With half a mind to Darren’s competition and half a mind on the upcoming Lakes SUL trip I was fiddling with kit last night trying to get the base weight down to 2.3kg. The photo below shows the first packing in its entirety and this came in at 2.33kg. I’ll outline the main items and then explain why I wont be using some of them. Apologies as I’ve not got the list of weights of each individual item to hand, the below are guesstimates.
Shelter
Team IO cuben micro tarp with guy 55g. This is roughly a 5’x4’ tarp and designed to be used with a waterproof bivi. These aren’t listed on his site at the moment.
Rab Survival Zone Bivi
Small section of polycro ground sheet to put sack (pillow) on under micro tarp. I cant see the point of a ground sheet under a bivi that’s exposed to the elements. If it rains it’ll pool water.
Sleeping
Home made torso sized foam pad. 86g This is made from a five season multimat pad, I think it’s 12mm deep so there’s a bit of padding as well as insulation. It’s a bodge design that’s simple and works and I’ll do a separate making moment on it soon.
PHD Piqolo bag – 485g (I think) good down to 10c, it can be pushed much further with clothes on.
Silk Liner – to take or not to take. I like to keep my bags clean and it does add warmth!?
Sack
Sea to summit micro pack thingy as mentioned in Darren’s competition around 60g. This will work for the overnighter planned but I need something larger to fit food (beer) in.
Cooking
Alpkit MyTiMug – about 130g with lid. There’s lighter pots out there but I don’t own one and this has given five years of solid service and is as good as new.
Sea to Summit – short handled anodized aluminium spoon 5g – apparently the lightest full sized metal utensil there is (lets place bets on how quickly I’m proved wrong on this one).
Colin Ibbotson DIY esbit stove 13g. Brilliant piece of kit cost less than 50p to make, most stable and wind resistant stove (when there’s a pot on it!) stove I’ve ever used and esbit, despite my initial prejudices, esbit is a light and versatile fuel, much better than meths in my opinion. I took the stove pictured on the TGO and as Colin says it does get battered but a couple of minutes with a rolling pin and it’s as good as new. Make one today!
Pot Cosy, again another Colin inspired make. Although mines taped up rather than glued, for no reason other than I had tape and not glue. Again brilliantly simple, keeps food hotter than the silver bubble wrap, tough as old boots and good for keeping a dirty pot covered up whilst in your pack.
500ml water bottle and cut down platy with a travel tap filter attached. Usually when I’m in the lakes I don’t bother to filter water but as the North West is facing a drought and I understand that it’s pretty dry at the moment there may not be the usual choice of water sources so I’m erring on the side of caution.
Water Proofs
Go-lite virga jacket. Not the most breathable of tops, but it works.
Trekmates waterproof wind trousers
The only other trousers I’ve got are Berghaus Storm (main picture at top of post) these are heavy and great in full on sustained rainy conditions. I’ve been after some go-lite reeds but unless you want XL there’s none left on the entire planet. I got these for £20 they can be picked up all over the internet and a lot of TKMaxx’s as well. They’ll keep the water out, but will they breath at all? I can’t find any real reviews so when I’ve worn them in the rain I’ll do a brief write up and let you know how they work.
There’s various other bits and bobs which I won’t list here I may do a small video of all the bits when I get back.
All the stuff pictured packs down in the sea to summit pack as you can see with a compass for scale.
This comes in at 2.33kg. But it’s not a set up for a four day trip. I’m going to use my home made pack at 285g (ish) a lot heavier than the sea to summit, but it’ll swallow this lot. I can ditch the dry bag for the sleeping bag and store the sleeping bag loose in the bivi. I’ll swap the over-trousers and perhaps ditch the silk liner. I also want to take my adapted down jacket, another making moment to write up. I reckon I’m going to struggle to make the 2.3kg cut off but I’ll let you know.
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