Gear & Weight
It begins with an attitude toward simplicity and a practical evaluation. Pull out all the gear, every piece and ask yourself two questions; do I need this and if so, can it be lighter. Because when you travel into the mountains alone you carry everything, every mouthful of food, every extra bandaid, every decision, everything. And when the hike moves off trail extra weight can be worse than a nuisance, it can be dangerous. Too much weight makes for instability and that’s the last thing you want scrambling over, around and through difficult terrain.
So I went through every piece of gear I have and asked those two questions. Sleeping bag, gone. Large tarp, gone. Cooking gear, gone. Older puffy jacket, gone. Older rain jacket, gone. In their place; a homemade quilt, a small poncho that doubles as a shelter, simplified cooking, lighter puffy jacket and a homemade rain jacket. I not only shaved pounds off my base weight (the pack weight before food & water) I also increased my comfort level.
This exercise also serves the purpose of becoming intimately engaged with the gear in a way that’s lacking when it’s simply purchased. Know what you’re taking and why, everything has a reason to be there and if a single item can serve two or more purposes, that’s all the better for it makes the pack lighter.
I’ll walk you through a few things I’ve adjusted for this project. The first one is leaving my sleeping bag at home. I’ve wanted to try a quilt for years, which is essentially a splayed open sleeping bag. It’s a blanket made from the same material, but unlike a sleeping bag it has no zippers and is simply a blanket. I sleep directly on my sleeping pad (which has a thin polyester fitted sheet I sewed) and wrap myself up in the quilt. It has a freedom of movement that’s unavailable in a traditional sleeping bag. Wanting to tailor it to my needs I sewed it myself using outdoor fabric and synthetic insulation. It weighs 20oz, cutting over 2lbs off my pack weight.
Another major adjustment I made was to replace a large two person tarp I made a few years ago with a rain poncho/tarp combo. This is something bought and did not make. It serves two purposes, a heavy duty rain poncho and a single person tarp when setup with my hiking poles. It weighs 8oz saving cutting an additional pound off my pack weight.
These are just two examples of asking myself “do I need this and if so, can it be lighter”. Know your gear intimately and why you’re taking each and every piece. If you can’t answer that then it should stay home.
