Yes…Another JMT Gear List

This is a great list, it's hard to find a lot to change.

(a) What clothing are you wearing? It's possible there's some redundancy there, but (with just guessing what you are wearing), probably not.

(b) You are taking both a Steripen and Aqua Mira drops. Why not just take the drops? You could lose the weight of the Steripen and the extra batteries.

(c) You could probably go lighter than the JetBoil and canisters with an alcohol stove and fuel (which you could restock at Red's). However, if you are happy with the performance of the JetBoil, then just keep it.

(d) Drybag/compression and a trashbag as pack cover: you could just take the trashbag/compactor bag as a pack liner INSIDE the pack. Even if you took an extra trashbag, that's still a few ounces less than the drybag.

Not much to cut here, maybe a few little things to add / change.

Clothing:
Your fleece gloves weigh more than three times your hat. For maximum warmth you might want to reverse that. Bring a warm hat – it will help tremendously to keep you warm. Then bring a very thin pair of gloves that can be used for a little bit of warmth, but also as sun gloves. The sun is intense out there – more on that later.

Cooking:
If you drink coffee with your oatmeal you might want to add in a one ounce plastic cup to avoid having to eat and drink in shifts.

Water:
Is one of your Gatorade bottles shaped such that you can use it with the steripen and stir the water around or are you using your pot for treating water in?

First Aid:
You'll want to bring some blister stuff.

Repair / survival:
How / when do you see using the space blanket? I'd nix.
30 feet of rope sounds heavy – what is this being used for?
Maybe just bring a little extra guy line to use as needed for your shelter, as a clothes line, or an emergency shoe lace.
Bring a whistle.
Make sure your compass has declination adjustment or if it does not that you have the declination written down and make the adjustment for it each time you are comparing the compass north with map north.

Toiletries:
Bring some sunscreen.

Sleeping:
This was mentioned by Steven you can nix the compression sack and use the garbage bag as a waterproof liner.

Shelter:
Gossamer Gear LT4 adjustable trekking pole 3.6 oz
Is this just one pole or does the pair really only weigh 3.6 oz?
If it is only one pole I'd suggest bringing the other – trekking poles are great for this route.
Tyvek ground sheet 4.5'x 7.5' 6.94 oz
You should be able to find a lighter ground sheet I think. Some thin plastic will do, you're just trying make sure your sleeping bag and gear doesn't get to dirty from touching the ground.

Taking a camera?

Sunglasses – you really need sunglasses.

And I'd echo Stevens point, let us know what clothing you are hiking in. Hoping it includes a wide brim sun hat.

Steven

I like the Steripen (if anything for it's weight) but it's an electronic device and I'm afraid of it breaking or dying on me, hence the Aqua Mira drops. But I will give it some more thought after a few 3-4 day trips. Maybe my fears aren't warranted…

I do like the Jetboil and while I'm reluctant to give it up, I'm open for suggestions. Any lighter stoves that you like?

I nixed the dry bag and now I'm just using a stuff sack that weights .85 oz

Kristin

I got rid of the heavy fleece gloves and replaced with my thinner liner gloves, weighing 1.28 oz. The beanie, despite its low weight, is actually very warm.

I don't drink coffee, I really just use the Jetboil to boil water. But that might change some this trip as I'm trying to save space by not packing as much commercially freeze dried food.

I hadn't thought about the Gatorade bottles being big enough at the top. I'm going to have to modify them or get a different bottle. Good tip.

Put Luekotape in First Aid Kit for blisters. To be honest, I've stopped getting blisters after I changed to wearing trail runners. Best decision I've ever made.

Repair/Survival: Nixed space blanket. Rope replaced with extra shoelace (good idea). there's a whistle on my pack. compass does not have declination but I have it written on my maps.

Added sunscreen (don't know how that slipped my mind).

Nixed the compress sack and replaced with a stuff sack.

The 3.6 oz is for a single trekking pole as the shelter only needs one. I've been a little torn regarding bringing the second one. I normally never use them. Do you think it's a good idea because of the river crossings and possible snow in the late season?

Replaced the Tyvek ground sheet with a much lighter sheet made by Gossamer Gear (.8 oz). Again, a great idea. I thought that was a little heavy.

I don't normally wear sunglasses but I might get a pair if you think it's a must.

I'm in the market for a lightweight point and shoot type of camera if anyone can recommend one. Would you recommend bringing an extra battery or just putting one in my resupply box?

I will be wearing Under Armour shorts, Under Armour briefs, trail runners and low cut wool socks, synthetic t shirt, and a sun hat with a sheet that covers my neck and ears.

Thanks again! Keep the comments coming!

With all those things done I've cut the weight by 19.02 oz!

I haven't worn prescription sunglasses for many years but was grateful for any sort of sunglasses while hiking near Whitney in '08 and '10. I think they are a necessary addition whether you can see clearly or not.

I did the JMT a couple of years ago and was very glad to have sunglasses – its very bright with the reflections from the rock; planning to do the SHR this summer – and I'll be taking Cat4 'glacier' glasses for that so bright did I find it last time.

Camp Towel

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easily NIXED

Jet-boil Ti (w/o cozie, lid, fuel stabilizer, measuring cup) 8.9 oz
Fuel 12.82 oz

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Replace the JET-BOIL with a much lighter alcohol set up. Easy!

Scrubber .05 oz

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easily NIXED

SteriPen (with batteries) 3.58 oz

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easily NIXED, you have aquamira, why the pen? (and extra batteries)
Extra batteries 1.16 oz
Aqua Mira Drops 2 oz

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Repackage in smaller bottles.

1.5 L Water Bladder 1.3 oz
(2) 1L Gatorade Bottles 2.5 oz

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Tons of water on the JMT, why so much capacity? NIX something here.

space blanket

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easily NIXED

(2) TP 1.38 oz

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easily NIXED

Dry/Compression sack (used for sleeping bag and clothes) 4.5 oz

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easily NIXED! Just push your sleeping bag in the bottom of your pack after lining it with a 2.2 oz COMPACTOR bag.

Large trash-bag for pack cover 1.5 oz

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Line the interior of the pack with a 2.2 oz trash compactor bag for complete waterproofing.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm currently looking into the Caldera stoves which should save significant weight over the Jetboil. I honestly didn't even know those existed and I'm really excited about it. Any experiences with them?

I nixed the scrubber.

I'll have to look over my water storage and see what I can get rid of.

Aqua Mira over the SteriPen…other than the obvious weight difference, why? Doesn't the Aqua Mira take a few hours to work? Do you think for a ten day leg, I should still repackage the drops?

Aqua Mira DROPS takes about 20 minutes to work – and it can be shorter if the water quality is clean (like the high elevation streams on the JMT).

The aquamira TABLETS take a really long time (too long to be practical) and I don't think they are appropriate for most camping situations.

I know a lot of people like the steri-pen, but I'm only focusing on weight.

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THe CALDERA CONE set up is amazingly efficient, just don't squash the aluminum cone! I love mine!

You could use Micropur tablets instead of Acquamira.

I have a Caldera tri-ti which with a 600ml pot comes up at 110g – it can take a little squashing as the ti is resilient.

I would dispense with (nix, a new word :-) most of the first aid kit too; my proviso is if anything that bad happens you won't have what you need to deal with it, and that the rest, cuts and so on will be bearable.

Just take one extra pair of socks. The ones you wear during the day should dry out overnight while you sleep in your dry ones.

You could trade in your rain jacket for a Dri Ducks jacket. Mine is 5.1oz and you are not that likely to use it on the JMT anyways.

Switch to some lighter gloves, 3 oz is a lot of weight for fleece gloves. You can get 100wt gloves for under a ounce, Power stretch gloves for under 1.5oz, and 200 wt gloves for around 2oz.

Even with the newer, lighter jetboils, I am not convinced they ever make since for a solo hiker, but with 8-9 days between resupply it might be one of the few times it makes since. Could you at least use a smaller canister? I haven’t used canisters in a long time, but could get 17 12oz boils out of a 4oz Snowpeak canister with my old Gigapower so the jetboil ought to do at least that.

If you don’t have enough confidence to carry the Steripen without taking a 2oz backup, then don’t take it. Going with just the Aquamira saves you almost five ounces.

Drop the 1.5L bladder

Your Gatorade bottles are a lot lighter than mine, is that weight correct? The last time I weighed one it was 1.8oz.

Work on the repair/survival kit.

Get a lighter stuffsack. 4.5oz is a lot and you don’t need compression as the Swift is huge.

Check the weight on that Swift and do cutting if needed. My ’10 (frameless – size large) was just under 18oz stock and with some minor trimming is 16.65oz. With a little more trimming, which can easily be done, it could be an ounce lighter than that.

Replace the Tyvek ground sheet with Polycro.