anyone find their pack weight going up?

[Anonymous]

Yes, for the most part. When i first joined here, i flirted with SUL, but as i’m not trying to break any distance or time records–i just don’t see the point is trying to have the lowest weight possible.  For awhile, i found it becoming bit of a belief system attachment, and that’s something i try to avoid.

Some of it is comfort driven, but it’s more about durability.  I’m trying to get away from throw away materials, and for the most part with some exceptions, the lighter the gear, the less durable it tends to be (exceptions mostly including expensive materials like titanium and UHMWPE products [dyneema, spectra, etc]).

After doing mostly non cook, with some occasional alcohol use, i’ve fully converted to canister with the inexpensive BRS-3000T stove, and Kovea Spider.

[Ian]

Mine has gone up but I still tend to hover at or under 10 lbs base weight.  At least I think that’s where I’m at as I really don’t weigh everything at a micro level these days, and typically just get a scale weight of my fully loaded pack before I hit the road.  I figure that if I’m hitting the trail with what I need for a weekend and I’m below 20 total pounds (seem to range between 15-18 it seems), then that’s good enough for me.

I am still enamored with the idea of seeing how light I can actually go without hitting stupid light, and I have the gear to theoretically give SUL a go.  We’ll see if I can get an SUL trip in this summer or not.

Edited to try and make this all to look like English

[Arthur]

What a good post!  My pack weight went down, down thanks to a lot of help from this group, but now turns upward. There is a point where I stop subscribing to competitive backpacking and just want to enjoy the outdoors even if it is 2 miles less per day.  And, I get a big kick out of the UUUL people on the trail bragging about 8 pound packs who have their wide screen phone, gps, camera, spot, etc in their pockets, so that doesn’t count.   I guess I have to get over the fact that i will never be Andrew S.

[Stuart .]

@art-r not even Andrew S. is Andrew S. anymore. Real life caught up with him. So I guess we’re all excused for adding a luxury item in our packs once in a while.

[David Thomas]

I haven’t noticed it so much in this go-around of UL because I’ve been continuously adding and subtracting items so I’ll try a pad that a bit too light for me, step back a bit at the same time I drop my shelter weight.

But in the mid-1980s, pre-Ray Jardine, pre-internet, when if you went UL, you did it on your own, and yeah, most of us bottomed out and then went a little heavier.  I did a no-cook, no-sleeping bag, no-quilt, no-tent 10-day Sierra trip and while my pack was impressive light for the time (1/2 the weight of anyone else’s), in the future, I didn’t do all those things on the same trip (i.e. if sleeping in my clothes, then I brought a little more shelter).  A co-worker at the BPing store hit bottom on UL food.  A climber, he’d looked at all the foods in the supermarket for the cheapest, lightest/calorie choice.  And it was squeeze Parkay magazine.  So he brought that as half his calories.  Never again.

[JCH]

Can we call that “Stupid Gross”?

[Alexander S]

My new electronics package did me in. Portable battery, charger, cables, mini camera tripod, Stickpic and camera adapter.

Bam! 9oz.

[Ted Lakomowski]

Hello, my name is Ted and I am a fatty…

Full comfort gear crushes the scale at 13.95 lbs.  This set up will take me down into the forties, with a chair, hammock, and fifty mm lens mirrorless Sony nex camera.  Harder to loose weight as you are getting older.  :)

[Dondo .]

After looking at a troubling forecast for a trip I took earlier this week, I packed a Golite umbrella that had been sitting in the trunk of my car at the last minute.  After experiencing the astonishing comfort that can be had while hiking up many switchbacks in the hail and rain without a rain jacket, I think I’ve just boosted my base weight by 8.1 oz.

v

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Owen McMurrey]

“I think part of my shift is that I’ve been putting on more miles on my trips, I know it sounds counterintuitive”

Totally get that. Comfort can equate to safety, too.
Not much of an issue for me in the South, but since I’m now 7 of 7 in the last 5yrs for my trips out West coinciding with what weather.com refers to as a “significant weather event”, I feel well justified erring on the side of caution when traveling there. Last two were all day rain during CA’s drought and a surprise cold front in UT pushing temps >30F below forecast.

Next week-long trip’s average temps for the area are lows in the upper 20s, highs in the 60s.
With my history, and up to 4 nights camped at ~12k’, “average” holds little meaning.

2.75oz heavier grid fleece bottoms vs Capilene 2, ~6oz more for a partial solid inner vs cuben ground sheet, and +6oz for a parka with 2.3oz more down than my lighter jacket..for less than a pound, my comfort zone extends into negative single digits. After replacing my old heavy rainpants, the actual increase in gear weight will be ~7oz.
So now my pack’ll start out at 26lbs instead of 25.5.
Oh, nooo! :o *dies*

[Adam White]

Well shoot, folks, you’re finally just pulling out the Sawyer?

Stolen from this thread here, in which we chuckled about this last summer.

[Bob Moulder]

You’re allowed to steal your own stuff! :^) And that is some great stuff — very clever!

What is interesting is that on some other forums such as White Blaze there are folks who are quite hostile to the whole idea of UL. There are even a couple of notable anti-UL cross-pollinators here, lol.

Reminds me of long-caged birds that don’t realize they are free to leave when the door is opened.

[JCH]

So that’s where I lost my Mini…been looking for that thing for ages.

[Jerry Adams]

I was going around Mt Hood, leapfrogged a couple guys over a couple days, talked to them a couple times

One of them told me he had put a big rock in his buddies pack who hadn’t noticed it yet but would be sore when he discovered it, that’s why his pack weight went up

[Mike M]

my buddy will occasionally stash a couple of beers in my pack; of course when they finally are discovered they are welcomed :)

[JCH]

I have surreptitiously packed beers into the backcountry then sprung them on my unsuspecting hiking partners…but I am ashamed to say that I was not smart enough to smuggle them into THEIR packs. I hope to remedy that error in future.

[Rog Tallbloke]

Luxuries.
Thermarest Chair
Golite Umbrella
Down waistcoat
Sony RX100 II camera + viewfinder
Hip flask (UL of course)

Privations.
No towel (use T-shirt)
7g alcohol stove + 2oz Ti twig burner/windshield
No waterproof jacket or pants (Use poncho-groundsheet – wear shorts)
No fancy waist belt on the pack (3/4″ UL webbing)
No paper maps (smartphone weighs less)

[Kelly G]

I carry a book. And I love my Golite umbrella, rain or shine. I was called “brilliant” the other day, using my umbrella in the sun, alpine on Mt. Hood. Carry my own shade.

As I run cold at night, I also carry plenty of insulation. I can’t get away with a 40* bag on a 40* summer night. 20* bag and down clothing, and long underwear. I don’t skimp on insulation.

Kelly

[Author]

Posts