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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

lightweight snow camping in Oz 11-May-2009 At 6:31:25 PM J Qui

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Hiya Superstu

All the concepts of light and fast alpine can be translated. You must though, have heaps of faith in
your gear, such as the materials and their design. They usually cost more cause they actually do their
job. I have spent heaps on trying various materials and designs, and now know how much you must
trust these factors in order for them to work.

Tent - Six Moon Designs, make ultralight singleskin tents weighing around 600g, including fly, mesh
and floor, utilising adjustable trekking pole. Awesome stuff. Tarptent also make tents of similar design,
weighing about the same.

Mat - I have a downmat 7 by exped...warm but heavy (700-800g). Get your hands on the NeoAir by
Thermarest...inflatable (can blow up by mouth too without compromising warmth from moisture),
lightweight at approx 400g for regular length (almost half a downmat 7), and rated well enough for snow
on it's own (personal factors considered).

S bag - ME Xero 250 (around 600g), or any Western Mountaineering bag (I have a Highlight bag -
around 500g)), if you know how you sleep, you may get away with a 2 season like myself, sleeping in
all my clothes and jacket (which I take regardless). I make sure I eat though, am hydrated, dry socks,
warm myself before bed (no, not by spooning my mates, I sometimes do star jumps etc) and so forth.

So, all these can weigh in at just a scratch over 1.5kg.

Clothes, look at Montane or Marmot for original softshell garments. These usually combine base layer
and mid layer in one, allowing for weight saving. Montbell also make a great synthetic jacket known as
the Thermawrap which combines base and mid in one also. You just have to know how to 'wear' them
properly, you know, venting, closing up when needed etc. I wear both Marmot Driclime softshell and
Montane Transactive. I have worn both in the NZ mountains, and they work ace. Forget day and night
thermals, use the one pair (plus one spare). As others have said, ditch the bib and brace...go
lightweight, use only thermals underneath with shell over top - it works well. I use a Lowe Alpine Outer
Limits synthetic jacket (for main insulation) for the synthetic advantages, and I do wear it to bed also.
Buy a very light shell Jacket such as GoLite, Mammut, Montane, Montbell's Ballistic material tops
them all (Any good jacket will weigh in under 400g). With the 'original' style soft shell on you hardly
reach for the jacket (if you work the softshell properly, and have faith in the material).

Food - I dehydrate my own, its light (each meal weighs about 80g) and I know what has gone in it.

Alcohol - try and not shave weight here...just enjoy it. :-)

Stove - depending on what i do determines which of my stoves I take. I have a Kovea Titanium stove
weighing in at 60g. I take one canister of fuel, but you need to know how to make it work well
(spooning my canister, insulate, dipping canister in water for a moment to increase canister pressure
midway through cooking etc). For lots of snow melt for water or longer trips I have an MSR Windpro.
Again, a canister stove, but very light, I have inverted the canister, which achieves the same result as
liquid stoves (with similar priming precautions etc) and it burns to the last drop in the canister. For
longer trips I take more (or spare) canisters. If the canister fails on a single canister trip, it's no big
deal, I can do without it (although with limitations).

Pack - look at Gossamer Gear. Awesome lightweight packs weighing in at 500g. Strong, but if you
want to hack them then go for a stronger weight fabric in other brands. Osprey make some great light
packs. I have an Osprey Talon 44 also, lightish at around 1.1 kg, heaps of features for 'snow stuff' and
strong. That also took a beating in NZ.

For safety, choose a lighter GPS (dont forget your 10 essentials though). I have a Garmin eTrex Vista
Cx, it works well for me. Use it all the time. I also carry a PLB (Personal Location Beacon) with built in
GPS that can locate me down to quite a small area. They are two weights that I dont sacrifice.

Anyways, hope this helps. Lightweight packing is quite addictive.