Dan's Outside

Saving Pack Weight – It Adds Up

I have a long pack trip coming up soon and I’ve been reevaluating and replacing equipment, as I always seem to do before long trips. In this case I’m not only succumbing to gear lust (though I’m not avoiding it entirely either… ;-), but I’m also trying to reduce pack weight a bit.

I have several reasons for this. First, it is always a good idea to remember that, as I believe Colin Fletcher pointed out, if you pay attention to the ounces the pounds will take care of themselves. In addition, I’m (surprise, surprise!) getting older and hulking monster 75 pound packs just aren’t realistic any more. On top of that, I have added better, and consequentially heavier, photo gear to my load and I need to reduce weight elsewhere to make up for this.

So, here are a few changes that I have made, along with estimated weight savings:

• ***Western Mountaineering Flight Jacket
  – This minimalist down jacket purportedly weighs only 10 ounces. Hard to believe, I know, but it is amazingly light. This will replace a 1 pound light fleece jacket and perhaps another 8-10 oz layer, saving about a pound. (Taking a cue from my friend Owen, I will stuff the jacket into a very light Granite Creek compresson sack along with my sleeping bag, saving a few more ounces.)
• ***No ground cloth
  – Since my tents last forever anyway – the waterproofing generally delaminates off before the rest of the tent dies – I can save almost a half pound by not taking the small nylon ground cloth that I usually carry with either my bivy sack or my one-person tent.
• ***Mountain Hardwear zip-off pants
  – combined with a light pair of long underwear. This replaces the combination of a pair of light softshell pants, a pair of very light shorts, plus a pair of fleece The North Face tights. I haven’t weighed this but I would guess that it saves at least a half pound if not more. I also will plan the food much more carefully, with a goal of carrying almost no extra food besides a couple of servings of instant soup.
• ***Carbon Fiber REI Trekking Poles
  – Supposedly about 11 onces, saving another half pound over my old “ultralight” poles.
• ***Syl-nylon Pack Cover
  – Seems nearly weightless, saving perhaps 4 ounces over the lightweight coated nylon cover I used in the past.

• ***Changes in my food plan
  – I now mix up some very tasty Quick-Cooking Oatmeal rather than carrying granola. It packs smaller (important with limited bear canister space) and is a bit lighter. The potential downside is the need for additional fuel, but this is minimal since this stuff cooks in about 2 minutes. (To anyone about to suggest even lighter pre-packaged instant oatmeal… don’t bother. I hate the stuff!)

All told, perhaps 2.5 or 3 pounds lighter? This should just about make up for the extra photo gear I plan to carry this year… ;-)

Some of my friends are now using extremely lightweight packs, mostly from Go-Lite. They seem to be doing fine with them, but I’m still not ready to trust the very basic design of these packs on longer trips – plus I like the excellent lightweight suspension system on my Mountainsmith Auspex, which weighs only slightly more.

July 26, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | Equipment | 4 Comments

New Trip. New Stuff

Every time I take a substantial pack trip I end up buying new stuff – even though I thought I had everything I needed last year. Hmmm…

So far for this year’s trip the list includes:

• Carbon fiber tripod and Acratech ballhead.
• Syl-nylon pack cover and sleeping back compression sack.
• Western Mountaineering Flight Jacket – though I actually bought this nearly a year ago.
• Precip jacket – a gift from my academic senate colleagues.

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July 25, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | Equipment | Comments Off on New Trip. New Stuff