ULA Catalyst packing recommendations

Your packing method is pretty much the same as I do it. I do it with the can vertical on top of the bag and any clothes I will not be using until I camp. Depending on the lenght of the trip, and hence the amount of food, you might want to get some of your stove components in the bear can. If you use the themarest, make sure it is fully deflated and try the "burrito" style a lot of us use. Put it in first thing, probably before the liner, and use it to "line" inside the pack. Then stick the sleeping bag and everything else inside. If this doesn't help the thermarest is a good candidate for attaching on the outside, possibly even in on of the water bottle pockets (assuming only one drinking bottle).

Drop the extra nalgene, and get a 1l platypus or larger water bag for times when you want extra storage, such as in the evening when you cook. In the sierra there is pretty much water everywhere. Without the seripen I would say no nalgenes at all – use a plastic water bottle from the grocery store. Just give yourself regular breaks and drink with you pack off. I've always thought something was by definition wrong if a pack is so heavy or hard to get on/off that people need to have bite valves and so on. LOL

If you are using stuff sacks don't if you can get away with it. The zpacks pack line is all you need. Packing will be more efficient if everything is loose.

The BV500 may be a little small for 8 days – it can be done but you need to be very scientific about it. It isn't a no-brainer process of getting it all in there. However, you can probably fudge factor a bit the first few days.

See if any of that helps, but over all I wouldn't worry too much about feeling the bag is a bit over full with a bear can.

Edit: Ah I got it wrong I think, ditch the pack cover and get the zpacks large pack LINER. Close it over everything, watertight, then if the upper part of the bag can't close all the way, no biggy. I'd recoment the extra waterproofing of the liner anyway.

You wouldn't happen to have a gear list would you? At least tell us what tent, bag, and what extra clothes.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing…the catalyst is an awfully big pack…what are you carrying?

I don't put my quilt in a stuff sack, I "cloud" pack it in the bottom with my sleep clothes, seal the liner, then rest the bear can on top of that (vertically). That way it fills up all the space in the bottom of the pack and you don't have this big rock in the bottom with dead space around it. And the ula packs have a weird (but wonderful) sloped bottom that may create a lot of dead space if you pack a brick of a sleeping bag down there.

I wouldn't carry your inflatable/self inflating pad outside the main pack. You could risk puncturing it while hiking. If you were just carrying a ccf, then no problems there.

You can put a lot in the mesh pocket. For starters, anything that can get wet. Stove, pot, fuel cannister, tent, raingear, collapsible water containers, etc. It is not supposed to all go inside your pack with these type packs. Any tent poles can stand vertically in side pockets too. First aid, water treatment, etc should go in your hipbelt pockets.

Be nice :)
So, a couple things to note:
– I don't buy down, so my sleeping bag and puffy jacket are synthetic.
– I'm also going to be hiking in Sept where temps can drop as low as 15 degrees at night (and I run cold all the time anyway…I'm already nervous about being cold with what I have!).
– There will be one stretch of the trail (the first 2 days) where I will have to carry all my water because Sunrise Creek will likely be dry (from Lower Yosemite Valley to Cathedral Lakes) – I'm anticipating needing to be able to carry 4-5L of water here, which is why I'm bringing an additional collapsible nalgene.
– A few of the small things I haven't weighed

ULA Catalyst 1 48
BV500 1 41

Sleeping System

Mountain Hardware 15 UltraLamina Sleeping Bag 1 46
Therm-A-Rest XTherm Regular 1 15
Therm-A-Rest Sit Pad 1 1.7

Shelter

Lightheart Gear Solo 1 27
MSR Groundhog stakes 8 0.71
Tyvek Groundsheet 1 2.3

Clothing

Sherpa Thamel Rain Jacket 1 8
North Face rain pants 1 8
Marmot Ion Wind Hoodie 1 4
Icebreaker Lightweight Baselayer Bottoms 1 5
Icebreaker Rapid Shirt LS 1 13
Smartwool Toe Socks 1 1.5
Columbia Le Lustre Insulated Jacket 1 19.5
Columbia UPF 50 LS shirt 1 3
NorthFace Arches Pants 1 10.8
Mountain Hardware gloves 1
hair ties (extra)
Teva Mush Universal Sandals 1 4

Hydration

SteriPen Traveler Mini (with batteries installed) 1 3.6
CR123 replacement batteries 4
2 Nalgene Widemouth bottles 2 6.3
1 collapsible nalgene bottle 1 2.3

Cooking System

Jetboil Sol Aluminum 1 10.5
Jetboil fuel (8.11oz) 1 13.4

Misc

first-aid kit 1 4
SPF chapstick
1oz sunscreen
REI DEET spray
comb
1 oz. dr bronners
Lush toothpaste chews
Campack 23×25 towel 1 1.7
Eric the Black Book 1 2.8
plastic trowel 1 1.8
duct tape
Princeton Tec Fuel LED Headlamp 1 2.7
backup AAA batteries for headlamp 3

Total 316.18

Clothing to be worn

Outdoor Research Hat
Smartwool Toe Socks 1 1.5
Columbia UPF 50 short sleeve shirt 1 4
shorts (running shorts w/ liner) 1 3.1
sports bra
Smith Optics Brooklyn Polarized Sunglasses 1 1
La Sportiva Electron Shoes 1 24
Sunglasses (smith optics) 1 1.3

Yeah, the synthetic bag and puffy is plenty enough to explain the space issues.

However, if it works it works. Practice different ways of packing until y ou find something you can work with, and you will be fine.

Mark – Thanks for the advice! On the pack liner – do you think I should do both the liner and cover? My thought is that if I just use a liner and the fabric gets wet I'd be carrying the extra weight of a wet bag….so opted for the cover instead. Would you recommend the Zpack – or just a trash compactor bag?

I would definitely do the liner bag as primary waterproofing – that is the only foolproof water protection. If you are extra paranoid you could get an extra dedicated one for your bag and put that inside the liner bag, though make sure that inner sack is way over-sized to allow your bag to still squish into the space allotted. But things should be fine without an extra dedicated waterproof sack for your bag.

The zpacks liners bags are great because that have a roll-up seal just like a dry bag. A pack cover never really seals things, and in most cases a liner is all you need. However, if you really can't fully close the top of the pack then I suppose you might want the cover as well. Or a garbage bag as a backup cover. You basically want your critical gear (sleeping bag and primary insulation layer)to be dry, even if your pack rolls down a muddy slope, into a stream, and then over a waterfall.

Another way I was thinking you could use the pack liner is you could just have it sticking above the opening of the pack a little if necessary and the pack strap would hold everything down. I never tried that, and I'm sure someone will now point out the flaws in that idea.