Backpacking Gear Weights
The list below was a personal project that I did in my spare time. I weighed a lot of my backpacking gear, mainly out of curiosity, but also with the idea of identifying where “the most bang for the buck” was to be had.
Once I’d scrawled down the weights on paper, it sat around for several weeks. Eventually I realized that I’d better get it into the computer, or the information would be lost.
Of course, once I did that, I realized that it would be trivially easy to share the data with other people. Most of this info is available online, but this list has most of my gear options in one convenient place.
It also leads to questions. What are other people using? Are they saving a significant amount of weight somehow, that I should be aware of?
Weights are in grams.
| Description | Manufacturer | Weight |
| Backpack, Quest 72L/4392cu in. | GoLite | 1445 |
| Fleece jacket | Groundspeak | 480 |
| Stretch Velocity fleece jacket | Patagonia | 340 |
| Down Sweater Jacket | Patagonia | 365 |
| Sol Patrol pants | Patagonia | 198 |
| Sahara pants w/ legs (110g) w/o belt | REI | 355 |
| Belt, instructor | Galco | 320 |
| Belt, tech web | Patagonia | 140 |
| Belt, last chance | Bison Designs | 110 |
| Belt, Sahara | REI | 25 |
| Clearwater 20F synthetic sleeping bag w/ sack | ALPS Mountaineering | 1585 |
| Warm’n Light 800 30F down sleeping bag | Lafuma | 840 |
| Warm’n Light 600 40F down sleeping bag | Lafuma | 615 |
| UltraSil stuff sack, XS 4L | Sea to Summit | 13 |
| UltraSil stuff sack, S 6.5L | Sea to Summit | 17 |
| Fleece sleeping bag liner w/ stuff sack | REI | 485 |
| Quarter Dome T2 tent w/o stakes, etc. | REI | 1775 |
| Stakes and bag for Quarter Dome T2 | REI | 155 |
| CoreLite 1.5 Sleeping Pad w/ stuff sack | REI | 715 |
| Inflatable seat pad w/ velcro strap | Thermarest | 100 |
| Bear can BV450 | BearVault | 940 |
| Hiker water filter pump w/ UltraSil bag | Katadyn | 380 |
| Tikka II headlamp w/ 3 Eneloop AAA batteries | Petzl | 80 |
| Moxie headleamp w/ 3 AAA batteries | Black Diamond | 80 |
| Pocket Rocket stove w/ container, lighter, foil | MSR | 120 |
| Fuel canister, full | Jetboil | 190 |
| Titanium pot and lid | Evernew | 135 |
| Titanium fork | REI | 10 |
| Titanium spoon, long | REI | 15 |
| Titanium cup | REI? | 55 |
| Aluminum spoon, long | Sea to Summit | 10 |
| Plastic 2-sided spork | Light My Fire | 5 |
| Plastic plate/bowl | Fozzils | 35 |
| Measuring cup, plastic | Open Country | 20 |
| Collapsible canteen, 96+ oz. | Nalgene | 80 |
| Plastic wine glass, 2-piece | GSI | 60 |
| Firelight mini fire starting kit | BPL | 20 |
| Camera pouch | Canon | 45 |
| Tiny camera tripod | 45 | |
| Ranger compass, w/ pace beads | Silva | 70 |
| Toothbrush | 10 | |
| Sunblock | 25 | |
| Tissue pack | 20 | |
| Small first aid kit w/ baggie & bug wipe | 40 | |
| Via packet | Starbucks | 0 |
For the most part I relied on my postage scale which reads in 5g increments. In some cases (like to UltraSil stuff sacks) I used published data which offered more granularity.
It’s not a canonical list by any means, but it does cover most of my current gear options. At some point I should expand the clothing to include shirts, socks, rain gear, etc., as well as items like my GPS and camera.
An interesting exercise would be to translate cost-to-weight numbers, although that would be difficult to have meaningful numbers while factoring in sale prices and such.
My tent is my heaviest single piece of kit, so that’s the most obvious opportunity for additional weight savings. But I use that 2-person tent for a number of reasons, and it’s already pretty light for its size.
If you have any input on the matter of light backpacking gear, I’d love to hear it.
[…] Backroad Navigator » Backpacking Gear Weights Warm’n Light 800 30F down sleeping bag, Lafume, 840. Warm’n Light 600 40F down sleeping bag, Lafume, 615. UltraSil stuff sack, XS 4L, Sea to Summit, 13. UltraSil stuff sack, S 6.5L, Sea to Summit, 17. Fleece sleeping bag liner w/ stuff … backpacking sleeping bags – Google Blog Search […]
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:10 pmUsefulness-for-weight would be the interesting statistic! I have a good solution to weight on long bushwalks though: transfer to the husband’s pack. He even offers!
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:26 pmI think that all of the gear listed is useful, but how useful is difficult to quantify. My compass is only useful when I actually need it, which is rarely, so most of the time it’s dead weight. But I realized that since Starbucks Via packets are lighter than my scale will read, yet are coffee, their value is infinite. 🙂
I’ve started running numbers on how much it costs to save weight on various bits of gear. This will in no way be used to justify new gear purchases, no way, no, really…
October 4th, 2010 at 7:53 amI’m reluctant to maintain this list in two places, so for now I will occasionally update the Excel file here: http://broadsword.com/wpimages/BackpackingWeights.xls
November 18th, 2010 at 9:33 pmSpreadsheet updated 5/8/11.
May 8th, 2011 at 2:31 pm