Why make it harder than it has to be to enjoy this view?

So you've just realized, "I am carrying WAY more weight than I have too!" Where do you start? The Big Three.

The big three are your 1) Pack, 2) Shelter, and 3) Sleep System. These three items are not only considered the big three because (with the possible exemption of your shelter) everyone has to carry them on every trip, but also because they are usually the heaviest items you take. "Traditional" backpacks usually weigh upwards of 3 pounds and can easily be found weighing as much as 5-7 pounds. The typical shelter for a traditional backpacker is a dual wall tent, of which the lightest still hovers around the 2 pound mark and are more often above 3 pounds. Sleep Systems include your sleeping bag and pad (if you choose to use one). Even the "light" sleeping bags are in the 2-3 pound range, and bed pads sometimes tip the 2 pound mark. If we add up all those numbers we're talking about 8-14 pounds! That might not seem like a lot, but if you find yourself in that number range, just think about how much more gear you still have left to pack after that!

Because these items are necessary to take, and heavy to carry, they should be the first to be replaced. I think a comparison between what amount of weight is typically carried, and what is possible to carry, will be the best way to illustrate how much weight could be saved. To facilitate this comparison, I will simply sort by "Bestselling,"* on one major outdoor retailer website for each piece of gear, and then compare its weight** to a typical Ultralight alternative. Granted, not everyone falls into either category, but knowing the continuum will be helpful for letting our litemindedness move us towards that lighter end.

Let's start with the Pack:
Bestselling Pack - Osprey's Atmos 65, size medium, weighs in at 3 lbs. 9 oz.
Ultralight Pack - Sam's home made pack (that he would pit against any retail pack in terms of quality) weighs in at 12.5 oz.
WEIGHT SAVINGS: 2 lbs. 12.5 oz.

Now, the Shelter:
Bestselling (Backpaking) Shelter- Marmot's Limelight 3 Person Tent weighs 5 lbs. 15 oz.
Ultralight Shelter- Z-Packs Hexamid Solo Tent weighing in at 15.9 oz. (and this is being generous considering I could have listed one of their tarps which go as low as 4.4 oz.!)
WEIGHT SAVINGS: 4 lbs. 15.1 oz.

Lastly, the Sleep System:

Bestselling Sleeping Bag- (Some store name) Flash Sleeping Bag weighs 1 lbs. 12 oz. 

Ultralight Sleeping Quilt- Sam's home made down quilt weighs 16 oz.
WEIGHT SAVINGS: 12 oz.!    

Bestselling Sleeping Pad- Therm-a-Rest's  NeoAir XTherm Sleeping Pad weighs 1 lbs. 4 oz.

Ultralight Sleeping Pad- Gossamer Gear's Nightlight Sleeping (Torso Length) weighs 4.6 oz. 

WEIGHT SAVINGS: 15.4 oz.!

These quick substitutions  brings our GRAND TOTAL weight savings to 9 lbs. 7 oz!!!!

So, if you replace these items with ones that are lighter and work as part of a system, then you're on your way to greater enjoyment on the trail: you're on your way to Ultralight Backpacking!

* Search was performed on 6/5/14.
** Retailer's posted weights were used in most cases. 

When I first started trying to make the Ultralight transition, I just started looking up the lightest replacements for each of the items in my pack. "I have a heavy jacket now, what's the lightest jacket I can swap it with? I have a heavy sleeping pad now, what's the lightest pad I can get?" While that worked great at first, I wish I had known one thing before I started spending the money on those new pieces: your gear is not just a bunch of individual things that you throw in your pack, it's a SYSTEM.

What I mean is that, all you gear needs to work together to truly optimize weight savings. This means finding multiple uses for as many pieces of gear as possible. This means seeing the BIG picture.

Here is an example from my own experience of wanting to go lighter. When I realized that the tent Katy and I had was extremely heavy, what did I do? I bought the lightest tent I could afford, the Big Agnes UL2. In hindsight however, I wish I had bought a tarp that would have allowed me to use my trekking poles for set up, and save the weight and space of tent poles. That is one obvious example that can be extended even further! In the future, when I do buy (or most likely make) a tarp, I will make one that is also a poncho. That way I will be combining my trekking poles, shelter, and rain gear into one set of gear that work together to save me weight!

Before and after tents, but we can go lighter still!

Only you can say what the best set up is for the trips you do but examples like the one above are possible at every level of the gear selection process. From bed pads that can act as frames in your pack, to cook pots that serve as your bowl. 

So, before you go buying a bunch of new and lighter gear, remember to look ahead at how that new gear is not only going to work with your current gear, but also the WHOLE setup you look forward to having in the future.  

Convinced about the awesomeness that is Ultralite Backpacking?! Are you LITE-minded? Then you’re ready to take on "The Big Three." (Coming soon!)

Let me preface this post by saying the Grand Canyon is just over an 8 hour drive from Los Angeles, NOT 6 hours (as we had planned for). But once you behold the majesty of this hole, you forget all about the drive. We left abruptly Friday Night (10pm) after we realized this, planning to crash at a Motel 6 just 2 hours outside of the Canyon entrance (in a town called Kingman). We got in at 3:00am. In the morning, the drive out to the park was much more pleasant than I expected, Northern Arizona really is beautiful, and I am already looking forward to visiting the North Rim of the Canyon next time!

It was opening week for the National Parks, so the entrance fee of $25 was waived--awesome! We had a good trip planned, entering Tanner Trail on the Eastern side and going along the Escalante Route and Colorado River back West, and exiting near Grandview. When we arrived, there was a slight storm brewing in the West...

We stopped by the Backcountry Permit Office to check the weather to see what we were in for. Luckily, it was the end of a storm headed out and the weekend forecast was clear. We asked the ranger a few questions about water supply options down in the hole, and off we went....to pack and hitch hike. Can I just say how much of a bum I felt like hitch hiking in Arizona? People would drive to the other side of the street and speed up to go around us. We have never experienced a problem hitch hiking in the Sierras. In fact, we've always been picked up by the first car that drives up. But I think maybe there is a "mountian-nature-lover-you-must-be-safe" mentality that people in the Sierras have. Must be.

We parked at Grandview so it would be there when we exit the trail and eventually got our ride to Lipan Point, where we would head down the Tanner Trail as far as we could for the day. This all took much longer than we had anticipated, and we didn't get on the trail until nearly 4pm! That's ok, we were going downhill, and it should go fast, right?...

I tried to capture how steep the trail was right out the door, but its always hard to document that sort of thing. Plus, its slows you down to stop and take pictures, and we were racing the light to get as far as we could. The trail was also slippery from a little bit of rain, and some of the rocks were loose. Every step took caution. Sam fell twice, once almost sent him tumbling all the way down. It only takes a tiny miss-step or loose rock and off you would go...

I hadn't prepared myself for the mental challenge that hiking into a (ginormous) hole would be. In the mountains, you hike up and up and up...and every step you take up, you know the way back is still easy and downhill. So in a way, home and safety don't feel so far away. As we hiked in, with every step all I could think was "I have to hike back out of here..." It kind of gave me the feeling of being trapped, and I felt a little nauseated. But in and down we went...

We got to enjoy a little sprinkle as the storm passed by on its way out.  It was actually nice, because we wanted to test out these emergency ponchos we picked up for only $1.50 at Target. They fit over our packs too! 

The terrain as we headed down was beautiful. The Sun even started to come out and cast light on the mountains, making the colors more vivid...

We had to stop about 4.5 miles in, but it was worth the epic camp spot we found on a ridge, boasting 360 degree views of the canyon. 

Home for the night...

Catching that last glimpse of daylight...

We woke up at first light, around 5am, packed up camp and hit the trail. We've learned its better to get on the trail and work up an appetite than sit around camp and not get going right away. As a plus, you get to watch the sun rise from the trail. Have you ever seen a sunrise in the backcountry? I could hear the canyon singing for joy...the glory of the morning had arrived. 

As we went further in and further down, the terrain changed dramatically. Trees turned to bushes and then grassy fields. Flowers turned to cacti with the sweetest blooms. 

And finally, we reached the Colorado River. She was beautiful, blue and green and shimmering in the morning light. I was glad is wasn't all brown from the sediment run off as it often after storms. We didn't even need a pre-filter. 

We took a short break to eat breakfast, drink as much water as possible, and fill up with as much water as possible, and kept on going. We had a long day ahead of us. We had originally planned to reach the river the night before so that we could trek about 10-12 miles today, but we had lost some time in traveling, packing, and hitchhiking. So today was going to be a long one. 

The terrain continued to change. We had this idea that we would be walking next to the river the whole time, cruisin' on mostly flat ground, so the mileage would be a piece of pie. Well...no, it wasn't pie. Or cake. Definitely not ice cream. It was hard, that's what it was. Constant ups and downs, halfway back up the canyon and down to the river and up again only to come back again. Don't get me wrong, it was soooo beautiful. I mean...

I assure you, these are not photoshopped. For the record, I don't even know how to photoshop. 

We stopped for a lunch break and these river dudes gave us (Sam) a cold beer and offered to let us use their grover. We said yes to the first, the second seemed weird...

That was refreshing, and got us through the rest of the day. We had to hike straight through the hot part of the day because we had so much mileage to make up for. 

It starts to look the same after a while, but that's ok, because its still beautiful.

We found the only shade in the canyon that day...

Everyone we passed on the trail asked us where we were coming from, and where we were headed to (that's just what you do on the trails). When we told them our route, the usual response was nervous laughter and/or "Really? WOW! You guys must be fast!" So we started thinking...are we crazy? Did we calculate this wrong? We busted out the map and realized, Oh, ok, so today is more like a 14 mile day, not 10-12. Ok, fine, we've done that lots of times before...

The trail would constantly go up and in, and then drop into a canyon/wash back to the river, and then up and in...etc. It was really cool, but really steep and tiring. Plus, there was some more shade in the canyons.

This is Sam's "Are you serious right now, trail?!" face. It was loose sand, straight up. 

And then came the scrambling the ranger only mentioned to us as it if was a 5 minute section. Nope. How about 2 miles of straight crawling on your hands and feet and passing our packs to each other. Then there was this wall we have to CLIMB up. Like a ladder.

You can see me sitting at the bottom of the wall, Sam had climbed up first to make sure it was actually the trail.

Then Sam came back down to spot me as I climbed. I snapped this of him still climbing to try and show how big of a drop it was should you fall. 

I have no idea how some of the people we passed on the trail had come from this direction. It's much easier to climb up a wall than go down one. Neither of us are rock climbers nor have we done any bouldering, so this was exciting, and scary. 

We were so tired by the end of the day, and also started to believe the people that had convinced us we were crazy. We were not going to make it to the Grandview trailhead in time, we need to bail early. We looked at our map, and our permit...doh! New Hance Trail was the trail we were SUPPOSED to be leaving from. Details...ha!

So, it was a loooong day. Our maps did not have trail mileages on it, so we were relying on the "one square is a mile" kind of thing. When we got home we looked it up: 17 miles we did that day (2 of which we were practically crawling). Dang. No wonder we were dead tired. 

That night we set up right next to the river at Hance Rapids. I had never been so happy to be next to water...

The sunset that night was beautiful, and I sat by the water watching it, too tired to snap another picture. Too tired to even eat dinner. I started crying because I was so tired. All I could think about was "Now I have to climb out of here..." But that's me: I cry about everything. 

I was sound asleep by 8pm. We had set an alarm for 5am, just in case. But I woke up wide awake at 4:45am. So we just packed up and started walking. I had the most terrible nauseating feeling in my stomach. I ate my "safe" food: dried mangos and beef jerky. No matter what, I will always eat those two foods on the trail. They got me up Whitney. They're my go-to trail food when everything else tastes like crap. 

We hiked for about 1.5 miles up this wash...

And finally the trail started to go up....and boy did it go up. We were quickly way above the Colorado River and halfway up the canyon. 

This was our last water source. Thank you MSR filter. 

Look how far we have come already! 

I apologize for lack of photos going up (just the previous few), but I was not doing to good. We are pretty sure I had heat stoke, and every bit of food and liquid that I ate/drank managed to came up shortly after (sorry if that's TMI). To sum it up, this was a loooong 8.2 miles. I had to take a lot of breaks because I was weak...a LOT of breaks. Like every 2nd switchback....or more as the day went on. Luckily we had gotten an early start and were tucked into the canyon in such a way that we stayed out of the sun for the most part. The last mile and a half took us about 2 hours. We were sitting on a rock in the shade, I was crying, feeling like I had come to the Grand Canyon to die...then I heard what was the most glorious sound ever...A CAR! I nearly ran up that last switchback and we were out...

Wow. What a trip. We managed to eventually get a ride back to the car (because it was parked in a different place than we came out). I couldn't believe how many cars would fly by us like we were serial killers. I was crying and waving my arms...good job Arizona for training your people to not pick up strangers. I made it out of the hole, and now I was going to die on the road (the car was a good 15 miles away). Finally an elderly couple from Colorado rescued me (us). She even gave me a coke, and it never tasted so good.

I'm not sure I would backpack the Grand Canyon again with such high mileage expectations. So we learned our lesson: Canyons are much different than mountains. I did not realize how tiring bouldering and scrambling would be. Now we know. 

But it was worth it. Because...

Both Katy AND my packs on an overnight trip with a bear canister and food, weighing in at 24lbs. 

         The fastest way to reduce your pack weight to UL levels, is to realize that first and foremost, being an Ultralight Backpacker means ALWAYS having a mindset aimed at going lighter. Let's call this mindset, “lite-mindedness.” (Notice how I replaced the unnecessary "-ght" in "light," with just "-te"?! This is what I'm talking about!) So, if you’re ready to enjoy the benifits of going Ultralight, but unsure about being so “lite-minded,” let me further explain the UL mindset and show you how having it can be creative and fun!

      Where the traditional backpacker sometimes factors weight into their gear choices, to the lite-minded person the weight factor is pervasive. For example, not only should lite-mindedness influence which gear you choose, it should also influence what gear you even take. It doesn’t stop there! It also influences what food you bring, when you carry water, the clothes you wear, where you establish camp, where you look for new gear, and the list goes on and on… 

      But just because lite-mindedness extends to any and every backpacking decision, that doesn’t mean being lite-minded can’t be fun too. Once you have aimed at lowering your pack weight, seeing your base weight drop and drop becomes a hugely satisfying aspect of the whole backpacking experience. Plus, this joy can be experienced over and over again as you swap out pieces of gear, find second uses for gear you already use, or (as has happened to Katy) happen upon an amazingly light cook pot at Big Lots. Not only is making these changes fun, but they will be a natural reminder of the good times had, and to be had, on the trail. 

     Not only is being lite-minded fun, but it is also a great avenue for creativity. The mental challenge of reducing your pack weight is stimulating and requires flexibility. That might look like finding second (or third, OR FOURTH) uses for your gear, or it might mean making your own gear. Take as an example of the later, the "Fosters pot" I made (seen bellow). I understand that not everyone is crafty, but I find it hard to imagine a lover of the outdoors that is not eager to attack a problem head on. Lite-mindedness provides a highly productive, fun, and satisfying trajectory for that creative energy. 

1.1 oz cook pot!

 So become lite-minded, have more fun, be creative, and most importantly enjoy spending more time outside… as an ULTRALITE BACKPACKER!

Climbing Whitney is easier when you carry so little weight!

    

Katy only needed an REI Flash 18! 

If you already love UltraLIGHT Backpacking, maybe you're ready to think SYSTEMatically, or take on "The Big Three." (Coming soon!)