Backpacking: Lightening the Load

You don’t have to be a fanatical gram-counter to benefit from lightening your backpacking load. What does help is taking something of an analytical approach to your gear.

What’s needed is a simple but honest evaluation of what you’re carrying: Will you use this item? Could you do without it? Or is there a lighter substitute you could use in its place?

Ideally, you want to consider absolutely everything you’re going to wear or carry, from head to toe. I think your pack and contents are probably the best place to get started with this, because that is where your biggest savings are likely to be had.

I’ve been whittling down my pack weight over time and it’s gotten considerably lighter. Recently, however, I was reminded how I tend to think of items worn at my waist as an area that “doesn’t count” because it wasn’t part of the backpack. While it may not be as important, it’s not something that should be ignored, either.

With that in mind I decided to inventory what I carry around my waist, and no, my beer belly is not included! (But happily it too is much lighter than it used to be…) After the items were inventoried and given some thought, I checked to see how this one area had benefited from my process of examination.

Everything I carried on my waist on my last backpacking trip

First, I inventoried everything and weighed each item. Since my digital scale weighs to the nearest 5g, I ignored published weights and used my scale to weigh everything.

It was pretty obvious what the “heavy hitters” were. These were the items where going lighter could make an appreciable impact. I wanted to avoid what Jeff Copper called “PII” or “Preoccupation with Inconsequential Increments”. There’s no point in spending hours coming up with a solution that saves five grams when you can easily save 350g elsewhere.

As a result, I decided to keep bringing the following items, with no changes to them at this time:

• Two packs of Goo/Powerbar gel (70g)
• Spyderco Delica pocket knife (70g)
• Pen (10g)
• GPS clip (15g)
• iPhone & case (215g)

That last one has room for improvement at some point. I wonder what the lightest protective case is?

That left four items that will be lighter on my next backpacking trip:

My wallet. With money, credit & debit cards, ID cards and other junk, my regular leather wallet came in at 140g – most of which was quite useless in the backcountry! The replacement ultralight ALL ETT sport wallet weighs almost nothing. With eight bills in it (the same as my leather wallet for weight comparison), my driver’s license and ATM/debit card, it all weighs a feathery 15g. SAVINGS = 125g.

My belt. I love my Patagonia tech web belt. I’m wearing it as I type this, because it’s my everyday belt. Like my wallet, it weighed in at 140g. It’s backpacking replacement will be a scrawny nylon belt from one of the last two pairs of REI Sahara convertible pants that I purchased. The belt comes with the pants now and the price hasn’t changed, and it’s much better than the old built-in belt they used to have. I hope it and its plastic buckle prove to be durable. I’ll find out… At a meager 25g, that makes SAVINGS = 115g.

Another piece of gear that is normally found on my belt at all times is by trusty original Leatherman tool. I’ve had mine for almost 20 years now and it’s still in great shape. It is a bit heavy and carrying on my belt with a backpack is problematic. I like having the pliers & other tools though, so I am trying out a 55g Leatherman Squirt PS4. This will probably live in a backpack mesh hip pocket instead of on  my belt. SAVINGS = 125g.

Lastly, there was my camera. I would prefer to carry my Canon EOS-40D dSLR, but it’s a beast to lug around for days. So normally I carry my Canon A640 point-and-shoot. However, at 350g it’s still beefy enough that getting it in and out of the backpack’s mesh hip pockets are an epic struggle, something that’s even less fun when you’re doing it constantly. I inherited a cheapo Casio EX-Z90 which is mostly inferior, but it was free and it’s much smaller and lighter, a mere 120g. It’s my go-to backpacking camera for now. SAVINGS = 230g.

Examination and replacement of just these four items made a substantial difference in weight. The weight of all items carried around my waist on my last backpacking trip was 1190g (42oz, or 2lb., 10oz) while on my next trip the total will be exactly half as much:  595g (21oz, or 1lb. 5oz). That’s close to a pound and a half less I have to carry next time.

Thanks to the belt and camera being freebies, and the wallet and Leatherman Squirt being relatively cheap items that should last forever, my investment was minimal too. Going lighter doesn’t always mean spending big bucks on titanium & carbon fiber wundergizmos. You may not luck into a free P&S camera light I did, but extremely inexpensive options are out there if you don’t have the budget for the latest & greatest models.