Friday 28 September 2012

Lightweight kit

I have been playing around with lightweight kit for some time now and have nearly got to a stage I am fully happy with.

The only thing I plan to upgrade are the sleeping mat and sleeping bag and then maybe the rucksack.


The full kit not including food and water weighs in at 3.6kg.. remember the rucksack weighs around 1kg alone!

Contents:
Berghaus Munro Rucksack - Aprox 1kg
4 Season Foam Multimat
Alpkit Rig 7 Tarp
Alpkit Hunka Bivy
Sleeping bag
Cordage and tent pegs
MSR Titan Kettle
500ml Clip lock tub with cosy
2ltr Platypus water bottle
Evernew burner and trivet
Alpkit Spork
Basic first aid kit
Petzl Zipka headlight 
Lighter
Meths

This is everything I need excluding food and water and using this pack I have plenty of room left over. Most of the room left over is because I usually have my Multimat inside but I either want a smaller packing mat or I will be using the foam mat and strapping it to the outside of the pack.

If you have any recommendations for a rucksack, sleeping bags and mats please leave a comment.

Thank you for reading.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Lightweight kit test

Starting to enjoy a light load..who doesn't?

Today I took my lightweight overnight kit to see how comfortable the weight is and to put a post together.
This kit is not complete as I need to add a bivy but the one I would like is currently out of stock. There is room in the pack for the bivy and space left for some clothing and more water.



The Kit is carried in a 35L Berghaus Munro - 1KG



Contents of the top pocket: Meths, Evernew titanium stove with trivet, titanium spork, Petzl Zipka headlight and first aid kit.


Contents of the pack: 
Sleeping bag
Multimat adventure - 475g
Alpkit Rig 7 Tarp - 514g
Cordage and tent pegs
Platypus water bottle with 1.5L of water
Windscreen
500ml ClipLock tub with cosy
MSR Titan Kettle

This kit in total weighed 5.4 KGs. The bivy will add an extra 525 grams and for an over nighter I may add an extra liter of water so my full weight will come in at under 7KGS.


Food and coffee I store in the pot seen here with the cosy.



My cooking set up is very simple. The MSR Titan is only used for boiling water so always stays clean. When the plastic pot is used I add a little hot water, shake it and its clean again.


Fruit and nut porridge


Coffee after the porridge



The Alpki Rig 7 tarp, great tarp and packs so small!



Some beautiful views where I hiked and the pack was comfortable to carry. When thinking of going lightweight I was skeptical because I thought would have to compromise comfort but I couldn't be more wrong! Much more comfortable when hiking and all it requires is a little more money on times, a little more research and planning.

Thank you for reading.