Ultralight equipement

“I am hoping to reduce my pack weight by a large amount for Late Spring/Summer/early Fall backpacking this year. With a few key gear purchases I think I can get my base weight(everything but food and water) down to 9lbs or less. Granted this is theoretical until I actualy pack for a trip but I think I can do it.

Anyway I am looking at my big 4 items shelter, sleeping pad and bag, pack, raingear.

Anyone out there use any of these items? Some of them are new and not really on the market yet.

Sleeping bag- Montbell UL Down Sheet 12.5oz this is not a priority since my 30* only weighs 20oz.

Shelter/Rain gear - Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape 11oz This makes a really cool shelter that looks like a MH Waypoint 1

Packs - this is where I am getting stuck. I really like the new ULA Relay at 17oz . It looks like it could take some roughness. But the Fanatic Fringe pack only weighs 9.5ozs, this looks more homemade and I am wondering about durability. Hiking in the NE takes its toll on even my Gregory heavy duty packs.
Then there is the Gossamer Gear Mariposa at 17ozs but it is Sil and we know how durable that is.

So any thoughts or experiences?”

“i've been pretty happy with my granite gear virga- 1.25 lbs

you could try a silk liner for a summer bag.
i figure with a silk liner, shelter, good ground mat, full tummy, and a hat i'm good to ~40*”

“The big 3 for my thru hike were: Virga tarptent about: 20 oz, marmot helium bag: about 2 lbs, Osprey Atmos 50 pack: 2 lbs, 11 oz. I think that's 6 lbs and change. I didn't use rain gear during the summer or a sleeping bag, just a silk liner. The Osprety pack was light, durable, excellent ventilation and a great fit...good for no more than 30 lbs. At $199 the price was good as well.”

“Sacco the virga is actually on my list until I saw that 9.5oz pack.
Nimblefoot your big 3 sounds great but I want lighter My whole pack minus food should weigh less than 10lbs. Actually on the spreadsheet that I am setting this up on it weighs 6.95lbs.

Thats is what I want to carry plus food and water.”

“With 3-4 days of food and water, I ended up at about 23 lbs. Some times a little more, some times a little less. The best hiking days on the trail were always the day you went into town. My pack was almost empty of food and I kept the water low. I still think I can get lighter, but not without spending more money than I want to at this time.”

“Nimblefoot, yeah getting light is going to cost me some money but I really enjoy being light. I am hiking now for a weekend with about 20lbs before food and water. Under 7lbs would be lighter than my daypack used to weigh.
Course if I could lose some weight off my body it would help to. Somehow it is easier to just buy lighter gear.”

“I can tell you what I do. Everybody does it differently and every approach has it's advantages and drawbacks.

1. Shelter - For a tent (I seldom pack a tent) I use the SD Light Year CD. Generally I carry a Bibler Bivy which is my personal favorite. I also have a Virga Tarptent but it's heavier than the Bivy. I have been thinking of using a lighter Bivy but the prices of some of the 4-6oz bivy sacks is a little daunting. The Bibler has never let me down. I will sometimes pack a tarp that is actually a poncho that I set up with trekking poles.

2. Sleeping bag. I have three bags. Most heavily used is the Marmot Hydrogen (30 degrees). Second most commonly used is the Marmot Atom (40 degrees). I pack layers of clothes that I use to extend the range of my sleeping bag such as a Patagonia Micro-Puff jacket/vest, etc. I have a zero-degree bag that is made by North Face that isn't ultralight but I seldom use it and expect to be carrying more weight on trips where I would need it.

3. Backpack. I am down to a frameless pack and use my sleeping pad as a liner for the bag to add stiffness to the pack. It's the Granite Gear Virga and I am quite pleased with it. For more capacity I pack the Granite Gear Vapor Trail. I stuff the sleeping bag in the bottom since it seems to use the space more efficiently. I have no problems getting a 4 day weekend worth of gear into this pack.

4. Raingear - Depends. I sometimes carry "Drop Stoppers" that you can see on backpackinglight.com. It's the cheapest ($15) lightest full rain suit I have ever seen. In general, however, I'll carry a silnylon poncho. The poncho (even silnylon) is heavier than the Drop Stoppers but it'd dual use since I can use it as a shelter as well.

My base pack weights 12.5 lbs (no food/water).

For me the "big 4" was where I spent most of my money. Then I had to realize that the rest of the stuff I could make or could make lighter. I shaved ounces until ounces turned into pounds.

It's amazing how much you DON'T need in the backcountry. :)
last edited: 1/31/06 4:42:47 PM”

“Have you looked at SixMoons Essence pack yet?”

“I just found that Gossamer Gear website a day or two ago. Interesting stuff.”

“Lizs they used to be GVP gear. They make some neat gear but I have to wonder about real world durability. Especially hiking her in the NE with Spruce branches, Rock scrambles, blowdowns, etc.”

“I have seen Gossamer Gear in action-well made and it holds up. As long as you are careful and don't beat your gear into the ground...,most light gear will work just fine.”

“OOOH a real gear site....okay guys, I have managed to get my gear down to around 30 to 40 (with food, water and medical gear) I use the Mountainsmith Contour 6000 (like the Mountainsmith Countour II) REALLY BIG. I am looking at the new lighter packs. Any opinions?


I may not be up to the lightweight you guys cover, but I know since I dropped the weight from HUGE to half huge it has been more fun.”

“my summer base wt. is around 9 pounds.
i could get by with lighter rain gear and i use 2 ground pads, a z-rest and a pro-lite 4 season- but i'm happy as is.”

“People, please don't use UltraLight Packs to carry your heavy gear.
UltraLight packs are designed to carry UltraLight loads, most only 20 pounds, some only about 10.
Keep your weight down and any UL pack will work as it is designed too.”

“The system I used to get my weight down was to make two lists.
As soon as I got home I made a list of what I would like to have had but didn't.
Then as I unpacked I made a list of everything I had but didn't use.
After doing this about three times I didn't have anything on either list. Well, except for the First Aid Kit.

Equipment:

I can't say enough good things about my ULA pack. That's seems to be the opinion of everyone who's used one.
With the ULA I got down to 23 lbs. total for a weekend, food, water & everything.

I won't give up my Thermarest. I tried going the ensolite route, but there was no comfort in it.”

“I won't give up my Thermarest. I tried going the ensolite route, but there was no comfort in it.”
the-naviguesser
10:54:25 AM
2/01/06

Me too, guesser. I can no longer get a good night's sleep without my ProLite 4 shorty.
last edited: 2/01/06 10:59:08 AM”

“The z-rest is only 1-2oz heavier than the thermarest prolite-3 3/4 length pad and it packs down smaller. I use the prolite-3 sometimes and a ridgerest others (I also use them to line my pack to stiffen it up since my backpack is without a frame).

I totally agree with stovestomper. An overloaded ultralight pack is a miserable experience. They are just not made with the suspension to carry a lot of weight. In fact I have found that even the estimates of what they can do are a bit excessive.”

“Hey Jimmy San, since you frequent www.backpackinglight.com have you looked at this book. Just curious if it is the same as all the other ultralight backpacking books. That site does have some very nice expensive ultralight gear

”

“No, I have not. That sub-5 lb stuff freaks me out. It's amazing but I am not confident enough to go that lightweight. I have a margin of comfort and safety that I fear I would cross if I tried it.”

“Hear! Hear! Jimmy!”

“Fuego time!!! what's wrong with endangering your life to save valu..........
sorry ,haven't seen a real post in so long.”

“It was interesting last yr at trail days to see his whole setup. No way would I want to go that light.”

“I agree with Ewker. A person can go lighter, but there needs to be a reality check somewhere. It's important to remember that the Golite people are retailers in the end. I could probably go lighter than the 23 lbs I did my thru with, but what's going to keep me from blowing off Mt. Washington? BTW what's the 4th of the big 4 if 3 are shelter, backpack and bag? Sounds like an algebra problem, doesn't it?”

“I think I'm finally at the point of getting an ultralight pack. I'm not sure what direction I'll take though.

Stovestomper's Vapor trail pack looks interesting to me but I'm not sure how I'd like not having a top lid.”

“sleeping pad, Nimble.”

“I put the fourth in there because my raingear weighs more than my sleeping bag.”

“My pack weighs 15 lbs with food and water for a weekend trip. I don't even need to use the waist belt on my pack, or if I do it's just for stability and not to support weight.

This is a sweet result from a lot of fussing with gear. I have found the "happy zone" for me.

So... here is how I think of this now. If I wanted to drop 10 lbs I can do this one of two ways. I can either:

a) Start pitching out gear and being less confident and comfortable on my trips. I can do things like carry only 8oz of water (Ever look at these gear lists? That's just nuts/cheating if you ask me.)

b) Exercise more and strip off 20 lbs of lard from my waist.

I went with option b) and I'll keep the 15 lb weekend load... :)”

“Excellent choice. Not only will you lose 15 pounds that's dragging your butt down, you'll get a lot more spring in your step from increased fitness. As you get more fitter and more fitterer, your old lady might let you experiment with her "happy zone." :) Win-win all the way.”

“Shave a couple ounces off your weight ...

http://www.isracast.com/tech_news/tech_updates/010206tech.aspx

No more brushing your teeth on the long hikes.

The Israeli company Fluorinex Active has developed a new technology for fighting tooth decay. The company is currently working on a small device which together with a gel will impose an efficient ion exchange process through an Electro-chemical reaction in which fluor ions displace the Hydroxide ions at the outer layer of the tooth. This is intended to produce a new mineral layer with significantly improved chemical and physical resistance to the aggressive bacteria and the resulting acidic environment in the mouth.”

“I heard a thing on NPR about how the military is developing a chewing gun for soldiers so they can avoid the results of not brusing in the field. Better than nothing sort of proposition. I forget what it was called.”

“more about combat gum ...

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2005/11/bacteria_fighti.html”

“Well this is downright cool.

http://coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?individual_id=164229&portfolio_id=606711&sort_by=1&

”

“The French spent 7 billion missing dollars on that project?”

“And like every good idea...there is NO WHERE I can find to buy it. Maybe the designers (apparently carried on Treehugger.com) figured..."OH Crap we might get rich...then we would be EEEVIL."”

“From what I have seen, packs made of syl nylon are pretty fragile. I was on a mountain pass in the Sawtooths last summer, and took my Arcteryx 65 off and laid it on the side of the trail, which was jagged rocks everywhere. A guy with a Golite pack did the same, but when he picked his pack up it had a big rip in the fabric. That would suck.

Now a light tent or tarp would not be as subject to unavoidable rips as a pack. My tarptent has been great. My WM megalight at 1.5 pounds can't be beat,”

“I agree, bob. The one area I have decided not to go ultralight is with my pack. I just toss that thing around too much. I have found the Dyneema fabic on my Kelty Illusion to be pretty durable. 3800 ci and 3 lbs. Not ultralight, but I am scared to use a pack made of silnylon. The Sierra granite is rough on materials.”

“my new gregory z55 is pretty darn tough too...”

“Whatever happened to raising your level of fitness to allow you to carry a forty pound pack?”

“I can carry a forty pound pack. And do when I go on anything a week or longer.”

“When your knees get a SS check you'll toss that 40#'s.”

“I used to carry a forty pounder. I could do it so I did.

Since I had knee surgery in sept I have reconsidered my priorities. I got all new lighter gear to keep my packweight down so I can keep doing active things.

Actually I don't have it all yet, the montbell SS UL is in the mail! :)

[my first down bag]”