Five steps to a Lighter Pack
If you’ve decided you want lighter packs, you may be feeling overwhelmed by the options. So much information, so many different tents, packs and sleep systems! Where to start?
Us before our transition to lightweight. Heavy packs, heavy fleece, heavy jackets, even heavy beanies! We still have all these things but use them on short or training walks where weight matters less.
1. Consider Budget
When you hike with a partner or team mate, you save not only in weight, but also in price per person. Two person tents are usually only slightly more expensive than the same model solo tent.
Of course, when you already comfortably carry whatever weight you need, ultralight gear could be a waste of money regardless of your budget. For you, ultralight is hype; it is more expensive and often less durable than conventional gear. Why pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for things that make no significant difference to your enjoyment or ability to complete a hike? Spend on travel to reach those wonderful destinations instead!
However, for Geoff and me, our lightweight gear is the difference between doing multiday hikes, doing them at great expense supported, or not doing them at all. We also prefer hiking on our own rather than in a group, so our gear is priceless.
Expensive Gear or Cheap Gear?
Yes, yes, there is some skinny smartarse out there saying, “Just lose a bit of your carried weight, you know, around your waist, bum and thighs, cheapest way to lighten up ever, haha!” Very droll.
So. Instead of travelling interstate or overseas in the 18 months we changed our gear, we holidayed locally and cheaply, then bought over a six-month period. We chose the lightest, strongest stuff, so these changes were very expensive: about $4,000 AUD. However, on our first hike with our lightweight equipment, we recouped the price of all that new gear… and then some. The cost of a pack-free tour for the two of us just on the Overland Track, without side trips, was about $1200 more than our top drawer equipment, and more than double that amount had we gone the budget route!
Duplex Tent: eye wateringly expensive with the exchange rates at the time…
But you don’t have to do it that way. You can upgrade one item at a time, over years if you like, nor do you need to get the lightest, strongest gear - excellent budget options exist, with the caveat “cheap, light, durable: pick two!”
The excellent budget tent 3F UL Lanshan 2 PRO Ultralight Tent 2 Person 20D
Or,
for a little more (but a lot less than a DCF tent),
the outstanding XMid2P
Here are some good resources for budget lightweight gear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leMyVAsgFjU
https://lighterpack.com/r/776crf
https://www.cleverhiker.com/blog/21-tips-for-backpacking-on-a-budget
https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/expert-advice/the-best-budget-backpacking-gear
Secondhand gear offers great savings too. Try fb groups local to your area – mine are Gear Freak Australia and Ultralight Gear Australia, as well as sites like eBay and Gumtree.
As well, economies of scale means that a tent for two is much, much cheaper per person than a solo tent; often the number of seams are the same, with certain panels simply wider. And expensive DCF tents often have smaller differences because their margins are smaller.
A quick search comparing one and two person models of the same tent finds these differences at time of writing:
Altaplex $550; Duplex $600
Gossamer Gear The One $300; The Two $375
Xmid 1 $220; Xmid 2 $300
Naturehike $165; $140/165
Lanshan $170; $190
MSR HubbaHubba $380; $450
Tarptent Rainbow $270; $300
Copper Spur $380; $450
Fly Creek $350; $370
The same applies to twin quilts, though less so, because baffles and down means labour and materials increase directly in relation to size:
EE quilt $480; $620
Zpacks quilt $340; $470
Tier Gear $380; $575
Stoves and cook systems are generally the same price for two except for pots, which are only marginally more expensive, so a cook system for two is almost half the price per person as for one!
Our trusty cook system:
pot, stove, cosy and cook
2. Research
Research ensures that when you buy your gear, it is fit for purpose – your purpose. Different hikers and websites recommend different gear. This is not always because one product is better than another, but because it suits that blogger better. Your task is to work out whether it suits YOU better.
Many lightweight two person tent reviews are written by people using them solo, which greatly reduces the reliability of the review. Some tents such as the Duplex are used as much or more by solo hikers than twosomes, but condensation and liveability are, in our experience, very different for two people.
Also, what suits one hiking partner may not suit the other. Discussion is essential for newer partners, and helpful even if you’ve been together for ages and probably know each other’s preferences better than you need to!
If one of you carries more weight in their pack, they may need a different one – Geoff has an Osprey Exos 58, I have an ArcHaul. You may prefer different sleeping mats – either warmer or wider. You may need to compromise on temperature ratings of a twin quilt, or whether to choose a solid or mesh inner tent. OTOH, Geoff and I wear the same size rainwear in men’s, because I prefer the longer torso and arm length. Discuss these things when you are choosing gear: don’t automatically buy two the same.
Numerous wonderful websites covering a vast range of gear exist. Here are some of our favourites:
https://www.outdoorgearlab.com
Forums and https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultralight/ and facebook groups for hikers and/or ultralight hikers are great places to find different opinions on a huge range of gear. Google “ultralight hiking” in your fb search bar and tick groups, and a bunch will turn up for your local area.
3. Start with the Big Two then Pause
Many people recommend starting with The Big Three and that you buy a pack third, because once you have your tent and your sleep system, you know how large it needs to be. However, if you can hold off, do so: during the learning process into lightweight, you’ll come across other things that save weight and space and that may change your choice of pack.
For example:
You may replace your bulky goretex rainwear with more compact, lighter gear (we can each save 600 g just through the selection of a rain jacket).
You’ll learn to take less but more efficient clothing.
Our Caldera Cone kitchen with cutlery, pot, stove, cups, soaker container, mug, fuel bottles, matches etc weighs under 600g for two, and we can easily cut it to 450g (225g pp) if necessary.
First lightweight multiday on the Overland Track:
Light fleece, light beanies, ultralight rain jackets, lightweight packs.
Therefore, for two people distributing gear between them, in our opinion it’s better to buy tent, then sleeping system (mat, bags/quilt), then pause before buying your pack, to research and acquire other components such as your kitchen/raingear and then finally buy the packs (pack last, so you know what sizes you need, and the weights you will be carrying). While researching, go to gum tree or ebay to find a cheap secondhand pack sold locally that you use in the interim – there are usually lots at excellent prices.
Which tent ?
The Triplex is a mansion for two but incredibly light.
First, what is your budget? Bear in mind that your tent together with conditions and personal preferences determine your sleep system; a breezy single wall tent like the Triplex requires a warmer sleep system than a double wall tent with solid inner.
Think next about where and when you’ll be using your tent. Do you need a true 4-season tent for regular snow or above-the-treeline alpine conditions? Or will a 3-season suffice? Or would a 3+ season tent allow the occasional shoulder season foray? Is your budget big enough for a summer tent AND a winter tent - should you get one now, and a complementary one later (remember those two person tent savings!)?
We are yet to test it for ourselves but reviews suggest that:
The Stratospire Li performs better in light snow and spindrift than the Duplex and Triplex
Do you need a two person tent, or are you and/or your partner generously proportioned and better off in a three person tent (nearly all two person tents are very narrow)? Will two wide mats even fit in your two person tent?
Or should you choose an unusually wide, long two person tent such as Tarptent’s Double Rainbow or the XMid 2P? If one of you has wide shoulders, you will likely need to sleep head-to-toe in many two person tents, which then precludes certain sleep systems such as twin quilts.
How tall are you? Some tents are better for tall people.
Measure the dimensions of your current tent, or go to shops and lie inside them together. Record dimensions. That way, when researching online, you have a frame of reference, because two person tents vary greatly in size. This website is useful to see how you’ll fit into various tents.
You may also like to check our Duplex, Triplex and Stratospire Li tent comparison.
Sleep systems:
Are especially personal (see our lightweight sleep systems for couples). This is one area many people swap out gear after finding mats are uncomfortable, or their bag is too cold. We love our neoair xtralites for their excellent r- rating but many people find them too noisy. Ask yourself:
Do I need a wide or regular?
Am I a side (regular usually OK) or back sleeper (wide often better)?
Cold or hot sleeper? Colder or hotter than my partner?
What kinds of temperatures will I encounter, and what temperature rating will suit me? Will we get a light quilt and boost it with clothing, or a heavier quilt and throw our legs out to cool down, or do we need to plan ahead for separate summer and winter systems?
Will I use sleeping bag liners? Silk or synthetic?
Can our mats be strapped together and would a twin quilt work for me and my partner? A twin quilt is a huge weight saving: our -7C one is only 860g, or 430g per person!
One of our car camping gas setups plus pot and cheeky babblers
Kitchen gear:
Can be gas, solid or liquid fuel. We prefer an alcohol system but for those in a hurry gas is much faster. Some say it is lighter over long trips as it is a more efficient fuel than alcohol for two people, but Geoff’s own testing at home showed otherwise, possibly because our fuel bottles are very light and due to variations in cooker efficiency … either way the difference was only 50 to 100g over 10 days and is influenced by what size gas bottles and fuel bottle you have access to. Possibly more critical is what will you use your cooker for - will you be cooking, or just boiling water to rehydrate food? Aluminium is better for cooking, titanium is ideal for boiling water, but burns food. What size pot do you need (1300ml is ideal for us - we just boil water for rehydrating our food)?
Breakfast in Tasmania: Boiling water for tea and porridge.
Rain gear:
There is a huge range available so you need to think about what is most important for you. Typically, whatever you get will usually do two of the following things well: be light, durable, or breathable. We are yet to come across a rain jacket that covers all three equally.
Good quality three layer jackets with a hydrostatic head of at least 20,000mm are generally considered waterproof. Two-layer jackets with a lower hydrostatic head are water-resistant. Bear in mind that some outlets, such as Kathmandu, cater more for people doing day hikes or weekend trips in pleasant weather, not extended trips scrub-bashing in bucketing rain. There is nothing wrong with their gear per se but, if you are a different kind of client, heading into tougher conditions, their gear will be less likely to meet your requirements.
We have two main jackets and select the one for the hike that best suits the climatic and track conditions we expect to encounter. We chose our 10-year-old Macpac jackets (if buying today we would choose the superior Mont equivalent) for the Walls of Jerusalem hike because we knew they would not only keep us dry but be sufficiently robust to withstand scrub-bashing but that came at a heavy weight penalty – 750g each! Throw in rain pants and the combined weight investment to keep us dry was just over 1kg each. That’s a big investment – but worth it.
Our bomb proof rain jackets:
bought before a 2012 trip to New Zealand.
Still going strong in 2021.
So is the jacket!
We used our Z Pack Challengers (now superseded by their Vertice, not recommended by us) in Iceland where the tracks were open – definitely no scrub to bash through! They were very light at 165g each but not very breathable or durable - they would have been ripped to shreds in the Tassie back country and we’d have gotten very wet fast. Indeed, we’ve since replaced the Challengers with Visps as the Challengers reached the end of their lifespan within a few seasons of purchase. The Visps have astonishing breathability and are relatively waterproof, but delicate.
Lightweight Challenger jackets and rainpants in Iceland. Geoff’s jacket and my pants failed on this trip but had been great until then.
Really good jackets are expensive unfortunately – you can go cheap but you will lose out on breathability. If hiking though prolonged rain you likely will get damp from sweat unless it is very cold. In showery rain with breaks that allow you to open up the jacket, a less expensive, less breathable one with pit zips can do the job almost as well at a fraction of the cost. Correct layering also helps.
If you’re not pushing through scrub but need to manage long rainy periods then then there are other alternatives that are heavier but more durable than our new Visps, and still half the weight of our bomber goretex jackets. Light jackets with a high hydrostatic head are often horrendously expensive, but wait for sales as you can often snap them up at below half price, for a do-anything Goldilocks jacket that’s not too fragile, nor too heavy.
We wear rain pants and took our ancient original Patagonia H2NO’s (now Torrentshells) to the Walls of Jerusalem in 2021. We expected them to get shredded but weren’t too worried as they are nearly a decade old and nearing the end of their lifespan. To our amazement, they survived the trip and kept us dry, although after washing we noticed the first signs of delamination and splitting inside the pants in high friction areas. Some people prefer rain skirts or kilts.
The industry is forever making improvements, so it pays to keep an eye on new product developments – the research is ongoing!
4. Pack Time
When you get around to choosing your pack, consider also whether you might be doing longer walks now that you will be able to carry more food, which is generally bulky and relatively heavy. If you expect to bush bash in tough country such as in NZ, Tassie or Australian scrub, the very lightest DCF packs will be torn to bits in a day, and a heavier duty one is preferable. If you expect to stay on formed tracks such as the Overland, a lighter pack is fine.
If you are of similar build, try to choose packs that each of you can carry: if both a small and medium fit you, but the medium also fits your partner, go for the latter. Geoff loosens the shoulder straps of my ArcHaul to carry as a daypack for the two of us.
Helen’s backpack journey. L to R
:
Macpac Genesis Aztec 85L 3400g
Osprey Exos original model M 58L 1300g
Zpacks ArcHaul 60L 642g.
The Genesis Aztecs are still great for field work (they are indestructible) and training hikes. They came with a detachable daypack that weighs nearly 460g – just 180g less than my ArcHaul! Until recently Geoff used an Osprey Exos as it has a heavier load capacity than the original Archaul, but the new Archaul Ultra 70l comfortably carries the 16 kg he schleps at the start of a 10-11day hike and we now both use these packs, mine being the 60L model.
The 460g Aztec Genesis detachable day pack
Geoff’s 72g ultrasil Sea to Summit Day pack.
And an even lighter daypack – an astonishing 30g! - that Geoff won (and I’ve appropriated)
These tiny daypacks are still big enough for lunch, first aid kit, waterbottle and lightweight raingear.
5. When you’re Ready To Buy
You aim to buy once but, since our initial purchases, we’ve swapped out and added various gear – I now carry a zpacks ArcHaul pack instead of the Exos. We added a winter quilt and winter pads. We return to our sturdy 750g goretex jackets for training hikes and hikes that include bush-bashing like in the Walls of Jerusalem, and we have a Stratospire Li with solid inner for the possibility of snow.
More Ways to Buy Efficiently:
We’ve already mentioned budget and secondhand options, but there are more ways to buy efficiently.
Take advantage of sales
Watch exchange rates if buying overseas
Be certain of all your gear if buying from overseas so you can buy all at once rather than doubling up on postal charges with repeat orders but
Be aware of taxes – sometimes splitting purchases to keep them under certain thresholds removes import duties
Regularly check your suppliers’ discounted bargains for gear that has minor cosmetic imperfections
Check expensive items immediately – set up tents and inspect sleeping bags. Wear rainwear in the shower if you buy during the dry season.
If a pack or raingear doesn’t suit one of you and you are similar in size, try swapping – it’s amazing how differently packs fit different body shapes!
Whatever your budget, if you haven’t recently looked at the incredible new lightweight materials and products recently, you will likely be pleasantly surprised, and find many ways to lighten your load to open up more wonderful hiking opportunities!
We would never have seen wonderful Lake Elysia without lightening our system.