I posted this gear list as part of my post-trip report, but I thought I’d add here too. This is what I took on a 4 day hike along the Timberline Trail around Mount Hood in Oregon in August. Gear: (apologies for the metric weights) 
Click the image for the original Google Sheet. Feel free to take a copy and use it to organise your own gear. The categories in the last column are: p – in the pack – the base weight. f – food, fuel and water. c – clothes or carried. o – optional clothes that end up stuffed in the top of you pack if it’s hot. My girlfriend came with me, but she lacks my enthusiasm for weighing her underpants, so what went in her pack was a bit of a mystery until the day before we left. However, her pack weighed around 6kg. I was extremely happy with my 8kg. Most of the hikers we met on the trail looked like they were carrying at least twice that. Findings: Here’s my brain-dump of what we did wrong, and what I’ll do differently next time.
- In 4 days, we didn’t even get through one torch battery – I’ll only take 1 spare next time – 75g saving.
- I only got through one and a half phone batteries. Perhaps taking five was overkill? I’ll take 2 spares next time – 95g saving.
- Didn’t use my gaiters – not really sure why I took them. Won’t take them on a summer hike next time – 220g saving.
- My new ZPacks Arc Blast pack was great, but on the last day it started chafing my shoulder a little. I’ll have to sit down with it and work out exactly why.
- The pillow dry bags weren’t really that useful. It was more comfortable to sleep with my face on my fleece jacket. Maybe remove pillow material – 20g saving.
- Would probably be a good idea to take a spare lighter – would have been awful to not have a way to light the esbit tablets – 20g extra.
- My only big mistake was leaving buying water bottles until the last minute. Then we ran out of time and I had to grab what we had in the apartment before setting off in a rush. We ended up with 3 x 1L bottles and 2 x 500ml bottles. I wanted 4 x 1.5L bottles. I’ll make sure to prepare well in advance next time.
- Having said that, having two smaller bottles proved useful when we found a silty stream. We had to leave the water to sit for a couple of minutes to let the sand settle out, then decant it. Having a spare small bottle meant this was a lot quicker.
- Thankfully we didn’t have any problems, but the Esbit tablets would have be completely useless in high wind. Next time I’ll make a wind-break out of aluminium foil. ~20g extra.
- I didn’t use my softshell gloves and they’re much too heavy. ZPacks do a nice set of ultra light fleece mittens that are designed to work under their Cuban Rain Mitts – I’ll take a pair of them next time – 100g saving.
- I was rather worried about my phone getting wet, too dusty, etc. Generally being in the backcountry probably isn’t so good for non specialist electronics. I’ll look for a lightweight waterproof case next. Either that or just put it in a ziploc bag?
- This will be controversial, but I didn’t use my knife. Also, I couldn’t think of a use for it. Could I contemplate going hiking knifeless?
Looks like these changes could save almost half a kilo for next time. Every gram counts!
