Trying to cut weight, w/ gear list

[Bugman88]

Hi All,

I've been slowly trying to cut pounds from my pack and I finally bit the bullet and spent an afternoon weighing nearly every little (and not-so-little) thing that goes on my back. Tallying everything up, I have ~20lb base weight. I don't want to buy too much all at once, so I'm looking at easy ways to cut weight. I think a good first target should be about 15lbs base weight. First thing I see, right off the bat, is a new backpack and sleeping bag. However, I don't want to get a new pack until I've tried cutting down enough weight, that way I know how light/small I can go. I'm contemplating buying an Enlightened Equipment Revelation 20 as a replacement for my sleeping bag. Here's the list:

Category	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)
Big 4	199	12.4
Cooking/water	19.46	1.2
Clothes (packed)	62.62	3.9
Misc	36.63	2.3
Total	317.71	19.9
Category	Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Big 4	Backpack*	77	4.81	EMS Long Trail 70
Sleeping bag*	62	3.88	Marmot Trestles 15
Tent	47	2.94	Tarptent Double Rainbow
Sleeping pad	13	0.81	Z Rest
	Total	199	12.44
Category	Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Cooking/Water	Stove	0.56	0.04	Starlyte alcohol stove
Windscreen	1.3	0.08	caldera cone ti tri
Fuel bottle (empty)	0.72	0.05	Tall, contains 5.5oz?
Pot	4.76	0.30	Evernew 0.9L titanium
Stakes	0.44	0.03	Stakes to hold pot up
Cozy	1.08	0.07	Antigravity gear
Stuff sack	0.58	0.04
Water bladder (empty)	5.96	0.37	Platypus 2L big zip, with filter fittings
32oz gatorade (empty)
filter	2.96	0.19	Sawyer squeeze (in-line)
lighter	0.74	0.05	Bic
spork	0.36	0.02	light my fire
	Total	19.46	1.22
Category	Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Clothing (stored)	Spare shirt	4.22	0.26	EMS Techwick, Medium, polyester
light sock 1	1.98	0.12	?
heavy sock	3.8	0.24	wigwam
Merino pants	5.22	0.33	icebreaker, bodyfit 200, Medium
Shorts	5.42	0.34	?
Rain jacket	11.46	0.72	EMS (marmot precip ordered and on the way)
half zip	8.88	0.56	Mountain hardware
puffy coat	12.24	0.77	Northface thermoball
Hat (sun)	3.02	0.19	baseball hat
hat (cold)	2.12	0.13	northface
Gloves	1.36	0.09	northface
extra underwear	2.9	0.18	underarmor
	Total	62.62	3.91
Category	Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Clothing (worn)	Shirt	5.40	0.34
Light sock	2.08	0.13
Zipoffs	10.54	0.66
Button down	8.08	0.51
Boots		0.00
Underwear	2.2	0.14
Hiking Poles		0.00
	Total	28.30	1.77
Category	Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Misc	Headlamp	3.3	0.21
Watch	1.22	0.08
Bandana
Cash/ID/credit card
Phone + charger
Pillow	3.18	0.20
Fire starter	1.02	0.06
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
purell	2	0.13
knife	2.86	0.18
compass	1.06	0.07
rain cover	4.26	0.27
stuff/compression sacks	11.74	0.73	3 containers: medium sea to summit compression, 20L waterproof sea to summit, medium cordura sea to summit compression
Sunscreen	1	0.06
bugspray	1.25	0.08
earplugs
first aid
toilet paper
paracord	3.74	0.23
	Total	36.63	2.29

[Bugman88]

Wow, that didn't format well at all. I don't think I can edit a previous post, so hopefully this will post better.

Category	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)
Big 4	199	12.4
Cooking/water	19.46	1.2
Clothes (packed)	62.62	3.9
Misc	36.63	2.3
Total	317.71	19.9

Big 4:

Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Backpack*	77	4.81	EMS Long Trail 70
Sleeping bag*	62	3.88	Marmot Trestles 15
Tent	47	2.94	Tarptent Double Rainbow
Sleeping pad	13	0.81	Z Rest
Total	199	12.44

Cooking/Water:

Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Stove	0.56	0.04	Starlyte alcohol stove
Windscreen	1.3	0.08	caldera cone ti tri
Fuel bottle (empty)	0.72	0.05	Tall, contains 5.5oz?
Pot	4.76	0.30	Evernew 0.9L titanium
Stakes	0.44	0.03	Stakes to hold pot up
Cozy	1.08	0.07	Antigravity gear
Stuff sack	0.58	0.04
Water bladder (empty)	5.96	0.37	Platypus 2L big zip, with filter fittings
32oz gatorade (empty)
filter	2.96	0.19	Sawyer squeeze (in-line)
lighter	0.74	0.05	Bic
spork	0.36	0.02	light my fire
Total	19.46	1.22

Clothing (Stored):

Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Spare shirt	4.22	0.26	EMS Techwick, Medium, polyester
light sock 1	1.98	0.12	?
heavy sock	3.8	0.24	wigwam
Merino pants	5.22	0.33	icebreaker, bodyfit 200, Medium
Shorts	5.42	0.34	?
Rain jacket	11.46	0.72	EMS (marmot precip ordered and on the way)
half zip	8.88	0.56	Mountain hardware
puffy coat	12.24	0.77	Northface thermoball
Hat (sun)	3.02	0.19	baseball hat
hat (cold)	2.12	0.13	northface
Gloves	1.36	0.09	northface
extra underwear	2.9	0.18	underarmor
Total	62.62	3.91

Clothing (Worn):

Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)
Shirt	5.40	0.34
Light sock	2.08	0.13
Zipoffs	10.54	0.66
Button down	8.08	0.51
Boots
Underwear	2.2	0.14
Hiking Poles
Total	28.30	1.77

Misc:

Item	Weight (oz)	Weight (lb)	Details
Headlamp	3.3	0.21
Watch	1.22	0.08
Bandana
Cash/ID/credit card
Phone + charger
Pillow	3.18	0.20
Fire starter	1.02	0.06
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
purell	2	0.13
knife	2.86	0.18
compass	1.06	0.07
rain cover	4.26	0.27
stuff/compression sacks	11.74	0.73	3 containers: medium sea to summit compression, 20L waterproof sea to summit, medium cordura sea to summit compression
Sunscreen	1	0.06
bugspray	1.25	0.08
earplugs
first aid
toilet paper
paracord	3.74	0.23
Total	36.63	2.29

[soumodeler]

Good call on waiting to get the pack last after you have minimized your gear. Then you will know exactly what size to get to fit your gear without buying one too big or too small.

Looking at you list, I don't see any obvious standouts other than the sleeping bag and pack. Those will be the 2 easiest to reduce weight without spending a ton of money. Everything else I see is average weights, where you could spend a good deal of money to replace with lighter equivalents, for not much overall pack weight loss. Shooting for a sub 2 pound sleeping bag and then a sub 3 pound pack will give you the biggest payoffs.

[dudeijuststarted]

consider ditching:

first aid, knife, firestarter (you have a bic), either sunscreen or bugspray depending on the weather. Otherwise that's a pretty dialed in pack and if you get the backpack and sleeping bag down you'll really be cruising.

[soumodeler]

consider ditching:

first aid, knife, firestarter (you have a bic), either sunscreen or bugspray depending on the weather. Otherwise that's a pretty dialed in pack and if you get the backpack and sleeping bag down you'll really be cruising.

If nothing else, cut back on size/quantity of the above items.

[Odd Man Out]

TT Notch = 27 oz (what I have)
Elemental Hoizons Kalais = 32 oz (what I have)
Your EE Quilt = 22 oz (similar to what I have)
Total = 81 oz or 5.1 lbs
Current for tent, pack, and bag = 186 oz or 11.6 lbs
Saving of 6.5 lbs

For long distance hiking, a larger alcohol bottle might be nice. Seems like you could cut back on your compression sacks. I use a 13 gallon Base Camp odor barrier bag as a pack liner. The quilt and clothes get stuffed in there. The clothes get packed in a plastic grocery bag just to keep them together in the tent at night. I have a Zpacks Cuben Fiber food bag for food. All the small miscellaneous stuff goes in a small zip lock baggie. Finally I have a small Cuben Fiber bag for toiletries.

[HooKooDooKu]

Ditch the Watch.
What do you need a watch for in the back country if you are carrying a phone that can be used for those times you need to know... the 'time'?

Ditch the Fire Starter.
If this is for a weekend and you want the fire starter as a luxury item. I can understand it. But on a thru hike, I don't see 1 once of fire starter being enough to help build many fires. And if you find yourself in a position where you NEED to build a fire quickly, couldn't you use your stove fuel as a fire starter?

Rain Cover: Will you save some weight if you replace that with a pack liner? (Especially since you can use a trash compactor bag can be used as a pack liner)?

What style stove are you using? You could drop the stakes used to hold the pot if you go with a cat-can stove design where you place the pot on the stove directly.

If you're 2L water bladder is for 'dirty water', replace that and all its fittings with a 2L Evernew bladder. First of all, the platypus doesn't properly mate directly to a sawyer because platypus used a unique thread pitch. Sawyer and Evernew both use a 'standard' thread pitch used on most plastic bottles.

[left52side]

Six Moon Designs had there last years fusion 65 pack on sale for 110.00 ...
at 29 ounces that would cut quite a bit of weight right there at a minimal investment.
And as mentioned the sleeping bag you obviously know there are alot lighter options available,if not wanting to spend alot of money on new sleeping bag there are several listed on the selling used gear page right now that could be a minimal investment and shed quite a bit of weight.
I think the precip jacket will save you a few ounces that you have ordered as well.
The fire starter can go if you already have a bic,get two mini bics weighs the same as one large and can put up for spare incase.

[Odd Man Out]

A few people have suggested you don't need the fire starter. I carry a small container of Vaseline in my FAK as a general purpose ointment. Also doubles as a fire starter. Click here to learn how in this WB classic.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...etroleum-jelly

[earlyriser26]

Since I just bought a new Knife for hiking, I would use the smallest Buck knife made. Single blade and weighs less than 1 oz.

[Bugman88]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I bit the bullet and bought the Enlightened Equipment quilt, so that right there is a savings of about 2.5lbs. Next up is a new backpack! I'm surprised no one suggested getting rid of some of the extra clothes. I guess I'll have to reevaluate all those miscellaneous items to figure out their usefulness and see if I can cut down. Thanks again!

[colorado_rob]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I bit the bullet and bought the Enlightened Equipment quilt, so that right there is a savings of about 2.5lbs. Next up is a new backpack! I'm surprised no one suggested getting rid of some of the extra clothes. I guess I'll have to reevaluate all those miscellaneous items to figure out their usefulness and see if I can cut down. Thanks again!

I'll bite on the clothing thing... you don't mention where you'll be hiking, but if on the AT, that really is probably too much of a down jacket. And it does seem like you do have too many basic clothes.

But really, now that you've dumped the heavy sleeping bag (was it synthetic or something?), the pack is the biggie. I disagree with those that say you have to wait for everything else before buying. Just get a solid but lightweight 50-ish liter pack and you'll be set. No way anyone with any desire to be lightweight hiking the AT in April-October needs any more than 50-55 liters, and less than 50 has diminishing returns, no real weight savings for, say, 40 liters. Check out a ULA circuit or something like that (I use the OHM, but my base is much lighter, 10-12 or so, I suggest the circuit for 14-20 pound base weights).

[DuneElliot]

As someone else mentioned, Six Moon Designs has their older design packs on sale for $100 (50L) and $110 (65L). Almost all reviews of these packs has been favorable and you really can't beat them for that price and weight.

[Stevep311]

I know it's small but there are lighter options than paracord. Mason string is a good alternative.

[Stevep311]

There are also much lighter rain jackets available saving you 1/3 of a pound.

[Dogwood]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I bit the bullet and bought the Enlightened Equipment quilt, so that right there is a savings of about 2.5lbs. Next up is a new backpack! I'm surprised no one suggested getting rid of some of the extra clothes. I guess I'll have to reevaluate all those miscellaneous items to figure out their usefulness and see if I can cut down. Thanks again!

One doesn't always have to wait until last to buy a backpack. One can get a ballpark feel for their volume and pack feature needs and if wanting a one pack does it all buy a pack that can carry different wts and volumes that has an expandable/contractable volume feature and/or removable suspensions. One pack with a wide range of applicability and features that are compartmentalized is more versatile.

[DuneElliot]

If you're 2L water bladder is for 'dirty water', replace that and all its fittings with a 2L Evernew bladder. First of all, the platypus doesn't properly mate directly to a sawyer because platypus used a unique thread pitch. Sawyer and Evernew both use a 'standard' thread pitch used on most plastic bottles.

I had to add a thanks for this. I was just about to bite the bullet on a Platypus bladder. I'll now be adding a couple of Evernew bladders to my gear...the reviews seem really good too.

[Christoph]

Just some thoughts: I'd ditch the watch. The cell phone will do. Fire starter (I carry 2 small bic's), Pillow (use a stuff sack and a few clothes or your pack), Baseball hat (when it gets wet, it'll be pretty heavy), Compass and maybe the knife as well (I just carried 2 razor blades to open packages with and cut sausage, etc...). Make sure you're shirts are 100% poly because cotton blends will soak up sweat and any humidity and be heavier (not to mention cotton holds the stink better). Not sure how much that'll save but maybe that'll help.

[poolskaterx]

Not the cheapest way but, Cuben pack is very light and does not need a rain cover, add a cuben pack liner and you are near certain to keep your gear dry and also is one of the very lightest options. 4oz for a rain cover seems pretty heavy unless you figure how heavy your pack will be if it absorbs water... looks like you have your gear pretty well figured out, nicely done.