I have always used Gossamer’ Gear’s ‘Sitlight’ pad as padding and partial load transfer in my GG and Zpacks packs. This new pad beats them hands down for comfort and getting that weight down onto your hips where it belongs. The pad itself (12” x19” x ¾”) weighs 68 grams compared to the ‘Sitlight’ @ […]
It is quite difficult to buy a sub-600 gram pack (@55 litre) ‘off the shelf’ for reasonable money. I have tried a number over the years and would not carry anything else. The ‘list’ below is not exhaustive but intended as a good starting point: Gossamer Gear’s (now 54 litre http://gossamergear.com/g4-ultralight-backpack-all-bundle.html) ‘tried and true’ G4
New fabric for hiking packs etc. This stuff should be ultra tough yet very light. It will be difficult to even cut it with a knife! So far these folks seem to be the first to make it into a pack, but I’m sure more will follow. I am hoping that it will also come
Most everyone carries too much gear (whether multi-day hiking, or just as a day pack). After my first solo hike of the Dusky Track Fiordland in 2006 (http://www.theultralighthiker.com/dusky-track-adventures-1/), the first thing I did when I came home was throw mout my old expensive hunting daypack. I had spent some time working out how to carry
I guess I started doing this over 50 years ago before I was 13 (or so). One of my first projects was (what is now called – there was no name, or thing then) a bivy bag (or swag) which I sewed out of PU coated 2oz green ripstop nylon as I didn’t have a
Weigh less than half what snap-lock bags do (and beat everything else hands down), eg a camera pouch weighs 1.6 grams! Given that you need to sort your pack gear some way, you probably have a dozen or more bags which could be replaced with these beauties – probably saving you the equivalent of ½
PACKS: A comfy pack will certainly make the difference between a hiking experience being enjoyable and its being a nightmare you are not going to want to repeat. When I was a young teenager I started out with an old ex-army framed pack which was hideously uncomfortable as soon as you put any weight in
Great news for gear junkies (like me). I am particularly interested in Sea to Summit’s new pad and NWAlpine’s new cuben rain jacket, but they will have to be very good indeed to beat Thermarest’s Neoair or Zpacks rain jacket: http://www.eathomas.com/2015/01/27/or2015gearreport/?utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=or2015gearreport
If you have difficulty buying stuff online, check out http://www.shipito.com/ They are just great. You can (for example) buy that stuff on Amazon (which has free US shipping but which they won’t send to Oz) and have Shipito forward it (very cheaply). We do this all the time. We usually use Shipito’s cheapest freight rates
Though still a bit stiff and sore (I think mainly from the VERY hot walk on Wednesday afternoon) I am pretty happy to be still able to walk 20+km a day carrying a pack (even in fairly rugged country). Of course it helps if you can reduce the weight of the contents of your pack
