Ultralight Backpacking

Ultralight bivy sacks are used by backpackers using floorless shelters to protect their sleeping bags or quilts from moisture and their heads from biting insects, as a kind of substitute for the inner tent that you find in more conventional double wall tent setups. They’re basically sleeping bag covers with …

The heaviest items in your backpack are water, food, and fuel. They’re called consumables because you use them up as your trip progresses, as opposed to “base weight” which measures the weight of non-consumable items like a backpack, tent, unworn clothing, a sleeping bag, and other items that you’ll carry …

Switching to a shorter torso length sleeping pad is a good way to reduce the weight of your ultralight backpacking gear because your legs don’t need the same amount of insulation as your core does in three season conditions. If you have a short torso-length pad 36-48″ in length, you …

Over fifty percent of backpackers use a manufacturer’s tent footprint under their tent on overnight backpacking trips. They do this to protect the bottom of their tents from sharp rocks and sand that can rip or puncture their tent floors, improve their floor’s water resistance, or to keep their tent clean and mud …

When I started getting into lightweight backpacking, I spent a lot of time staring at my gear list to make sure I squeezed every ounce of weight out of it. That’s ok. It’s part of the process that every lightweight or ultralight backpacker goes through when they realize that they …

I’ve bought and owned 12 ultralight shelters in the past 6 years. Several of you asked what they were, and wanted to know why I bought them and then moved on to others (See also How to Choose an Ultralight Tent or Shelter: Part 1 and Part 2). I wish …

Whenever I see a backpacker carrying wide-mouth Nalgene bottles, I cringe, because I know that three of them add 15 ounces to the weight of their backpack that could be easily eliminated. For example, a one liter wide-mouth Nalgene bottle weighs 6.2 ounces, empty. If you want to save some …

What is cuben fiber and why is it such a popular material for making ultralight backpacking gear? Here's a detailed FAQ that explains what cuben fiber is, why it's so expensive, and the advantages and disadvantages of making backpacking gear with it.

The three heaviest items in your backpacking are your backpack, your sleep system (sleeping bag+pad), and shelter, often called the Big 3. Your sleeping bag and pad are treated as one item because you really can’t use them separately for sleeping.  If you can drop their combined weight of the Big …

How would you like to eliminate the weight of your backpacking stove and the fuel container (canister, liquid fuel bottle, or alcohol bottle) that you use to carry your cooking fuel on backpacking trips while still being able to boil water and cook meals? What would that save you? Anywhere …

A few  years ago, I wrote a series of posts on how to lighten your backpack, that outlined the basic principles of lightweight backpacking: weighing your gear, cutting the weight of your big three, selecting gear that can serve multiple functions, and eliminating everything you really don’t need. Lighten Up your …

Shaped tarps get boring after a time. Most are pre-cut with a specific shape in mind and they can only be pitched that way. If you are bored of the A-frame and pyramid pitches, then gather round and let me tell you about flat tarps. They can be pitched in …

Many ultralight backpackers bring extra clothing on trips that they never wear and end up carrying for no purpose. Doing this has a ripple effect, because it means you need a larger backpack to carry the extra clothing, which is probably going to weigh more. Instead of bringing extra clothes, …

Ultralight backpacks tend to be a lot lighter than more mainstream backpacks with internal or external frames and generally fall under 2 pounds in weight. There are exceptions to this and some UL packs are heavier than two pounds, but it’s a pretty good rule of thumb. Historically, ultralight backpacks …