Help me get below 10 pounds

Is there any chance you can ditch the Swift belt and stay? I've found mine to carry really comfortably up to 21 lbs with a GG torso pad and no other support. It isn't a huge savings but it is a start.

So a couple of things that might help you lose a bit of weight:

I'm not sure about the Rockies, but most places along the Southern AT (Your profile says mid Atlantic) I only would want a headnet for the evenings as I sleep, and I bring a bivy to fix that. Your Lightheart Solong provides the bug protection then. You should be able to nix the headnet.

The Nalgene should absolutely go. For the steripen you do need a large mouth container, but if you are going to be bringing such a large pot, you can just fill up in the pot, sterilize it, and then pour that into a platy or a powerade bottle. That will save you 2 oz right there.

Also, that is a rather large pot for solo use. I can normally get by boiling about 2 cups of water for my meals, so 600 ml will cut it for me. Using a heiny keg can pot or a smaller Ti pot will save some weight there as well.

The list definitely looks comfortable, so I was trying not to get rid of anything that you would be too connected to with comfort.

Leave the stuff sacks and Dry Duck pants at home.
Hefty gallon ziplock bags are about 8 grams each. If your Columbia pants are water repellant, would that be enough to leave the Dry Duck pants at home?
Have a great trip!

Minority opinion maybe, and this may get me booted out of BPL, but is the 5 oz such a big deal? Nothing wrong with eliminating unneeded stuff, but what is sacred about a 10 lb pack? I think you did quite well to get down to 10 lbs for down-to-freezing in the Rockies, so stop agonizing and go enjoy yourself!

Note that I have never gotten below 13 lbs, mainly because I am too cheap to replace a lot of perfectly usable stuff (that once was considered UL but is no longer), so this may explain where I'm coming from…

That is a valid point. Why replace an adequate taslan stuff sack with an expensive silnylon version to replace a few grams. There is a lot of gear that is good enough for decades. Simply taking less is the simplest way to reduce weight and it really doesn't matter once you hit a comfort level. This seems to be about 25 lbs for most of the people I go with on multi-day outings.

You should be able to get rid of your Tyvek groundcloth, since the LHG already comes with a floor…

Just be mindful of your setup location, and do a little site prep!

Another one who thinks that being within 5 oz. of your goal is plenty good enough. It's only 1/3 lb., and you'll never notice the difference on your back! Having to pack a wet shelter some rainy morning will make more difference than that! There's nothing sacred about exactly 10 lbs.

On the other hand, I'd also ditch the Nalgene, which gets rid of half of those 5 ounces!

For me, there's nothing magic about 10# (or 5#), but having a definite weight target really helps me scrutinize every last item on my list.

Repeating what others have said: replace the pot with a smaller one, drop the stuff sacks, ditch the Nalgene, consider Aquamira (repackaged = 1oz) instead of Steripen, and you'll easily drop 5 oz or so. Toothbrush and toothpaste are also a bit heavy. The bandana, compass and map could be "worn" items (in pockets, which is where I have mine 90% of the time) rather than baseweight items. A bit of an accounting trick, granted.

Having said that, I'm with Elliot and Mary D: you've decided to go with a 2# tent for comfort–will you really notice a 5 oz difference relative to that? Why not call this your very-comfy-and-ultralight-enough list, then make another that's truly about ruthlessly cutting weight (eg, tarp instead of tent, etc)? Or not. A 10# 5 oz base is still pretty light.

5 oz? Jump on the treadmill for 20 minutes.

Why stop at 10? A tarp and polycro would lose at least a pound. I agree on nixing the nalgene. I have used a wide mouthed water bottle fine. Or get a platy and pills. You could lose over a pound from that pack. Look at some of the Zpacks packs.

Yes, you can drop several ounces by replacing the Swift but it is cost prohibitive. Every ounce counts, but some some count more than others.

I carry a Steripen also. And also don't like to unpack my pot everytime I need to get water.
Have you tried the Nalgene Cantene 1L? It's 2oz so that's 1.5oz gone there.

You are already carrying a Swiss Army knife. Do you really need the Lexan knife? That's another .5oz there.

So far a total of 2oz gone.

Your cook kit and stove are very heavy to me at 11oz. A 600ml pot is lighter and less air space and metal to heat up which will increase your boil time=less fuel. Also you may want to check out my 6.6oz cooksystem in the MYOG section. That by itsself would just about get your 5oz out of the way.

Hope this helps!

A way to drop it would be to simply just drop the columbia pants and pick up a lightweight pair of running shorts. When you need pants just wear your rain pants. Thats what ive done for years and it works great.

Thanks everyone… you've definitely given me food for thought.

The fact is I really like my steripen, indestructible 3.5oz nalgene, and pot for two. That is why it's so hard to cut these things.

I think I'm going to go with my 10.3# list for my next outing and then re-evaluate.

That said… keep the suggestions coming if you've got then!

NIX the tent and replace with a tarp, saving approx 20 ounces.

Cut some stuff off your pack and save upto 8 ounces or so.

NIX nalgene bottle and Steri-Pen, replace with AQUAMIRA and an old soda bottle, saving about 5 oz

NIX gallon ziplocs for storage.

NIX the 1.3 liter pot and replace with a 500 ml (or slightly larger) mug.

NIX the caldera caddy and eat out of your mug.

NIX the TP!

NIX the sponge.

Lower your food weight from 1.75 pounds/day to 1.4 pounds/day.

Cut about 5 feet off your bear bag cord. 45 dfeet should be plenty.

Replace thick wool socks with thin synthetic running socks.

Cut the dri ducks pants into a RAIN SKIRT saving about 2 ounces.

Mike —

Thanks for the tips. A few questions…

– Do you just throw everything in the pack without ziploc bags or stuff sacks?
– Can you suggest a good brand of thin synthetic running sock?
– Is there any advantage of a rain skirt over, say, Driducks rain shorts?

RVP

– I use two stuff sacks, one for my food, and one for my cook-set. THis makes for easy bear hangs.

– I do use a few ziplock sandwich sized bags for dinky stuff or for the first aid kit.

– Go to a running store and just get a set of thin running socks (they might have some wool, but mostly synthetic) sometimes they come in multi-packs.

– the DRI DUCKS pants are so baggy, so cutting them off as RAIN SHORTS should work fine!

– I waterproof the entire contents of my backpack using one lone HEFTY trash COMPACTOR bag, cheap and easy to get at the grocery store. (2.2 oz)

@mike c
Mike! I still cant find my scale:( picking 1 up tomorrow.
@rudd p
I am right where you are, rudd. Except my predicament is dealing with a 12lb baseweight. That should change bigtime when work picks up.
I too value my *heavy* nalgene. The selling point is that I can use it for coffee while eating from my cookpot. Eating from bags would eliminate the need, however, to use my nalgene for this.
Everyone here is right about the rainskirt(shorts).
And the Aquamira. Thats anothr brick wall Im at. I drink aLOT of water, not sure about you but I dont like carrying more than 2L of water unless dehydration is really going to be an issue. The steripen enables me to drink as much as I need as soon as I find water.
Can you go with a vest instead of the MB jacket?

I will chime in here too:

Maybe turf the rain pants, and use the groundsheet as a wrap-around rain-skirt. It might take some modifications of the ground sheet, but probably not much.

Trade tent for a tarp. But, that was not a comfortable "mental experiment" for me when I was first contemplating it. Then, I did a couple nights in the backyard with the kids, and it started to seem a lot more comfortable. What's more, when it came time to tear down or set up (once I was getting familiar with some simple set-up configurations) the tarp, it was so much simpler than what happens with a tent…that I was sold on the concept. So, try a tarp a couple times in the backyard and you will find yourself converting to a tarper instead of a tenter….but then you will need to have the bugnet head gear.

Then, turfing the stuff sacks for a single bag-liner bag might also free up time and peace-of-mind by just cramming all dry items into said bag, folding the top and throwing in other items on top. That will eliminate stuff sacks.

Next, it might just be me, but do you ever use that dinner knife? I stopped carrying one when I realized that I simply never used it.

Then, the whistle: maybe you could just learn to do that two-finger whistle. I find its as loud as a rescue whistle anyway, and I don't have to search for it to utilize it.

As for the steri-pen…well that is going to be pure preference. I just can't rap my head around that technology. So I graduated to aquamira for weight savings and then took on a two litre platy waterbag. Then, I had a water bag that could be conformed into a pillow (which keeps the water warm at night…or you could warm the water first and use it as another method of staying warm at night), or flopped onto my headlamp to turn it into a area-lighting lantern. Give it a try sometime, its a really neat trick.

I am wondering if that warm hat/bandana can be combined somehow for some weight savings, and maybe even bank-rolled into the function that the sponge does too…but then maybe their will be the issue of the bandana still being wet when you want it warm.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions. I have successfully brought my base weight below 10# and reduced skin out weight by about 3# since my last 4 night trip.

Here's what I did:

NIX and sub
Sponge -.5 oz
Driducks cut to shorts -1.5 (approx)
Sub running socks -1
Reduce/repackage sunscreen, TP, toothpaste -1.5
Sub Nalgene canteen -1.5
Sub mini compass -1
Move map to carried weight -1
Total: 8 oz savings! (new base weight: ~9.9#)

Here's what I didn't change and why:
Tent with polycro groundsheet (maybe I’ll experiment with Tarps next year)
Steripen (don’t want to wait 4 hours for water)
Caldera Caddy (multi-use: can use as second water bottle, bowl, cup, carries stove)
Lexar knife (no way to make PBJs with a mini swiss army knife)
3 Gallon ziplocs + dry bag (same weight as a 2.2 oz trash compactor bag)
1.3 l pot (I typically cook for 2)
Hoop and wing belt on pack (increases comfort level measurably for me, especially on long trips)

ps — for those keeping track, you'll notice the math doesn't quite match up with my original post. I made a measurement error and had to add 1.5 back into base weight.

Peanut butter and jelly easily spread with spoon, either metal or nonflimsy plastic.

Congrats. FWIW, I doubt very many Aquamira users ever wait 4 hours after treatment. I give it 15-30 minutes at most (if I treat at all). Plenty of discussion on many threads, including here where the COO of Aquamira makes it pretty clear a four-hour wait is for conditions rarely (if ever) found in the field.

aqua mira DROPS are ready in 20 min. aqua mira TABLETS take 4 hrs, like many others.

I wrote about the weight savings with AQUA-MIRA in m book.

THis is one technique that has been really well received. I never wait more than 20 minutes to drink my water. I can carry a liter in my hand, and it never goes on my back.

Mike C