Ultralight Backpacking Gear List
How do you get 3 days of backpacking gear into a sack that weighs less than ten pounds? Read on, and I’ll give you more than you ever wanted to know…
Here is our current gear list for our ultra-light backpacking adventures.
To note a few things:
- Our system is designed for 2 people, we get weight saving by sharing. A solo kit would be very different.
- Most items have a review associated, click on the link for more details.
- The “Pack” column below shows who’s pack the item belongs in. B = brett; T = theresa; W = worn
- The weights listed are my own measurements, not off the label.
Bretts Clothes
Brett's personal items and clothing.
| Review | Item Description | Weight (Oz) | Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Watch/Altimeter HiGear Axis |
1.9 | W |
 |
Sunglasses Rudy Project Ekynox |
0.8 | W |
 |
Fleece Hat Mountain Hardware Fleece Beanie |
0.8 | B |
 |
Bandana REI Cotton Bandana |
0.9 | W |
 |
Synthetic Down Vest Bozeman Mountainworks Cocoon Vest |
5.3 | B |
 |
Waterproof Jacket GoLite Helios (M) |
3.2 | B |
 |
Thermal Shirt Green Patigonia Thermal |
8 | B |
 |
Shorts Patagonia Nine Shorts |
6 | W |
 |
Windproof Pants Montbell Ultralight Wind Pants |
2.4 | B |
 |
Thermal Pants Patagonia Mid Weight Thermals |
5.1 | B |
 |
2 Handkerchiefs I got mine from England :) |
1 | B |
 |
Socks Cool Mesh Socks |
1 | W |
|
Socks 2 Extra Pr Cool Mesh Socks |
2 | B |
 |
Hiking Shoes GoLite Sun Dragon Trail Runner |
25 | W |
 |
T Shirt Nike Breathable Running Shirt |
3.6 | W |
|
T Shirt Nike Breathable Running Shirt |
3.6 | B |
 |
Gloves Small Black Thermal Glove Liners |
1.2 | B |
 |
Hiking Poles Leki Ultralite Trekking Poles |
15.5 | W |
| Total Worn | 3.42 lbs | ||
| Total Pack (Brett) | 2.04 lbs | ||
Theresas Clothes
Theresas clothing and personal items.
| Review | Item Description | Weight (Oz) | Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Sunglasses Smith Sliders |
2 | W |
|
Fleece Hat Mountain Hardware Fleece Beanie |
0.8 | T |
 |
Fleece Pullover Patagonia Fleece |
7.5 | T |
 |
Down Jacket Western Mountaineering Flash Vest (XS) |
3.4 | T |
 |
Waterproof Jacket GoLite Ether Windshirt (S) |
2.8 | T |
 |
Thermal Shirt Black Patagonia Mid-Weight |
5 | T |
 |
Shorts Shorts |
6.2 | W |
 |
Short Legs Zip-On Legs for Shorts |
3.8 | T |
|
Thermal Pants Patagonia Expedition Weight Thermals |
5.9 | T |
|
2 Handkerchiefs Cotton Handkerchiefs |
1 | T |
|
Socks Cool Mesh Socks |
1 | W |
|
Socks 2 Extra Pr Cool Mesh Socks |
2 | T |
 |
Hiking Shoes Womens Salomon XA Comp 2 Trail-Running |
22 | W |
 |
2 T Shirts Womens Nike Sphere Dry T |
7.2 | W |
|
T Shirt Womens Nike Sphere Dry T |
3.6 | T |
|
Gloves Small Black Thermal Glove Liners |
1.2 | T |
|
Hiking Poles Leki Ultralite Trekking Poles |
15.5 | W |
 |
Knee Straps Support for Theresas knees |
2 | T |
 |
Underwear 2 pr |
2.1 | T |
 |
Sport Bra 2 pcs |
2.5 | T |
| Total Worn | 3.37 lbs | ||
| Total Pack (Theresa) | 2.73 lbs | ||
Sleep & Carry Gear
This table shows all of the gear we use for carrying or sleeping.
| Review | Item Description | Weight (Oz) | Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Backpack Golite Jam Pack |
19 | T |
|
Backpack Golite Jam Pack |
19 | B |
 |
3 season Sleeping Bag Western Mountaineering Versalite (5'6") |
30 | T |
 |
Summer Sleeping Bag Western Mountaineering HighLite (6') |
16.9 | B |
 |
Sleeping Pad 3/4 Length Thermarest Ultralight |
13.1 | T |
 |
Sleeping Pad 3/4 Length Gossamer Gear Pad |
4.7 | B |
 |
Shelter Cloudburst TarpTent |
38 | B |
| Total Pack (Brett) | 4.91 lbs | ||
| Total Pack (Theresa) | 3.88 lbs | ||
Cooking Gear
All of our basic cooking gear is listed here.
| Review | Item Description | Weight (Oz) | Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Seasoning Small plastic tub of sea salt, white pepper and red thai chili powder. |
0.5 | T |
 |
Soap Dr. Bronners Soap in a 0.3 0z dropper bottle |
0.4 | T |
 |
Spork Snow Peak Titanium combined Spoon/Fork |
0.6 | T |
|
Spork Snow Peak Titanium combined Spoon/Fork |
0.6 | T |
 |
Fuel Snow Peak Giga Power Fuel Canister (110g) |
7 | B |
 |
Titanium Pan & Lid Firelight 550 UL Titanium Pan |
2.5 | T |
 |
Plastic Food Bowl Backpackers Pantry Bowl, trimmed |
0.6 | T |
 |
Stove Snow Peak Giga Power Stove |
3.7 | B |
 |
Windshield Snow Peak Giga Power Windscreen |
2 | B |
 |
Water Carrier 2 Litre Platypus Water Carrier |
1.2 | T |
| Total Pack (Brett) | 0.79 lbs | ||
| Total Pack (Theresa) | 0.4 lbs | ||
Miscellaneous Gear
Random other stuff that is essential on the trail.
Base Pack Weight
Base weight of our packs before adding food or water. This is the constant weight that will never vary.
| Review | Item Description | Weight (Oz) | Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Brett Base Pack Weight Base Pack without food or water |
152 | B |
|
Theresa Base Pack Weight Base Pack without food or water |
122 | T |
| Total Pack (Brett) | 9.5 lbs | ||
| Total Pack (Theresa) | 7.63 lbs | ||
Final Weight
This table shows our final weights once loaded with Food & Water at the start of the trip.
| Review | Item Description | Weight (Oz) | Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Brett Base Pack Weight Base Pack without food or water |
152 | B |
|
Theresa Base Pack Weight Base Pack without food or water |
122 | T |
 |
Brett Full Water Weight Full 60oz Platypus |
60 | B |
|
Theresa Full Water Weight Full 60oz Platypus |
60 | T |
 |
Brett Food Budget Assume 4 lbs for 3 days |
64 | B |
|
Theresa Food Budget Assume 4 lbs for 3 days |
64 | T |
| Total Pack (Brett) | 17.25 lbs | ||
| Total Pack (Theresa) | 15.38 lbs | ||
You can also see my old gear list if you want.
28 Responses to “Ultralight Backpacking Gear List”
September 20th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Hello Brett & Theresa,
I just found your website, very nice. I enjoyed looking! I have been using
that same fleece hat for some time now, love it to. Sierra Trading post has it on sell for 8.95, great gifts!.In reguard to your TP. Have you tried the blue shop towels. I take one square and cut into quarters. I have found they work much better than toilet paper,and if they get wet they do not fall apart. I have converted alot of fellow hikers over to them. The copper ridge loop is on my list to do thanks to you two. I just did the Spider Gap& Buck Crk Pass loop on the east side of Glacier Pk. and it was great. Thanks for letting us look, Sam
September 20th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Hi guys,
Good list and well thought out gear selection. I JUST got into lightweight (not UL) gear this year after turning 63. My “old stuff” like the 7lbs.+ Dana Designs Terraplane & MSR Dragonfly stove are now reserved for winter trips.
New stuff this year include:
1. REI UL 60 pack -> 3# 4 oz.
2. Mt’n. Hardwear Phantom 32 800 fill down bag (W/ sac) -> 1# 8.7 oz.
3. MSR Wind Pro canister stove -> 10.7 oz. (I like to bake & needed this type stove.)
Previously I had:
4. REI Sololite tent & footprint packed wt.) -> 3# 12 oz. (no longer in production)
5. Thermarest UL full length mat (W/ sac) -> 1# 6.4 oz.
My Thermarest Ridgerest is lighter but not as comfortable.
So I’m getting there. Total pack weight W/ food, water in hydration bladder, & side pockets added to pack was 32# for a 7 day trip in the Paria River, UT slot canyon.
The REI UL 60 max cap. is 40#, not that I want to carry that much.
As Father Guido Sarducci from SNL would say, “Notta too bad.”
I like, and may buy, TarpTent’s newest solo tent but the VIrga 2 is OK also. Your Cloudburst 2 is perfect for 2.
September 20th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
Good selection of gear mostly. We all differ a bit. I would substitute an alcohol stove & windscreen of alu. roof flashing. Also you might swap toothpaste for a filmcan of baking soda.
Just my ideas.
September 20th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
hey curt - tell me more about the stove. i’ve seen several pepsi can stoves that seem ultralight for the stove, but then the liquid fuel (alcohol) seems to add too much weight. i’m wide open to ideas for a lighter kitchen.
September 20th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
sam - good tip on the shop towels. will try it out and let you know if i’m a convert
September 20th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
eric - good luck on getting lighter and take your time. i started that way also, getting down to a 30lb pack allowed me to start wearing trail runners, which inspired me to go even lighter. sounds like you’re headed in the right direction!
September 20th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Two comments.
(Okay three…)
First, great site. Thanks for sharing.
Second, it isn’t healthy to put items into an empty film canister that might be consumed by humans due to the left over chemicals.
Third, try brushing your teeth with Dr. Bronners. 1 or two drops will do the job nicely. Just don’t get too much!
October 4th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Hey Brett, great work here. You gave me a lot of ideas for my soon to be published UL gear list. I noticed that you don’t put the items worn in the total weight. I actually manually added up all your stuff because I couldn’t figure out how your stuff was so much lighter than mine
Might want to add Total Pack and then Total Pack + worn since you went through the trouble to weigh all your clothing as well.
October 6th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
frank - thanks for the feedback. the worn clothing weights are added up under each clothing section using “Total Worn” - you can see my worn weight and theresa’s worn weight individually. i didn’t list the weights in the final summary tables as it felt a little duplicative.
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:09 am
Have you considered going cookless? We stock up on super light snack foods…nilla wafers, cheese crackers, jerky etc. Then add a shake made of nesquick, powdered milk and whey protein. Saves a LOT of weight…which is worth it. I used to be the camp gourmet kind of guy. I would dehydrate lasagna and mexican corn pie. Now I just wait for real food when I hit a town or get back. Just a thought.
I can’t find the golite helios on their site. Is it still made? That would shave 2.5 oz. off of my equinox jacket. Do you like it’s performance?
Great site
May 7th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Hi Dave,
I haven’t at all considered cookless. I think I’d have a hard time with it - I love the sense of warmth on a cold night of a hot cooked meal, and it’s something to look forward to. I guess I used to think the same way about breakfast and am fine with no-cook breakfasts these days, so the only time we use the stove is at night. Might be worth a shot.
Golite doesn’t make the helios anymore - my wife has the Ether “wind-shirt” which is water repellent and made out of the same stuff has the Helios. If you were wearing it under a direct down pour, it probably wouldn’t hold up - but combined with the umbrella keeping most of the rain off us, it seems to be working out OK at this point.
I have yet to have many days of sustained heavy rain with it to really “soak-test”.
Hope it works out for you.
-B
May 24th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Brett,
I keep checking your site hoping to make the financial commitment to trashing my heavy (but still new!) gear for the ultralight material you recommend. I have persistent memories of encountering you on the Copper Mountain Loop last summer when Frances, Saskia and I were totally wasted by our heavy gear and you two were pert and happy with light-weight materials!
Keith
September 4th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Brett,
Enjoyed your site. A lot of good ideas for me to follow up on.
A couple of things you might think about: My wife and I recently went to a Jacks ‘R Better Mt Rogers Quilt. It weights 2 lbs and replaced my 1lb 6 oz marmot bag and her 2lb REI bag. We both really love it. We’ve been plenty warm to 25′F in our tent so far. The other thing is to consider the lightest Esbit stove and fuel tabs. They weigh a lot less than an stove and cannister for 2-3 day trips. The Esbit system works great for boil and wait dinners. I also recently went from a Golite Speed (1lb 10oz) to a Zpack at 6 oz. Still working on my wife on this one. I also have a tarptent cloudburst - great tent.
Richard
September 16th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Great site, very clear and professional. Keep up the good work.
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:22 am
Brett,
Love the site! Looking at your gear list, I don’t know where you’ve left off with alcohol stoves, but if fuel efficiency and wind performance are concerns, you may want to give the Trail Designs Caldera Cone a look. I bought one of the first versions to market and used it for a two month hike this past spring and was pretty impressed. It was the last thing that let me make the leap away from my pocket rocket for longer trips. Here’s the site:
http://www.traildesigns.com/products01.html
They have a new version that I have yet to check out that burns alcohol, wood, or esbit.
- Six2
December 2nd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Six2 - thanks for the feedback. The cone system looks very cool.
I actually switched to a Firelight 550 - a 2.5 oz version of that pan earlier this year and have loved it so far. It got a little bent on the WCT but popped back into shape OK. I need to take another pass at updating my gear-list.
However, I haven’t switched to an alcohol stove yet. Although, I’m getting close to taking the plunge. Snow is falling in the mountains here in Seattle, and my snowboard is waxed and ready to roll - so I probably won’t get back on the trail until the spring
March 30th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Very nice site. Love the easy-to-follow layout.
I noticed you listed a spare headlamp battery, but no headlamp. What do you (and everyone else on the board) use?
Headed to the JMT in July. Time to get ready
March 30th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Hey Ryan,
Oh yeah - I need to update that. I did use a black diamond LED headlamp, but switched for the Photon Freedom (which I use with velcro attached to a hat-rim as a make-shift headlamp). I need to update the battery picture & weight.
Cheers for pointing it out!
Have fun on the JMT - I really want to do that trail… someday
April 1st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Thanks for the Photon Freedom tip. I noticed that the replacement batteries are only $2 from REI. While they designate them as a hazardous item and wouldn’t send them to me in Hawaii, it’s a good tip for those on the mainland.
Aloha.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Have just stumbled across your site. Impressive. I’ve put a link on my blog and mentioned it on outdoorbloggers.com in the UK.
April 20th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Nice site. I stumbled upon it while reading up on the WCT (my wife & I are heading out in June of this year).
I find it amazing how similar your pack list is to ours, all the way down to the same lights, sleeping bags, towel, knife, & camera!
Anyway, I’m a bit concerned about the WCT and trailrunners. Typically, my wife & I do all of our hikes in trail runners & have no problem. Of course, we rarely encounter rain since we do most of our hiking in the mountains.
Until I read your site, I figured I’d be stuck going back to my old, heavy boots, but now you have me wondering if I can’t just do it with our favorite shoes. How did your trailrunner/gaiter combo hold up to the rain & mud?
Also, my wife & I usually camp with a tarptent (2 lb. six moon designs, actually), but were worried about how it would hold up to the possibility of monsoon-like rains and strong winds. Our other alternative is our storm-proof REI tent that weighs in at something like 7 lbs…not a pleasant thought when it comes to weight. How’d your Cloudburst hold up? Any issues with it?
April 20th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Hey Ezmate,
Thanks for the feedback. Assuming you have a lot of experience with ultralight - I would totally recommend doing the WCT in trail runners. There was a lot of mud for sure, but if you are willing to tip-toe around the mud-holes and have poles you’ll be fine. The ankle-gaiters we used were very handy on the sand beaches. If you haven’t already - I’d recommend you read our trip report for the WCT as it has many pointers in it about mud/poles/umbrellas etc. The campsites we stayed at were sheltered from pounding wind - so driving rain was the only concern. The tarp tent held up well, but it was hard to pitch on the sand. Feel free to email me at brettm-at-gmail-dot-com if you want to pick my brain on other ideas. I’ve only done the trail once, so am by no means a guru - but my experience was very recent.
Our actual WCT gear-list is archived here: http://www.brettonstuff.com/index.php/backpacking/how-to-pack-ultralight-for-the-west-coast-trail-in-under-10lbs/
Good luck - you’ll love it!
-Brett
May 25th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Bret, first off let me say that this is one of the best ultralight gear list sites I have found so far. All the links are up to date and the format is very easy to follow. The pictures make it more interesting to read, and the intermittent weigh-ins after each subsection help the reader to get a better idea of what portion of THEIR pack weight should be coming from each section. Thanks for putting this together! One question I have though, when you say “The weights listed are my own measurements, not off the label”, what type of scale do you have, and where did you get it? Do you have any recommendations as to what type would be suitable to weigh things from .1 oz to over 5lbs? Thanks for your reply!
May 25th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
hey dylan,
cheers for the feedback. i use a small electronic postage scale. google for “postage scale” and you’ll get a ton of hits.
have fun lightening your load!
-brett
July 8th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Great website!!
I found my way here through a google search of the TGO challenge. I’ve been looking at the Challenge for a while now, and am setting plans to get myself to Scotland for the 2009 crossing. Have a lot to do though, being in college and having very little play in my finances. Great gearlist, and overall even better website! Hope to see you in scotland in may, if you’re going, that is!!
-Shawn
Duluth, mn
July 8th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Thanks. Would love to do the TGO next year - we shall see!
July 11th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
[...] Brett on Stuff ยป Ultralight Backpacking Gear List [...]
July 20th, 2008 at 4:01 am
What a great site, and your update is fabulous too. Sawed off toothbrushes, yes!!! Tell me about the bugs in August on the loop. Our outfitter’s list doesn’t include a mosquito hoody, but with a newbie hiker, I want to be extra prepared.
Also, if you dip in the lake, should we have a bigger ultrasoft sports towel. Love how you include honest assessments of weight. How many purchases have I made without any indication of weight on the packaging! ugh!