To see how much progress I had made since my first "ultralight" trip back in March of 2009, I loaded up and headed out. I have cut out 5 pounds of gear (but had to carry this much more water). This trip was the first with my Gossamer Gear Miniposa. Also this was the first time ever cooking on an alcohol stove.
The hike was in the Santa Catalina Mountains, north of Tucson. I started Saturday late (around 4:30 in the afternoon). The late start was just as well given the temperatues of just over 100 degrees down in Tucson. (It was 88 degrees when I returned back to my truck the next day at 10:45 AM at 8000 feet). My hike was down the box camp trail, which wanders along the edge of some seriously fire damaged country from the big fire a few years back. The scenery was still just fine and much of the ground under the conifers was covered by knee high ferns. There was even decent running water about 1.2 miles down the trail, but I carried all that I needed (6 liters). I hiked about 3 miles from the trailhead, making camp at about 7000 feet elevation on a rocky nose overlooking the west fork of Sabino Canyon. As the sun set, the wind picked up and continued much of the night, making sleep difficult. Nighttime temperatures dropped only to 63 degrees, and I was quite warm.
17 oz - Gossamer Gear Miniposa with hip belt and socks as shoulder padding. 41 oz - Mountain Hardware "down upgrade" bag (rated at 40 degrees) 39 oz - Thermarest Trail Comfort regular (20x72) pad. 18 oz - Ancient North Face Gore-Tex Bivy Sack (never used) 4 oz - 3x7 foot Tyvek ground sheet. 12 oz - Gram Weenie Alcohol Stove, pot, fuel, windscreen, lighter 5 oz - insulated cup 10 oz - Patagonia R0.5 (Cap-4) zip top 7 oz - Patagonia Wool 4 pants 12 oz - Patagonia R1 Hoody - never used 4 oz - Patagonia Houdini shell - never used 2 oz - Empty 2 liter water bottle (holds 64 fluid ounces) 2 oz - Empty Gatoraide bottle. 3 oz - Extra socks 23 oz - Extra food, never eaten. (3 energy bars and 2 cliff shots, 8 ounce block of cheese, and more). 8 oz - small binoculars, never used. 17 oz - odds and ends (headlamp, heavy thermometer, spoon, clippers, map, pen, stuff bag, ...)
The alcohol stove saved me 10 ounces over the Jet Boil rig I used last time. This is a Gram Weenie Pro stove with an excessively heavy 7 ounce stainless steel pot. The pot cost me $2.50 in a thrift store, and I could pare 3 ounces by shelling out $70 for a titanium stove. My future probably does hold a Caldera cone with some kind of Titanium pot (which will also save on fuel weight on longer trips). The downside is not having the Jetboils french press.
Once again I carried almost 1.5 pounds of extra food. This basically can be chalked up last minute planning. Having one power bar and a cliff shot in reserve would be plenty. I did eat about 6 ounces of gorp, a package of raman, 2 packets of instant oatmeal, tea, and 2 dinner rolls (cinnamon/raisin) from beyond bread. And an apple.
I could have left a number of clothing items (and the bivy bag) behind and not missed them. If the temperatures had been 55 degrees (10 degrees cooler) and I had camped in a wind sheltered location I would have been comfortable and likely have slept better.
Daytime I was just hiking in shorts and a silkweight capilene t-shirt. I wore the capilene 4 stuff at night for pajamas and felt just fine standing around in the 63 degree wind outside of the sleeping bag.
I again confirmed my conclusion that there is no reason to have a hip belt on a pack with a 20 pound load. I could remove that and save 5 ounces, cutting the weight of the pack itself to 10 ounces. The only reason I could imagine wanting the hip belt would be if I overloaded the pack and wanted to take some of the load off my shoulders (not for comfort, but to avoid the risk of ripping out the straps).
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org