I don't need to go super crazy light, but would appreciate some tips. I'm cutting down from a base weight of ~35lbs.

Note, I'll have to get all of my >0.1 lb stuff together and weigh it. I'll also have to weigh the loaded pack to see if the sum of the parts = the whole.

lbs/oz

3.1 50oz Backpack
1.6 26oz 40 deg. Quilt (synthetic fill)
1.5 24oz tarp tent
1.1 18oz insulation 70g thinsulate
0.8 13oz water purifier
0.7 11oz pot
0.6 10oz mat
0.5 8oz bladder
0.5 8oz poncho + shell
0.5 8oz gortex pants
0.4 6oz 1st aid kit
0.4 6oz long sleve shirt
0.4 6oz light thermal underware
0.3 5oz stove
0.3 5oz spare socks
0.3 5oz rope
0.2 3oz legs
0.2 3oz cold hat?
0.2 3oz fire starter
0.15 2oz gloves
0.15 2oz glove liners
0.1 2oz Gerber Miniparaframe knife
0 water bottles
0 head lamp
0 titanium spork
0 pot holder
0 lighter
0 matches
0 swiss army knifeclassic sd
0 spare undies
0 tooth brush
0 tooth paste
0 toilet paper
0 carbiner
0 towel
0 balaclava
0 compass

Total = 14lbs

food
water
fuel

boots
socks
undies
shorts
short sleve shirt
hat
camera

Edited by Barry1492 on 04/14/2011 12:29:38 MDT.

Nice List. I would love to see those numbers in oz so that it is easier to see where you can cut a little weight. Overall looks good. I am doing a similar thing with my list and working down below 5 lbs.

Yikes - I would get a scale, because nobody will ba able to wrap their mind around this kind of data.

(spellin revized)

Edited by mikeclelland on 04/15/2011 00:45:13 MDT.

Thanks. Maybe I'll do that this afternoon. I'm trying to figure out where the best places to cut are. Already this is what I'm thinking:

pot and water filter
arm warmers instead of a long sleve shirt
re package my first aid kit.

I wouldn't be surprised if I could get another pound out of that.

"THE SACALE!"

I think a spell checker would be an excellent investment.

--B.G.--

Hey Barry. Let us know which "season" you are packing for. Summer +/- a little spring and fall? Also, what is your likely destination? Suggestions will vary depending on if you were packing for August in the mid-atlantic vs. the Sierras.

Pack is going to be where your big savings is. You can probably save 1.5-2 lbs. easy with a minimum investment there.

Hi Barry.

I'm pretty new at this too--been trying to cut weight for the past few years, and been a member here for two. Next week, I'm going out with a sub 10# base weight for the first time. That includes inflatable pad, and shelter and pack that are less than ideal.

Stuff that jumps out from your list:

Your pack could easily be 1-1.5# lighter. But buying a new pack last is good advice--I thought I was doing that a couple years ago and went for an Exos 58. It's just a little over 2#, which is fine for me, but I don't need anywhere close to that volume now.

"1.1 insulation 70g thinsulate" Is that your jacket? 1.1# is about 18 oz--pretty heavy. I use an inexpensive 200 wt fleece pullover with 1/4 zip less than 11 oz, and plan to replace with a down piece >8 oz when I can afford it.

You're right--cook pot is very heavy: 11 oz! I use a Snowpeak 600 mug, so no need for separate cup and pot. 2.8 oz. Use bandana instead of pot holder. I've also used a Stanco grease pot with MYOG foil lid (~1 oz, $6) and GSI plastic cup (>1.5 oz). Try a MYOG alky stove to see if you like it. Less than 1 oz, easy to make, basically free.

Your LS shirt and thermals seem a little heavy at 0.4# (6.4 oz), but looking at some of your other weights, I suspect your scale isn't very accurate at the low end. For example, 0.2# ~ 3.2 oz, which is really heavy for a firestarter (mini Bic is 0.5 oz). There are plenty of threads here with recommendations for digital scales accurate to the gram or tenth of an ounce that cost $20 or less. Best purchase you will ever make, IMO.

Aquamira replaces pump filter in my system. Can be repackaged to 1 oz. Costs $15. That alone will save you half a pound.

2 knives? Gloves *and* glove liners? FAK at 0.4# (6.4 oz)? 5 oz of rope? Mike C! will prob. tell you to nix the TP, which is more philosophy than weight savings, IMO, but I think he makes a good case for it. I'm going that route this season.

Replace boots with trail runners. I still love my old Danner Mountain Lights, but dropping 40 oz from my feet was worth retiring them.

You can easily drop a few pounds by leaving things out and replacing others with inexpensive lighter alternatives. Then buy a lighter and smaller pack, and you can be around 10# base with no change is your perceived comfort (you already have pad, tarp tent and quilt reasonably light).

Sorry for the long post--99.9% of what I wrote is just passing on great advice I've read on these forums. If you're used to a traditional base weight, 10# will feel amazing.

"Hey Barry. Let us know which "season" you are packing for. Summer +/- a little spring and fall? Also, what is your likely destination? Suggestions will vary depending on if you were packing for August in the mid-atlantic vs. the Sierras.

Pack is going to be where your big savings is. You can probably save 1.5-2 lbs. easy with a minimum investment there."

I assumed "1 season" implied summer and "1+" implied end of spring to beginning of fall.

Either way, end of spring - beginning of fall, North East USA.

>"I assumed "1 season" implied summer and ...."

Ah, assume nothing on BPL! We scrutinize everything (usually in a constructive and friendly manner). Just look at Bob's comment above. :)

Yes, you'll probably get many more suggestions as soon as you get weights up in ounces instead of pounds.

Hi Barry.

Pack - That was the lightest internal frame pack I could find with any kind of volume to it. I searched for a while. I think I can pull the frame out and save a pound. I can experiement with that if you think its a good idea.

Insulation - That would be for colder months (fall, spring). I'm tall and thin and don;t retain heat well. I got it from Golite and was the lightest I could find without going down (and expensive). It's much better than my flece.

"You're right--cook pot is very heavy: 11 oz! I use a Snowpeak 600 mug, so no need for separate cup and pot. 2.8 oz. Use bandana instead of pot holder. I've also used a Stanco grease pot with MYOG foil lid (~1 oz, $6) and GSI plastic cup (>1.5 oz). Try a MYOG alky stove to see if you like it. Less than 1 oz, easy to make, basically free."

I can definitely apply these recommendations.

"Your LS shirt and thermals seem a little heavy at 0.4# (6.4 oz), but looking at some of your other weights, I suspect your scale isn't very accurate at the low end. For example, 0.2# ~ 3.2 oz, which is really heavy for a firestarter (mini Bic is 0.5 oz). There are plenty of threads here with recommendations for digital scales accurate to the gram or tenth of an ounce that cost $20 or less. Best purchase you will ever make, IMO."

Thanks. The fire starter is a tube of grease, not the lighter. I'll pick up a scale at some point. I had to use a digital bathroom scale that was only accurate to the nearest 0.5 lbs and then add nickels to my items until I hit the next weight increment. It got me into the ball park, which is what I wanted. Before I had no idea.

The bottom line (at this stage of the game, anyway) is I needed to figure out where my big weight savings were. ie I know TP weighs less than 0.05 lbs....sure, I could ditch it, but wouldn't it make more sense to worry about my pot and water purifier?

"Aquamira replaces pump filter in my system. Can be repackaged to 1 oz. Costs $15. That alone will save you half a pound."

Thanks. Will look it up as soon as I'm done typing!

"2 knives? Gloves *and* glove liners? FAK at 0.4# (6.4 oz)? 5 oz of rope? Mike C! will prob. tell you to nix the TP, which is more philosophy than weight savings, IMO, but I think he makes a good case for it. I'm going that route this season."

Gloves will depend on whether. I'll re-asses the amount of rope I have.

"Replace boots with trail runners. I still love my old Danner Mountain Lights, but dropping 40 oz from my feet was worth retiring them."

They actually are trail runners. They're hi tops, so I call them boots. Yeah, I ditched the boots last year.

"You can easily drop a few pounds by leaving things out and replacing others with inexpensive lighter alternatives. Then buy a lighter and smaller pack, and you can be around 10# base with no change is your perceived comfort (you already have pad, tarp tent and quilt reasonably light)."

Thanks again!

"Yes, you'll probably get many more suggestions as soon as you get weights up in ounces instead of pounds."

Or, grams and kilograms, now that we are supposedly metric.

--B.G.--

What aquamira system do you use?

After reading a lot on these forums and elsewhere, and looking at the areas where I like to hike and my tolerance for risk, I've gone with drops alone, or nothing if I'm sure of the source. For drops, I wait 5 minutes on pre-mix and 15 (ish) minutes for treatment, as the directions say. I've used my bandana to pre-filter before, but that wasn't planned (and could have been avoided).

There was thread a few days ago with correspondence from an Aquamira executive (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=45839).

The gist seemed to be that these treatment times were fine for bacteria, but prob. not for cysts like crypto and giardia. My take-away (reading between the lines) is Aquamira liquid will do a lot more than the label is allowed to claim, and the four-hour wait time for tablets (same chemicals and effective concentration as liquid) is required by FDA, but way longer than necessary under most real-world conditions.

There's a lot of folks here with a lot more experience than I have, and the range of opinions about water treatment is huge. I'm in the camp that says good water can still be found in Western mountains if you know what to look for, and handwashing is more important than water treatment to stay healthy on the trail.

I'm probably taking a risk that would be unacceptable to others--hiking with my kids I'd do things a bit different (add Frontier Pro filter, maybe) and wouldn't drink raw water, for example. Hiking on my own or with other adults, and out for less than the incubation period of giardia, I'll take more risk. And yes, if I do get sick sometime, I'll prob. change my mind.

Edited by DavidDrake on 04/14/2011 13:24:13 MDT.