The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
Recently I’ve been whittling away at pack weight to bring down my solo hiking pack size and weight to a more manageable load.
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| My overloaded pack for our first father – daughter backpacking trip. We brought too much, but at least she was comfortable! |
I’ve been away on a couple weekend hiking trips (2 nights, 3 days) and I’ve gone light, but not too light. They were both first time trips and I didn’t want to go overly light, but at the same time I took an extra couple things to try out along the way. So, I wanted to share my recent gear list to make myself sit down and plan for future cuts.
For reference, I used this for my recent trip down the Choro Trail that starts peaks at 16000 feet and drops to 4400 feet and a tropical area. I expected to share my shelter with another guy.
This type of exercise is really good as it shows where you can improve. I recommend this for everyone. All you need is your gear and a simple kitchen scale.
The Basics – 6 lb 10 oz
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| A previous iteration of some of my gear |
- Backpack
- Platypus Origin 35 liter backpack – 1 lb 14 oz
- Sleep System
- Vaude Icepeak 150 down bag – 1 lb 7 oz
- Doite close cell foam pad – 7 oz
- Shelter system (2 to 3 people)
- Golite Cave 2 Tarp – 1 lb 3.5 oz
- Golite Nest Mesh Tent – 1 lb 10.5 oz
The Extras
- Stuff sacks – 2 oz
- Sea to Summit Ultra Sil Nano 13 L WP – 1.25 oz
- Outdoor Products 5L DWR – .75 oz
- Cooking – 11.4 oz
- 1 can energy drink stove – 0.5 oz
- Stanley SS pot – 7.7 oz
- Stanley Insulated cup – 3 oz
- Lighter – 0.2 oz
- Clothing * Thermals worn on 1st day – 3 lbs 15.4 oz
- Polarmax PMX hoody – 14.2 oz
- Polarmax Compression tights – 6 oz
- Golite Beartooth down jacket – 16 oz
- South American knock-off Rain Jacket – 18 oz
- Lorpen Merino wool socks – 2 oz
- Wool sleep socks – 3.4 oz
- Fleece gloves – 4 oz
- Hydration – 6.75 oz
- Geigerrig 2l – 5.5 oz
- Geigerrig 50 gal filter – 1.25 oz
- Gagets and Kit – 1 LB 5 oz
- Compass – 1.8 oz
- Cyclops LED headlamp – 1 oz
- SOG Aegis Knife – 3.2 oz
- SPOT Messenger – 5 oz
- Survival kit – 4.5 oz
- First Aid – 4 oz
- Sea to Summit Wilderness Wash – 1.3 oz
- Photo Videography – 1lb 7 oz
- UL Tripod – 13.2 oz
- Panasonic Lumix – 6 oz
- Batteries and cards – 4 oz
All in we’re talking 14 lbs 9.6 oz before food, water and fuel. Depending on climate things could be lighter, but in a varying climate I like to keep my bases covered. I plan to invest in a more comfortable sleeping pad that is also lightweight (just hit 30 and I can feel the discomfort of closed cell foam). I’m also planning on making a bivvy when I get back from South America to save the weight of my mesh tent.
