Gear

The Pacific Crest Trail is the birthplace of Ultra Lightweight Hiking. The weather along the PCT is usually quite dry and benign, except for the last weeks in Washington State. Tents do not have to be double-walled, geodesic, 4 season structures. Sleeping bags to -5 Celcius are adequate and can be down filled without qualm at it is not that humid. Advances in technology means new materials like the ultra-strong and ultra-light cuben are becoming more affordable. If one is going to walk 2660 miles then the cost of investing in ultralightweight equipment is remarkably small per mile. It is probably a cost worth paying to get your base weight down to 10 kg as unnecessary kilos will wear down you joints and eat into your cartlidge. Light is Right.

The big 4 (rucksack, tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat) is where significant weight can be saved. My 4 pieces weight exactly 3000 gms are and:

1. Rucksack and attachments; Z Packs Arc haul Zip Backpack – 920 gms
2. Tent, Pegs and Tyvek; Z Packs Duplex and titanium pegs – 790 gms
3. Sleeping Bag; Criterion Quantum 450 rated to -10 Celcius – 830 gms
4. Sleeping Mat: Thermarest NeoAir Xlite Large size – 460 gms

In addition to this is another 6500 gms distributed among:

1. Clothes carried –  2000 gms
2. Waterproof Clothing – 800 gms
3. Hygiene, First Aid and Repair – 600 gms
4. Cooking and  Hydration – 1000 gms
5. Gadgets, batteries, Maps – 2100 gms

This gives a total base weight of 9500 gms

This does not sound much but in addition to this up to 10 days worth of food at 850 gms a day and sometimes 4 litres of water have to be carried giving the maximum consumable weight 12500 gms

So the total maximum pack weight would be 22000 gms which would decrease to half that before restocking again.

For the 500 Miles of the Sierra Nevada however I will meet snow with the near record snowfalls of winter 2017 so I have to take heavier boots, crampons. Ice Axe and 16 days of food. All this will go into my old trusty xPod Rucksack as the Pack Weight will be a maximum 29000 gms which will reduce to a mere 13000 gms at the end of this 17 day section.

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