Thanks for pointing out that error, I edited it a few days ago and screwed it up -corrected now.
I only take a stove in winter, and then only to make a hot drink. I take the same ready-to-eat food all year round, but judging by many people I see bent double under huge packs, the weights in the table show that I still carry much less than them. I reckon 6 days (outside winter) is my comfort limit without restocking supplies.
An itemised kit list is all well and good, but the real test is when it's all packed away, ready to be hoiked onto your back
i think jake wanted to know what kind of weights were possible without compromising on comfort- the general perception is that 'gramme counters' go light at the expense of comfort and that base weights as small as claimed can only be achieved by going without. The itemised kit list gives a known starting point.
Hi Jake. It's perfectly possible to be comfortable with a light load. I use 2 lightweight tents (i also use tarps and bivvy's) for backpacking. A Laserlite at about 1.1 kg all in, and a Tarp Tent Contrail at 700g. I have recently got a Golite Hex 3, which weighs around 1kg all in, for a 2/3 man shelter. I have 2 lightweight backpacking sacks that i use regularly, depending on length of trek, time of year etc. A Mountain Laurel Designs Zip/Exodus, around 350g, and a ULA Conduit, around 600g. I use a Rab Quantum Endurance 250 sleeping bag (680g) for most of the year, and add insulating clothes when needed. I have recently purchased a Nunatak Arc Specialist sleeping quilt (525g) and intend to use that year round, adding clothes when needed. For sleeping on i use various mats, depending on conditions. I often use a Gossamer Gear torso pad weighing 86g. My lightest inflatable mat is the Montbell UL 90 weighing 286g. I often use the Montbell UL pillow weighing 74g.
So my lightest comfortable 'tent/backpack/sleeping bag/ sleeping mat' combo is around 1.6kg.
There is a huge range of cooking stoves/systems. I am using a Caldera Cone meths stove just now. My complete 'kitchen' weighs 286g. Thats the stove, windshield, pot-cozy,measuring cup and MSR Titan pot/mug. Oh, and 2g for a couple of disposable plastic spoons.
So thats around 1.9kg for everything to keep me fed, warm and sheltered at night. I use a rubble sack as a pack liner, and keep everything 'water sensitive' in sil-nylon stuff-sacks. Map, compass, torch and other bits and bobs will add on maybe another 500g. Add on whatever clothing YOU need. At this time of year i carry a Haglofs LIM jacket and Montane Atomic pants as my rain-wear. A spare pair of pants/socks, windproof, a merino beanie and a spare insulating layer, are the only extra clothes i carry in summer.
My base weight (excluding food, water and fuel) would be around the 2.5- 3kg mark for this comfortable set-up. This is a backpacking set-up and i use different set-ups for overnighters and 'base-camp' jaunts.
It's a great consolation to me, when I look at the amount of junk a lot of people carry, to know that I've easily saved the 3 kilo weight penalty in other ways.
I look at some of these huge packs that people carry, and wonder what could possibly be in them! I've always carried very little, starting when i was a kid. We used to go fishing in hill lochs with 2 bin-bags as our night shelter/sleeping bad. My idea of luxury is very simple.
I met a Dutch couple a few years ago on the Kerry Way. The girl had a small daysack, but the guys pack was huge. I got speaking to them in a pub at night. We had camped at the same spot the night before and left at the same time the next morning. They got to the pub about 4 hours after me and the poor guy was dead on his feet. It turned out it was his girlfriends first camping trip, and the only way he could get her to do it, was if he carried a few 'necessities' for her. In his pack was a hairdryer, curling tongs, travel iron, the list goes on. I kid you not! I guess his pack must have weighed over 30kg!
The Kerry Way attracts a peculiar type of backpacker. I saw five Americans on the route, four guys and a woman, and they were lugging a guitar along the route. I kept tabs on them over the next few days, and every time I saw them, there was one less person in the group. I suspect that they hadn't packed any food and had resorted to cannibalism!
Well, brothers (and sisters) the rucksack and indeed, wallet, are lighter.
I've managed to take just over 5kg off the weight of my pack, which was previously c.17kg. This weight included food, fuel and water. Excluding these, I'm now down to a base weight of c.9kg.
I can't tell you how much of a difference this makes. Before, I struggled to get the pack onto my hip to shoulder it. My wife couldn't even lift it (and she is fit, for a chick). Now, the pack feels like a pack and not a burden.
Here's how I did it:
Biggest weight saving was the rucksack (sorry to disappoint you, it wasn't the tent as I already have an Akto). I replaced my Berghaus C7 65L with a Gregory Z55 - 1kg saved. I've never been happpy with the idea of ultra-light rucksacks - surely it's like having a huge supermarket carrier bag on your back?
The next biggest saving was the sleeping bag. My ME Dreamcatcher 500 (lovely bag) weighed 1.33kg. The Cumulus Quantum 350 weighs 0.67kg.
The remaining reductions were comparatively minor in themselves but there were some surprises. I had no idea that my Camebak Unbottle was so heavy (320g). An uninsulated bladder saves 200g. My Primus Antigravity stove was usurped by a Coleman F1 Lite, saving 265g. The aluminium mess tins and thermal mug were replaced with an MSR kettle and mug - 373g lighter. For food, I used to carry a 24-hr ration pack; this weighed 1.6kg and the weight can easily be halved by incorporating some dehydrated stuff.
Some of the weight savings were cheaper than others. The Z pack cost £120 so that was £12 per 100g saved. The sleeping bag was £32 per 100g saved. You might want to run your own numbers to set priorities when replacing kit. I spent about £500 on upgrades but lightweight kit is not cheap and you will feel the benefit on your back each day of walking.
I now have a pack weight that I'm happy with. It's not the lightest by any means but for me it represents a compromise between comfort and weight that I'm happy with.
I have had to give up some things that I liked; pack side pockets, ME Dreamcatcher, MoD sausage & beans etc. but I can work around these. There are also some items that I don't want to give up (or at least not yet) like my Exped Downmat and the Akto footprint because the comfort is worth is worth the extra weight.
Overall, it's been a hugely useful exercise. I tend to forget that, as a backpacker, I spend more time carrying stuff than actually using it.
Many thanks to you all for the advice on this thread.
Hey Jake, that sounds like a really sensible set of weight savings. I'm glad you found ways to make such a difference, but also chose to draw your own line on where your comforts and trade-offs meet. Well done, enjoy the lighter load.....
thanks for the update jake. it's been most interesting, especially from a kit upgrade/new purchase perspective.
it may be difficult to isolate, but what would you say you found to be the best single item you changed i.e. with hindsight, what order would you have upgraded?
getting to what is comfy for you is what its all about
I have recently managed to get my overnighter baseweight for summer to 5Kg...not at light as Mike's but I have come to accept that I really do like my Exped down mat even though it is close on 1kg
Jake, email me at jamiebassnett at hotmail.com and i'll send you copy of my kitlist weights. - Wrote Jamie.
Hey Jamie, I'd love to see that all too please if possible. Could you put that info onto the thread here at all, as I reckon it might well really help out lots of other interested folks a good deal, I think.
it may be difficult to isolate, but what would you say you found to be the best single item you changed i.e. with hindsight, what order would you have upgraded?
Tricky one, Parky. Probably the rucksack as it was the largest weight saving. However, I was going from a 65L bag to one of 55L and could not have got my previous kit into it, so the upgrade really had to be done as a package. A lot of the new stuff is not just lighter but takes up less room as well. The Cumulus sleeping bag packs down to an incredibly small size.
