Find me some 1oz baseball hat competition…

Mountain Hardwear rounds to the nearest ounce so it probably isn't a true ounce. The REI Runners hat is 1.65oz and the Headsweats UL hat might be lighter.

Bryce, I'm looking for an ultralight visor too. I wonder if this one is lighter:

http://www.e4hats.com/_e/Moisture_Wicking_Visor/product/mw002vc-white/Moisture_Wicking_Visor_White.htm

I had a Road Runner Sports has that was super light, but I don't have it any longer. From what see, the current RRS hats are made by Headsweats and the best I could find on their site was "less than 2oz."

I do have a Nike Dri-FIT Featherlite hat that I can verify is 1.8oz. If we can set aside the "extra" 0.8oz for a second, it is a hat that works. I found many of the light baseball caps ride too high– the crown was too shallow. It comes in white and it wicks well and has several mesh vents in the crown. The street price was about $12, IIRC. (http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-87184/pgid-107068)

If you wanted to get light, cheap, and multi-function, you could wear one bandana as a cap and another as a neck cowl– just the bill is missing.

If you want to use a banana as a neck cowl, try tying a cord from one corner to another and drape that over the outside of your cap. That pulls the edges of the bandana forward to cover the sides of your head and you don't have the extra fabric jammed under your hat. I leave the cord on for use as a towel or hot pad and you can hang it to dry with the cord.

I wonder what a Tyvek painter's cap weighs? Home Depot specs one at 0.05lb (~ 0.8oz/22.6g). At $0.95 each, it's worth a look. One with a BPL logo would be cool.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/outdoors/workwear/ez-one/home-depot-logo-painter-s-cap-68217.html

zpacks

http://www.zpacks.com/accessories/supervisor.shtml

I know you listed the bandanna as a multi-use item, but if you want a sun hat with a dedicated "skirt" (had to go online to figure out what to call that), the Sun Runner cap is 1.9 oz on my scale for just the cap, 1.1 oz for the skirt.

I've started to carry a bandanna too, so it is extra weight but the fit is probably a little better and it frees up the bandanna (although what you'd then use that for is beyond me at this minute).

Otherwise, it's a good suggestion above to look at running stores. Check out the Pearl Izumi Fly Cap (but no listed weight; they just make some good stuff).

>(although what you'd then use that for is beyond me at this minute).

A bandana is the single most useful item in an ultralight backpacker's inventory. Aside from wearing it under a baseball cap for sun protection, you can use it to filter water into a bottle before treating it with Aqua Mira, as a towel (say you spill water in a tent), as oven mitts for holding a hot pot, use as a face mask in dusty weather, blindfold for sleeping, and to be more visible to hunters.

In an emergency, you can use a knife to shave off lint from it and use that as tinder for your fire, you can use it to soak up water from sources that you couldn't otherwise drink from like dew accumulated on plants, you can wrap wounds in it, use it as toilet paper, tear it into strips for cordage, collect berries in it, use it as a sling, for signaling, and a million other things.

I have to say I love my bandanna for the reasons listed above. It's a multi-use item that saves me weight. My last hike it kept bugs off, sun off, cooled me down when I dunked it in a stream, wiped off blood when I fell…etc. etc., love it.

I think I am the only person I know that uses a bandana and a thin plastic bag as a pot cozy.

And don't forget, nothing works better than a bandana for wrapping you ultralight glass crack pipe to protect it from breaking on the trail:-)

In the summer I don't have to worry about insulating my food it seems….but in the colder times I just tuck my food under my down sweater for a bit as a cozy. I guess I risk wetting my down, but my freezer bags haven't screwed me yet. :p

They list the Quasar at 2 oz and the one I have is 2.4 oz. I'd figure more like 1.5 for the Geist.

Hey Bryce,

I also use my sweater and/or sleeping bag as a cozy in the colder months. I double wrap my freezer bag or pot with what ever plastic bags I have on hand. That way no spill, steam, food smells, … get in the sweater or sleeping bag.

Good point about the smells.

Er, I carry a bandana too, but was just too tired to articulate all the uses last night when I posted. Thanks for the great list of possible uses!

Question though: do people who carry a bandana ever also carry a pack towel, meaning something like an non-cotton MSR towel or similar?

Sorry to hijack.

Can't beat them at 1.5 oz:

No need to carry a pack towel if you have a bandana.

Correction, the pack towel could be used as a wrap to protect the crack pipe while you use the bandana to dry off:-)

Interesting, versatile piece of kit, but it does not seam to cover the ears as well as a baseball cap and bandanna.

>Interesting, versatile piece of kit, but it does not seam to cover the ears as well as a baseball cap and bandanna.

Sure it does. (We're talking the original Visor Buff, not Evo 2.) Wear it in "pirate" mode and it stretches easily over the ears. Or just go to partial balaclava mode, where your whole face is sticking out of the hole.

I own a bunch of these. They have quite literally replaced every hat I own. Mostly, I wear it in pirate mode and pull it down over my ears when I need to.

Stargazer

I see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rbsB0xMZMk

But then don't you lose the nice visor to keep direct sun off your face?

You can do all the same things with the visor buff that you can with the non-visor "classic" buff. Just keep the visor on the top when you arrange it.

Stargazer

Don't know about the weight, but I've become a big fan of the Montbell stainless mesh cap.

http://www.montbell.us/products/disp.php?cat_id=88&p_id=1108487

I bought one for greenland i wanted the visor to keep my mosquitoe net out of my face.

The bad : i didnt put permethrin on my net and the mosquitoe were able to bite me through the nanoseeum + the visor buff nylon ( and the absence of hairs on the top of my head ).

The good : i found having a visor very confortable, and the ability to put it on my neck ( with the visor against the chest ) when using a warmer hat, was giving it more use than a baseball cap for mid seasons.

In spring/autumn i often use it with a light ( 1oz) powerstrecht beanie : if sun visor buff on my head , if it turns very cold visor buff on my neck and the beanie on my head.

I have an OR sun runner hat with the lawrence of arabia style cloth in the back. Its removable though, so it turns into a regular baseball hat. WITH the cloth attached its 2.8 oz so maybe worth a look? http://www.outdoorresearch.com/site/sun_runner_cap.html

Or how about this one:

http://www.hammacher.com/Product/81126?source=EMM07711&cm_ven=WC&cm_cat=20110607_EMM077&cm_pla=BYR&cm_ite=81126_The/%20Ventilated%20Sun%20Cap

Ball-cap style, big-brimmed, 2 oz with retractable vents.

Stargazer