Ultralight backpacking: tips to lighten your travel load

The ultralight backpacking craze started with one Ray Jardine and the Pacific Crest Trail Hikers’ Handbook, which outlined Mr. Jardine’s efforts to hike the PCT with the absolute minimum weight of pack.  Since then, ultralighters have refined their gear until a tent can weight 2 pounds, a backpack 4lbs, and a stove only 12 ounces.  The true gearheads quibble over remaining ounces and keep their outfit as streamlined as possible.

So what can we take away as vagabonders from this ultralight urge?  well, for one thing, it sure makes living a wandering lifestyle a lot easier, when you can bring literally everything you need to live — shelter, stove, sleeping roll, etc. — in a 35 pound pack.  While many vagabonders might not enjoy sleeping rough, I’ve done it numerous times: setting up a camp outside of town, or just crashing for a night in between hitch-hiking rides.  I spent one chilly night outside Mad King Ludwig’s castle, rolled under a bush and sharing a three-person tent with two guys…and everyone knows that three-person tents are not actually designed to fit three people.

So for the vagabonder who doesn’t mind sleeping rough, or who adores camping out, the ultralight gadgetry may be the way to go.  Consider the Sierra Designs One-Person tent, whose featherweight specifications make it a perfect single-person sleeping throwdown.  It goes up in a hurry, too.  This list of wonderful GoLite gear includes an umbrella, sleeping tarp, and more, all inspired by Ray Jardine’s homemade alternatives to traditional backpacking gear.  Ray Jardine’s book (now, sadly out of print…although my friend Reed found one for $9 in a used bookstore in San Francisco) includes descriptions and plans for making all the ultralight gear he brought with him.

If buying new or making it yourself doesn’t appeal, consider checking eBay, or, better yet for a low-impact lifestyle, Freecycle.  REI and MEC often have used gear sales, depending on your location.

(Photo from Flickr: Sofauxboho)