6 Ultralight Hiking Tips for Reducing Pack Weight
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Do you want to save weight and carry less gear in your backpack? If so, you’re on the right track! Here are six strategies that have worked for me to reduce the weight of my own kit. But why bother? Lightweight or ultralight backpacking is better for your body, especially your knees and back, and the lightweight methodology allows you to travel faster, farther, and more comfortably in the wilderness. Experience a lighter pack and I promise you’ll never look back.
I get it; seeing a crazy light thru-hiker backpack can seem daunting. But don’t worry! You needn’t splurge on all the fanciest gear and reduce your pack to sub 10 lbs all at once. It’s a process and any weight savings are good. So, without further ado:
1. Eliminate Redundancies – Every piece of gear in your kit should serve a unique and valuable purpose, and any redundant items should be culled or questioned. Camp clothing, for instance, is usually unnecessary, because you can always just wear your hiking clothes. Do you need a bowl and a mug, or can you eat and drink out of one single vessel? And how about that third pair of socks. I bet you can get by just fine with only two. Apply that same mentality to the rest of your kit and see what else you can cut.
2. Check for the common culprits – There are a few “usual suspect” items that tend to always make their way into beginner and intermediate backpacker kits. If you’re carrying any of these, get rid of them immediately! They’re either too heavy, redundant, over-marketed, outdated, or simply not useful enough: metal or Naglene-style water bottles, survival kits/bracelets/gifty items, Rambo knives, flint and tinder, synthetic insulated (instead of down) jackets/sleeping bags, hard sided first aid kits, lanterns, camp chairs, rope/paracord that you don’t have a plan for, cookware that isn’t a pot or a stove, full-sized toiletries, bulky camp pillows, books, tablets, camp clothes, and sandals.
3. Carry less food – Think about how many times you’ve exited the trail with a bunch of leftover food. A little extra is okay, but you don’t need to carry an entire bonus day’s worth of snacks. You won’t starve. First, look to make cuts on your first and last day’s rations. The very nature of a first day means that you started in civilization where you can fill up on a giant meal right before your hike. I always recommend hitting the trail fully fed and hydrated. Same deal with the last day. Most people most of the time will be returning to civilization in time to grab brunch, lunch, or dinner out, so it’s okay to be a little hungry when you wrap up, as you’re safely in range of restaurant food and starvation is out of the question.
4. Carry less water – This is the opposite of what we’re conditioned to think by the hydration marketing industry, so this tip might come as a surprise. But hear me out. Carrying less water (0.5-2L, instead of the typically recommended 2-4L), is a great strategy wherever water is commonplace. When it’s truly abundant, like early-summer in the mountains, any squeeze-based water filter will allow you to drink from the sources as you pass by, without ever needing to carry any water at all. The takeaway here is that a good hydration strategy should factor in the ecosystem, not just default recommendations or heuristics. And of course, carry plenty of water if you’re hiking in the desert or places where you cannot easily and frequently resupply.
5. Upgrade your backcountry house – the heaviest non-consumable items carried in a backpacker’s kit are always the pack itself, the shelter, and the bed. So, when it comes time to upgrade, start here. Switch out that clunky synthetic sleeping bag with a down a quilt. Hammock Gear’s Premium Burrow 30 weighs only 17.4 oz. Get rid of your old dome tent, and replace it with a hammock, tarp, or ultralight shelter. The Wanderlust Hammock Kit, for instance, is an ultralight, fully waterproof, bug-proof complete sleep system weighing far less than the combination of a traditional tent, sleeping pad and sleeping bag. Lastly, don’t forget your pack itself! Typical packs these days weigh 4+lbs; ultralight packs weigh only two. Plan out your upgrade budget and see where you can get the most bang for your buck before buying anything.
6. Sort your gear by need/want/luxury – This is a really great weight reduction exercise and all you need to get started is packing up your kit exactly as you would take it into the wilderness. Next, begin to empty it out, touching and inspecting each individual item, and sorting each piece into one of three buckets; need, want, or luxury. The “need” category is comprised of mission critical gear that you simply cannot backpack without, like a shelter, a headlamp, a map, or a first aid kit. You’ll keep all of it. The “want” category is for items that will drastically improve your quality of life in the backcountry, but that you can survive without. For instance, a stove, a mug, a USB battery, or anything that doesn’t fit into the other categories. You may or may not cut some of these. The third and final category, “luxury,” is for stuff you already know you don’t need, but wanted to bring anyway, like a book, a camp chair, or sandals. It can be hard to say no to a small book, it only weights eight ounces. But make eight gear decisions like that, and suddenly, you’re carrying four extra pounds. The point of this exercise is to help backpackers see how much of the weight they’re carrying is unnecessary, and to help cut that weight. Mentally, it’s much easier to cut four pounds of luxury gear all at once than it is to separately cut one eight-ounce book, one 12 ounce pair of sandals, one four ounce pillow, etc.
Have you got a backpacking trip on the horizon? Well, what are you waiting for? Sort through all that gear and see what you can cut, what you can upgrade, and what is already worthy. Look at any gear with a critical eye, be skeptical, be bold, and the results will pay dividends. Backpacking is about having fun in nature, not hauling and suffering. Happy trails!