REGIONAL PACK WEIGHT DIFFERENCES

I can't answer your question about hiking in desert country, but agree that there is a difference in pack weights regionally. I live in Alaska and my summer season has temperature and weather swings such as what many people here would consider shoulder season. Daytime temps in the 70's can drop below freezing at night. My gear is always based on what the low temp will be, not the high, and so I have a heavier bag, heavier clothes, a water bottle that can take boiling water (for a hot water bottle to go in my bag). Stuff like that. I don't know that I'll ever achieve "ultralight" because of this, but my pack is 30 lbs lighter than it used to be so I'm darned happy.

Most here weigh gear as "base-weight" but that does not include your consumables (food, water). Not a problem in an environment with fresh streams, but in desert/arid/drought-struck environments you need enough to safely make it to the next guaranteed watering hole or enough to dry camp (unless you can cache some prior). So with the desert, one can pack less gear when it gets warmer but you will more than make up for it in water weight. Also snowier trips require more mobility gear and insulation.

Not much can be done except maybe alter some practices (desert hiking when it's cooler, going faster and burning more calories in the snow). Here's one I've seen on a couple trip reports, .. hike in the desert after a winter snow (it happens- add: probably more towards NM and UT.

Ask about desert conditions and Alaskans reply! Don't you love that about BPL?

In addition to our weather being much less predictable than California's, there's often a .308 rifle adding 8 pounds to many people's gear. You can't eat it, wear it, or build a shelter with, so I, personally, make a lot of noise to avoid bears in the first place.

But back to the desert conditions – I try to get local, very-recent intel in the desert. If the person hiking out tells me there was water at Xxxxx and Yyyyy 1 and 3 days ago, I'm willing to trust that. But, yeah, a dot on the map isn't to be trusted until I've seen it wet later in the season or during a lower rainfall year than I'm hiking at the time.

As far as temp swings, the desert is like that, too. Too hot during the day turns to too cold during the night. (BTW – what do you mean by "shoulder season"?)

I think you nailed my point re: "ultralight" backpacking. Certain regions seem to be conducive to it, while others seem to merit a different standard. (But this is just my "rookie" impression.)

For warm desert, many of the gear ideas can work – minimal shelter, quilt, and clothing. Saving pounds of gear weight for water to making the hike a little bit easier, faster, and more pleasant. A pack with a good frame is preferable to carrying a couple gallons of water, though.

Re: HK Newman:

I can see UL gear becoming paramount to offsetting water weight.

I'm getting better, but trying to find that balance between safety (including psychological hurdles – haha), weight & cost.

I've run into way too many diamondbacks to sleep without a tent, for example, but know many people who do without consequence. Hm … I'll re-consider my gear … again ….

In dry areas, the backpacker has to be prepared to carry extra water. In bear country, the backpacker may be required to use a bear canister at night for food storage. However, these two items could work together. Use the bear canister during the day to carry extra water from place to place, and the food is loose in the backpack. Then in camp, use the extra water for consumption and store the food back into the canister for overnight. I guess that is multiple use.

–B.G.–

I guess I don't see base pack weights as being regional, so much as I see them being temperature adjusted, which of course is effected by regions.

So you could still have an ultralight setup, but at the high end of the scale, considering a more robust pack to support the added water weight, as well as the added container weight.

But even if you carried 16 pounds of water, it doesn't mean you can't be "ultralight", since the classification is based solely on your gears base weight. As noted, situations like carrying a lot of water, make a great case for ultralight justificatiin.

Shoulder season is late fall or early spring, where the weather is more variable and you could luck out with mild conditions or strike out with winter weather.

Yes, Southern Arizona has very wacky conditions. I have experienced 101F temperatures during the day, with 35F lows the SAME night! [And after such a hot afternoon, the near-freezing night FEELS so much colder than it normally would.] As the line from the song goes, "all four seasons in one day"…

There are a few techniques you can use for lightening your pack.

1. Consider caching water, depending on what route you're doing. Sometimes, we do day hikes a week or two in advance, where we carefully hide water caches to be retrieved during our backpacking trip. Other times, on an "out & back" trip, we'll carry a staggering weight to start, but leave caches as we go along, to be picked up on the return. Again, learn to hide them well.

2. Plan your routes to include known water sources (this will obviously change seasonally). Try not to hike during the hottest part of the day.

3. Don't bother carrying extra water for things like washing clothes, etc.

Finally — as others have already said, having the lightest base weight (pack + gear without food & water) will help cut down on total weight. Many people routinely "cowboy camp" in the S.AZ desert with no problems — I would say that scorpions would be the issue in that situation; not rattlers.

Thank you to everyone for your feedback. I will rethink some things & see what I can do. (As my wife can attest, I don't think I'll have any problem saving water by not washing my clothes – hehehe.)

I do think I need to get my base weight down. It's at 14 now, but I only know by weighing myself with and without it, then subtracting. So I'll poke around for a scale.

Good times – and I have a lot of reading to do on here, too. Thank you for the cool site.

I think that regional pack weight differences are about more than just water and bear canisters — which sleeping bag, which shelter, what mix of clothing, etc.

For the specific issue that the O.P. mentions, in addition to ideas already mentioned I'd raise the topics of night hiking, and water caches. Plus the long distance hiker strategy of "tank up and camel up" at water sources — i.e., don't just fill your water vessels, fully rehydrate your body at limited water sources.

Perhaps take a long mid-day break near a water source; make lunch you big meal of the day and snooze in the shade at the hottest part of the day. Set your alarm to get you on trail as soon as you can start to see enough to hike in the morning. Hike well into the evening (and optionally the night). Bring a headlamp that throws enough lumens to make this a more credible/safe strategy.

You might or might not find that a sun umbrella works for you; if so, it could perhaps limit a little bit how much water you need to carry (?).

What can also work sometimes is a sort of "virtuous circle" effect (the opposite of a viscious circle). Because you're carrying less weight, you can do more miles in a day. Because you can do more miles in a day, you can make it to a next-water-source that you otherwise wouldn't be able to. Because you can make it to that next source, you don't need to carry nearly as much water.