As a prelude to bigger things in the not terribly distant future, I decided to just take off on an overnight backpack and see how well I could do reducing my weight. The game was to see how light I could get without spending any money and working with gear I already have.
The hike was in the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson. I started Saturday around 3:30 in the afternoon, and hurried to hike the 5 miles (and 3000 feet up) to my chosen camp by sunset (and just made it). The next day I climbed to the top of Mount Wrightson and returned to my vehicle, the overall loop being about 14.5 miles with 4300 feet of elevation gain (and loss). Daytime temperatures were 60-70 degrees and quite windy (this was March 28 and 29 of 2009). Nighttime temperatures dropped to 35 degrees, with a stout wind (near 30 miles per hour).
42 oz - Dana Design "Bomb Pack" (1800 cubic inches) 52 oz - Marmot Pinnacle Long 15 degree down bag (800 cubic inches stuffed) 39 oz - Thermarest Trail Comfort regular (20x72) pad. 16 oz - Mountain Hardware Bivy Sack. 4 oz - 2 mil polyester ground sheet. 22 oz - Jet Boil stove and cannister 13 oz - Guardian Sweetwater filter 12 oz - Patagonia R1 Hoody 11 oz - Patagonia Wool 4 pants 9 oz - Patagonia R0.5 zip 9 oz - Patagonia Down vest 3 oz - Patagonia Houdini shell 2 oz - Empty 2 liter water bottle (holds 64 fluid ounces) 8 oz - Two Camelback "performance" bottles (together hold 44 fluid ounces) 10 oz - Two apples 26 oz - Food (1 pound gorp, 10 ounces cous cous). 1 oz - Extra socks 1 oz - Hat 14 oz - Extra food, never eaten. (3 energy bars and 3 gels) 8 oz - small binoculars, never used. 21 oz - odds and ends (knife, flashlight, thermometer, lighter, spoon ...)
Notice that the itemized list includes the 36 ounces of food eaten. The apples were nice!
Yes I do like Patagonia gear. During the warmest part of the day I was wearing just a pair of Patagonia Ultra shorts and a silkweight T-shirt. That Houdini shell is a fantastic piece of gear, more bang per ounce than anything else I own. Footwear was a pair of pretty badly trashed Salomon trail running shoes, that are too far gone to keep using for serious hiking anymore.
Almost every piece of gear was used and appreciated. I never did peek through the binoculars, nor did I carry a camera as I often would. I did have almost a pound of extra food, but I don't feel entirely bad about that. The gorp was a last minute impulse buy (and a good one!). I was carrying a set of trekking poles to try them out, but don't expect to make them a permanent addition.
The water filter enabled me to pull water out of springs on two occasions, allowing me to travel with a small water load most of the time, so the integrated product of miles and water load was reduced thanks to the pump. The water in the springs looked good, but would have been very hard to collect without the pump. The above totals do not include water, which varied through the hike with a maximum of 3 liters (about 6 pounds or 96 ounces) being carried just before making camp the first night. The camelback bottles are heavy for what they do, the capacity of the pair is 44 ounces, whereas the 2 liter soda bottle carries 64 ounces with 2 ounces of weight. A plain old gatoraide bottle holds 32 ounces and weights 1.8 ounces rather than 4.
A lighter pair of thermal pants would have done fine (even the capilene 4 pants are 7 ounces instead of 11 and would have been adequate).
There is no reason to have a hip belt on a pack loaded with 20 pounds.
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org