Leaving Pack Outside Shelter

YMMV on this one.

I dislike a potentially wet/muddy pack inside my tent — so mine stays in the vestibule outside.

However, plenty of people make double use of their pack by using it as a foot pad in the night — thus allowing them to use a shorter and lighter sleeping pad instead. So no, it doesn't have to be a waste of space at all — it can even add to overall pack and weight efficiency.

If I leave my empty backpack outside, sure enough it will rain and drench the thing.

I normally use a floorless shelter with a front vestibule, so that is a good place for me to store the backpack overnight. It's handy, but not out where the critters will chew on it.

If the ground was really cold, I might drag it inside the shelter and place it underneath my legs.

–B.G.–

On a recent 24hr cold weather equipment shakedown I found that my drawstring footbox style top quilt was inadequate to keep my feet warm.

23 humid degrees! :-(

Thinking back on this experience in light of this thread I could have used it as an additional windbreak by pulling it sock like over the footend of my top quilt.

It wouldn't have been wool or down but it would have been something. ;-)

Party On,

Newton

"Any thoughts on this approach?"

Always inside/under my shelter, usually under my legs for insulation. This also protects the hipbelt and shoulder straps from getting chewed by lil' critters after the salt from my perspiration.

Fill mine with my extra clothes, typically my rain pants and down jacket and use it as my leg pad.

I actually don't pay much mind to this unless the weather is very cold or rainy.. if the weather is fine ill just leave it next to my tent and if rainy in the vestibule of my Rainbow. Now that i got a hexamid ill try out Bryan's idea to hang it inside:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=39925

Inside the vestibule.

Which may give you some idea of what it was like outside …

Cheers

Always hung or stored outside the tent. But I backpack in heavy bear country. I won't take chances.

(in a garbage bag)

My rule is: if you absolutely positively have to have it in the morning, it comes inside.

My pack usually hangs from the end of my hammock just outside the opening, but my boots are always hanging over the ridge line inside no matter what.

I do what you said – place it in a waterproof bag (my packliner: a trash compactor bag) outside my shelter. Easy and dry; and an item I have with me anyway.

I usually cover my pack with a pack cover after cinching it up tight and hook it to a branch or lean it against a tree. Sometimes I have pulled it under my vestibule.

…

"I usually cover my pack with a pack cover after cinching it up tight and hook it to a branch or lean it against a tree. Sometimes I have pulled it under my vestibule."

I use the exact same method. So far so good.

In spring, summer, and fall, it's hung, as the Northern Rockies have bears. In winter, inside my tent as a foot pad.

I leave my pack at my head, using it as extra pillow cusion.

I bring my pack in for my feet to rest on. Also to keep the rodents from chewing on them.

I use a liner bag that's big enough to hold my pack. I take whatever I need for the night inside the tent and leave the pack leaning against a tree inside the liner bag. That gives me lots of space inside the tent and vestibule while keeping my pack completely dry overnight.

My pack's built-in foam back pad always insulates my feet and lower legs, so I can use a short foam pad for my upper body and legs.

My pack is my pillow so inside of my bivy

The pack is part of the sleeping system.

As for "INSIDE" a shelter, that term is inappropriate for a forum focused on lightweight backpacking. The preferred term would be "UNDER" the shelter, because when using a tarp, there really isn't an inside.

When winter camping (or traditional camping) I keep my pack outside.

When mountaineering in alaska, the pack is outside and anchored to a buried ice axe.

"As for "INSIDE" a shelter, that term is inappropriate for a forum focused on lightweight backpacking. The preferred term would be "UNDER" the shelter, because when using a tarp, there really isn't an inside."

Henry Shires (and others) should take note and refrain from mentioning tarptents in this forum again! Too bad, because some tarptents are lighter and easier to use than some tarp / inner mesh combo.

"When mountaineering in alaska, the pack is outside and anchored to a buried ice axe."

When mountaineering on Mount Shasta, my pack was outside the tent and anchored to an ice axe which was also anchoring one side of the tent. A wilderness ranger came by while I was inside, and he made come comments about the tent. Then he pulled up my ice axe and used it to adjust some ice chunk, replacing it when he was done. Unfortunately, now the pack was no longer anchored. There was a big wind storm that night, and in the morning my pack was completely gone.

Have you ever tried to ski and carry 40 pounds of gear down a mountain _without_ any pack? I ended up piling up all my gear onto the collapsed tent, and then wrapping it all up into a ball with cord. Then I towed it down the mountain as I skied. Not fun.

–B.G.–

"As for "INSIDE" a shelter, that term is inappropriate for a forum focused on lightweight backpacking. The preferred term would be "UNDER" the shelter, because when using a tarp, there really isn't an inside.

When mountaineering in alaska, the pack is outside and anchored to a buried ice axe."

Ya know, Mike, your ideas, often good ones, would have a lot more impact if they weren't almost invariably delivered as if you were reading them from stone tablets you just brought down from The Mount. There is a little more wiggle room in the lightweight, as opposed to ultra lightweight, category than your statements allow for. Every once in a while, for instance, the extra few ounces of one of the lighter tarptents might make sense in a bug infested environment, or if the weather were predicted to be really foul.

I sleep in a bivy.

If the weather is good and ground relatively dry, I place my pack under my legs outside the bivy.

If it is wet and/or is going to rain….inside the bivy under my legs

In both cases, with nothing in the pack, so it lays flat.

-Tony