Ultralight backpacking

Ultralight backpacking is a style of backpacking that emphasizes carrying the lightest and simplest gear safely possible for a given trip. Base weight (the weight of a backpack plus the gear inside & outside it, excluding consumables such as food, water, and fuel, which vary depending on the duration and style of trip) is reduced as much as safely possible, though reduction of the weight of consumables is also applied.

Although no technical standards exist, the terms light and ultralight commonly refer to backpackers and gear who achieve a base weight below 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and 5 pounds (2.3 kg) respectively in the Contiguous United States, 3 Season; elsewhere the definitions are commonly given as lightweight being under 15 kg, and ultralight under 10 kg. For comparison, traditional backpacking practices often results in base weights above 30 pounds (14 kg), and sometimes up to 60 pounds (27 kg).

History
Ultralight backpacking was popularized by rock climber Ray Jardine, whose 1992 book PCT Hiker’s Handbook, later retitled as Beyond Backpacking in 1999, laid the foundations for many techniques that ultralight backpackers use today. Jardine claimed his first Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike was with a base weight of 12.5 pounds (5.7 kg), and by his third PCT thru-hike it was below 9.0 pounds (4.1 kg).

Before modern equipment made it easy, there were also hikers who adhered to an “ultralight” mentality. In the late 1800s, George W. Sears (a.k.a. “Nessmuk”) hiked and paddled through the Appalachian territory with only a waxed canvas tarpaulin, walking stick / ridgepole, a small pan, and his trademark dual-bladed hatchet. He laid the foundations of ultra-light backpacking in his concise 1884 book, “Woodcraft”, which is still in print today.

Another ‘early pioneer’ was Grandma Gatewood, who thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1955 with only a duffel bag containing an army blanket, a plastic sheet, an umbrella, and other very simple gear much lighter than the heavy equipment common among thru-hikers in those days.

Philosophy and process
By carrying lighter and more multi-purpose equipment, ultralight backpackers aim to cover longer distances per day with less wear and tear on the body. This is particularly useful when through-hiking a long-distance trail. Many adherents suggest the following steps (in order of weight and least cost):

Reduce each item’s weight. Modifying items to reduce superfluous weight, replacing items manufactured using heavy materials with items made from lighter ones, and exchanging fully featured items for minimalist (and therefore lighter) items. Based upon actual weight to be saved, one can make trades with cost, effectiveness, reliability, lifespan, etc.
Weigh everything. An implied, but often overlooked, necessity is to first weigh every item and record its weight. Only with precise before and after weights can one optimize total pack weight.
Carry less. Omit unnecessary items such as camp chairs, coffee makers, electronic gadgets, multiple items of clothing, etc.
Share gear with others. For example, four people sleep in a four-person tent, one stove for 2–4 people, etc.
Swap gear for skills through reading and practice. The greater one’s skills in using the environment and gear, the fewer tools one needs to carry. For example, by knowing where exactly to find water, one needs not carry as much.
Lighten your feet. Hiking shoes are often cheaper and lighter than hiking boots.
Rethink, Reduce, and Repackage. Carry only what you’ll need for that trip of fuel, sunblock, string, batteries, lotions, etc. This often means repackaging items.
Multi-purpose. Try to find items that work well for different tasks, for example a bandana, poncho + tent, hiking + tent poles, wool sock + mittens, etc.
Replace gear. Only at this last step, purchase/borrow lighter weight gear. Start with the shelter, sleeping, and carrying systems (commonly called the Big Three) which might include a tent/tarp/bivy, sleeping bag/quilt, sleeping pad, and backpack). Only last, think about a short toothbrush.
All these efforts can result in base backpacking weight that is under six pounds (3 kg). Although focusing on the pack’s weight is common, the philosophy of ultralight travel applies to the person (e.g. trim vs. obese) and everything carried (e.g. skin-out weight).

Advantages and disadvantages
Benefits include a healthier and safer way of getting around (muscles and joints are less stressed), faster progress and thus greater flexibility in route selection, as well as a more intense enjoyment of nature. In addition, should the luggage on a flight not be abandoned, but can largely be taken as hand luggage. For this reason, comfort losses at the storage location and reduced durability or robustness of the equipment may be accepted. With a lack of experience and planning, ultra-light equipment can be a security risk because it is less designed for redundancy and usually for a relatively narrow purpose.

Foot weight
Weight on one’s feet (from socks, boots, etc.) requires 4–6x times more energy to move than the same weight on one’s back. Minimizing footwear weight is the most efficient means to reduce a hiker’s total calories burned (i.e. food carried), stress on body, etc. For example, Grandma Gatewood wore Keds rather than army boots.

Base pack
The rain shelter, sleeping system, and backpack are considered to be the three major items carried by backpackers. Consequently, reducing the weight of these will reduce overall pack weight.

Rain shelter
The most common rain shelter in use is the tent, but these are relatively heavy due to a number of reasons. They are often designed from two layers of fabric (to address the internal condensation problem), often require the use of metal poles and stakes, and sometimes include a separate ground cloth to protect the tent bottom. Replacing a double-wall tent with a simple tarp and bivy combination will reduce not only weight but also volume carried in a backpack. Other methods to reduce shelter weight include single layer tarp tent hybrids, hammocks, poncho-tarps, or the use of a bivy sack (Alpine style) as the sole shelter. Although the lightest possible shelter systems are tarps, there are shelters in between mainstream heavy tents such as tarptents that require less skill to use than tarps. Generally as weight decreases, the skill to use a shelter safely increases.

Sleeping system
Reduction in weight of the second of the big three, the sleeping system, is achieved through reduction of the quantity of fabric used in its manufacture or through use of lighterweight materials in its construction. Down is a lighter insulation material by volume than currently available synthetic fibers, which will reduce bag weight, but it is susceptible to loft loss caused by moisture. The overall weight of a sleeping bag can be reduced by eliminating superfluous material. An example of this is the use of a sleeping quilt or top bag. A sleeping quilt is a bottom-less insulated blanket which has no insulation on its bottom side, relying on the user’s sleeping pad to guard against conductive heat loss into the ground. A top bag is more like a conventional sleeping bag in that it wraps around the user’s entire body but the bottom fabric contains no insulation. The philosophy behind these two alternatives is that insulation crushed under a person’s weight is devoid of air and therefore useless. Some modern down sleeping bags are through-baffled and under-filled such that the user can shift all the insulation to the top of their body thereby maximizing its potential to retain heat. Ultralight hikers also tend to carry bags rated for warmer temperatures than traditional-weight backpackers, making up the difference on cold nights by wearing insulated clothing to bed, such as a balaclava or an insulated jacket. Proper camping site selection that avoids colder hollows (low points where cold air tends to collect) or that makes use of natural wind barriers such as thick vegetation or cliffs makes up the difference in heat lost by lighter gear.

Backpack
With a lighter shelter and sleeping system, the backpack can consist of lighter material and a less bulky frame or no frame at all. The common ultralight alternative to an internal frame pack is a frameless pack made of ripstop nylon, silnylon, or Dyneema, or cuben fibre, with a carrying limit of 25 pounds (11 kg). An internal-frame pack can weigh upwards of 6 pounds (2.7 kg) with features such as hip belt stabilizers, lifter straps, sternum straps, and compression straps; ultralight frameless packs are commercially available in weights ranging from eight to fourteen ounces (200–400 g) and can consist of not much more than a sack with shoulder straps, a return to the simplicity of the rucksack. Jardine’s book includes directions to make your own “ultralight pack”.

Some backpackers choose to make their own gear. Advantages to such an approach include possible reduction of cost and the opportunity to customize the gear to the individual user. Additionally, if a homemade item were to break down, the hiker would be in a better position to repair it. Lastly, commercial manufacturers often choose heavier, more durable material for their products in order to reduce the amount of care and maintenance required of the user (and minimize returns of damaged gear). Given proper care, homemade lightweight gear can last as long as it is needed.

Technology
UL hiking is for the hiker to find his own individual techniques, called systems, to fall under a backpack basis weight of 4,500 grams (10 US pounds ).

Basic weight means the backpack and all its contents, close to what is consumed on a trip; that is, provision, fuel, sunscreen, toothpaste and so on. It is a balance between features and the easiest possible equipment. This is achieved by weighing on the grams all the individual parts of the greeting on a letter / kitchen or electronic weight, note it schematically in a spreadsheet and examine the necessity of all the individual things brought. And from there only include the lightest and absolutely necessary and at the same time have as safe, fun and comfortable trip as possible.

Consideration is also usually given to the weight of consumption as well as to the body that is directly carried on the body; clothing, sunglasses, wanders etc.

In conjunction with individual abilities, as a security buffer to deal with nature, with minimal resources, the individual sets up their pickup systems.

There are subcategories, for even easier pickup, called SuperUltraLight (SUL) and eXtremeUltraLight (XUL) with 2.250 grams and 1.125 grams, respectively, which, of course, requires even greater dedication. These are the front runners within the genre and are often more inspired by equipment and clothing for ultrasound, multisport and adventure race than equipment and clothing for traditional walking.

Equipment
There is no talk about UL equipment, because UL is made up of the entire sum of a total system. However, equipment is made that aims at making the pickup as easy as possible. Due to its ease and simplicity, the equipment is often sporty, rather than resembling traditional traditional walking equipment. All equipment is made of lightweight materials and least of it. That is, for the sake of absence of various design details, such as extra pockets, zippers, webbing straps, cords, heavy fabrics and other things that the individual finds unnecessary.

Modern lightweight materials have been developed to be very strong, especially in the past decade, with the natural technological development. However, the equipment is often less solid than traditional equipment, which requires more experience, awareness, finesse and care in the use of it.

To get as easy and cheap as possible, many UltraLighters use upcycling and / or home-made equipment. Today it is possible, in specialized retailers for lightweight migration, to find the most equipment, which may be modified for personal use, as desired. Some individual smaller companies (called the cottage industry) also design equipment for individual needs.

Examples of equipment typically used for UL include: light hiking or terrain sneakers, down mattresses or quilts, torso-length sleeping bags, homemade alcohol burners made of aluminum cans. It is also considered whether things can be used extensively for more than one function, also called multifunction.

UL is a niche establishment, seen in relation to traditional hiking. Mass production, as with traditional equipment, of equipment suitable for UL still belongs to the incoming. However, there are exceptions, such as the very light and thin down jackets, which from UL have formed fashion world over the winter season 2013/14. No major clothing company in outdoor sports and sports does not have such a type of jacket in their range, although the very lightest quality models are still made by companies that focus exclusively on lightweight grips.

Equipment for UL is often made of materials such as: Carbon, Cuben fiber, Dyneema, Plastic, Sil-nylon, Tyvek, Aluminum and Titanium.

Systems
The systems are individual organizational techniques, integrated and combined with each other, for the various functions to be used for. Systems often overlap, so everything is integrated.

The overall lightweight system is based on the criteria “The Three Store”. The three major are the packing system (backpack), sleeping system (sleeping bag) and shelter system (tarpaulin / tent). These three are often the heaviest in a pick up and are therefore the most logical first to take into consideration, to save the most weight. When these together are less than three kilos, as a rule of thumb, it may be worth examining the smaller things and details and optimizing their picking up.

The package system
The package system is the combination of the organized, individual package process. It involves the entire process of packaging and includes all parts carried in the rucksack and overlaps all other systems.

The package can consist of: Backpacks, all bags and the way they are packed.

For example, the packing system can be integrated into the sleeping system by using the backpack and other packing bags as a multifunctional bed base for the legs. For example, a soft-tissue handbag can be used as a pillow.

sleep system
The sleep system is the combined, organized, individual process at rest. It may involve a systematic order of preparation, erection and removal of a camp and equipment around it. The fewest campsite conditions are the same, so often you have to improvise again.

The sleeping system can consist of, for example,: Tents or tarpaulins, sleeping bags, sleeping bags, layers of clothes and anything that can isolate to hold on to the body heat.

The sleeping system can be integrated into the packing system by using the bed base as five-fold multifunction as the backpack frame, back upholstery padding, backpack stiffening and protection of its contents. The sleeping bag can also be integrated into a clothing system, sometimes acting as an insulating layer like a blanket on the upper body. Possibly under a spacious jacket. Fully dressed in all dressed clothes, the clothes and sleeping bag work together and should fit exactly the worst weather conditions in the area, while still practicing the practitioner.

Consumables
In addition to carrying equipment, hikers must also carry consumables such as water and food, and in some cases fuel. Some ultralight backpackers save weight by resupplying these items more frequently. On long-distance trails with multiple access points, some ultralight hikers choose to place food caches or stop at stores to resupply consumables at frequent intervals, allowing just two or three days’ worth of food to be carried in place of a larger load.

Water
Water can be a significant contributor to pack weight because moderate activity in a moderate climate requires 2 litres (2.1 US qt) of drinking water per day, with a weight of 2 kilograms (4.4 lb). When traveling through an area with many springs and streams, some ultralight hikers can carry as little as 350 millilitres (12 US fl oz) of water, or none at all, provided the hiker is confident on how far away the next reliable water source is and the expected weather conditions, but in other regions hikers must carry all their water requirements, and can only minimize the container weight.

Some ultralight hikers reduce the weight of water purifying devices, carried to prevent waterborne diseases such as Giardiasis, Cryptosporidiosis and dysentery, by carrying lighter disinfectants as opposed to filters or Ultra Violet (UV) treatment devices. Some hikers carry no filtration device at all.

The Smartwater bottle is popular for use in ultralight backpacking because it’s relatively light and strong, and makes efficient use of space.

Food
Once the “Big Three” and water are resolved, food becomes the biggest contributor to pack weight and an area where substantial gains over traditional backpacking can be made.

The Basal metabolic rate requirement of food calories (one food calorie is 1000 heat calories, thus sometimes labelled kcal) is approximately 1000 per day per 100 pounds of body weight. However exertion in the form of hiking consumes additional calories; for example the standard US Army field ration is 4500 kcal per day for strenuous work. Thus depending upon type of food an average hiker carries, a hiker requires approximately 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) of food per day.[dubious – discuss] Ultralight techniques can substantially reduce this weight, Jardine suggests 2.5 pounds (1.1 kg) per day for thru-hiking, Jordan suggests 1.25 pounds (0.57 kg) per day (at 125 calories per ounce, 4.4 calories per gram) for a 3-season 3-day backpack.

Many foods can be dried or dehydrated to reduce water weight. Dehydrated meals can be purchased or dehydrated at home. On the trail, rehydration can typically be performed by cooking in hot water. Some ultralight hikers reduce weight by not carrying a stove and rehydrating food in a container with water (although this method requires more time to rehydrate than the traditional cooking method). For example, Ramen noodles, dehydrated refried beans (in powdered form), or dehydrated hummus can be put in a ziploc bag or lightweight microwave disposable plastic container with water to rehydrate. Oats (groats or rolled, granola or muesli) and barley also become soft enough with soaking to eat uncooked as a raw food. Tsampa is a simple, bland and lightweight dish made from flour used for centuries by the wandering Tibetan monks.

Weight in the form of food can also be reduced by choosing foods that have the highest ratio of calories per weight. Proteins and carbohydrates have approximately 4 kcal per gram whereas fat has 9 kcal per gram, thus carrying foods high in fat content can reduce weight, such as:

Peanut butter (5.89 kcal/gram)
Nuts (Pecans are 6.87 kcal/gram, toasted coconut is 5.92 kcal/gram)
Pemican (5.7 kcal/gram)
Dried whole egg (5.92 kcal/gram)
Clarified butter (anhydrous), which stores well unrefrigerated, is almost pure fat (8.76 kcal/gram), thus about 4,000 kcal per pound; however, it is also a potent bear attractant.

“Energy bars” on average contain more protein and carbohydrates than fat, similar to a fig newton (3.68 kcal/gram), which lowers their calorie to weight ratio relative to other choices.

Food protection
In some parts of the US an approved bear-resistant food storage container is a required item for hikers, which will add between 1 lb 9 oz (710 g) and 3 lb 2 oz (1.4 kg) to the base pack weight. These areas include parts of Yosemite National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Eastern High Peaks Zone.

Categorization
UL divides into categories based on the weight of the backpack, in order to have a goal to go for and to make it easier to distinguish what the subject is about in a debate.

Traditional backpacking (called Trad): Over 9,000 grams of basic weight.
Lightweight backtracking (called Lightweight): Between 4,500-9,000 grams basis weight.
UL backtracking: Below 4,500 grams of base weight.
SUL backtracking: Below 2.250 grams of basic weight.
XUL Backtrack: Under 1.125 grams basis weight.

Controversy
UL has been criticized for being extremely and elite because it requires first and foremost studies of specialization and dedication to acquire the abilities. Also because access to equipment that is suitable for it, in the past, either had home-made, was very expensive and / or difficult to acquire. This is no longer the case. With the Internet it has become possible, at relatively cheap prices, to acquire high-end products that can be included as part of a UL pickup.

UL has also been criticized for creating a distinction and division of outdoor living practitioners into categories. A misunderstanding that is based on the fact that some ULs have created a breakdown of access to outdoor life, in terms of weight gain – not in terms of abilities. This was based on having a goal to go for and clarify a topic of discussion, not to divide into “good” and “bad” athletes of outdoor life. Although one is not ULs, he or she may possess the necessary skills. The criticism, expressed in the sense of openness, had the opposite effect that the UL environment was about itself. The wider spread has led to greater openness and again the debate began, where a few traditional hikers feel compelled by the greater demands on skills and expertise. The critique is often characterized by Jantelovand marketing impact.

The concept of “stupid light” has arisen due to the excessive lightness of the eye, measured in relation to their actual individual skills, thus resulting in discomfort and / or danger.

Source from Wikipedia