Finally put together a gear list. HELP!

You are on the right path, young padewan (oops, wrong forum).
Seriously, most of my suggestions would actually add a little weight. A bivy sack (along BMW/MLD/Oware lines) to protect your bag from windblown wind and for that extra degree of safety buffer. Rain or windpants (w/ good DWR) since you are talking about rain being a factor. There are places that you can shave weight, here and there, like using Ti stakes at 1/2 the weight of alum. stakes. I don't see a 1st aid/blister kit or a flashlight.

For more ideas you can check out the gearlist under my profile ( and on some of the more frequent posters' profiles) and the gear checklists on the BPL site

It is possible to have a 5# baseweight w/o a lot of trick equipment like poncho-tarps, but it is more difficult. It's even more difficult, if, like me, you are tall and need to use size L clothing and Lg. sleeping bags and the like.
If your baseweight is close to 5# you are doing very, very good.

Thanks for the input. I actually have a 5 oz. bivy I made myself, I just forgot to include it on the list (kind of a big deal). I figure I have 2 or 3 ounces of items I haven't included in the base weight yet (1st aid, food bag hanging system, pack liner, etc.)

I'm not expecting horrible rain, my precip rain weigh about 7 oz. Also, for the trip I'm taking this weekend I can probably get by without the down inner jacket since it's not supposed to get colder than the mid 50s.

Thanks for the pointers. As you know it's a work in progress.

Hi Justin,

Yeah, you are very close. From here it's a combination of details (ti stakes, squeeze LED light, Nightlight pad, lighter knife, cuben or spinnaker tarp, etc) to get down t the lighter weight and to include your other essentials. OR it's a big shift with your heaviest items. By that I mean a quilt and a poncho tarp. Using a quilt, you can drop 5 ounces and with little effect on your warmth with that bivy. But your biggest is a poncho tarp- ditch the 7 ounce rain jacket.

My sub 4 gear list is attached to my profile if you'd like to look at that- I've used lists nearly idential for a long time now and I'm comfortable with it. But you know, I think I'd give yourself that extra .5-1 lbs for your first couple of trips and then fine tune from there.

But if you're diving in, get a poncho tarp, ti stakes, and hit the road!

Cheers,
Doug

Thanks Doug,
I plan to do just that. I'm leaving tomorrow for a short trip, and probably won't do much to change the big items just yet. We'll see how this set up treats me. This will be my first time with a tarp/bivy combo. I'm really excited.

I've noticed people going back and forth about poncho/tarps. I get nervous thinking about not having separate shelter and raingear (i.e. setting up in the rain).

Oh, and how important is using a groundsheet if my bivy has a silnylon bathtub-style bottom?

Thanks for the tips doug. Being sub-5 lbs. is not a huge priority for me right now, I was just disappointed to add up all the weights and be so close after all that work and research. It's all good though!

>how important is using a groundsheet if my bivy has a silnylon bathtub-style bottom?

Most silnylon will give you a wet butt if you set it on soaked ground and sit on it. It is waterproof for rain, but doesn't keep water out when under pressure. I recommend the Gossamer Gear Polycryo groundsheet (lightweight and sturdy) but if you don't have a groundsheet handy, a contractor garbage bag (cut open and trimmed to size) works well.