Light Weight Backpacking Gear Kit
How light is ultra light?
Have you ever wondered just how little your gear could actually weigh when backcountry hiking - whilst still carrying everything you need for safety, sleeping, cooking and all your other necessities?
There are a lot of good reasons to get some of that load off your back. In no particular order: age, injury, fitness, the desire to go further or faster, a physically smaller or lighter hiker, children in tow, and many others are all excellent reasons why you might want to consider going a bit lighter.
The generally accepted maximum load that anyone should carry for an extended period without potentially causing long term damage to their body is approximately 30% of lean body weight for males, and 25% for females and minors.
In some cases, that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for those ‘extras’ that you might want to carry (hiking is supposed to be fun, after all).
Would you be happy if the gear you had to carry in was 20 lbs? 15 lbs? 10 lbs?
How about 9 lbs (4.2 kg) at base weight for all of your gear? (That means your basic gear without food and water.)
If you’re in groups of two or three you can share a great deal of your gear as well, which goes a long way toward making major weight efficiencies.
5 or 10 pounds may not sound like much when you’re carrying in a bag of flour from the car, but when on a multi-day adventure with elevation gain, each pound can feel like a mountain of difference. If you’re a backpacker you are well aware of this!
Here is the full list of our instructional kit – though, obviously, not all of these items will be right for everyone – ultimately it always depends on what you’re doing with your gear and where you are going as to what will be ‘right’ for you.
It’s important to note that we can go significantly lighter than this by going into specialty gear. This set is intended only to educate and to give everyone an idea of what is actually possible without making any safety decisions based on weight.
| Description | Item | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Backpack | Montane Naukan 60 Litre Ultralight Backpack | 900 g |
| Sleeping System | Western Mountaineering Astralite Extremelite Sleeping Quilt | 454 g |
| Exped Ultra 3R Mummy Sleeping Mat | 365 g | |
| Exped Lite Air Pillow | 65 g | |
| Tent | Big Agnes Tiger Wall Platinum 2 Person Tent | 1020 g |
| Cooking System | Optimus Crux Stove | 83 g |
| MSR Titan Kettle | 118 g | |
| Sea to Summit Titanium Spoon | 19 g | |
| Jetboil 100 g Fuel Canister | 200 g | |
| Katadyne Be Free Water Filter - 1 L | 56 g | |
| Vapur Eclipse Collapsible Bottle - 1L | 37 g | |
| First Aid | Rocky Mountain Adventure Medicine Mini Dave First Aid Kit | 160 g |
| Clothing | Rab Phantom Pull On Rain Jacket | 90 g |
| Rab Kaon Down Jacket | 250 g | |
| Rab Downpour Rain Pants | 220 g | |
| Navigation | Suunto Expedition Compass | 50 g |
Total Weight: 9 lb* (4.2 kg)
* This does not include food and water.
If you’re interested in more information, feel free to contact us at the store, or come in to chat about how this might benefit you.
