What would you carry for the CDT?

For the high altitude portions of the hike (I'm thinking particularly of the Colorado Rockies and the Wind Rivers, since I'm familiar with both) you should be prepared for possible snow and for nighttime temps well below freezing.

Last summer the Wind Rivers got a foot of snow at timberline and above on August 8 and again a week later. If my dog hadn't gotten sick, forcing me to abort my trip, I'd have been at 11,000 feet during the second storm. I was ready for it, though. This is not unusual for "summer" at those high elevations.

The main difference is that you need more navigational skills and more skills in coping with inclement weather (such as daily thunderstorms) than you do elsewhere in the US. No matter which direction you go, you will be crossing Wyoming's Red Desert (Great Divide Basin) during hot dry weather, because it falls right in the middle of the trip.

Jack, I have thruhiked the CDT southbound in 2007. If you send me your email address in a PM, I can send you my complete gearlist.

But to answer your general questions: No, I did not carry the same equipment the whole way. I carried a WM Ultralite in Montana and Wyoming and changed to a Versalite in Colorado – and that was definitely needed. I ditched my tarptent rain jacket and pants in New Mexico and used a Golite poncho/tarp for rain protection and shelter, although it never rained. And I had an ice axe in Montana that I sent home after 3 weeks – but I had needed it before.
I am usually UL and my baseweight was around 5,9 kg (get used to metric!)

I used a GPS and definitely needed it. If you are not a navigational wizzard, take one along for the CDT. I did not have a water pump and used Acquamira the whole way without any problem. I used Yogi's town guide, Wolfe guides and Ley's maps and needed all. I had a crappy Hagloefs Oz rain jacket and wished I had had a better one. I also used MLD rain mitts that were crap and almost led to near hypothermia in rain and wished I had better ones. I used a gas canister stove because I am not really good with alcohol stove – but this is more of a personal preference.
For resupply strategy check out Yogi's book – she has got the best advice.
Feel free to contact me if you have more questions.
Christine aka German Tourist
PCT 04, CDT 07, AT 08

im planning on doing the cdt in 2011 with my old roomate who did the pct this year. We have been discussing all of this for a while, and under my profile has my proposed gear list at around 9 lbs. The list is missing a few little things i plan on carrying like a permanent coffee filter for a prefilter to enable chemical water treatment, or maybe lengthen filter life if we decide to go that route.
We dont plan on using gps. Jonathan Ley's maps from Francis Tapon's site, with donations to the author. +1 for Yogi's book. I plan on keeping the same gear the whole time with the exception of ice ax, crampons, and big water capacity at times.
I would love some constructive criticism of my list too if anyone wants :)

-David Wills AT '09

I hiked southbound in 2005. I carried an UL setup and found that 90% of hikers also did.

–ULA P1 pack, WM Pod 30 sleeping bag, Rainshield jacket, railriders eco pants and shirt (they served me very well for the saw grass that cut everyone else up and the stinging nettles, bugs, sun, etc), basically the same that I carried for the PCT, CT, NZ, etc

–aqua mira, as a bandana will filter out most floaties. The bad water hype is overblown for the trail. There are definitely gross sources, but overall it is on par with what you would find on the PCT. I may have carried a liter more at times when the next source could be questionable in regards to quality, as this allowed me to sometimes just skip it entirely.

–I didn't carry a GPS, but I'm pretty good at map and compass. the majority of people I know who carried one got lost more than those who didn't–those without tended to pay more attention to the map as they hiked along. I got 'misplaced' 6 times on the trip, none for longer than 1 hr at a time.

–Wolf guide and Ley's maps. Both are a necessity in my opinion.

–I carried a 30 degree top-bag with a Montbell UL Inner jacket. My wife carried a 20 degree quilt and carried the same jacket, but changed to her WM Flight jacket for Glacier and then again in CO. Other than that, everything was identical to what we carried for the other long trails.

–We had previously hiked the CT, so we skipped from Silverthorne to Silverton and that gave us a cushion to stay in front of the snow. It was a good decision–but we found out that we were then the guinea pigs for the other hikers as to what NM would be like.

–alcohol stove. We carried a Brasslite Duo for it's simmer function. Alcohol is the way to go for the CDT as heet is readily available in most places, esbit and white gas aren't.

–resupply was about half maildrop, half store bought. Just like any other long hike.

My wife's irreverant journal: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=2918

edit: I just read that the someone posted that they didn't have any rain in NM while southbound. We by far had the worst weather in NM (we finished Oct. 19). Arroyos flooded and were 60' across, we had to did trenches around our shelter to redirect the streams that were created by the incredible rain, tent stakes 'melted' out of the sand due to the rain…etc. It was unreal at times, so you can't assume that NM is dry. Those arroyos are there for a reason.