Learning to Carry Less

I’m a strong believer in helping new backpackers understand the basic principals of lightweight backpacking. By introducing someone early on in their backpacking career to lightweight practices it helps them understand leaving unnecessary stuff at home and carrying less weight grants more comfort and a more enjoyable trip.

This summer I’ve been doing a series of lightweight backpacking classes for beginner and novice backpackers through REI. All classes are geared for three-season backpacking and participants are encouraged to bring their own gear for review.

Over the weekend I lead a class on reducing pack weight, participants consisted of various age groups, some with no backpacking experience, car campers & day hikers wanting to start overnight backpacking and a little boy (accompanied by his dad) who camps with his friends by the creek behind his house. Some were in the beginning stages of making gear purchases and some had the necessary gear needed for a three-season overnight trip in the Southeast and a few had no gear at all.

In the class we covered the 10 essentials and LNT ethics followed by reviewing shelter types, sleep systems, cook kits & fuel, hydration, water treatment/filtration, proper layers and more. The gear review revealed the importance of weighing everything, having and using a gear list along with an organized gear storage system. We discussed the importance of multi use gear, how to repackage the items you need, compactness & compression. We explored weight saving gear options without sacrificing safety or comfort.

After the gear review and Q&A I shared what I carry in my pack a Gossamer Gear Kumo. Most in the class had never seen a frameless pack and thought it was a daypack. Other gear I use and new to them was a Sawyer Squeeze filter, a single wall tent a Gossamer Gear the One, 475ml Ti mug with carbon fiber lid for cooking and Gram Cracker stove. My SpyderCo Ladybug knife was the little boys favorite piece of gear, before attending the class he carried a short machete, you know for ZOMBIES and stuff, now he wants to replace it with a lighter Ladybug.

By the end of the class everyone had a better understanding of how to achieve a lighter pack weight by leaving unnecessary stuff at home, weighing everything, cutting out the redundancies, trying new techniques, utilizing multi-use gear and practice, practice, practice.