Small Adventures

• Backpacking
• Small Adventures

Ultralight Backpacking

WARNING! most links are dead, this chunk of the site is very much under construction

Gear lists

Base Gear list

If I don't know what I'm doing this is the gear I would grab. I basically start here for any trip. This gear will work in the White Mountains in summer, or in Pennsylvania in not quite the dead of winter.

Sorry, no weights yet, I'll add those eventually. I have them all in a spreadsheet, but I'm too lazy to copy them now. And, on the topic of lazyness, I have photos of most of this gear here , but haven't set up a nice link tree or downsampling or anything.

• Backpack
  • ULA Circuit Backpack
• Sleeping
  • 10F Feathered Friends Down Sleepingbag
  • 3/4 length cheepo foam sleeping pad
• Shelter
  • 8x10' silnilon tarp
  • thin plastic ground cloth
  • 1 tarp pole (use hiking pole for second)
  • 6 aluminum stakes
  • 50 ft trip-tease line
• Clothing
  • Base
    • 2 pair merino wool socks
    • 2-4 pair nylon "women's dress" socks
    • 1 pair compression shorts
    • 1 pair thin running shorts
    • 1 wool or synthetic t-shirt
    • Tilly hat
    • trail racers (flexible with little heal cushion)
    • ultralight waterproof gators
  • Rain/wind
    • 1 marmot waterproof breathable jacket
    • 1 pair Gore-Tex waterproof socks (if shoes not waterproof)
    • 1 pair gore-wind-stopper gloves
    • 1 pair montane pertex wind pants
  • Insulating
    • 1 smart-wool mid-weight zip neck shirt
    • 1 underarmor winter weight running tights
    • 1 marino wool hat
    • 1 pair marino gloves
• Cook kit
  • 1 homemade Pepsi-can stove
  • 1 homemade wire pot-stand
  • 2 pieces of foil, one goes around the pot and one under the stove
  • 1 small soda bottle for fuel
  • 1 0.9qt titanium pot (with lid)
  • 1 folding titanium spork
  • 1 plastic cup (not lexan)
  • 1 bandana for washing pot
  • 1 waterproof lighter (loaded with ISO-butane)
• Water
  • 2 1 liter soda bottles
  • 1 3 liter platypus
  • iodine (and vitamin C to match)
• Emergency
  • 1 space blanket
  • 50 feet of 500 lb test twine
  • signal mirror
  • Fresnel lens
  • foil
  • bit of string
  • thin twine for sewing etc.
  • a bit of steel wire
  • small pencil
  • mini compass
  • photon 2 flashlight
  • 2 chlorine type - kills anything - water treatment tablet
  • some re-rolled duct tape
  • Small first aid kit
    • butterflies
    • neosporin
    • anti inflammatories
    • histamine blockers (Benadryl)
    • a bit of gauze
    • some moleskin
    • tweezers
• DittyBag
  • compass
  • leatherman squirt
  • 3.5" quality survival knife
  • sunscreen
  • toilet paper (to be used for lack of leaves)
  • peppermint soap
  • baking soda
  • Tikka head lamp
  • toenail clippers
  • bandana for washing myself
  • bandana for pouring water through and other purposes
• Bear bagging gear
  • UrSack
• Other
  • hiking pole
  • camera

winter gear list

These are the modifications I make to my basic gear list for going in colder weather. I've used this gear in a couple of times now with great success at minimum temperatures around 20F. I'd be fine at 10F and probably colder but haven't actually tried it yet.

• Add
  • Down vest
  • silk undershirt
  • 2 pair marino wool socks
  • 3/4 length thermarest inflatable sleeping pad
  • thin Balaclava
  • full length foam sleeping pad (combine with thermarest for cold comfort)
  • White gas stove in place of alcohol, for cold weather trips (may keep alcohol stove and bring a bit of booze)
  • Waterproof running shoes (mesh isn't so great for planned snow, or in silt)
• Drop
  • Gore-tex socks (supserseeded by shoes).

Summer gear list (won't drop below 40F)

I've used this gear set in PGH in the summer for example, it worked fine In this situation you can actually swap the rain jacket in favor of a lighter water jacket if you don't mind being wet (worked fine for me).

• Add
  • Montaine wind shirt
• Drop
  • warm gloves
  • running tights
  • marmot rain jacket

Other items

Other items I occasionally swap in

• Add/swap
  • ULA amigo Pro water filter
  • deet
  • Henry Shires Squall 2 tarptent (for bugs)
  • bug headnet
  • Karatool Microspike "crampons"
  • Combat boots (this is an experiment)
  • travel Guitar (for those really lazy trips)
  • ancient 1.2 liter aluminum pot (for 2 people)
  • bowls from asian sides meal (for 2 people)
  • UrSack aluminum liner
• Remove

Gear I plan to get