Hi all. I’m going to SOBO starting the first week in August and hope to finish up by December 31st. I'm finalizing my gear prep right now, and here’s what I plan on bringing with me:
http://lighterpack.com/r/1w5ccz
Since I didn’t subtract things I’m wearing from this list, my base weight will be around 21 lbs. With 2 liters of water (4.4 lbs) and 1.5 lbs of food per day for let’s say 4 days on average, I’m looking at 31.4 lbs loaded up.
Some thoughts I had to trim this down:
1) Swap my 20 degree bag for a Mountain Laurel Designs Spirit 28 quilt (saves 1.8 lbs, huge!)
2) Swap the ULA Catalyst for a ZPacks Arc Blast (saves 1.6 lbs)
3) Leave behind the extra shirt/pants for "town clothes" (saves .6 lbs)
4) Swap out the Klymit sleeping pad for a small Z-Lite and use my pack for leg cushion (save .5 lbs)
5) Break the AWOL guide into 4 sections & mail them ahead (saves .4 lbs)
6) Ditch the Crocs (saves .4 lbs)
7) Think about leaving out the the long sleeve Cap3 shirt and pants (saves about 1lb, maybe not a good idea to leave out altogether, but could have mailed to me in Virginia/more south)
8) Ditch the battery extender -- only con is that my phone is my camera so I might miss some shots (save .75 lbs)
If I did all 8, it brings my base weight to 14 lbs or 24.4 lbs loaded up. I'm mostly looking for thoughts on which of these cuts seem prudent given the weather people usually encounter this time of year. I'm thinking I could pair the quilt easily with my down jacket and a wool hat to stay toasty at night. I sleep fairly but not super warm. I'm less keen on swapping packs, since the Catalyst is more robust and I don't want to worry about edging too close to 30 lbs at some point and overloading the Arc Blast.
I was also considering a heavier fleece than my Columbia (it's just your run of the mill full zip columbia fleece), but I think that this fleece + Golite jacket/pants should do me well with gloves and a wool hat for most conditions, especially when I'm hiking. I was thinking of maybe an R2 fleece but don’t want to get too warm and don't think I'll need it. However, if I dropped all my LS Cap 3 stuff, maybe I could pair it with one of my short sleeved shirts instead, and the weight would be about the same / slightly lighter than my Columbia.
Any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated and welcome. Sorry for the wall of text! I want to be light but not "stupid light". I've done hours and hours of reading and researching, but I'm kind of at that point now where I'd love to have some objective opinions about what I'm no doubt missing! Happy trails.