Lightweight Backpacking Tips

The New Range of Light

Lightening up your pack means greater comfort and stamina on the trail, and greater range away from the heavily laden hordes. It's also an intriguing challenge. Before the 1950s, “going light” into the backcountry for a week or more usually meant carrying a pack that weighed 75 pounds or so. It also meant you probably looked for a burro or mule to carry most of your stuff. In fact, one of the seminal manuals of the modern “going light” era was the Sierra Club’s guide, “Going Light With Backpack or Burro,” first published in 1951.

That book, and of course everything that this newsletter and Adventure 16 stand for, was not about hauling your many creature comforts into the wilderness. As the authors put it then, “A basic fact of life that especially impresses itself upon the hiker is that you pay in one way or another for everything you get.” Sure, you can take an air mattress into the wilderness, but your shoulders will pay the price all day for your blissfully soft sleep at night. Sure, you may like Dutch oven cooking, but who carries the pot? (Pack animals also make you pay the price: they’re fussy, recalcitrant, require feed…in short, they can be a real headache. They also raise environmental impact concerns.)

The authors of “Going Light…” also reminded their readers that the best fishing lakes have mosquitoes, and the most magnificent high country has cold, if not freezing, nights throughout the summer. These are all “just prices that have to be paid for the good things of life.”
Now we live in an even more gear-intensive world, but one far different than 50 years ago. Most everything except toothpicks, canned sardines, and hand-tied trout flies is lighter and smaller, probably lasts longer, works better, holds more, sets up faster, withstands wind, rain and cold better. You get the picture. All these advances can be seductive, and before you know it, your pack is jammed with gizmos as well as bomb-proof gear more worthy of an Antarctic expedition than a summertime ramble up into Ansel Adams’ Wilderness.

Today it’s still rare to pass many backpackers on the trail who heft a pack for one week that’s below 40 pounds. Much of the problem is the weight of food—2+ pounds a day—and water (today, because of concerns about water quality, many backpackers and dayhikers carry pumps and 1-2 liters of water. In the “olden days” everyone just sipped from streams and springs, which are especially plentiful in a normal-rainfall year in the Sierra.)

We feel it’s time to take stock again of why you hike. Freedom! Independence! Adventure! Peace of mind! And most of important of all, beauty—a chance to be a part of nature rather than an interloper.

The more efficiently you pack (and the less you have to think about it), the more freedom you’ll have to enjoy the hike. Here are a few suggestions to get you going…lighter.

The first rule of going lighter
You trade ounces for knowledge. The more you know, the more you’ve experienced, chances are the less you need to carry. Example? Let’s say you decide to carry a tarp tent and it starts to snow or sleet (a reasonably common occurrence some summers in the High Sierra). Your knowledge of finding a protected campsite and staying dry will be put to the test, may even save your life. Others with less knowledge may want to pitch a sturdy tent, crawl in, and dream on.


Train more
Repeat this mantra: there is no substitute for experience. But training—taking backcountry skills courses, joining a group of like-minded hikers—really builds your knowledge base. Adventure 16 offers a host of in-store clinics (see page back cover).
Drop 10Step on the scale naked and vow to shed 10 extra pounds in the next four months or so. Kind of silly to obsess about trimming a few ounces by buying a new model stove when you’re still carrying those extra pounds around your middle.

Get a good scale
A digital kitchen scale is your friend. Weigh everything to the ounce. Bring the scale to Adventure 16 and do some comparison weighing of your own. Later, if you become a real fanatic, you can worry about the grams. Unfortunately, it’s pretty tough to weigh the big items like packs and sleeping bags on a kitchen scale. Let our salesperson provide you with weights via each manufacturer’s stated weight in our catalogs. Search the web under “hanging scales” and you’ll find many scale options.

Trim your first aid kit
Some hikers believe that a few feet of duct tape, a yard or two of wound dressing, and a handful of painkillers (i.e. ibuprofen) is enough of a “kit.” Most feel comfortable with a bit more. Your happy medium will depend on your knowledge base, but you can probably lose a few ounces out of your basic kit. Customize it to the trip’s expected challenges.
One pot, one spoonLearn to cook, eat, and drink from the same small (titanium perhaps) pot. Lose the knife and fork—a spoon does it all!

Repackage
Resealable sandwich bags are lighter and less bulky than the colorful sales-pitch boxes that hold noodles and such on supermarket shelves. Repackage your food, label it well. Learn to add light bulk foods such as dried black bean mix from health food stores to your menus. Eat trout for protein, Smeagol! (but unless you fish with bare hands, that rod and reel will probably add more weight than it catches).

Monitor uneaten food
How much food was left over at the end of your last trip? Perhaps you’re carrying too much. Get tough on your meal planning, but continue to carry a meal or two extra as an emergency backup.

High calorie-to-weight ratio
A few issues of Footprints ago we interviewed Ralph Drollinger, peak-bagger extraordinaire. “Eat the foods your mother told you were bad for you,” he said, referring to some of the high-fat, high-carb meals he downs to keep the inner fires burning. When you walk all day, your body needs a thousand or more extra calories. Plan meals accordingly. You may want to bring that oily salami after all.

Treating vs. pumping
Drinking water filter-pumps are marvelous ways to screen out the nasties (giardia), but many backpackers prefer saving a pound or two and a lot of space in their pack by treating water with iodine or chlorine systems. Use a handkerchief to filter water before treatment. Learning to find water “at the source” insures greater purity.

Down vs. synthetic
A super-light highest-quality down bag is a beautiful thing. It has the highest warmth-to-weight ratio, it is the most compressible, and over time it holds its temperature rating—just don’t let it get soaked. Trapped air is the only thing that keeps you warm in a sleeping system, and wet goose down is virtually worthless. Here’s where knowledge (your ability to stay dry in any conditions) plays a key role again. A synthetic bag doesn’t weigh much more, but it’s a lot more forgiving.

Plan fuel to the ounce
Cook a few backcountry meals at home with your stove system to monitor fuel use (knowing that you will need a bit more at higher elevations). Learn to be almost out of fuel upon your return from any trip.

Be light on your feet
For many hikers, the maxim “the lighter your pack, the lighter the boot” is worth pursuing. If your ankles and arches are strong and you walk nimbly (walking poles help), chances are good you can cut a lot of “foot weight” by going with today’s lightweight approach-style footwear rather than heavy, full-leather boots. (This depends a good deal on the nature of your trip’s terrain rather than the duration of your hike. Lighter shoes increase the risk of stone bruises and facia injuries.) Come in to Adventure 16 and let us work with you: we guarantee satisfaction and our boot-fit service is legendary.

Find a lighter light
Still using that flashlight that can withstand being run over by your car? Perhaps it’s time to ditch its extra weight and see the new LED model headlamps and squeeze lights—we’ve got a big selection at Adventure 16. You can ditch all the heavy extra batteries—some light systems now have a battery life of 75 hours or more.

Divide and conquer
Nothing lightens a pack like dividing up common gear such as tent parts and cookware amongst two or more friends. A 6-pound, three-person tent becomes a 2-pound portion in your pack—the equal to some ultra-light tarp or bivy sack methods employed by lone hikers.
Learn knots, save ouncesCarabiners are cool—for climbing. But if you’re using them to clip wet socks to the outside of your pack, you’re carrying extra ounces. We find that a knowledge of knots and a selection of light-but-strong cord does it all, from clothesline to emergency repairs to keeping your pants up.

Go clothes-light
Today’s technical fabrics may represent the biggest advance in outdoor gear. Layering systems have lowered the weight of clothing while increasing your protection from cold, wind, rain. But one thing hasn’t changed: you’ll pack lighter if you abandon some obsessions with “cleanliness.” To unlock the mysteries of “layering” and see a wide range of the newest lightest technical wear, come see us at Adventure 16 and put together the ideal hiking garb for the conditions. And leave all the extra undies and socks at home.

Ahh, the pack
Pack designers have accomplished much with comfort and durability. Again, the more weight you carry, the more structural your pack must be. Even 30 pounds may be too much for most of the new super-light, frameless packs (see sidebar at left). But all things being equal, if you can save a few pounds on basic pack weight, do it! Don’t overestimate what will be required of your backpack. For example, if you usually go on weekend trips, don’t buy the MegaBuff-LoadMaster models. Have several different capacity and weight packs for different trips and different conditions.