What's in my pack?

[Quixoticgeek]

I've had a number of people asking me if I really fit everything for a weekend hike in my 30L pack. So I thought I'd right a post with a details what's in the pack for a typical summer weekend hike. The photo was taken at the end of a trip so there's no food in the pack.

- Pack contents

• A - Sea-to-Summit Outhouse & Coughlans trowel
• B - Clothing - a few pairs of underwear, spare socks, spare baselayer (Rab MeCo 120 SS)
• C - RAB Siltarp 1 + 6 x Alpkit Y beam pegs in Treadlightly bag
• D - Evernew 1.5L water pouch
• E - Mountain Equipment Lamina 35 sleeping bag
• F - Osprey Tempest 30 Backpack
• G - Exped Synmat 7 UL, Schnozzel pump bag, Exped Pillow UL, RAB silk sleeping bag liner, Mossie headnet
• H - Alpkit Hunka XL Bivvi bag.
• I - Sawyer Mini, 2L bag, gravity conversion kit
• J - Powertraveller powermonkey Extreme + cable
• K - Evernew Appalachian set + Evernew 400ml mug
• L - Paramo Bentu fleece
• M - Svord Peasant Mini + EDC Fire Kit (both in right pocket)
• N - Meths
• O - Paramo Fuera Ascent Jacket
• P - Brewkit.

Not labelled is the silver foil coated bubble wrap insulation that I use as a ground pad under the Exped Synmat.

- Brewkit contents

In the brew kit I have teabags, hot chocolate, soup, knife, fork, spoon, salt, pepper, oil, pot gripper, and the BPL universal trivet. The tub doesn't weigh much more than a similar size stuff sack, and protects the contents.

When packing I try to make sure everything goes into the pack in the reverse order that I need it, so the sleeping bag goes in the bottom, then the bivvi bag, then sleep mat, then tarp etc...

The powermonkey pack goes in the zip pocket on the underside of the lid, the sawyer goes in the stash pocket on the front of the pack, the trowel and fuel in a side pocket, and the water pouch in the other side pocket.

- Contents of the pack pockets

In the hip pockets of the packets I have a few odds and sods, the first aid kit (large dressing, pouch of plasters, tube of pills) goes in the left pocket, the right pocket has sunblock, insect repellent, small saw, and the Zelph Starlyte stove. I keep my inReach Explorer on my left shoulder strap, and my Petzl Zipka 2+ on the right strap, so I don't have to rummage about in a pack to try and find it in the dark.

With everything in the pack there is room for food on the top, and in the stash pocket. The lid pocket is also empty and I usually fill it with food. Dry weight, it's 6.6kg.

- Packed and ready to go

Everything I need for a few nights hiking, all carried in a 30L pack, with room for food.

--

This was originally posted on my blog at http://42q.eu/lsZ

 

[rorymax]

Nice packout Julia, very well thought out, I like it a lot.

 

[Man of Tanith]

A well tbought out and concise kit that thank you for sharing.
Whilst polar opposite to my own kit preferences and choices i enjoyed reading through what you have.
For pure curiosity whats the total weight of the pack?

 

[Paulm]

Always interesting to see what and how others do things, thanks.

Curious about the sawyer gravity conversion kit ? I'm familiar with the mini sawyer but wondering if that makes it easier still to use ?

 

[Mesquite]

Very well thought out kit load Julia and nicely laid out as well for everyone to see, thanks for sharing it with us

Only thing missing is a description of H, is that your bivi bag?

 

[Madriverrob]

A well considered load, thanks for sharing.

 

[sunndog]

Thats a good load, nice and light without going into SUL territory. Esp considering its a decent pack and with a synthetic sleeping bag
No waterproofs?


Are you happy with that evernew ti stove?. early this year i got this, which i'm loving
I'm really bad at monitoring fuel use but it seems to use way less than a fancy feest (as you said). I cant get out of the habit of putting far too much in per brew up

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UL-MSR-Ti...552391?hash=item464f43c607:g:DjIAAOSwYIhWjS5v

Made for my trusty msr titan kettle, with a couple of the teeny tiny ti shepard hook pegs it works with my toaks 500ml pot too

Following on from your comments about the weight of hammocks on the 3x3 tarp thread
For a weekend i can fit everything inside my ancient 35ltr camelbak peak bagger. And that includes a -15*c underquilt, -6*c top quilt, and a hammock with bugnet
I wont tell you how much that cost though lol
It comes it at about 7kg base weight including a few non UL items. I could easily knock half a kilo or more off that with a different pack but i'v had that peak bagger for nearly 15 years and i just love the way it carries, and its bombproof


Google pic of my bag

 

[Quixoticgeek]

A well tbought out and concise kit that thank you for sharing.
Whilst polar opposite to my own kit preferences and choices i enjoyed reading through what you have.
For pure curiosity whats the total weight of the pack?

It's 6.6kg before I add food, water, and fuel. Water is about 1.5kg, fuel is about 180g. Food is more variable, I may take a couple of dehydrated pouches, and some biscuits, or I may take wet food, or I may just forage the shops/pubs en route, so it varies, but in the region of 500-700g per day. So all up, the wet weight is just under 10kg.

Curious about the sawyer gravity conversion kit ? I'm familiar with the mini sawyer but wondering if that makes it easier still to use ?

Yes and no. It means I can set it going and do other stuff, if you only want to do under a litre, then it's not worth it, but if you want to do several litres at once, then yes, definitely an improvement. I'll write a post about what I did at some point soon.

Very well thought out kit load Julia and nicely laid out as well for everyone to see, thanks for sharing it with us

Only thing missing is a description of H, is that your bivi bag?

Thanks for pointing that out, can't believe I missed it. Yep, that's my alpkit hunka xl bivvi bag. I've now added it to the original post.

Thats a good load, nice and light without going into SUL territory. Esp considering its a decent pack and with a synthetic sleeping bag
No waterproofs?

The Bentu fleece and the fuera ascent jacket together form a waterproof jacket, and either on it's own will fend off most light showers. I don't bother with water proof trousers a lot of the time, my trousers (Craghoppers Kiwi Pro Stretch) shrug off most rain, and even if they do wet through, they dry so quickly. In winter I hike in Paramo Cascada 1 trousers, which are waterproof by default, which works better than water proof over trousers.

In summer I find that if I wear a membrane based over trouser, I'll get just as wet from sweat, so there is no point.

Are you happy with that evernew ti stove?. early this year i got this, which i'm loving
I'm really bad at monitoring fuel use but it seems to use way less than a fancy feest (as you said). I cant get out of the habit of putting far too much in per brew up

The evernew burner unit is very thirsty, but it does boil fast. That's why I have the zelph starlyte stove in the hip pocket. Sure it's slower to make the cuppa, but it does use about half the fuel, and I can blow it out and put the lid on to conserve unburned fuel. I really should stop carrying the evernew burner unit, but it's just become habit to leave it all as one item. I still use the DX stand, but with the starlyte burner.

Following on from your comments about the weight of hammocks on the 3x3 tarp thread
For a weekend i can fit everything inside my ancient 35ltr camelbak peak bagger. And that includes a -15*c underquilt, -6*c top quilt, and a hammock with bugnet
I wont tell you how much that cost though lol
It comes it at about 7kg base weight including a few non UL items. I could easily knock half a kilo or more off that with a different pack but i'v had that peak bagger for nearly 15 years and i just love the way it carries, and its bombproof

I'm guessing that's down based insulation? I don't think I could fit a -15°C sleeping bag in this pack unless it was down, even then it may make everything a tight fit.

J

 

[Alreetmiowdmuka]

I'm interested in your gravity fed sawyer filter too.any chance of some more detailed info please


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sunndog]

Julia, yeah all down insulation. Theres no way you could do it with off the peg synthetics....again, i could probably drop another 400g with summer weight quilts, but obviously thats yet more specialist and spendy gear. But it does prove that hammocking can be bona-fida "ultralight"

A lamina sleeping bag and hunka take some beating for bang per buck

I'd like to see your sawyer gravity mod too. I'm sure i tried it using a 3ltr pop bottle as a 'bucket' once, cant really remember now but i think it worked



*edit, waterproofs
I'll have to have a look at your jackets, i don't know either of them tbh
Lack of waterproofs stood out cos i almost always carry lightweight seperates. jacket atm is the top half of a dri-ducks set.
With you on the over trousers. As a farmer i wear overtrousers far too often and i bloody hate sweating away in them. Because i can carry one off i use a ULA rain kilt it could do with being a bit bigger but works well

 

[Bishop]

A very tidy loadout you have there, spartan but not uncomfortably so.
I was worried for a second when I saw the litre of chocolate & vanilla ice cream then relieved to learn I'm not the only one who uses plastic tubs or tuppaware for bit and bobs

 

[barbourdurham]

Thanks julia! now Im going to have to weigh my gear and get all OCD on it.......lol