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Comment by valleyjo | Hacker News Reader

“Ultralight” backpacking favors skills rather than gear. Folks have done entire 3k mile thru hikes with 5lbs of gear. The main way you get that low is simply by not taking much with you. You carry only the essentials. I don’t know if this is what the parent poster was referring to but it’s what my mind went to.

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In my experience, the ultralight gear is the most expensive of all

This seems quite misleading. Generally, lighter gear costs more, for one thing. Second, going by the shopping list posted below about someone making it at just over 5 lbs, that works fine if you never go into high altitude or anywhere with very bad weather, but you're going to need more if you do. Also, it's listing "0.14 lbs" of food and water, which is obvious bullshit. That's only showing the weight of the containers. You can't actually live very long off of 10 grams of water and 20 calories of food and you're not going to get by not carrying any unless you're both following a river the entire way and you're a hell of a hunter, but also apparently not carrying any hunting equipment.

When people talk about weight in this context, they really mean "base weight" not including consumables or worn clothing/shoes. The general rule of thumb is about 1lb/500g of food per day.

5lbs of gear is 5lbs of gear. And this seems like an extreme example - have you done 3k mile thru hikes on 5lbs of gear? What does that look like?

When I hiked the AT, my backpack was a previous year's model (2006 Camelbak Cloudwalker, I think) that I bought for $35. It's smaller than most daypacks. In fact, it's still the daypack I usually use but sometimes it is too small for day hikes, like in winter.

I used a summer sleeping bag that was 14 oz after I cut the zipper off (Marmot Pounder, which I wish they still made).

I had a "blue foam" sleeping pad that was cut down to size, which is extremely cheap and light. I now opt for much heavier sleeping pads. When cowboy camping along the AT you do not need much of a sleeping pad because you'll likely be on top of leaves, but on a shelter floor it's not enough.

For shelter, I just had a 6 oz sil tarp for when an AT shelter was full and I expected rain. I set up the tarp exactly once, and it didn't rain anyways.

My spare clothes were a spare pair of socks, a fleece shirt, fleece gloves, and a fleece beanie. None of those were expensive. I had a $0.99 plastic poncho for rain gear.

I did not cook, so no cooking gear. I had a digital camera which I barely used. And then just small stuff like toothbrush, water treatment drops, etc.

My base pack weight was like 6 lbs and change, and I had a tarp and camera I wasn't really using.

So, yeah, you can hike extremely light and not spend a lot of money. It depends on what trip you are doing. I started very late in the season, so the weather was warmer and shelters were not full.

How did you eat

I'm not sure specifically what you want to know.

I resupplied food in towns along the way. And while in town, I had a hot meal there. Also consider that resupplying is often not done in an actual town, but in a convenience store or whatever is closest to the trail.

Backpackers typically only cook dinner, and those get repetitive, so forgoing those with the added benefit of not carrying a stove, fuel, and a pot is sometimes nice. Some people find it wearisome to not have at least one hot meal a day.

Of course, I have done countless backpacking trips and have cooked on most of them.

5.87 lbs: https://lighterpack.com/r/89huvt

Sure is cheap, but I don't think the weight is correct. For example, the tent in this 880 grams alone (almost 2lbs). The sleeping bag/quilt is 626 grams, or around 1.6 lbs. The backpack is 765 grams or 1.7lbs. So that's 5.3lbs for just those three things. I'm assuming the price of an entire kit will also be more.

We haven't even gotten to clothes.

If you’re thru hiking across the entire country with 5 lbs of gear you’re either fully van-supported or have done a massive number of food drops to prep. This is something only .001% of backpackers do. It is not remotely common.

Edit, to add: or you’re not counting all the gear your pack animal is carrying.

You should be carrying more than 5 lbs of emergency water on anything more than day camping... yes finding water is a skill, but one that is dependent on there being water nearby.

>You should be carrying more than 5 lbs of emergency water on anything more than day camping

Sure, if you really are in the wilderness. But if, like so many of the weight weenies interested in UL gear, you are hiking a well-trodden trail where water stops are frequent and well-mapped, no one is going to lug that weight until the end of the day when they might fill up for cooking with.

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