Gear audit requested

[astranko]

How is it that none of these lists appear to show any weight for water other than the weight that appears to be for a filter and some bottles?

Do y'all ultralight gurus seriously not carry one single drop of water on you as you hike to your camp? When camping, I'll carry some empty bottles to fill up at the campsite but I'll have at least one bottle filled with water to drink along the hike in - and I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as ultralight water...

The amount of water your carry is dictated by the needs of the moment, as you know. None of these lists are supposed to represent all the weight carried at any time, but the weight of the things that are always carried for the duration of the trip. The spreadsheet weight is not usually intended to capture maximum trip pack weight.

Ultimately it is convention, but it keeps lists focused and easier to read. You can easily calculate the maximum water weight by multiplying water carry capacity in L by 2.2lb/L or 1000g/L.

Most of them don't show food either, but for any trip over a day or two your heaviest "single" item will be food. Like water, food weight changes on an hour-by-hour basis and is hard to capture in a static spreadsheet.

[dwoodward13]

How is it that none of these lists appear to show any weight for water other than the weight that appears to be for a filter and some bottles?

Do y'all ultralight gurus seriously not carry one single drop of water on you as you hike to your camp? When camping, I'll carry some empty bottles to fill up at the campsite but I'll have at least one bottle filled with water to drink along the hike in - and I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as ultralight water...

"Base Weight" does not include consumables like water, food, fuel. As all of those will fluctuate over the course of a trip and vary by trip type and duration. Base weight is not an indication of how much one carries, just well....the base weight of their pack.

[justiner]

How much water you carry is a great thing to attempt to optimize as water weighs a lot for its volume. So, if you only carry say 1L of water at most by knowing where your next water sources are, it can be a big win.

[rmcpherson]

How much water you carry is a great thing to attempt to optimize as water weighs a lot for its volume. So, if you only carry say 1L of water at most by knowing where your next water sources are, it can be a big win.

To add to this, something I've found crucial to optimizing water carry is ease of filtering en route. I used to have a heavy, complex filtration system that required assembly and manual pumping (Katadyn Hiker Pro) and, because I never wanted to take the time and hassle to stop and filter mid-hike, I'd instead filter once per day and haul all that weight with me. After switching to a Platypus Quickdraw with Smartwater-style bottles, I can just stop and fill a bottle at any water source I happen across and gravity filter as I hike or even drink directly from the filter, no assembly required. The faster and easier it is to filter the less water you will carry, assuming abundant water sources.

[ekalina]

I switched things to grams to be able to talk with more granularity.

Your stove/stove system is pretty heavy. A pretty large ti pot and stove is only about 150g, compared to your 300g.
Lighters? 45g of them? A mini-bic is 10g. Get a stove with an igniter and then it doesn't matter really.
A modern lightweight headlamp is 1/2 the weight of your current one.
Do you need a whistle? Have you ever used it? I've never seen a (current) recommendation that people need a whistle.
A tick remover?
A 22g pair of scissors? 200g of sunscreen? There are lighter/smaller versions of each of these.
Try toothpaste tabs in lieu of 100g of tooth care stuff. My tooth kit is 12g.

Excellent feedback, thanks. I could lighten the scissors, sunscreen, lighters, and toothpaste, maybe the stove too. The mental trap I've fallen into is "well, it's only 0.X pounds so it doesn't matter." But of course the 0.X-pound things add up. Though I've never used the whistle or tick remover, I've also never been in an emergency or gotten a tick. A buddy of mine did get a tick once, and I stupidly suggested an unscientific method for removal. So now I carry that.

Here is my lighterpack that I use for essentially all of my ultralight adventures at ~8.3 lbs

https://lighterpack.com/r/d42yvm

What exactly is an emergency beacon? Is that a satellite communication device?

Thanks zootloopz! I'm looking at some of your gossamer items. Yeah, the "beacon" is an inReach, but not a mini like yours. I don't think they had the mini when I bought it, which was more than a decade ago.

Here's my lighterpack from my second Sangres Traverse which I think took 6 1/2 days and was designed so I could sleep multiple times at 13,000':

https://lighterpack.com/r/t3v0tv

Really fantastic, thanks Justin. I'm studying your dissertation and lighterpacks. While the Sangres traverse is out of my league, that kind of outing on mostly class 2 terrain is what I want to be able to do comfortably.

Here's my spreadsheet, feel free to copy. It's kind of like a lighter pack. Once you have entered your list of items, you can create two packs and compare them. All of my gear is pretty old. I only get out about once or twice a year for a one or two-night trip. I could easily get my base weight lower, but I am happy with the 15-20 pound range for what I do, comfortably light vs. ultralight.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Thanks HikerGuy! That's quite a quiver. Almost like a recipe book.

A couple things I notice a lot of folks have in common are the Sawyer Squeeze and the S2S Aeros Pillow, so I'll check those out.

I updated my lighterpack to break out the worn weight - thanks for that tip all.

[daway8]

Thanks everyone who clarified the "base weight" vs "total weight" distinction for this ultralight rookie - it makes a lot more sense if food and water aren't counted.

Anyone have a lighterpack list for winter backpacking? I had nearly 50lbs on my recent Lake Como trip (including food, water, snowshoes, crampons, ice axes, helmet, etc). Would love some insight on how to trim that down without freezing to death in the low double digits.

[ekalina]

Anyone have a lighterpack list for winter backpacking? I had nearly 50lbs on my recent Lake Como trip (including food, water, snowshoes, crampons, ice axes, helmet, etc). Would love some insight on how to trim that down without freezing to death in the low double digits.

I'm right around that as well for spring overnight trips with snow climbing. Focusing on the summer kit first, since a lot of those items come along with me in the winter/spring too. I really do need to get lighter mountaineering boots though. The LS G-Techs are 30% lighter than my Nepal Cubes, and as far as I can tell do everything that the Cubes can (though probably a bit less warm).

[justiner]

I don't know if lighterpack lists are great for Winter, as conditions/objectives are so variable. But all that additional climbing gear has lightweight alts, so start with that.

[astranko]

Half-dead threat but I whipped up a list for a normal winter overnight for me.

https://lighterpack.com/r/wpmzvl

It's still only 22lbs before food/water.

If the overnight low is negative it would probably get bumped up in a few ways with more insulation.

I added an ice axe but TBH I almost never have that in winter. It's route dependent of course.

If I thought the weather would be sufficiently benign or if I was doing an up-and-over I would probably use a pyramid tent in lieu of the mountaineering tent.

The advice I can give is: leave stuff at home. You probably don't need it.

[daway8]

...I whipped up a list for a normal winter overnight for me.

https://lighterpack.com/r/wpmzvl

Cool, thanks! I'll take a look and see if I can figure out some ways to trim my pack weight.

I did already follow-up on justiner's prompt and found some Northern Lites snowshoes that are 2lbs lighter than the Tubbs I was using - that's a nice start already (though I have yet to test out the new snowshoes...)