Creating a packing list and assembling a large pile of equipment is easy, but cutting weight from your kit without sacrificing your safety or capability is a learned skill. Ounces equal pounds, and the weight adds up quickly when you overthink every conceivable contingency.
It’s much better to build your packing list and begin assembling your gear many weeks in advance. Going through your gear with a fine-tooth comb can yield ounce upon ounce of unnecessary weight. But be careful, because it’s easy from the comfort of your home to cut out gear for the sake of weight savings at the expense of items that can keep you on the mountain and continuing to hunt. Leaving the camp stove at home and living from a cold camp sounds reasonable when weighing your gear but isn’t fun on day three of a weeklong hunt while you eat lukewarm and soggy sandwiches washed down with cold instant coffee.
Modern technical clothing and equipment are very reliable, and most of it will meet the rugged demands of the wilderness. Ten to fifteen years ago, this wasn’t the case, and it was often prudent to bring backups of essential items. But the modern outdoorsman no longer needs to burden themselves with carrying extra clothing, a spare headlamp, camp stove, or a second inflatable ground pad.
Over the years I’ve tried all sorts of ways to cut weight from my pack with varying levels of success. I’ve spent many miserable nights in the backcountry cursing my bad decisions while cold, hungry, nursing a sore back, or praying the shelter I brought wouldn’t collapse or blow away. Ultimately, these experiences taught me what is required for safe backcountry living, but there are easier ways to learn.
The evolution of the backcountry hunter often swings from carrying too much and using gear as a crutch because they lack experience, to packing far too little from overconfidence born from some experience and a few successful trips but without the skills to truly survive if tested.
Eventually, the hunter settles somewhere between the two where experience and gear meet, providing enough capability to endure almost any challenges.
Here are some ways that I’ve learned to responsibly cut weight while traveling through the wilderness without sacrificing capability.
- Don’t Carry Extra Clothes. Technical clothing should dry quickly, protect you from the elements, and be durable enough for a multi-week Aside from extra socks and liner gloves, no extra clothing is required.
- Sleep In Your Clothes This technique leverages them 24 hours a day, supplements your sleeping bag to keep you warm when sleeping, dries any damp layer while you sleep, and allows you to respond quickly to issues at night—like a bear in camp, a pulled shelter anchor, or relieving yourself.
- Field Strip Your Food. Removing all food from commercial packaging saves both weight and bulk. Field stripping dehydrated meals into quality freezer bags allows you to fortify at home with extra protein, spices, and oil, customizing them to your tastes and dietary needs. It also dramatically reduces garbage and provides a vessel for emergency water collection in a survival scenario or storing a grouse breast for dinner.
- Limit Stuff Sacks. Stuff sacks are great for organizing equipment inside a pack but come with a weight penalty. You may find that your organizational method adds several pounds of weight just in stuff sacks alone. If each stuff sack weighs 3-4 ounces, then 4-5 stuff sacks add a pound to your kit. Try to find a compromise here to keep your life outdoors easier.
Buy a hanging fish scale and use it to weigh your loaded pack, as well as the individual components you’ve put inside. It can be enlightening to see how much your food bag weighs, or how those extra creature comforts like a second set of base layers or camp booties truly add to the weight of your pack. Experience is the best teacher, but starting early with a gear list and packing and weighing your gear is the best way I’ve found to cut weight but not capability.