When I started backpacking, I did not know the concept of lightweight backpacking. The idea of weighing gear? Crazy!
I took the needed gear, went backpacking, and enjoyed the experience.
I bought a “real” pack: An EMS 5500. Loaded up the Whisperlite stove, a PUR water filter, slept in a Campmor 20F bag with Holofill, cooked in stainless steel pots, and borrowed my buddy Tim’s Eureka free-standing tent with fiberglass poles (later, I bought a “lightweight” one-person Walrus Swift at a little over three pounds).
Looking back, the gear was heavy, bulky, and inefficient. However, I was able to get out regularly and enjoyed backpacking. I explored the White Mountains, experienced my first sunsets over mountain ridges, and became hooked for life on something more than a hobby—it became a passion.
My first solo trip back in 1996. Probably with a KMart special external frame pack. I remember this sunset more, too.
When I hiked Vermont’s Long Trail for the first time, I purchased a high-end Feathered Friend’s down ba/ The bag was lighter than the Campmor synthetic fill bag and much less bulky. Other than that, sleeping bag purchase, weight, and bulk were not considerations.
A year later, I hiked the Appalachian Trail. After two thousand miles of schlepping a pack up and down the mountains, I realized just how heavy my pack was for what I was doing.
The nascent Internet forums started discussing lightweight backpacking and weird materials such as “silnylon,” making stoves out of Pepsi cans, and how people should eschew their boots for trail runners. I became intrigued. That year, I did the Long Trail again. My pack was smaller and lighter, and I cooked with a soda can stove and a thrift-store pot.
Over the years, I refined, tweaked, swapped out, and changed my gear.
My base pack weight became lower. I found comfort in using a three-season backpacking, sub-10lb kit.
Then something happened: I stopped caring.
I don’t mean I stopped caring about staying light.
Instead, I ceased to care about getting the absolute lightest gear or the exact weight.
In the past, some inquired about the weight of my winter gear kit. It occurred to me I did not know the exact weight. How much do my skis and bindings weigh? What does a wax kit weigh? How much does my avy shovel weigh? I had no freakin’ clue. It is just stuff I need and use.
Even my most recently updated gear list (from 2017!) used (gasp!) weights listed on websites rather than weighing the gear myself in some cases.
So why this lack of interest in knowing the exact weight of my gear?
A few reasons:
- I stopped defining myself as a thru-hiker long ago. Though those trips shaped my outdoor experience immensely, I do not always hike on a well-maintained trail with a defined path and ample guidebooks and resources. When I go on longer hikes, some home-grown routes or modifications and potentially different modes of travel seem more to my liking. And that means I need a set of tools depending on the job (hike) I find myself on overall. I’m too lazy to get a precise weight for every tool I use in my overall kit.
- I go on trips with backpacking at its base but involving other skill sets and gear. Ski trips, guiding, SAR, or even packrafting. Not that you can’t obsess over lightweight gear in those pursuits either, BUT….
- How much gear should I purchase to save weight? “Losing pounds (kilos) is cheap; losing ounces (grams) is expensive.” When I have a 20 oz/ 565g pack that works off-trail backpacking with more extensive food carries, do I need to purchase a sub-1lbs/500g pack for on-trail use only? No.
- I never really cared about having the lightest pack vs others. It’s good enough to know that my pack is light and works well enough for my overall system rather than individual pieces of gear. I’ll leave the labels to others.
Again, I am not saying I have given up on caring about what I carry; I am far from it.
When I needed a larger pack for some of the activities above, I purchased the ULA Circuit because of its capacity and is lightweight for what it does; years ago, when I had to retire a sleeping bag years ago, I went with a quilt because it is lighter and does what I need it to do for three-season backpacking.
I don’t obsess over the absolute lightest gear, but I use a slightly heavier pack than what a thru-hiker on a traditional trail may use overall.
I go off-trail and scramble enough that the lightest pack would not have fit my needs. And I really don’t want two packs (one for off-trail travel, one for on-trail)
Backpacking as a couple makes you think more about the system overall, naturally.
Of course, trying new things and replacing them is good; otherwise, we’d all still carry 7-pound backpacks. And see if something works well in a system, such as alpha fleece or sun hoodies. There’s always a danger of getting complacent, and people should always try to challenge their beliefs.
Be it backpacking or otherwise.
Having said all that, it is still good to know the weight of gear in some cases:
- The traditional weight categories serve as valuable benchmarks.
- Twenty pounds or less is considered lightweight
- Ten pounds or less is ultralight
- Five pounds or less is considered super ultralight
But these are just benchmarks…and not the goal itself.
Or, to quote Goodhart’s Law –
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Corporate America, and Americans in general, love their metrics. But metrics for the sake of metrics rarely lead to anything useful.
Leave the KPIs for the office and less so on the trail.
So, why know the weights?
- You know the gear weight for transitioning from traditional to lighter-weight backpacking. Weigh everything! It is very easy for a person starting to put in gear that “doesn’t weigh much,” and the next thing they know, they have 30+ lbs of gear that “doesn’t weigh much.” Grab a scale and keep yourself honest.
- Experience helps one understand the trade-offs between weight, comfort, and functionality. Weight serves as a helpful baseline for this purpose.
- Knowing the weight lets you know the limitations of the gear. I’ll take a heavier rain jacket if I go on an off-trail bushwhack. On-trail, I’ll take something lighter.
However, after a certain point, I find you know what works and what doesn’t.
Knowing which brand of medium-sized 100 wt fleece is lighter is not quite as important. Knowing that a 200 wt fleece is heavier and bulkier than a 100wt fleece IS important.
My gear load will change when I go solo, schlep much food or water, go with Joan, or do other activities such as packrafting.
The takeaway from all is that my pack weight for three seasons may be ultra-light it ain’t ultra-precise
And I’m OK with that.
Initially written in 2014, updated January 2025
Well said, and I agree! Thanks for the article… 🙂
I feel ya. It feels good to know at this stage in my hiking I don’t always have to be on the UL merry-go-round going round and round chasing a destination that I never seemed to fully arrive at or be at for long. That UL Nirvana carrot had me pulling someone else’s cart for a long time. I’m not ready to abandon the digital scale yet though. I wonder if there’s an UL Anonymous meeting being held tonite in my area?
I appreciate the caution that weight does matter when you are first beginning the transition to light weight hiking. Pack weight is also a function of the hiking style. I hike in, set up a base camp and then do day hikes from there. So I do like a few luxuries.
If you were a sub-mariner your pack weight would be best described as having reached the point of neutral buoyancy. It’s neither too light to compromise safety or comfort, nor too heavy to impede your enjoyment. Which is, as they say, the whole point of UL.
well said! sometimes propaganda gets the better of inexperienced backpackers and they spend money foolishly. pack weight is important, but it’s relative to your abilities , the season , your budget, and durability. I’m a pack stuffer. I know what I need and have good gear, so when the time comes I usually grab and go. although I usually have a ready to go pack in my hatch
Gear is not that heavy, unless you go overboard with camp chairs and double-walled tents and dutch ovens. The heaviest stuff in your pack is food and it does pay to weigh that so you know how many days worth you have and so you don’t carry too much needlessly. Plus sometimes you need to carry a lot of extra water. Most of the gear I now carry is stuff that I’ve had for years but is so good at what it does functionally, that I consider it irreplaceable by lighterweight fabrics. Like you, weight is far less relevant to… Read more »
We’re in the post-ultralight era of backpacking and it feels so good.
Not sure what era we are in, but kinda in the “good enough for me” phase at this point for my backpacking. 🙂