My General 3 Season Gear List

Matt: "I think your scale might be reading slightly low though. My platypus 1.0L with just a normal cap is 1.5oz on my scale…If my scale is off, my bad!"

The 'platyBottle' is supposed to weigh 26g (0.9oz) according to the manufacturers website and my scale has mine at 28g. I think you are thinking of the heavier 'platyPlus' bottle which is spec'd at 38g (1.3oz).

David: "that list would never work for me in the Banff, Jasper area. I would be way too cold."

Cold at night (sleeping) or while awake (ie. outside the tent)? I think that my sleeping setup is probably good to below freezing because I have a double wall tent, 20F quilt, NeoAir and I'm going to have some sort of hooded, insulating layer I can wear as well. Supposedly just the Ultra 20 quilt is good to about 30F, so with an insulated top I think I can push at least 25F.

On colder trips I'll bring my fleece pants which only weigh 5-6oz. Do you think that if it's say 0 Celcius and I'm hanging around camp in my flash jacket (if I get it) along with my rain shell and long sleeve Capilene baselayer that I'd be cold? The BPL review of this jacket indicates it's pretty darn warm.

Brad: "one other thing I'm looking at would set you back maybe 45 bucks… your cookset weighs 9.4 ounces. Pot, lid, lifter. Pretty heavy for a 1L setup. Evernew 0.9L short is 4.1 ounces unaltered"

I'll look into this….but the cookset is a gift from my wife, hence my hesitation to deem it 'not good enough' and buy something else. That's how she'd see it. Although at 0.9L, maybe I could spin this as a cookset for times when I don't need a full 1.0L pot :)

Hi Dan, You have done some great work on this list. As far as the cook set as a gift … stick with it. It will mean more to your wife then a few onces on your back. Once you go below 10 lbs chances are people won't be able to buy you outdoor gifts anymore unless you tell them exactly what to buy.

On the temp question, realizing everyone is different, I would say that you should be fine down to 25 degrees. I've used a similar kit down many times to such temps. The only thing to make sure is to have a insulated jacket (7-12 oz), insulated hat (1.5 oz fleece cap or jacket hood), and fleece gloves (1.5 oz).

My only real thought is it is time to go test it out. I wouldn't suggest people make huge jumps without doing some testing along the way. Successful UL'ing depends on skill as much as gear. You made some big changes, now its time to go try it out.

Jamie

Dan – sleeping and hanging out around camp. I think you may find the ground especially cold in those areas because of pretty nasty conduction. The wind can also be very cold at altitude. You may be fine in your area, but I was commenting specifically in the Banff, Jasper areas.

Jamie: "go test it out. I wouldn't suggest people make huge jumps without doing some testing along the way. Successful UL'ing depends on skill as much as gear. You made some big changes, now its time to go try it out."

Yeah I do need to get out on some longer trips soon. I've been on a few 1 or 2 nighters where I've used most of this new gear, but I really need to get out on a longer trip and a trip that pushes the limits of the gear a bit more. I haven't encountered rain or cold weather yet this season.

I made a few changes yesterday to shave off weight. I found some chlorine tablets (1.7g for 10 litres worth) that I can use instead of my MIOX purifier (100g).

I also bought the MEC Uplink Jacket which currently weighs 264g but I have some modifications to make (update: Got it to 257g). That's a lot lighter than my fleece (471g) but I was already factoring in most of these weight savings. I also bought the footprint for my CR2 tent, but I was also already including this and it actually was 25g (0.9oz) heavier than expected.

What's next? I bought some methanol yesterday so I'm going to try my hand at making a stove tonight. I'm also droooling over some lighter weight rain shells, but I can't swing these financially right now. The Marmot Mica jacket supposedly weighs 198g (7oz) which is a lot lighter than my North Face Venture Jacket (358g or 12.6oz).

My goal for my gear list right now is to get my gear list to sub 10lbs while being more realistic. I will normally want to bring my tent body (instead of just using it in fly/footprint mode) and perhaps my fleece pants and rain pants. Right now I'm at 10.56lbs (with tent body), 10.9lbs with the fleece pants and 11.34 with the rain pants. I also probably need an insulating vest for colder trips.

Some areas where I can save weight are:
– Titanium Pot (save about 130g or 4.5 oz)
– Lighter Rain Shell (save up to 150g or 5oz)
– Switching to alcohol stove
– Lighter rain pants (save up to 90g or 3 oz)

A few smaller areas are: Titanium mug, Ti tent stakes, lighter stuff sacks and lighter boxers/socks.

The alcohol stove should save a lot of weight but this won't show up on my gear list because most of the weight saved is in the form of the metal canisters, which I've previously included in the consumables.

I found an old copy of my gear list from about 6 months ago which weighed 16.2lbs for a similar setup. It's encouraging to see that I've dropped about 5lbs or 30% in the last couple months. Over the last 2 years I've probably dropped 15-20lbs. I believe my old base weight was around 30lbs which included a 7lbs pack and a 7lbs tent.

Current Realistic Gear List:

did you mean to drop those?

I also have dropped a pretty considerable amount of weight this year, but realistically won't be in the 10 lb range w/o some drastic re-shuffling of the big 3, currently I'm happy w/ my pack (Exos 46-39 oz) and happy w/ the tent (same as yours) and I don't see myself going any lighter on the bag (Marmot Hydrogen- 24 oz)- sooooo I'll probably bask in cutting my base weight in half for a while :)

most of trips are w/ my wife, so I do get to slough off a lb to her w/ the fly, I pretty much carry all of the items that might normally be shared, but it does get her base weight down very close to the 10 lb mark :D

I did intentional drop the compass because I figured I don't need it for trips on well established trails…..I would bring it for longer more remote trips.

I don't know if I'm going to make 10lbs either for a realistic gear list. For an ultralighter, my pack and the tent are kinda heavy but hiking with my wife won't allow the use of a tarp or single wall tent.

Yeah most of my trips are with my wife too. That means I carry all the shared gear which results in a great pack weight for her. My wife's gear list is below, which is just over 8lbs but it might be missing some stuff.

Regardless of her gearlist, on longer trips she's going to be carrying about 13lbs total (with food, water etc) and I'm going to be lugging the rest of the stuff. So really buying lighter gear for her just means she can carry more of the food load.

As in most cases,
the lightest and most useful piece of equipment is your properly trained brain.
See this
Mike

I've made a few more nice moves since my last gear list was posted.

I returned the MEC Uplink jacket (9oz) for the lighter, warmer and hooded MontBell U.L. Down Inner Parka (7.5oz). I've ordered Ti stakes (saves an ounce) after I found a great deal on eBay ($10 for 6).

I have a FeatherFire stove coming in the mail too. I can't wait to try that out, but I'm not having much luck finding aluminum flashing to make my own Caldera Cone. Home Depot only had 50 foot lengths of it for $40-50.

I totally redid my excel gear list last night for a much sexier look and more logical organization. I'll unveil it when this new gear actually arrives and I get the honest weights on all of it.

dangit….now that you mention fishing it adds another set of "what do i need?" to my list.

hmm…fish fries while backpacking in the mountains.

Yeah I've been kinda avoiding weighing my fishing gear because that's a whole new can of worms. Soon I'm going to start researching an lightweight spinning rod and reel.

I'm having a really hard time finding any sort of a deal on the MontBell U.L. Down Inner Parka. I thought I had a great deal lined up at BackcountryGear.com for $112 (retail $160) but the day after I ordered it I got an email saying there were actually out so I'm out of luck. Since then I haven't been able to find anything under MSRP. Most sites are actually $5 over MSRP so I'm better off buying it directly from MontBell for $160. This just bugs me because there has been a number of great deals on this jacket over the summer and I'm kicking myself for not acting soon. I really need this parka for a weeklong trip in mid-October so I gotta buy one in the next week or two….

Here is my re-styled gear list. This gear list now includes the Ti stakes, FeatherFire stove and Montbell U.L. Parka, all of which I have on order.

I'm trying to be as realistic as I can with this gear list. I want to bring the full tent since I'm often in buggy conditions and I want to include my rain gear and full insulation clothing because I'll usually want those. I think this gear list is quite complete and accurate.

My attention right now has shifted towards a few areas:
1) Stuff Sacks
2) Pot
3) Raingear

Stuff Sacks
I am currently carrying 4.1oz worth of stuff sacks for my quilt, essentials and food sack. I'm thinking about picking up some cuben stuff sacks for all 3 of these purposes. I'm just a bit worried though about my down quilt. I know cuben is waterproof but I'm not sure I trust the cinch closure if I really get in pouring rain all day. I could add a cuben pack liner too, but then I don't think I'd be saving much weight and it would cost more. I could go with a packliner and no stuff sack for the quilt, but I'd still need sacks for the food and 'essentials'. I could use some advice on what others do for stuff sacks. It's too bad Zpacks is closed for a few months because MLD is a lot more expensive and they don't have as much selection. It might just be best to replace my wife's 2.7oz dry sack with a cuben one for $20 and leave it at that for now.

Ti Pot
My 1.5L hard anodized aluminum pot, lid and lifter weighs 10.7 ounces and a 1.3L Evernew Ti pot weighs 4.6oz. I could pick up this pot for about $50 and save 6 ounces….pretty darn tempting.

Raingear
Both my rain jacket and pants weigh over 50% more then they need to. I'm carrying about 10 ounces more than necessary here. There is some really nice gear (ie. Marmot Mica jkt, GoLite Reed pants) that's pretty tempting. Dollars per ounce, the Ti Pot is probably the best deal though.

you could try 'goose necking' the stuff sack for your down. meaning, twisting it up like you're closing a loaf of bread, folding that twist downwards and then wrapping it w/ cordage. that's a water-tight seal

also, i noticed that you have a 1L platy for water and that's all i see for transporting/carrying water (unless there's another water container that i missed). i don't know where you're hiking, or the water availability, but around here i try to always have at least 3L capabilities. at the very least for getting into camp and only making 1 trip to the spring…

the sea to summit ultra sil's are waterproof (roll top) and pretty light as an alternative

also the BPL pack liners are under 2 oz's and everything would be waterproof within it

^ 2.5 liters is what I carry for water capacity (two 1.0 and a 0.5 platy)- I could not get by w/ 1.0 where I hike- too many dry stretches up high

I like the 0.5 one as it's the one I use when water is plentiful, it's also the right size for a packet of gatorade or other electrolyte drink

I found a few goodies yesterday at MEC (Canadian Equivilent of REI). I found some small food bottles that will be great for holding stuff like Olive Oil, Campsuds etc and they weigh about 1/2 of the ones I was using from Nalgene. Now my 'small food bottles' weigh 13g (0.5oz) instead of 25g (0.9oz) and my Campsuds bottle weighs 8g instead of 20g. I shaved off 1.5 ounces and it only cost $4.50.

I also got a lighter mug that weighs 1.7oz instead of 2.5oz for under $3. All told, I spent about $7 and shaved off over 2 ounces :)

For the stuff sacks, I think I'm going to wait until Zpacks is back in Operation for most of them. I'd like to use their 0.17oz (5g) cuben sack for my 'essentials', the 0.3oz (9g) one for my quilt and the 0.4oz one (11g) for my wife's bag. That will save a combined 130g or 5.1oz for a total cost of $43. Similar cuben sacks from MLD would cost about $75.

Regarding my water capacity, yes 1L is a bit low. I would add more capacity for longer trips where I am unsure of the water availability. All my hiking this summer has only been 2-3 day trips where I know there are streams everywhere. I just cook & camp near water and then fill up my 1L platypus when it's low. My wife has a 1L platypus as well, so when we are both below 0.5 litre we can just pool the water and fill up the other platy with raw water and let it start treating (chlorine pills).

I bought a 1.3L Non Stick Evernew Ti Pot today from eBay ($38) which should shave a nice 140g (about 4.5oz) off my pack. In combination with my new mug and lighter food bottles, I'm down 0.4lbs this week.

I think I'm getting pretty close to being content with my setup. There is a lot of potential to shave weight with lighter rain gear. I could cut about 0.5lbs here, but I often won't be bringing it anyways (if the trip is short and the forecast is good) and my current gear works well, so I can't justify spending money on this right now. I would like to get some lighter cuben stuff sacks when Zpacks reopens or if I can find some elsewhere, but beyond that I'm just going to replace gear as it wears out (of course that's easier said then done).

I can't believe no one enlightened me to the wonders of DriDucks yet. I came across them recently and bought a set on eBay for $11. They arrived today and they are awesome! 4.1oz for the pants and 5.9oz for the jacket (10oz total). That's a massive 10.2oz saved compared to my previous rain gear (13.4oz jacket, 7.6oz pants). At nearly a buck an ounce saved, that's a remarkable deal.

When I started this thread I thought I was pretty darn light at 13.2 lbs. Now I'm carrying warmer clothing, a larger pot, a camera, more water capacity and I'm down to 10.5 lbs. I love it :)

On some trips I'll be using my tent in fly/footprint mode and/or not bringing rain gear which means I can dip as low as 9 lbs on these occasions.

I'm currently mulling over my pot handle situation. I thought my Evernew pot was going to come with handles built in, but I guess I got an older version. I might try to replace the 44g pot grabber with some gloves if I can find some good light ones that are capable of withstanding the heat. That would make them dual purpose.

I also need to get a lighter sack for my quilt (or not use one) and turn my attention to my worn gear. The pants I hike in are 326g and BPL sells the Thorofare pants which are 113g. That's pretty huge.

I'm also looking to add some UL spinning fishing gear my setup. I figure on a lot of trips I can more than offset the 1 lbs of fishing gear if I provide a few meals.

Edit oh pot handle. Get some of these wool glove from moab sports. They work great. $8.50 2.8 oz

http://www.moabsports.com/web-pid-RWP2D10-Manzella-Mens-Medium-Weight-Ragg-Wool-Glove-item.htm

My complete alcohol cookset with stove and accesories weighs 4 oz so you could save some weight there and it really works. Cook in a bag, I boil, fill the bag, drop in in the container and put the lid on, and I wrap it with my dishclotch and a rubber band. Works well.

This one but with the heavier container..

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=24102&skip_to_post=195609#195609

Driducks are good.
Can be a little fragile and once dirty, impossible to get clean. Toss them and buy some more.

Dan, We let you down… glad you found the Dri Ducks. Just to let you know you are not alone. Here is a summary I posted some time ago after I went thru the gear lists for uses with rating over 1.0. Here are the jackets people were using and the count of users…

Dri Ducks – 7
Rainshield 02 – 7
Golite Virga – 4
Pantagonia Spectra – 2
TNF Diad – 2
Marmot Essence/Precip Plus – 2
Marmot Mica – 1
Sierra Designs Isotope – 1
OR Zealot – 1

FYI I used a Dri Ducks jacket on my last trip and it worked well. I only had it on for about an hour in rain, but I was pleased. I had been using a Golite Virga that served me well and I also recently purchased an OR Zealot. The Dri Ducks wins the weight battle. But my initial impression of the Zealot is that it will take over as my main jacket. If I wanted a balance between function+weight+cost I'd recommend the Virga.

Jamie

"Get some of these wool glove from moab sports."
Those do look great. I imagine that any wool gloves will work for handling pots right? I'd like to find some locally because shipping costs to Canada would probably cost more than the actual gloves.

My complete alcohol cookset with stove and accesories weighs 4 oz so you could save some weight there and it really works.
Does this 4 oz indlude a small pot? I need a larger pot because I normally hike with my wife.

Regarding the DriDucks, ultimately I would like to get a more durable set of raingear like the Zealot, Virga or Marmot's Mica jacket (6.5oz) and maybe some GoLite reed pants but financially I can't justify those right now. I have some fairly expensive raingear that I bought last summer that still has a few years of life in it. I'm planning to just buy DriDucks as needed for another year or two and hopefully by then it'll be time to spend some money on a nice set of raingear. It's good to know what people are using so when the time comes my research will be up to date.

Good to know that DriDucks are impossible to clean…..I won't bother trying :)