Me and a friend of mine is planning an overnight "test trip" next week and I am working on my gear list. For the first time ever I will try to sleep under a tarp. This will also be my first light backpacking trip. Not UL but much lighter than ever before.

As you can see I have no alcohol stove but a canister stove. I have a few alcohol stoves (vargo, pepsican and brasslite) but I am not comfortable using them. Mainly because they are very narrow and I can't get a good pot support.

I have not added the canister and food to the list but this will add approx 20-25 oz to the weight for an overnight trip.

The tarp I have is not of the lightest either but I have reduced the weight a bit by exchanging the guy lines with 2mm dyneema cords.

My list (design copied from mikeclelland) is given below and an pdf version under my profile.

PS: I will be out of town tomorrow and will not be able to respond before Sunday.

Edited by osaether on 09/24/2010 14:56:21 MDT.

"Not UL but much lighter than ever before."

That is a great start. I am not going to offer any suggestions on your gear list. Go out and use it, and slowly refine it.

But I will suggest that you practice setting up the tarp.

Have a great trip.

Rain pants but no rain jacket? In Norway? Surely this was an oversight?

Admittedly I have spent only three weeks in your extremely beautiful country, and in June, but there were only two days that it didn't rain!

Edited by hikinggranny on 09/24/2010 17:20:25 MDT.

how do you find the LE snopack 700 ...there was some discussion here about it lately

If this is everything you are taking, that's a pretty impressive first attempt at Lightweight!

I'm assuming you will be wearing your rain jacket not carrying it.

The only suggestion I would have is to ditch the two small stuff sacks. In a pack that large you won't need to compress your bag and the liner should keep it and your clothes dry. Use your long underwear as a clothes stuff sack.

Rod

You might want more water carrying capacity than 500ml.

Also, is the fleece necessary? The 15oz down jkt sounds pretty warm. I'm not sure of the climate in your area though.

Have you tried making your own caldera cone or a wire mesh pot stand to hold your pot better with the alcohol stove?

With a snowpeak 700 or equivalent and a supercat stove i don't use any pot support due to the width of the stove. That might work for you too.

Obviously you'll be able to save some weight if you can get it to work for you.

Mary and Rod, did you see the Hilleberg Bivanorak in Ole's Shelter section? see: http://estore.websitepros.com/1764795/-strse-8/Hilleberg-Bivanorak-Multi-Purpose/Detail.bok

Good start! You can work on clothing options and pack in the future. The rest of your list looks pretty good.

Let us know how the tarp works--- photos please! I was looking at the Hilleberg tarps recently. I am assuming they are tough.

I learn something new every day! Before making my rain jacket comment, I checked the tarp to see if it by chance were a poncho tarp, but never thought to check the bivy!

I'd love to see a trip report when you get back--both on how the gear worked and, of course, some pictures of your spectacular scenery!

Edited by hikinggranny on 09/24/2010 20:39:06 MDT.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

About the rain jacket. I am wearing a TNF M-DIAD jacket (see my avatar) that so far has been waterproof. If the weather turns really bad I will use the bivanorak.

I will also work on my first aid and repair kits to try to reduce the weight.

I will also try to ditch the stuff sacks but I want something to protect my sleeping bag since it is the most expensive piece of equipment I have on the list.

Dan:
I will ditch the fleece sweater but I need gloves and a hat because it is pretty cold here now.

There are lot of small rivers where I am hiking and plenty of opportunities to fill my bottle. I have never used a water filter or water treatment before but I will probably start using it soon because there has been some articles in the newspapers lately about people getting sick.

Eric:
Here is a link to the down sweater:
http://tinyurl.com/38v6ym7

Larry:
I am gonna do some practicing with my alcohol stoves the coming days. I have not tried to make a cone or mesh stand. Do you have a link to any MYOG articles? I have also ordered a stove "kit" from antigravitygear that I hope will work better.

First for the wire support:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=3302

Caldera Coneish:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=27810

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=27385

Many more if you google "myog caldera cone" and the like.

What is your expected overnight low? I've found the Neoair starts to feel cold below about 5 degrees Celsius, especially when tarping. I don't know about Norway, but we start getting nights that cold right about now here in Canada.

It has started getting cold here as well and this morning it was 0 Celcius. My plan was to camp out tonight together with a neighbor of mine but he had to stay home with his family.

I will add a ridge rest foam sleeping pad to my list as well. Hopefully that together with the Neoair will be enough. I also forgot to include the titanium stakes, cup (for coffee) and spare battery. I have removed one of the stuff sacks and the fleece sweater (I will probably wear it instead). See my profile for an updated list.

Larry: Thanks for the links.

Edited by osaether on 09/29/2010 06:52:46 MDT.