Trying for SUL, but without spending any money over what I already have. Critique my list!

What's your lowest expected temp overnight?

Your beanie is quite heavy at 3oz. If its not too cold (say >8C) I personally am ok with a normal buff, merino should be a smidge warmer, but YMMV. Is your Uniqlo parka the hooded one? If so definitely leave the beanie behind.

Do you really need the fire steel? Second mini bic is lighter. Heck, drain half the fluid ;-)

I'm sure you can cut an ounce or two from your first aid and repair kits combined. Can you list the individual components of both?

Is the .05oz weight of your spork correct? That seems a mistake to me, otherwise where can I get it? :-)

Cut that scourer pad in half at least.

Can you do some pack mods? Eg remove the ice axe loop, the haul loop (not sure why one is needed on such a small light pack, especially as they've put some holes in the shoulder straps that you could use on a small wall hook), trim some straps, even remove that back compression strap entirely…its really not needed on a 19L pack. You have a down jacket and a quilt-just let them expand, you won't notice the difference. Remove the zipper tabs and replace them with slightly lighter ones (half a gram saving for sure).

You aren't far off.

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

This is a general three-season list for the San Gabriel Mountains, so it accounts for overnight temps down to just above freezing. If it's going to be warmer, I'll leave the beanie at home and just bring the buff. My parka is the hooded one, but my head, face, and ears tend to run cold. Perhaps I'll take the beanie off the list, it'll probably come with me less than half the time.

At .1 oz difference, I'd rather bring the firesteel over a second mini bic so my options are a little diversified. IMO, firestarting is the most essential (perhaps the only essential) survival tool, so I like having a non-consumable, non-combustible option.

The repair kit I should cut down. Right now it's most of a tube of tenacious tape, and I really only need enough for a few small patches. I stuffed some other supplies into the tube (a few safety pins, zip ties, a needle and some thread, and a spare rubber washer for the Sawyer Squeeze) but I think most of the weight is in the tape. The first aid kit is right about where I want it—one non-stick trauma pad, one roll of gauze, a few bandaids, one sheet of moleskin, some single-use antibiotic ointment straw packs, two alcohol pads, and a dozen ibuprofen. Duct tape on a pen bridges the gap between repair and first aid—I can't recall which I put it under. I've cut it as much as I'm comfortable with, considering that I enjoy doing dangerous things (I'll bring a machete or climbing gear on many of my trips, if the route calls for it).

Good call on the spork. It's .2 oz.

The scourer is cut in half already. I just re-weighed it though and it's not showing up on my scale. Definitely not .4 oz. I'll fix that.

Hmmm, I'll think some more about what I can do with the pack. I don't want to remove the compression straps because I use this as my daypack, and they're very useful in that context. I also use the ice-axe loop. My trekking poles (or pole, in this case) aren't always in my hand, especially when bushwhacking or climbing. There is an inside pocket that really serves no purpose except for stuffing the pack into itself. Just got rid of that—it was 1.1oz. That's the good news. The bad news is that the pack's weight is still 11oz, because I hadn't reweighed it after sewing in a sternum strap. So it goes.

I also noticed that I had the Sawyer Squeeze in there at 5.3 oz. At the moment (dry) it weighs 3.1, so I corrected that. It's cheating a little bit since the field weight is usually wet, but I've made my peace.

Thanks for the help! Base weight is down to 5 lb 3.2 oz!

Nice list. Consider a Sunday afternoon sport hat at 2.2 oz (vs. 3.6). My cheap plastic polarized sunglasses are only 0.7 oz, maybe yours are prescription. You carry both a watch and a compass, a combo could save ~1 oz.

hey Mitchell

Here is what I found.

A .8-ounce knife is heavy.
If you must have a knife, why not a razor knife? Or none???

Why 2 fire starting methods?

Chap stick could be in a better mini holder and be 1/3 the weight.

I like your pack, but the 8-ounce bivy for SUL is double what the weight could be.
This is the only big piece of gear I would ditch for another.
that and you already have the bivy, so why do you need the survival blanket?

5.4 oz of padding is also a little much, but is hard to go with an 1/8" pad if your sleeping at campsites.

50' of line is not ridiculous but even a 200lb dynema is 1/3 of that.

1st aid and repair kit for an SUL kit is usually a 1/2-ounce.
What in the world do you need 4.7 ounces of useless crap for?

Do you really need a compass in the San Gabriel Mountains?
You have a map and there aren't that many trails out there.
Even a big weekend long loop may have you take 5 or 6 turns.
I don't see (even if you loose your maps) how you could possibly get lost on a planed trip that you have already studied the route.

All told you could loose get the above gear down to the following.

Chapstick .2
Knife .3
Compass 0
Survival Blanket 0
Bivy 4
Pad 3.5
Rope 1.5
1st Aid & Repair Kit 1

This would save you 16.6 ounces.

Hey Aaron, thanks for the feedback! Just to clarify, I was pretty strict about putting this list together with what I already have. Just as ounces add up, so do dollars, so I decided to hold off on spectra line, a new pad, and the like. That isn’t to say I won’t get them at some point, but I was curious about what I could pull off right now.

Fire starting methods I agree, I could ditch the striker.

Where would I find a smaller container for the chap stick? I’m interested in doing that.

The repair kit I can cut pretty much entirely, maybe I’ll just keep a pen with some duct tape on it. First aid, on the other hand, I have pretty close to the minimum I’m comfortable carrying. I’m not packing my fears here, I’m packing my experiences. Every single item in my first aid kit is something I have needed due to an injury or accident on a past trip. I do a lot of bushwhacking, sometimes with a machete, and like to go off-trail and bouldering—mobility for those activities is part of my impetus for going SUL—and I feel much more comfortable taking risks when I know I can patch myself up.

The above rationale also applies to the compass. It’s very much necessary in off-trail situations.

The survival blanket is there to be used as a tarp if it rains. My bivy is not waterproof, it has a mesh head section. I suppose in parts of the year I could ditch the bivy and just take the SOL blanket plus a groundsheet, but in bug season that won’t fly. What did you have in mind as an alternative?

Your 1st aid kit is so over the top for a SUL kit.

You have 3 different types of padded gauze items.
You have steri strip and band-aids, so 2 types of sticking items.

5 of those green things???
2 alcohol pads instead of 1.

Clothing in an emergency can take place of all 3 of the padded gauze items.
Then just cut back on everything else, ala 1.5 ounces

Could you live with one of these as a compass?

http://jolly-green-giant.blogspot.com/2010/11/lightweight-compass.html

A 10d all fabric bivy with no zipper is right around 2.8 – 3.2 ounces.

"Hey Aaron, thanks for the feedback! Just to clarify, I was pretty strict about putting this list together with what I already have. Just as ounces add up, so do dollars"

That's why I recommended leaving some items home or cutting back. Not so much buying new items. Although buying low dollar items to cut a pound of your pack is worth it in my book.

I agree with Aaron's comments, except the bivy. Even not changing the bivy you can get "SUL". Also, its a tyvek bivy??? That's pretty light for a quasi WPB bivy. With no other shelter for protection, that could be handy. If you are sure it isn't going to rain, just don't take the bivy at all.

The bivy is made of 1443r tyvek, so it should be able to sustain most light rains. Unfortunately I stupidly sewed it fuzzy side out, so that may compromise it’s water resistance a bit. It has a netting head section, so I would just need something to protect the top half really.

Here are photos.

I’ll have to do some thinking on the first aid kit. I may take out the band aids, but being able to pack serious wounds with something sterile is very important, and even more so if I’m going to take a day or two to get assistance. Clothing is good for stopping blood loss, not so much for preventing infection. Gauze and antibiotic ointment will, for many injuries, mean the difference between immediate egress and continuing on.

Perhaps this isn’t what one may call an “SUL” mindset, but I think it’s a wise one (again, speaking from experience). Those are two ounces I will gladly carry.