Gear list 3 season Australia

[jacob thompson]

Well I thought I might put up a preliminary gearlist. Things with *s with them mean Ive written something below about it.

Packing System
*Gossamer G5 1 (7oz)

Sleep System
*Spinnshelter 1 (9.5oz)
Sleep mat 1 (2.7oz)
*Sleeping bag 1 (16oz)
Tentpegs 8 (2.05oz)
*Poles 2 0 0
Ground sheet 1 (2oz)
50′ spectra 1 (0.2oz)

Weather System
DriDucks top 1 (4oz)
DriDucks bottom 1 (4oz)

Cooking System
Plastic Spork 1 (0.2oz)
MSR kettle 1 (3.4oz)
*Lighter 1 (0.4oz)
Fuel platy 1 (0.9oz)
Alcohol stove 1 (0.3oz)
Wind screen 1 (0.2oz)

Hydration System
Water Platy 2L 1 (1oz)
Aquamira 2 (1.05oz)

Hygiene
Toothpaste Dr Bs 1 (0.2oz)
TP 18 (0.6oz)
Toothbrush 1 (0.05oz)

Miscellany
Photon Freedom light 1 (0.3oz)
*Stuff sacks 5 (0.5oz)

Total for items in pack

56.55oz

3.53lbs

Items worn

Foot wear
Montrail Vittesse 1 (32oz)
Superfeet insert 1 (2oz)
Smart wool trail socks 2 (3oz)

Clothing System
Smartwool LS 1 (7oz)
Golite medium tight 1 (7oz)
*

First off expected temperatures for my main 4 season hiking would not dip below mid 40’s (it’s night time here mid winter and the temp is 52).

*s
*Currently I own a breeze and a G5, but soon I will buy a FanFr bag or a G6. G6 is more than likely the way to go. Save 3.5oz

*Spinnshelter is great for expected rain but if I’m dry and summer hiking I may purchase an MLD 5.5oz special tarp. save 4oz.

*Bag is still really up in the air. More than likely I will get a rayway quilt and sew it with a single layer of 3D .9″. Giving me an estimated temp of 55-60? I estimated about 3/4 weight of a full quilt. could be lighter. layering clothes here will increase temperature significantly. I like synth for moral and safety reasons.

*Poles are GVP lightrek +, about 100 miles on them in less than a fortnight, so far so good.

*I usually carry one lighter in my pocket and another emergency in the bag. I see most people using matches. Why? So many people do it that there must be a reason.

*Stuff sacks are always plastic bags, turkey bags, garbage bags. When you want light you have to reduce durability.

the last * is because I’m looking for shorts with pockets, zipoffs for warmth. And light weight running shorts and maybe the golite light weight tight for summer (often up to 110 even 120 in a day hike I did a few years back.) I’m also looking for a big hat, to keep sun and rain off me. It need to be breathable because it’s hot sometimes:).

With the changes above in place I stand to drop another 8-9oz. Sub3 why not. (please don’t look at me like I’m after bragging rights because in all seriousness I’m not)

You will notice that this list hasn’t got a lot of the features added to many other peoples packs. This mainly due to my extreme gram weenie’ness and the fact that for less than 2 week periods I would not use any of them and would rather not carry them. Even in my life in general I am pretty minimalist. I also havent included things that I carry on my person such as maps and whistle, bandanna etc. There are other things I can drop as well such as cooking equipment for less than 5 days and the associated gear but I’m not really losing much extra weight (a few oz).

With this gear I could easily load up to 2 season stuff in the states sub 5lb. I will be attempting a thru-hike of the PCT in ’07 and I will try and do as much of it as I can sub 5lb. Though priorities change when this distance is being done.

I would consider myself able to do many shorter distance hikes with no gear at all but I deam that to be wilderness survival not hiking. So instead I have wittled my gear down to the BARE essentials. I can understand many of the safety issues of the temperatures of USA and the varying degree of tail length and location. But if you feel up for a challenge I would urge you to try and lower you weights even more than SUL. I see most SUL lists showing the same gear but lighter and rather than leave them out all together we are just cutting them down etc. Sub5 is the real fringe of hiking, but it can be pushed further. Another thing I have noticed is that people tend to be using things that carry more weight but are more durable, my example before was stuff sacks. For SUL length journeys does one really need this kind of strength? Garbage bags are cheap and recylable. Why not dump the lexan or Ti spork for a chinese take-away spork. This may only last you the length of your trip but in the end you lost another thing that added superfluous weight to the pack. I am described by my friends as a hippy which is neither here nor there, but what I will say is that my philosophy of minimalism stems from our consistent desire to work against nature rather than with it.

My appologies for turning this into a free for all. Any comments suggestions are all welcome. I mentioned to Ryan on another thread that personal messaging would be a nice feature and he replied that it was in consideration. With that feature we could discuss ideas form person to person freely without hindering the rest of the readers (which is what I fear I do for the most part.)

/rant.

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