lightening my load

[jeremesh]

I've tried for an hour now to get this thing to line up properly and I give up...

So I bought a scale last night and proceeded to weigh all my gear to find out how much I really have been carrying. It's not as bad as I thought it was. Also with a few recent purchases, my next trip will be a bit lighter than the last.

Ok, I know that this list is still going to be way heavier than a lot of you folks would consider taking but I am rarely out for more than a day or two.



Pack
White Mountain Backpack 100.7
Pack Cover 4.4
Pack Cover Sack 1.9
Sleep
Exped Synmat DLX 9 42.3
North Face Big Horn Sleeping Bag 64.4
Shelter
Clark Hammock 51.4
Clark Tarp 16.3
Electronics
DeLorme GPS w/Batteries 7.2
Samsung Captivate Phone w/bodyglove 5.3
Sony Cybershot 6.5
Energizer AAA Battery x 6 2.4
Energizer AA Battery x 6 4.8
Princeton Tec Remix Head Lamp w/batteries x2 6
Timex Temperature Watch 1.5
Cooking
Jetboil Cook Kit (towel/spork/sac) 23.8
Hydration
REI Camelback 24oz bottle 5.4
Nalgene 1 Liter (32 oz) bottle 2.1
Water Purification
Iodine tablets 1.1
Steripen Pre-filter 2.4
Steripen w/case & batteries 5.5
Clothes
Eddie Baur Down Coat 27.3
Mountain Hardware Wind Stopper hat 2
Serius weatherproof gloves 2.7
Fleece Balaclava 1.9
Blue Bandana Cap 0.6
REI Mid Merino wool socks 1.9
Tarramar Body Sensors Long Sleeve Top 6.1
Fleece Bottoms 7.3
Orange Bandana 1
Rain Gear
Blue Poncho 8.4
Hygien
toilet paper 1.2
wisp toothbrush 0.1
Other
First Aid Kit 9.1
Grabber Hand Warmer two Pack x 5 8.5
Silva Compass 1.1
Sog Field Pup Knife w/case 7.2
Black Carabiner 0.7
Green Carabiner 0.5
Orange Carabiner 0.7
Paracord x 50' 2.7
Gerber retractable wood saw 3.4
waterproof matches 0.4
Silnylon 3.1
Leki Summit Trekking Poles 17.8

TOTAL 29.45 lbs

My next outing will look like this:

Pack
Osprey Atmos 65 Backpack 60.1
Pack Cover 4.4
Sleep
Exped Synmat DLX 9 42.3
Marmot Helium EQ Sleeping Bag 24
Adventure Medical Kits Emergency Bivy 4
Shelter
Clark Hammock 51.4
Clark Tarp 16.3
MSR Groundhog Tent Stakes x6 3.6
Electronics
DeLorme GPS w/Batteries 7.2
Samsung Captivate Phone w/bodyglove 5.3
Sony Cybershot 6.5
Energizer AAA Battery x6 2.4
Energizer AA Battery x6 4.8
Princeton Tec Remix Head Lamp w/batteries x2 6
Suunto Watch 1.7
Suunto Heart Rate Monitor 2.1
Thermometer 3.2
Cooking
Jetboil Cook Kit (spork/towell) 23.8
Hydration
REI Camelback 24oz bottle 5.4
Nalgene 1 Liter (32 oz) bottle 2.1
Water Purification
Steripen Pre-filter 2.4
Steripen w/case & batteries 5.5
Clothes
Eddie Baur Down Coat 27.3
Mountain Hardware Wind Stopper hat 2
Serius weatherproof gloves 2.7
Fleece Balaclava 1.9
REI Mid Merino wool socks 1.9
Tarramar Body Sensors Long Sleeve Top 6.1
Fleece Bottoms 7.3
Orange Bandana 1
REI Fleece Top 16
Rain Gear
Blue Poncho 8.4
Hygien
toilet paper 1.2
wisp toothbrush 0.1
Other
First Aid Kit 9.1
Grabber Hand Warmer two Pack 3 5.1
Silva Compass 1.1
Sog Field Pup Knife w/case 7.2
Black Carabiner 0.7
Green Carabiner 0.5
Orange Carabiner 0.7
Paracord x 50' 2.7
Leki Summit Trekking Poles 17.8

TOTAL 25.33

I definitely need to lighten up my first aid kit, I just take an adventure medical kit that I have. I could also find a lighter poncho. In colder weather though, I may switch out the poncho for some much heavier frog toggs. I'm not trying to go ultralite, just lighter.

[grayfox]

Your list is not big time over weight on anything. Take what you need to feel comfortable. As you get more experience, you will be comfortable taking less stuff.

Start to think about how you use what you take. When you get home make a pile of everything that you did not use and consider leaving those things at home next time if they are not your emergency or first aid gear.

Think about double uses for things. Will your poncho make a good rain cover for your hammock? Can you get by with only your poncho for a shelter? Do you need to cook or can you just use picnic foods for your next trip? If you are only out for a night or two, you can be adventurous and leave lots of stuff at home--try one item at a time at first and push the envelope a bit.

You can lighten up, but take what you want and have fun. There is no need to try to live up to somebody else's idea of what you need. Like, I would say, 'Do you really need three carbiners?' Well, maybe you do.

Check to see if you can find electronics that all use the same size batteries. And for a day or two you should not need to carry spares with you. If all your stuff uses the same size, you can rob one thing to power anything else that is low on power. Get a small battery tester to use at home so you can make sure that the ones you pack are fully charged when you start out.

[leaftye]

Energizer AAA Battery x6 2.4
Energizer AA Battery x6 4.8
What's with all the batteries? All these batteries could keep your electronics running nonstop for days, but you said you're only out for a day or two.


Suunto Watch 1.7
Suunto Heart Rate Monitor 2.1
Thermometer 3.2
Silva Compass 1.1
Isn't the Suunto also a thermometer and compass? Isn't the Delorme also a compass? Are you hiking in a place so utterly remote that you need 3 compasses? Is so, where are all your plastic maps?


REI Camelback 24oz bottle 5.4
Nalgene 1 Liter (32 oz) bottle 2.1

Disposable water bottles are much lighter. Cheap too.


Black Carabiner 0.7
Green Carabiner 0.5
Orange Carabiner 0.7
Paracord x 50' 2.7

Are the biners for your hammock? If not, use some of that paracord instead of biners.




Those are just little things, but this is along the lines of how you should be thinking.

[jeremesh]

What's with all the batteries? All these batteries could keep your electronics running nonstop for days, but you said you're only out for a day or two.
Paranoia?? I've had batteries die on me at the worst time so suck up the extra weight to have extra batteries just in case... I know, overkill.



Isn't the Suunto also a thermometer and compass? Isn't the Delorme also a compass? Are you hiking in a place so utterly remote that you need 3 compasses? Is so, where are all your plastic maps?
My Suunto is just a heart rate monitor/watch. I'm a bit of a data junky. I dont carry the gps so I dont get lost, where I hike it would be pretty hard to get lost even if I tried. I take it so I have the distance, speed, elevation, etc. etc. that the gps gives me so I can look at it later. Same with the thermometer... I'm still dialing in my hammock/sleep system so I carry a small thermometer that wil measure inside (my bag) and outside(of the hammock) temperature... again, data junky.


Disposable water bottles are much lighter. Cheap too. I must admit that I was a bit shocked at the weight difference in my water bottles. I probably only need to carry one of them anyway instead of two... I think I will probably try going with just the one water bottle on my next trip.


Are the biners for your hammock? If not, use some of that paracord instead of biners. Biners are mostly for ease of effort (read laziness). Black one is used to hang my pack from my suspesion lines. Sometimes use one to clip my poles together to hang from suspension instead of just leaning them against a tree, if I dont want to put my food bag back in the pack for the last mile or two I will just clip it to the outside of the bag... I'm sure they could be done away with.


I appreciate the input.

[Rocket Jones]

Biners are mostly for ease of effort (read laziness). Black one is used to hang my pack from my suspesion lines. Sometimes use one to clip my poles together to hang from suspension instead of just leaning them against a tree, if I dont want to put my food bag back in the pack for the last mile or two I will just clip it to the outside of the bag... I'm sure they could be done away with.

Mini-biners. .1 oz each.

[skinewmexico]

If you're taking a phone anyway, download a GPS app (Endomondo, Everytrail) and remember to turn off the radio so the batteries don't get sucked dry looking for cell service (ask me how I know this!). Dasani bottles work great, as was mentioned before. The next place to lose a lot of weight is to dump the Jetboil. Get a Snowpeak Gigapower or Caldera Cone.

If you ever want to get real tricky, replace the Exped with a custom downmat from Bender at Kookabay.