh any more no matter how much you stuff into it!
Packing it with information will allow you to become lighter, as you
learn techniques that allow you to improvise. Most people carry heavy
first aid kits that they don’t know how to use. This is a case
where knowledge of what to do in a medical situation is invaluable.
Find the nearest provider near you, and consider taking
Courses
Once great way to gain experience is to take trips with companies
that provide a safe and engaging experience. It’s hard to find
programs that stress lightweight backpacking, but it’s becoming
more common.
Some options
Teach others
As you gain a little knowledge, one of the great ways to learn
more is to teach others what you have already learned.
Consider
volunteering for your local Boy Scout troop, get involved in the
Sierra Club or other local outdoor programs, and participate in
online forums.
Practice
There’s no substitute for actually getting out there.
Be an
intentional traveller. Take notes when you’re on a trip (keep pen
and paper handy so you jot things down as they occur to you). Record
what worked, and what did not. Note what gear other people had that
seemed to work, or what food that looked tasty. Then review your
notes before your next journey.
Have your gear packed up and ready to go at a
moments notice, so if an opportunity arises, you’re ready to take
advantage of it. Find people with lighter luggage than yours to travel with, so you are able to learn from them.
So you’ve started the journey.
You’ve poked around on the
internet, read a couple of books, and have made some changes in your
gear. Your Christmas list now consists of gear that you didn’t want
to buy for yourself. Initially, it seemed like the weight just melted
out of your pack, as you applied the principles of leaving stuff at
home, finding multiple use items, taking less stuff, and finding
ever-lighter options for the stuff you did take.
But now you’ve
found yourself at a plateau. You’ve enjoyed some big benefits from
lightening up, and inspired some others along the way, but you’re
hungry for more.
I don’t know what your base pack weight is, but
let’s look at a couple of ways you might break through to a lower
pack weight now.
more ...
You may have traded in your heavy tent for a lighter tent, but if your base pack weight is pretty low, even the light tent is still probably a significant portion of your load.
If you can jump to a
tarp, you’re likely to cut that weight in half!
The tarp shown here covers a surface of 2.5 x 3.5 square meters, and it weighs only 600 grams (including alle lines, and all spikes).
There are a number
of advantages to tarps
Like much of ultralight backpacking, as you take less weight, you
have to use your brain more. It’ll feel weird at first, but make
yourself do it for a few times, and it will get more comfortable.
Here are a couple of strategies for tarping
A sleeping pad is a personal
thing.
I know people who absolutely feel they can’t sleep on
anything less than a thick air mattress, and I’ve hiked with guys
who didnt even bother with a pad at all.
If you’re willing to
experiment, you may be able to get by with very little pad indeed:
When sleeping most of the pressure is between you and the ground. By this your sleeping bag insulation below you is pressed and of no value at all.
So we highly recommend to use a quilt instead of a sleeping bag. It is lightweight, has a small pack volume, dries fast, does not cost much, keeps you warmand it can be made by
yourself based on your specific measures and needs. Ray Jardine (see under heading More ...) offers excellent kits to make a quilt by yourself.
It really works - highly recommended stuff!
Most people, in my opinion, take way
too many clothes with them.
Take a hard look at
those soft clothes, and consider if some of the following strategies
could help you reduce weight. My personal feeling is that if Im not
wearing every piece of clothing I have at night, the coldest part of
the day, then I brought too much clothing.
Onion (Layering) Principle
Put on as much layers of thin and lightweight garments as needed to feel comfortable in a certain environment. This allows you to stay warm or cool without the need to carry specific garments for a lot of different climates.
Driducks
A Driducks, or similar, rain jacket is
an awesome piece of clothing. It is superbly breathable and amazingly
waterproof, incredibly light, and its even inexpensive! I use mine
for a windshirt, rain jacket, and with my sleeping bag, my puffy
jacket. I like to take a size larger than I usually wear, so I have
room to layer my sleeping bag under it around camp.
Insulation
If you adjust your hiking style (see
adjusting your hiking schedule below), you would be amazed at how
little insulation you need. When you’re moving, the body generates
an amazing amount of heat. I have hiked for days through snow in just
long pants and wet running shoes and kept comfortable. Once you stop,
you have about 20 minutes before the wet feet start to get cold, and
you either need to get into the sleeping bag, or start moving again.
With a size XL Driducks jacket instead of my usual size L, I can
drape my sleeping bag around me, under the jacket, and have a puffy
jacket around camp without carrying any additional weight.
Convertible Pants
Convertible pants are a great solution
that give you the option of natural ventilation during the warm parts
of the day, but the option of sun protection, bug protection, brush
protection, and, in the cool of the morning or evening, a little
extra warmth. Admittedly, a super light pair of running type shorts
and a really light pair of long pants could be no heavier, and
potentially even a little lighter.
Mesh liner/quick dry Underwear
For guys, a pair of shorts or pants
with mesh liners provides nice, uh, ventilation, and is lighter than
carrying a change of underwear. If your favorite pants don’t come
with mesh liners, use a pair of lightweight, washable, nylon briefs
like the ones from Ex Officio.
Socks
For years I carried three pairs of
running socks: one on my feet, one clean one waiting for switching
out, and one that was drying from having been washed. Now, you’ll
have to experiment for yourself, but many times I’ve gone with one
pair, and either worn them damp after washing, or hike for awhile
with no socks at all while they dry. Everyone seems to have their own
strategy, and every foot is different. I find generally I’m best
off with a thin nylon (Coolmax or similar) pair of socks, low cut to
save weight of course.
Clean clothes in Car
One nice trick is to stash some clean
clothes for the ride home in the car trunk. It makes for a little bit
less smelly ride back, and you don’t have to worry so much about
how dirty or stinky you get on the trail.
Bounce bag in ar
You know the feeling, you want to go as
light on clothing as you can, but you’re not sure about the
weather. You’ve been watching the forecast for the projected
temperatures, but there’s no substitute for being at the trailhead.
So instead of make your call at home, take a couple of options in a
bounce bag in the trunk. That way, if it looks warmer or colder than
you thought, you have options for your final packing. This can save
you from putting extra weight in when packing at home, due to the
uncertainty over actual conditions. Weighing packs at the trailhead
will keep you honest and prevent you from throwing in clothing ‘just
in case’ at the last minute.
Lightest Clothes
Beside not taking too many items of
clothing, you for sure want to take the lightest items you can find.
We’ve already mentioned the Driducks. For warm hats and gloves,
check out Possumdown. There are a growing number of superlight down
insulation pieces from Montbell, Patagonia and others that could help
you shave a few ounces.
When you start to get the weight of your gear down, you begin to
reach the point pretty quickly where the heaviest part of the load is
food and water.
Obviously adequate food and water is important, but
since they are both heavy items, you don’t want to take any more
than necessary. There’s nothing worse than coming back from a trip
with a couple of pounds of food you didn’t eat, knowing that you
carried those pounds for every step of the trip.
So how can you
safely minimize your food and water weight ?
Calories per ounce
Make the food you carry count. I never take food having less than
100 calories per ounce, and am always looking for ways to goose the
caloric content of meals. Minimus.biz and Packit Gourmet sell
individual packets of olive oil and gravy that are great for stirring
into meals to give them extra staying power.
Make it good
The food has to taste good so you eat it, otherwise it doesn’t
do you any good at all. Collect recipes from friends, online, or
magazines. Trailcooking.com and OnePanWonders.com are great sources
for ideas. Observe what other people bring that seems good. For most
people, variety is key, so mix it up. Take notes and review them
before a trip!
Know how much you eat
This is probably the biggest key to saving food weight. Before
every trip, weigh all your food. Then weigh any food you bring back.
Very quickly you will learn how many pounds of food per day you
consume. If I know I’m coming out in the late afternoon and will be
eating dinner on the drive home, I don’t count that as a full day.
Once you have your food number, stick to it. If you take more, you’ll
just end up bringing it back. Ideally I like to arrive back at the
car hungry (hopefully its not in bear country and I’ve been able to
leave water and a snack there).
Water
Water weighs 1 kg per litre, so it adds up quickly.
You do NOT want to skimp on water, adequate hydration is key to peak
performance, good decision-making, and enjoyment of your trip. Here again, knowledge is power.
You can get significant weight savings, simply by changing the way you travel.
Most
people like to travel all day, or most of the day, get into camp, set
up their tent, cook dinner as night falls, and sit around until it's
time for bed. This means you are sitting around, not generating any
heat from activity, during the coldest part of the day. In turn, this
means you are probably bringing long underwear or a puffy jacket that
is too warm to hike in, and the only purpose is to wear it around
camp.
Consider instead
You’ve done the hard work, and you’ve reaped the big benefits. Your small, light pack is the envy of others you hike with. You quote gear weights to the nearest hundredth of an ounce. But, as any skilled practitioner, you’re always on the lookout for ways to save a couple of more grams. You’re willing to try new things if they promise to save weight, even if you decide after trying them that they’re not for you. So lets have a discussion about some areas you may not have fully explored yet.
There is some thought that one way to minimize your pack weight is
to take a lighter sleeping bag, then take a puffy jacket to make up
the additional insulation. In theory, this sounds attractive, but my
contention is you can save even more weight by rearranging your
schedule so you’re not standing around in the coldest part of the
day (see Changing your hiking schedule), taking no wearable
insulation to speak of, and putting the extra weight into a warmer
sleeping bag:
Wearable insulation is inefficient
A sleeping bag is very efficient insulation. It’s contoured to
your body, and there’s no wasted fabric with extra appendages. In
fact, if you follow my lead, there’s no wasted down on the bottom
of the bag, it’s all concentrated on the sides and top. So, in my
regular sleeping bag, I have about 10 ounces of down in a 18 ounce
bag, a ratio of about 56% down, with a loft of about 3 inches. Now
look at a jacket, say the Montbell Alpine Light Down Jacket. A size
medium weights 11.3 ounces, of which 4.0 ounces is down, a ratio of
only 35%, and say a loft of maybe 2 inches max. Because of all the
extra fabric, even a light, well-made jacket of light materials is
inherently inefficient compared to a sleeping bag. So the combo of
the jacket and sleeping bag yield (assuming the bag is sized to allow
the jacket to loft fully) 5 inches of combined loft, at least for the
torso, for a weight of about 29 oz. In comparison, my warm bag has
about 14 ounces of down in a 22 ounce bag, a ratio of 65%, and a 5
inch loft. So, for a system that is at least as warm, probably
warmer, I’ve saved almost half a pound! If you carry a nice warm
jacket, it’s likely way too warm for actually hiking in, so you’re
really just carrying it to wear around camp anyway. If you revise
your schedule so you’re not hanging around camp, you don’t need
the jacket, and the additional weight is much better spent in a
warmer bag.
Michelin Man
In a pinch, you can drape your bag around you in camp. If you run
the foot through the hood drawstring, it will hold it together, and
if you upsize your shell by a size, the bag will layer nicely under
it as a body shawl. Sure, it’s not super convenient, but did you
notice I just took a half pound out of your base pack weight? If you
were at 8 lbs., that’s a 6% reduction, not too shabby!
When you’ve gotten to the rarified heights of ultralight backpacking, you find that every ounce counts. The corollary is that you need to wring the maximum performance out of every item in your tiny pack. One way to do this is proper care of your sleeping bag.
Don’t overstuff
I don’t use a stuff sack for my sleeping bag. It’s a waste of
weight, and doesn’t allow flexibility in packing the bag. At the
beginning of a longer trip, I might have to push my sleeping bag
pretty well into the bottom of my pack. But, as the food load
lightens, I let the sleeping bag take up as much space as possible
inside the pack.
Keep it clean
Washing your bag with the proper
cleanser and equipment, or having it done professionally, will help
it maintain maximum loft. Your natural body oils will gradually
degrade its performance without proper care.
Allow recovery time
If you are stopping in the middle of
the afternoon for your main meal, take out your bag, allow it to air
out and let the sun drive any moisture out. I like to have my bags
made with black fabric on the inside, so I can turn them inside out
for maximum solar gain. Also, when I roll into camp, as soon as I
have my groundcloth down, I unpack my sleeping bag to give it the
most time to fluff up before I climb into it.
Location, location, location
Where you bed down for the night can
easily make a 10-degree difference. If you’re at the edge of your
bags performance (which is the light place to be), you will want to
learn to avoid katabatic flows. You can research it yourself, but
basically cold air settles. You don’t want to be in an area that
will collect cold air, or in an area that cold air will be whistling
through all night. I’m sure you’ve noticed, hiking in the early
morning, how the temperature drops precipitously when you cross a
gully. Imagine sleeping in that colder air! Also you will want to be
aware of where breezes will form during the night so you can pitch a
tarp in the right direction to shelter you from them. You will want
to become a backcountry ninja, learning to make maximum use of your
environment. Look for sheltered locations which will make a
difference in how warm you sleep.
Usually there’s nobody on the trip to turn your bed down and put a mint on your pillow (if this happens on your trips, let me know, I want to come along). If I’ve got a bag that’s going to be at the edge of the temperature rating, I want to do every little thing I can to eke every last degree out of it:
An evening walk
If for some reason I’ve been standing around long enough that
I’m not still warm from hiking, I will usually head out for a quick
walk before going to bed. This gets the blood pumping, and there’s
nothing worse than climbing into bed slightly chilled.
Plump your bag
Before I head out on an evening stroll, I go through my plumping
routine with my bag. The supreme master at this, at least as far as
I’ve ever hiked with, is Don ‘Photon’ Johnston. Don is a
serious, methodical guy, and he has a routine with his sleeping bag
that is awesome to behold. I am but a poor student of his form, but
my routine is to grab the bag by the two bottom edges, hold it
horizontally upside down, and shake. This gets the down in the
continuous baffles to shift around so its on the top of the bag.
After I’ve done this for awhile, I will swoosh the bag around in
the air a few times, holding the bag open, so it creates a windsock,
and plumps up the top of the bag.
Nuts on your pillow
Better than mints on your pillow, is nuts on your pillow. For a
long cold night, I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night
shivering. I don’t have a lot of fat on my body (although this
appears to be changing as I grow older), so I’m always looking to
put some fat or oils into my body, to give my metabolism some staying
power through the night. I like to eat nuts to provide that fuel, to
keep the internal furnaces going. You can incorporate them into
dessert if you take chocolate covered almonds or macadamia nuts (not
recommended for desert trips).
There’s nothing quite like a hot meal on the trail to give you a boost of energy and morale. It can also be an important safety margin during an unexpectedly cold night, or an emergency situation. So let’s look at some ways to avoid adding too much weight for that warm meal.
Minimize the number of hot meals
It’s just common sense, but if you have a hot drink and hot
cereal at breakfast, a hot lunch, and soup, a hot meal, and a hot
chocolate at dinner, you’re going to need a lot more fuel than if
you limit yourself to one hot meal a day. It’s all about what’s
important to you. You may decide it’s worth an extra couple of
ounces a day to have the extra hot drinks and meals. But I’ve hiked
with people who cut down to one hot coffee at the mid morning coffee
break, and a hot dinner, and found they didn’t miss all the other
hot meals and drinks. Part of this can be changing your schedule, so
you roll out and start walking in the morning, instead of lounging
around in the cold.
Try solid fuel
Esbit or similar tabs pack more heat per ounce than alcohol. You
can blow them out and reuse unburned portions of the tabs. Yeah, they
do smell a little, so you want to make sure you use them in plenty of
air. Yeah, they can make the bottom of your pot black, so you scrape
it a couple of times on the dirt or sand and squirt a little water on
it. Did you say you were serious about losing those last few grams or
not?
Use a light pot (and windscreen, etc)
My personal favorite is the Caldera Keg. I strip it down to just
the Caldera, the keg, top and the gram cracker. Its a great system. I
usually boil some water for soup, then use the rest of it for a
freezer bag meal. I wrap the dinner in my sleeping bag to cook while
I finish my first course of soup. Then it’s time to tuck into my
hot dinner.
Try natural fuels
This will depend on where you hike. Many areas require you to have
a fuel stove. However, in those other areas, sometimes you can just
make small cooking fires. This can be especially effective if hiking
as a pair and eating out of one pot. Hiking with my buddy Read, we
got it down to a system, with one of us lighting and tending a small
fire under the pot perched on rocks, and the other finding tiny twigs
and arranging them by size. We never used anything thicker than a
little finger. The Bush Buddy or similar stoves are a great solution
also. Very effective stoves, especially for groups. While the stoves
are heavier than other options, for longer trips, especially for
groups, not having the weight of fuel could pay off. Again, be
responsible, observe LNT ethics, and obey all regulations. It’s not
about you; when you’re out there, you’re representing all
ultralight hikers.
The ultimate cooking option
The ultimate cooking option could be to
not cook. Besides saving the weight of a stove, pot and fuel, it
simplifies your load by reducing the total number of gear items. One
note, I do not recommend trying this if you are hiking with people
who are cooking. Some tips to try:
Take foods that can go either way
One option for easing into it is
looking for foods that can be eaten warm or cold. Dried refried beans
is an example. It can be mixed up cold and eaten over corn chips or
wrapped in a tortilla, or warmed up.
Use your body heat
If the weather is warm, you can
rehydrate and even add warmth to foods by carrying them between the
back of your neck and your pack, or hanging them elsewhere (just be
sure to double-bag). Sometimes just putting them in the back pocket
of your pack when its sunny will work wonders.
Take bars and snacks
Especially if the trip is going to be
short, there are many satisfying options in terms of bars and snacks.
Everyone has their favorite, but I have not found anything that beats
ProBars for easy-to-grab, whole food nutrition.
First aid kits is sometimes a difficult place for people to lose weight from. They are driven by the ‘what-if’s, and have been drilled to be prepared. We’ve talked a little bit about the importance of planning, education and experience (see Knowledge is power!), and this is particularly true of first aid. To really minimize your pack weight, you need to think carefully about every trip, and customize the load accordingly. When planning your first aid gear, there are a number of factors to consider.
Number and experience of people in party
If you are heading out by yourself, you
will not want to cut it as close as if you are going on a trip with 4
other experienced backpackers. Numbers give you redundancy; in
equipment, medical knowledge, and decision-making. If you are going
by yourself, but the trip is along a well-used trail, this provides
some modicum of backup. If your route is a remote cross-country
traverse, you’re likely to really be by yourself on a solo trip,
and need to plan accordingly.
Experience with the planned route in the same
season
If you are familiar with the area you
will be hiking in, particularly in the same season, you can get by
taking less gear than when you are heading into unfamiliar territory,
or in a season you have less experience with.
Bailout points
If your planned trip has a number of
points where you can bail out to civilization if things get dicey,
you can take more chances than when you are heading into a remote
wilderness that has one way in and out.
Pack weight of participants
If you are in a group with everyone
carrying 50 lbs. on their back, and someone sprains their ankle, you
have limited options. If you’re in a group of lightweight hikers
with everyone carrying 20 lbs., it becomes easier to redistribute the
struggling hiker’s load among the rest of you. God forbid, if you
have a real emergency and need to go get help, you will be less tired
from a light load, and better able to scoot down the trail for help.
First Aid training of hikers
If you are traveling with a certified
Wilderness EMT, or members of your group have a current Wilderness
Advanced First Aid (WAFA) or Wilderness First Responder (WFR)
certification, or your hiking buddy is an active SAR volunteer, you
have a better margin of safety. And of course, since you have to
carry your brain anyway, and it doesn’t weigh any more no matter
how much it holds, you should pursue wilderness first training
yourself!
What first aid items have you used before?
Carefully analyze what you usually use,
sometimes use, and have never ever used. You may still want to carry
something you have never actually used, but be aware of it. Consider
cutting down on the number of an individual item you carry (do you
need 5 bandaids?). Whatever I use from my first aid kit on a trip, I
leave the wrapper in my first aid kit. Then when I get back home, I
know what I need to add so my kit is always ready to go. Avoid fancy,
heavy cases. I like a small Aloksak waterproof bag, which lets me see
where everything is.
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