Getting Started with Ultralight Backpacking
The fastest way to reduce your pack weight is to first take a look at the big three. The big three are the backpack itself, your shelter and your sleeping gear. The reason we call them the big three is because other than food and water they are the heaviest items you will carry on an overnight trip. As this site grows we will be including more specific articles on choosing the big three. For now this will get you started in evaluating what you currently have and investigating options and alternatives.
Make a Gear List
The best way to see what you have is to make a gear list. It can be as simple as a list written on a scratch pad to an Excel spread sheet with weights listed in grams and different sections for seasons and weather. Okay I'll admit it, I have a spread sheet. I am a bit of a gear junky and it helps me make comparisons and see where I need to make improvement. Next search the web for other backpacker's gear lists and make your own comparisons. Throughout these articles I will be making personal opinions and suggesting specific equipment choices. These are my choices and opinions and they may or may not work for you. Only look at them as food for thought. Gear lists are also a great way to keep you from forgetting something. Something as simple but as important as TP. Leaves are not an option.
Sleeping Gear
I think the first place to start is with your sleeping gear which basically consists of 2 pieces, the sleeping bag and the sleeping pad. The first criteria to consider is comfort range. Are you a cold, normal or warm sleeper. The best way to reduce weight is to not carry too warm of a bag. Also remember that you can sleep in ALL of your clothes and extent the temperature range of your bag. Here is how I decide what bag to bring. Personally I don't like sleeping bags I carry a quilt, but we will get into that in another article. I first look at the coldest temperature I will likely encounter. Lets say it is late summer and evening temperatures may bottom out at 32° or freezing. I am a normal sleeper and don't get too cold or too hot at night. I also know that if I wear all my clothes I can extend my bags temperature range about 10° warmer. So I choose a 40° bag and I wear all my clothes to bed . This approach allows me to bring the lightest bag possible but still stay warm and comfortable in the coldest temperatures I am likely to encounter. If you are unsure test it out. Camp in your back yard and see what temperature range you can tolerate with your chosen equipment. Or do a quick overnighter and just bring some extra clothing as a safety measure. If you find out you don't need the extra clothing leave it at home.
Deciding what sleeping pad to carry is even simpler. It all comes down to comfort and insulation. When I was younger I was perfectly happy with a 3/8" closed cell foam pad. I choose my sleeping spot on the ground very carefully. I looked for soft, loose forest loam and avoided compacted earth. As I get older these old bones need something a little softer so I now carry a 3/4 (torso) length inflatable pad. Lots of comfort for the small additional weight. The 3/4 length is perfect for 3-season backpacking. My upper body needs the most insulation from the ground. For my legs and feet I place my empty pack under them. If there is snow on the ground consider adding a full length pad to your 3/4 length pad.
Shelter
This piece of equipment may be the most difficult piece of equipment to let go of and chose something lighter. We love our tents. They are like mini homes and they give us the false sense of dry, storm worthy, security. But if you are going to go ultralight, a tarp is the only way to go. It is the difference between a 3 to 4 lb, small, one person tent and a spacious and airy 9 oz tarp that if pitched correctly is just as dry and storm worthy as a heavy tent. I would say that the number one complaint about tarps is their lack of bug resistance. There are solutions though. Many tarps have noseum net enclosures that hang underneath the tarp. You bring them along during the summer months when bugs are a nuisance and you leave them home when the weather is cooler saving weight. Another option to consider is a kind of hybrid. They are called TarpTents. A term coined by Henry Shires when he made the first ones back in the late 90's. They combine the light weight of a tarp and effective bug protection with netting and sewn in floors. They weigh in at between 1.5 to 2 lbs. Personally I like the simplicity of an ultralight weight tarp and the versatility of only adding bug protection when I need it.
The Backpack
Choosing a backpack might be the hardest decision to make. And to be honest you may end up with several. One for 3 season fair weather use and one for winter use where you will be carrying larger, heavier equipment needed for the colder, harsher weather. There are lots of criteria to consider before making a decision. Of the big three the backpack may be the last piece you decide on because as you select lighter weight equipment it usually takes up less volume. You may quickly realize you no longer need that 6000 cu in pack to hold all my stuff.
The first criteria to consider is indeed volume. How much does the pack need to hold to accommodate everything I am going to carry. Don't forget food and water My experience has shown that most people choose a pack with a larger volume than they really need. It's that "just in case" mentality that creeps in. I need a pack a little bigger just in case I need to bring more stuff. The phenomenon continues because with a larger pack you WILL find a way to fill it with more stuff. On the other hand a smaller pack weighs less and forces you to rethink what you will bring. The easiest and not very scientific way is to put all your equipment in a box and take it down to the local sporting goods/camping store, select a pack and fill it with your stuff. I have never found a store not to allow this. If they do, move on. Remember to just bring the essentials. If you bring every possible thing you can think of you are defeating the purpose of downsizing and weight reduction. Weigh your equipment before you go shopping. If your box of stuff still weighs 30 lbs you still have some work to do before choosing a pack.
The next criteria is comfort and support. There is a direct correlation between how much weight you are carrying and how much support and comfort the pack needs to supply in order to handle the weight you put inside it. All the support and comfort the pack supplies just adds more weight to the pack. So the lighter your gear is to start with, the less support you need and the lighter the pack will be. I always look to the past for examples. Back in the day when I was carrying 60 lbs I bought the most comfortable and largest pack I could find. All the reviews raved about how comfortable it was. The Gregory Terraplane could hold 6000 cu in of gear and the suspension and padding was awesome. It was like wearing a Barcalounger on your back. It was very comfortable, but I was still carrying 60 lbs all day. The sad part was that the pack weighed 7 lbs empty. I had the over-kill model that was made of 1000 denier cordura. My pack now weighs less than one pound and I can carry 20 lbs all day with no discomfort. It has very little padding and no added support. I use my sleeping pad for support. It is basically a nylon bag with shoulder straps and a minimal hip belt. See the correlation.
I hope this has given you some food for thought about how to get started thinking about lightening your load and the march towards ultralight backpacking. When you concentrate on reducing the weight of the big three first you will see the weight of your gear drop quickly.