Nothing special.
Good as extra-insurance against a saturated pack. I always pack my clothes inside a trash bag and sometimes my sleeping bag. A wet down bag is as useful as a glass hammer.
These also come in useful when hauling your food into trees, you can poke a hole in the bottom and have the bag cover your haul-pack, incase it rains in the night. No sense in getting your choclate bars all soggy now is there.
Invaluable.
I find grizzly bears to be a little loud once captured. Slap a 6 inch peice of duct tape over their mouths and you get a good nights sleep.
If you don't capture any bears, then you can always sleep well at night knowing whatever happens to your gear – there's a way to fix it with Duct Tape.
I simply take a big old length and wrap it around my hiking poles. That way I know where it is when I need it.
Duh! A map.
Kind of handy, to find where you are and where you should be.
Before I leave I usually do a little trail research from trails.com and then print my own map and trail notes onto a single sheet of paper. Sometimes I take a store-bought map, but if I do, I trim off all the unecessary edges.
View maps online at www.trails.com.
It's a hood for mozzies.
In the early season of summer, the mozzies can be nasty. Nothing spoils a good yomp in wet soggy old growth like being eaten alive by little critters. On a recent trip to Rampart lakes, I received over 200 bites on my back.
Backpacking light makes an amazing mozzie-net that is only 0.3 oz. This net is also amazingly clear to see through.
At 0.3 oz. it's a cheap insurance policy.
Available from Backpacking Light for $18 each.
Let there be light!
This headlamp weighs only 1.1 oz., and the battery lasts forever. A few times, we've have to hike out in the dark of night and been glad we had these things. Also useful for breaking camp early before the sun is up.
I always carry a spare battery in my first aid kit. I figure with 3 batteries between us, that should get us out of any sticky situations.
Available from REI for $19.95.
When backpacking, I take this tiny digital camera with me for snap shots.
It's a compromise for me. I'd rather be getting excellent shots with a digital SLR but a) it's hard to justify the weight and b) I find when I'm backpacking I don't want to be faffing around with all the setup needed to get those killer shots.
I went with the Optio as is only weighs 4.2 oz. and has a lot of features. It's a 5 megapixel camera, so has decent resolution and with a 512 mb SD card, I can take about 140 shots. Even with all the opening and closing of the lens, I have never drained a fully charged battery on a single trip.
You can't buy this camera anymore – it's a old model, I think the Pentax Optio 750z has replaced it (an 8 megapixel version), but the weight has gone up.
If you're in the market for a new ultralight camera, I'm sure there are better options at this point in time. Anyone care to suggest?
Read the digital photography review on the Pentax Optio S5i.
The sharpest most versatile knife on planet earth, and all for 0.6 oz. I'm really not kidding, this thing is amazingly sharp and useful for everything – from opening bags, cutting moleskin, slicing cheese to hollowing out tree trunks to make canoes.
My brother is really into knives and he told me about Spyderco. They have quite the selection, but this one works best for me.
Available from Spyderco for $15.
50' of spectra cord for 1.2 oz.. What is not to love?
Perfect for hanging food in trees away from bears, tying up captives or making a death-slide across the river.
I'm kidding about the death slide.
This spectra cord (actually not the one in the picture), is all white and flat vs. round. This makes it safer when hanging food in trees as it glides over limbs without 'sawing' into them.
The only trouble, I have with it is that when I use the PCT Method of hanging food, I find the clove-hitch really hard to undo once it's compressed around the twig overnight. I got a great tip from the backpacking light forums to either use a chopstick vs. a twig; or simply snap the twig at the clove hitch.
Available from Gossamer Gear for a staggering $29.
Ah yes… the umbrella. Now you think I'm completely insane.
This was one of the bigger leaps for me into Ultralight. Now that I've weathered a few rain storms with my brolly, I'm utterly sold. It weighs only 5.6 oz., yet is one of the most versatile pieces of rain gear I own. Down pours bounce off the brolly as you hike along. Cooking in the rain and setting up camp is easy with the shelter of an umbrella.
You have to be confident enough to stave off the weird looks you'll get on the trail, but the rewards are worth it.
The one downside for me, is I have to stow my poles when using the umbrella. Small price to pay.
Available from Back Country Gear for $35. Sell your fancy $400 gortex jacket on ebay.
It's a towel, it weighs a respectible 0.7 oz.. Don't forget to cut off the useless black tag. Doesn't help you dry and counts for weight.
Handy for washing, drying feet after stream crossings and mopping condensation off the tent walls.
Towel from REI for $9.95.
Looks like just another water carrier, huh? Not so… This little dude carries 2 liters and packs in at only 1.2 oz.. Significantly lighter than that Nalgene bag or worse the big plastic bottles.
We use this to carry spare water if we need it, and to treat our water. As we use a chemical treatment for purification, we fill this bag up in a lake or stream, drop a few MicroPUR tabs in, wait 30 minutes and are good to go.
It can also be filled with air at night and double as a pillow, and on particularly cold nights, you can heat up some water on the stove, pour it back into this bag and take it to bed as a hot water bottle (Nice tip from Tim)
I also pack a platypatch in my first aid kit, just incase it ever springs a leak. Hasn't so far…
Water container from REI for $6.95.
After a few days in the wilderness you may get a little stinky. Dr. Bronners soap is a good way to get clean and if necessary help clean your dishes. It's environment friendly and bio degradable.
We use this soap very sparingly. As we eat freeze-dried meals, we almost never need it to clean pots and pans as our pans mostly heat water and hold the post-cooked food – so we never get stubborn burned bits.
Remember – never use soap directly in a stream or lake, even if it's bio degradable. Take a pan of water to a location at least 50' away from the water source and wash there instead.
We put our soap in these tiny little 0.3oz dropper bottles from Gossamer Gear. A 2-pack of bottles is only $3. With these bottles we can use just one-drop at a time, which is more than enough.
People say you can clean your teeth with this too, but I've never tried.
Soap from REI for $3.75.
Total weight, filled: 0.4oz
Variety is the spice of life, and you don't get a lot with Ultralight freeze dried meals.
We usually eat one freeze-dried meal each day for dinner between us, and they all need a little love to make them more edible.
We take a small 1/4 oz. container and fill it with ground sea salt, ground white pepper and dried red thai chilies. Each ingredient separated by a tiny amount of saran wrap to keep them from blending.
Armed with this little bag of punch we can fix any meal in any direction we want. Would never leave home without it.
Container from REI for 40•.
The Golite Either rocks. It weighs only 2.8 oz. (Small), pick it up and you can barely notice you're holding it. Combined with an ultralight umbrella, this rain jacket makes for a formidable rain protection system.
Yes… that's right, I said umbrella. My old goretex used to weigh a few pounds, in a down pour it would keep my dry in theory but my outside would get wet and saturated, and after a few thousand feet of climbing, my inside is hot and soaked with sweat. In short – I'd be miserable.
Last time I got caught in a down pour (We live in Seattle, it happens a LOT) on went the Helios, out came the brolly. I have never had such a pleasant experience trotting along in the rain, no sweat, no saturation and rain bouncing off to the sides.
Sadly, you can't buy the Helios anymore, Golite discontinued it. But Theresa this Ether windshirt, which is just as good.
The Golite Ether is Available from Amazon for $65.
The Golite Helios is godly. It weighs only 3.2 oz. (Medium), pick it up and you can barely notice you're holding it. Combined with an ultralight umbrella, this rain jacket makes for a formidable rain protection system.
Yes… that's right, I said umbrella. My old goretex used to weigh a few pounds, in a down pour it would keep my dry in theory but my outside would get wet and saturated, and after a few thousand feet of climbing, my inside is hot and soaked with sweat. In short – I'd be miserable.
Last time I got caught in a down pour (We live in Seattle, it happens a LOT) on went the Helios, out came the brolly. I have never had such a pleasant experience trotting along in the rain, no sweat, no saturation and rain bouncing off to the sides.
Sadly, you can't buy the Helios anymore, Golite discontinued it. But Theresa has the Ether windshirt, which is almost as good.
The alternative, Golite Ether is Available from Amazon for $65.
A true ultralight enthusiast would be sleeping on a bed of dander and leaves in the forest.
However, I like a good nights sleep, and this thermarest does it for me.
Granted, a little bit of a luxury at a whopping 13.1 oz. Get the short 3/4 length model – you really don't need anything longer – just drop your pack at the bottom for your feet to rest on.
Available from Amazon for $67.
This is the ultralight tent of choice for two in my mind.
It's an incredibly light 38 oz., and goes together in a breeze.
The quality and workmanship is excellent in this tent, and I love that I am buying a tent from a passionate backpacker in California who decided to start sewing his own one day, than handing over my hard earned cash to the pockets of a big company like Mountain Hardware or REI.
This is a "Tarptent" – it's a compromise between a regular tent and sleeping under a tarp. It has a waterproof floor and bug netting all around, so little critters can't get in at night.
The only downside for me so far of this tent, is that as it's a single-wall tent, depending on the dewpoint you can get condensation on the inside. It's not a problem until you bump your head on the top and it starts dripping.
Available direct from TarpTent for $225.
It's not the lightest pack around, but its very close and has some extra features that I feel are worth the weight.
First, a little history… the origin of ultralight packs started with good old Ray Jardine. In his book, Beyond Backpacking he describes a light weight pack system. How to pack it to be stable and how to sew your own! Fortunatley, some commercial guys got involved and decided to pre-build them for consumers. Golite are one of the mainstream makers of ultralight packs. Six Moon Designs have some interesting ones also.
Golite used to make a pack called the Breeze that was a replica of the one in Rays Book. I have this pack also, and it's amazing light at only 14 oz. However, I was unable to get one for Theresa as they are no longer made (Ray and Golite had a "falling out"), and so settled for a Jam.
On our first outing together with both the Jam and the Breeze I was a little envious of some of the features. Most notably:
An off-the-shelf Jam weighs in at 22 oz, which is still incredibly light. I have modified my size medium by removing the inner water pouch, removing the backpad and reducing unecessary straps – it's now down to 19oz. The backpad I don't miss as my thermarest doubles as this quite well, and the pouch I found to be more awkward than useful – the slits are the most valuable part.
Available from Amazon for $79.
We started with the 3pc panset and tossed out the small pan. The large one holds two cups which is a about perfect for boiling water to dump into a freeze dried meal. It's also pefect for holding a bowl of granola, or making a cup of coffee in. Cups are for traditionalists!
Pan and lid weighs in at 5 oz.
Now, you could argue that two lids are redundant. But they come in handy as chopping boards, prep-area and if you need to keep two pots warm at once. So I take the extra 1.5 oz. hit.
The set is available from Amazon for $34.
It's a fork. Or a Spoon. Wait, no… it's a fork, I mean a spoon.
Whatever, it's $8 and light as hell at 0.6 oz.
No backpacker should be alone in the wilderness without a Spork.
Available from good old Amazon for $8.