Heavyweight Turned Lightweight

More or less my previous mentality

One of the biggest adjustments I have been making for my PCT hike is transitioning from being a heavyweight to a lightweight hiker. I have always viewed myself as more of a packmule when it came to backpacking and like to load up my pack with excess gear and enough food to last for two days after I get off the trail. Back on my first Boy Scout trips we would all weight our packs at the beginning not to prove how light we could get them but to show how tough we were. I think my Philmont pack weighed in at around 70 lbs.

Even after a grew up a bit I still had that same mentality. On a solo trip on the Appalachian Trail I was lectured by thru-hiker about all of my excess gear which I took as a complement thinking how I could carry more than anyone on the trail no problem. Well I have finally woken up to a new style of backpacking thanks to one of the more famous PCT hikers.

Ray Jardine - The Lightweight Backpacking Guru -

A few of the first guidebooks and trail journals I had read kept referring to lifetime adventurer Ray Jardine and his PCT Hiker's Handbook. I figured I should get my hands on a copy to see what this is all about. Turns out that is not that easy since it stopped being published and I had to track down a copy from a used bookstore in California online. Anyways, The PCT Hiker's Handbook advocates many simple ways to cut your pack weight by focusing on the essentials and understanding the balance between what one needs to complete a thru-hike and what they think they need.

I think I have settled on the balance that seem right for me which has caused me to upgrade many of my bigger items to lightweight versions and get rid of gear that I never end up using on backpacking trips. The biggest changes are what thru hikers refer to as the three essentials; your backpack, sleeping bag and sleeping system. The book also convinced me to drop my heavy boots and complete my hike in much lighter trail runners. Check out my gear section for more details.

The handbook provides much helpful advise on backpacking techniques too, such as avoiding unwanted animal visitors at night by stopping to eat dinner a few miles before where you plan on sleeping. Jardine also advocates some different backpacking techniques not everyone would agree with, such as sleeping with your food in your tent which I don't plan to do on my hike. Others I have decided to try, such as bringing an umbrella to shade you on the hot desert sections.

What I envision sleeping with your food would lead to

Lighter Gear

Much of my preparation for the trip was the seemingly endless hours of scouring internet gear reviews to find the coolest, lightest, most durable and most affordable gear for my trip. I never thought of myself as one of those hiking gear heads who obsess over trail gear until I took a moment to realize how much time I was spending reviewing gear and how attached I became to some of my choices. I have been nothing but happy with my gear choices and have now tested out all of my gear on various trips this past summer, fall and spring.

All in all my base packweight (weight of my pack minus food and water) has significantly decreased down to just 16.1 lbs. My dad can certainly attest to my obsession with pack weight after I borrowed the kitchen scale when I was home in December to see how many ounces each article of clothing weighed. In case you are curious I've put together a table to break down my packweight (clearly proving my recent thru-hiker insanity and a view of whats to come)

	Item	Brand	Weight
In Pack	Backpack	ULA Circuit	36 oz
	Tent	ENO Hammock Sleep System	52.5 oz
	Ground Pad	MEC Yellow Closed Cell Pad	6 oz
	Sleeping Bag	REI Halo +10	44 oz
	Water Filter	Platypus Gravity Works	12 oz
	Water Bladder	Camelbak	7 oz
	Stove	Homemade Pop Can Alcohol Stove	1 oz
	Cooking Pot	Generic Aluminum Cookpot	5 oz
	Umbrella	Euro Schirm Swing Lite-Flex	8 oz
	Packcover	Generic	4.5 oz
	Pack Towel	MSR	2.5 oz
	Stuff Sack	Sea-to-Summit	4.5 oz
	Bear Bag	Generic	3 oz
	Rope	Generic	5 oz
	Mosquito Net	Generic	0.25 oz
	iPod	iPod Shuffle	0.5 oz
	Headlamp	Black Diamond	4 oz
	Digital Camera	Olympus Stylus Tough 8010	7.5 oz
	Chargers	Generic	4 oz
	Med Kit	Generic	5 oz
	Knife	Gerber	1.5 oz
	Whistle	Generic	0.25 oz
	Compass	Generic	0.5 oz
	Emergency Blanket	Generic	3 oz
	Lighter	Bic	0.5 oz
	Duct Tape	Generic	0.5 oz
	Fire Starter	Generic	1 oz
	Jacket	Marmot DriClime Wind Shirt	10 oz
	Rain Jacket	DriDucks	6 oz
	Long Sleeve Shirt	TekGear	8.5 oz
	Long Sleeve Shirt	Under Armor	10.5 oz
	Shorts	REI	8.5 oz
	Long Johns	Adidas	9 oz
	Bandana	Generic	1 oz
	Hat	Generic	2.5 oz
	Gloves	Mountain Hardware Power Stretch	1.5 oz
	Total		16.1 lbs
Worn On Trail	Hiking Poles	REI Traverse	18 oz
	T-Shirt	Northface	7 oz
	Pants	REI Sahara Zip-Off Pants	15 oz
	Boxers	Generic	0.5 oz
	Socks	Smartwool	2 oz
	Shoes	New Balance Trail Runners	26 oz
	Sunglasses	Oakley Half Flak Jacket	0.5 oz
	Total		4.3 lbs
Sierras	Crampons	Yak Traks	5.5 oz
	Bear Canister	Bear Vault	41 oz
	Total		2.9 lbs

Note that I have broken the list down for what gear will be in my pack, what I'll wear on me, and what gear I'll need just for the Sierras. You also can figure I will be adding anywhere between 10 to 20 lbs of food and water depending on how long of a resupply I have. Overall I've almost cut my pack weight in half which is a huge change and I have already been loving the benefits on the trips I have been on thus far with my new gear.