My Ultralight Backpacking Equipment List

[RichardCullip]

I had a few requests for an updated gear list following my 5 day hike into the GTW. here it is

The Sleep System (3 lbs 4 oz) - I dropped 10oz off of my sleep system by upgrading my quilt. I replaced my heavier Golite Ultralite 3-season Quilt (24 oz) for a sleek new Zpacks 30deg Quilt (14oz). This quilt was amazing. Very light weight and it kept me warm during the coldest nights (~33-34 degs) we faced. I was also happy to find out that my Gossamer Gear The One tent kept me dry when the rain fell. This was the first time I've had this tent out in the rain and it worked great. Also, I left the stuff sacks at home to trim an additional little bit of weight. Every ounce (or is it grams) counts.

• Sleeping Bag - Zpacks 30deg Quilt (14oz)
• Sleeping Pad - Exced Synmat UL 7(14oz)
• Pillow - Montbell UL Comfort System Pillow (2 oz)
• Shelter - Gossamer Gear The One (17 oz)
• Ground Cloth/Stakes - Polycro ground cloth and Ti stakes (3oz)
• Pee Bottle - Nalegene Softside Canteen 1L (2oz)

Cooking and Water (3 lbs 5oz) - this trip I went exclusively with a light weight alcohol stove. I only ended up heating water on two nights eating cold dinners the other two nights along with a cold breakfast and lunch each day. Only used 1.5oz of fuel in total. I've got my cookset (stove, fuel bottle and windscreen) entirely nested inside the small Ti pot. Very small and compact cook sytem that fits my needs perfectly. The heaviest item by far was my BareBoxer Contender 101. It's as small a bear canister that is still legal and I could cram everything but the first day's meals into it. Still allowed me to pack a bit too much food. I doubled up on my water treatment options and enjoyed both the gravity filter system while in camp and the quick flexible Steripen when refilling weater bottles while on the trail.

• Stove - Fancee Feest Alcohol Stove (1oz)
• Windscreen - custom Ti Cone (1oz)
• Fuel bottle - Plastic Fliptop Bottle (0.75oz)
• Pot - Evernew 900ml Ultralight Ti pot w/lid (3.75oz)
• Pot Cozy - Cozy (1oz)
• Matches - I small box waterproof matches (0.4oz)
• Utensil - Sea to Summit Al Spork (0.25oz)
• Measuring Cup - plastic 1cup (0.75oz)
• Gravity Filter system - Sawyer Squeeze Filter w/Platypus bags (11.5oz)
• Alternative Water Treatment - Steripen w/Platypus 1L (4oz)
• Water Bottles - Gatorade 500ml bottles (2) (2.5oz)
• Food Protection - BareBoxer Contender 101 (26oz)

Clothing Packed Away (1 lb 10oz) - notice that there are no spare clothes, except for an extra pair of thin coolmax socks. I can layer up or down to match the weather but I left the clean spare set of clothes back in the truck where it belongs. I was a bit chilly each morning but once I started hiking I warmed up quickly.

• Rain Jacket - Outdoor Research Helium (7oz)
• Down Jacket - Montbell EX Light Down jacket (6oz)
• Wool Baselayer - Icebreaker BodyFit 200 (8oz)
• Sleeping Socks - PossomDown Socks (2oz)
• Warm Hat - PossumDown Beanie (1oz)
• Warm Gloves - PossumDown gloves (1oz)
• Spare Socks - Thinny thin Coolmax (1oz)

Essentials (16oz) - I've got this section pared down quite a bit except for the luxury of a GPS unit. I brought that to record each day's hike and it was cool to down load my daily tracks once I got back home.

• Camera - Pentax Optio W60 (5oz)
• Insect Repellant - Coleman 100 Max Spray Pen (1oz)
• Towel - MSR ultralight Pack Towel (0.5oz)
• Toilet Kit - Toothbrush/toothpaste/Pocket Tissues (2oz)
• First Aid Kit - Adventure Medical Kit Ultralight 0.3 (1.25oz)
• Knife - Single Edge Razor Blade (0.01oz)
• Light - Photon X-Micro LED Light (0.3oz)
• GPS - Garmin eTrex 20 (5oz)
• Topo - Custom printed Topo map (0.1oz)
• Compass - Brunton 7DNL (1oz)

Packing (1 lb 4oz) - I love my pack. It's small enough so I'm not tempted to bring along extra stuff but I still could fit every thing in it comfortably. I wouldn't want to stuff more than 20lbs in it since it's a frameless pack but i found it very comfortable with the light load I carried.

• Backpack - ULA CDT frameless pack (17oz)
• Pack Liner - Trash compactor bag (2oz)
• Stuff Sack - for cooking set (0.5oz)

Fishing gear (1 lb)

• Fly Rod - Winston Boron IIt 8ft 3wt (4oz)
• Rod Case - Fluorescent Light Tube protector (2oz)
• Fly Reel - Lamson Lightspeed 1 with Rio Gold WF3F line (4oz)
• Chest pack - Trico Ultralight Fishing Pack with/flies & tools (6oz)

That's what I carried. It adds up to 11 lbs and 7oz. Pretty darn light base weight considering I was carrying fly fishing gear and a bear cannister. I go pretty simple with my food budgeting 1.5lbs of fairly calorie dense food per day. For the five day trip that worked out to be 7 lbs 8oz of food. Add it up and it totals 18lbs and 15oz. Pretty sweet light load that allowed this old body to get up and over a high pass and into the high country hiking about 10 miles per day.

In addition to the above stuff that was in my pack, I wore

Hiking Clothing/Gear (3lbs 6oz) - my hiking clothes are designed to keep the sun off of me so I hike in long sleeves and long pants. No problem keeping coolish while hiking since the highs were only in the mid to low 60s. With the full sun protection, I could leave the sunscreen at home.

• Shirt - Railriders Madison River Shirt (8oz)
• Pants - Railriders Adventure pants (10oz)
• Underwear - Ex Officio Give-N-Go Boxer Briefs (3oz)
• Sun Hat - OR Sun Runner (3oz)
• Sun Gloves - ratty old stuff I've worn for years (1oz)
• Sunglasses - Polarized presciption glasses (1oz)
• Socks - Thinny Thin Cololmax sockz (1oz)
• Shoes - Inov8 Roclite 295 (21oz)
• Trekking Poles - Gossamer Gear LT3C 125cm (6oz)

[anacrime]

Pretty solid list!

I like that you have a pee platypus on your gear list, ha!

[RichardCullip]

Pretty solid list!

I like that you have a pee platypus on your gear list, ha!

Yep! TMI to follow

I'm of that age where I get up to go at least once each night, sometimes twice. It's sure nice not to have to stagger out of the tent to empty my bladder each time the need strikes.

[anacrime]

Got it. It sure is functional. Most UL guys tend to leave out an item or two from their gear lists to be discreet about certain things. I leave out my whiskey platypus

[tomsakai]

[*]Pee Bottle - Nalegene Softside Canteen 1L (2oz)

Make sure your water bottle isn't a Nalgene too!!

Impressive list! Both light and complete.

[beachbum]

Wow! That's quite a checklist. I can remember hauling 30-40 lbs (depending if we recently hit a food cache) on the John Muir trail in 1973.Your current gear selection is so much more refined. Backcountry gear has improved so much over the last few decades! Good post, Richard.

[Gary C.]

A great list Richard. Much lighter than I am willing to go but very impressive. I totally get it about the pee bottle, I often carry a widemouth Gatoraid bottle. Anyone that has lost a couple hours rest because they couldn't sleep waiting for it to quit rainning or get light enough so they could "just get up" will want to carry something.

[Papasequoia]

Just back a couple of hours ago from a trip - I'm stiff and sore and feeling sorry for myself with all these aches and pains (I'm trying to self-medicate that feeling away with beer though ) and then one of the first posts I read is this. I've trimmed quite a bit, but clearly have a long way to go. Thanks for posting the list, Richard - that's pretty impressive! Jon

[RichardCullip]

Just back a couple of hours ago from a trip - I'm stiff and sore and feeling sorry for myself with all these aches and pains (I'm trying to self-medicate that feeling away with beer though ) and then one of the first posts I read is this. I've trimmed quite a bit, but clearly have a long way to go. Thanks for posting the list, Richard - that's pretty impressive! Jon

Jon, you can look hard at my list but you won't find any comfy fluffy slippers for lounging around camp

[Benny]

Surely an impressive light gear list. Very well done.

[Eric]

Richard this is a great gear list. Something for the rest of us to aim for. What made you decide on the ula pack over other packs my 6 moons or gossermear packs? Have you looked at z packs cuben fiber packs? The blast 22 36 lit. 8.4oz or the blast 30 50lit at 9 oz.
Eric

[Papasequoia]

Jon, you can look hard at my list but you won't find any comfy fluffy slippers for lounging around camp

Lol, that's for sure. However, I finally weighed those slippers a couple of years ago and was horrified to find that they weighed over a pound! How the heck can slipper weigh so much!? It just goes to show that you need to weigh everything. I stopped carrying them and now usually lounge in camp with the sandals that I have used for wet wading. But, I have been meaning to check out the weight on down camp booties, so thanks for the reminder. Hopefully they are lighter than the LL Bean wicked comfy slippers, which now only appear on car camping trips.

[Dry Fly Rie]

As a non-backpacker, I don't really understand a lot of the list, but I can see by the painstaking detail of the items that you're definitely committed to being as light as possible. Glad you had a great trip.

[tjflyfisher]

hey

great list the one is a great tent i owned several solo tents before going to tarp camping tt moment

six moon designs skyscape eureka spitfire all were great but after two nights in my 6.5 oz borah gear bivy sack

with 8 oz oware cat tarp 1.5 i became a convert to ul backpacking fancy feast stoves work great mine will boil 2 cups of water in about 5-6 minutes on an ounce of fuel (heet ) is what i use it works great and cheap too

i have been testing my new zelph super venom stove that i just got a little while back and although its a little bit of a pain to put fuel in its a great stove as far as efficiency i use the antigravity gear 3 cup non stick aluminum pot which is a great match for both of my stoves

as to quilts i haven t ordered one yet but im going to buy an enlightened equipment revalation x 20 deg with overstuff
soon right now i have two western mountaineering bags a megalite and an alpinelite both awesome bags

my go to pack is the ula circuit i love this pack plenty of room and the mesh rear pocket allows me to put wet bivy s and tarps in it without getting the inside of my pack wet pretty good feature in my opinion

im heading to the sierras this weekend for a hike in kings canyon hopefully the weather will be nice for this outing
and the fish will be biting we will see

tjflyfisher

[Benny]

I had a few requests for an updated gear list following my 5 day hike into the GTW. here it is

The Sleep System (3 lbs 4 oz) - I dropped 10oz off of my sleep system by upgrading my quilt. I replaced my heavier Golite Ultralite 3-season Quilt (24 oz) for a sleek new Zpacks 30deg Quilt (14oz). This quilt was amazing. Very light weight and it kept me warm during the coldest nights (~33-34 degs) we faced. I was also happy to find out that my Gossamer Gear The One tent kept me dry when the rain fell. This was the first time I've had this tent out in the rain and it worked great. Also, I left the stuff sacks at home to trim an additional little bit of weight. Every ounce (or is it grams) counts.

• Sleeping Bag - Zpacks 30deg Quilt (14oz)
• Sleeping Pad - Exced Synmat UL 7(14oz)
• Pillow - Montbell UL Comfort System Pillow (2 oz)
• Shelter - Gossamer Gear The One (17 oz)
• Ground Cloth/Stakes - Polycro ground cloth and Ti stakes (3oz)
• Pee Bottle - Nalegene Softside Canteen 1L (2oz)

Cooking and Water (3 lbs 5oz) - this trip I went exclusively with a light weight alcohol stove. I only ended up heating water on two nights eating cold dinners the other two nights along with a cold breakfast and lunch each day. Only used 1.5oz of fuel in total. I've got my cookset (stove, fuel bottle and windscreen) entirely nested inside the small Ti pot. Very small and compact cook sytem that fits my needs perfectly. The heaviest item by far was my BareBoxer Contender 101. It's as small a bear canister that is still legal and I could cram everything but the first day's meals into it. Still allowed me to pack a bit too much food. I doubled up on my water treatment options and enjoyed both the gravity filter system while in camp and the quick flexible Steripen when refilling weater bottles while on the trail.

• Stove - Fancee Feest Alcohol Stove (1oz)
• Windscreen - custom Ti Cone (1oz)
• Fuel bottle - Plastic Fliptop Bottle (0.75oz)
• Pot - Evernew 900ml Ultralight Ti pot w/lid (3.75oz)
• Pot Cozy - Cozy (1oz)
• Matches - I small box waterproof matches (0.4oz)
• Utensil - Sea to Summit Al Spork (0.25oz)
• Measuring Cup - plastic 1cup (0.75oz)
• Gravity Filter system - Sawyer Squeeze Filter w/Platypus bags (11.5oz)
• Alternative Water Treatment - Steripen w/Platypus 1L (4oz)
• Water Bottles - Gatorade 500ml bottles (2) (2.5oz)
• Food Protection - BareBoxer Contender 101 (26oz)

Clothing Packed Away (1 lb 10oz) - notice that there are no spare clothes, except for an extra pair of thin coolmax socks. I can layer up or down to match the weather but I left the clean spare set of clothes back in the truck where it belongs. I was a bit chilly each morning but once I started hiking I warmed up quickly.

• Rain Jacket - Outdoor Research Helium (7oz)
• Down Jacket - Montbell EX Light Down jacket (6oz)
• Wool Baselayer - Icebreaker BodyFit 200 (8oz)
• Sleeping Socks - PossomDown Socks (2oz)
• Warm Hat - PossumDown Beanie (1oz)
• Warm Gloves - PossumDown gloves (1oz)
• Spare Socks - Thinny thin Coolmax (1oz)

Essentials (16oz) - I've got this section pared down quite a bit except for the luxury of a GPS unit. I brought that to record each day's hike and it was cool to down load my daily tracks once I got back home.

• Camera - Pentax Optio W60 (5oz)
• Insect Repellant - Coleman 100 Max Spray Pen (1oz)
• Towel - MSR ultralight Pack Towel (0.5oz)
• Toilet Kit - Toothbrush/toothpaste/Pocket Tissues (2oz)
• First Aid Kit - Adventure Medical Kit Ultralight 0.3 (1.25oz)
• Knife - Single Edge Razor Blade (0.01oz)
• Light - Photon X-Micro LED Light (0.3oz)
• GPS - Garmin eTrex 20 (5oz)
• Topo - Custom printed Topo map (0.1oz)
• Compass - Brunton 7DNL (1oz)

Packing (1 lb 4oz) - I love my pack. It's small enough so I'm not tempted to bring along extra stuff but I still could fit every thing in it comfortably. I wouldn't want to stuff more than 20lbs in it since it's a frameless pack but i found it very comfortable with the light load I carried.

• Backpack - ULA CDT frameless pack (17oz)
• Pack Liner - Trash compactor bag (2oz)
• Stuff Sack - for cooking set (0.5oz)

Fishing gear (1 lb)

• Fly Rod - Winston Boron IIt 8ft 3wt (4oz)
• Rod Case - Fluorescent Light Tube protector (2oz)
• Fly Reel - Lamson Lightspeed 1 with Rio Gold WF3F line (4oz)
• Chest pack - Trico Ultralight Fishing Pack with/flies & tools (6oz)

That's what I carried. It adds up to 11 lbs and 7oz. Pretty darn light base weight considering I was carrying fly fishing gear and a bear cannister. I go pretty simple with my food budgeting 1.5lbs of fairly calorie dense food per day. For the five day trip that worked out to be 7 lbs 8oz of food. Add it up and it totals 18lbs and 15oz. Pretty sweet light load that allowed this old body to get up and over a high pass and into the high country hiking about 10 miles per day.

In addition to the above stuff that was in my pack, I wore

Hiking Clothing/Gear (3lbs 6oz) - my hiking clothes are designed to keep the sun off of me so I hike in long sleeves and long pants. No problem keeping coolish while hiking since the highs were only in the mid to low 60s. With the full sun protection, I could leave the sunscreen at home.

• Shirt - Railriders Madison River Shirt (8oz)
• Pants - Railriders Adventure pants (10oz)
• Underwear - Ex Officio Give-N-Go Boxer Briefs (3oz)
• Sun Hat - OR Sun Runner (3oz)
• Sun Gloves - ratty old stuff I've worn for years (1oz)
• Sunglasses - Polarized presciption glasses (1oz)
• Socks - Thinny Thin Cololmax sockz (1oz)
• Shoes - Inov8 Roclite 295 (21oz)
• Trekking Poles - Gossamer Gear LT3C 125cm (6oz)

I was looking for this Ultralight backpacking equipment list. I'm going to try and lighten my backpacking equipment. I just started reading Ultralight Backpackin' Tips by Mike Clelland. I'm not sure how light I can get with my equipment just yet, I need to get me a small scale. I'm sure going to ditch all the gear I never use. I always take stuff just in case, and I simply need to get rid of that mind set of thinking I need something just in case. For instance I always pack extra batteries and have never had to use them, it just adds extra weight to my pack. I carry extra fuel all the time and never need it. Extra water bottles, a filter a filter bottle, the point is I carry way to much stuff I don't need. I'm hoping I could get as low as Richards list, although my sleeping system is still going to require a tent for me, mosquitoes in July are no fun. So I'm going to have to keep my tent for now.

Anyhow I hope me resurrecting this thread will get all your minds thinking about lightening your pack weight before heading into the high country this coming spring, summer and fall.