I backpack with my wife, and our 14-month-old son. This means she carries him in a (8lb heavy) backpack carrier, whose cargo room holds his necessities (diapers, clothing, etc.), while I end up carrying all the gear for two adults, along with food. We both have water bladders.
Well, with winter backpacking necessitating more and heavier gear, my pack size and weight have grown to epic proportions. I am really looking forward two lightening my load in the spring, and it got me wondering just how far we can shave things down.
Be warned, the following recent pictures of our packs may cause blindness to gram weanies:
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Combined weight we carried for our last trip? 130lbs!
Haha, well anyways...let's move along. When we're not planning for winter, I think there's some ways we can lighten up considerably:
* No snowshoes or microspikes, lighter footwear
* No midlayer clothing
* 3-season tent
* Thinner/lighter sleeping quilt
* Only one set of CCF pads, or ditch them entirely in favor of air mattresses (while I don't like the idea of air mattress failure, it's less critical if it happens outside of winter cold, and worst case we can squeeze together onto one temporarily)
* Less cookware, and less comfort items in general that we don't really need if focused on hiking miles over all else
Of course, we are stuck with a 25-30lb child to carry. Our Deuter Kid Comfort 3 weighs 7lb 11oz, and it doesn't seem there are really any lighter options on the market without sacrificing cargo capacity or something else important (other carriers in the same class include the Osprey Poco Premium and Kelty Pathfinder 3.0). Another option is to use a soft structured carrier like an Ergobaby on the front, and a backpack on the back. This doesn't really seem to work out so well in practice though, since the straps conflict and the two things don't really work together well. Just for kicks, last night we packed full a Sea-to-Summit Ultra-Sil day pack and put that on in conjunction with the lightest structured carrier we could find, the Bitybean Tomato:
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Obviously this isn't backpacking-worthy gear, but it was an interesting experiment as it was surprising what all we could cram into the 20L pack. Stuffed in there is a tent that will fit us, 12 tent pegs; our baselayers, hats, jackets, and extra socks; a wood stove, cookware and spoons; 2 headlamps; our hygiene kit; rain gear; gear repair supplies, and some other necessities. The only notable exception was a sleeping quilt, and of course food, water, and baby supplies. It was enlightening to see just how small our essentials could pack up. If we replaced our CCF pads with XLites to reduce bulk, and got a lighter sleeping bag for 3-season use, I think fitting everything into twice the space may be feasible. Of course, we'd need a more sturdy pack but if we didn't need to carry the baby in it, it could be a 5 pounds lighter than the carrier. I previously had tried out a Vargo Ti-Arc pack, which seemed nice for a 30lb load, the ZPacks Arc Haul is another option that advertises ability to carry an extra 10lbs.
The main problems I see with carrying the baby in the front are:
* Conflicts between the backpack and the carrier, since they are not made to work together or be worn simultaneously
* No ventilation between the person carrying the baby and the baby, making for some sweaty hot times
* Possibly difficult to navigate on the trail with impaired visibility of where you are going to step
For the first, I wonder if a design concept similar to an Aarn pack would work. Not sure how to deal with the second or third problems.
But if something were possible, we could stand to reduce our overall weight by rather a lot, and when we have a second baby to carry and each have to carry one, this sort of arrangement seems preferable to two heavily-laden and overpacked frame backpack child carriers. Curious to hear any comments or suggestions - I'm happy to entertain any ideas!
Originally Posted by Brewguy
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The one thing I do miss about our freestanding tent that we sold was the ability to pick the whole thing up and shake out any dirt easily.
