u/LastReplacement5

Dear r/ultralight,

Please may you convince me to adopt cold soaking and not bring a stove of any sort on my future planned Colorado Trail attempt? I’m nearly there… help me!

If I can ditch my stove, I think I can drop my base weight by around 195g. Additionally I could remove fuel from my daily weight budget of consumables and save a little pack volume.

For anyone interested: https://lighterpack.com/r/s8olwx

Are you willing to share your fave recipes?
I could try them all at home first to practice, right? That might further convince me!

Don’t you just feel like some hot food sometimes? What about if it’s a really cold day?

https://lighterpack.com/r/s8olwx Hi everyone, my current gear plans for a CT solo hike give me a base weight of 3.964 kg (8.74 lb). [update: see edit notes below]

I’d love it to be lighter, but honestly am struggling to find further sacrifices to make or better gear to choose to significantly drop my weight. I don’t want to be risky or stupid or unnecessarily uncomfortable. I do want to ENJOY myself!

Are my bear and altitude plans satisfactory?

I’d really value your suggestions, especially since some of the big ticket items are not bought yet and there’s time to steer my choices. I’ve done many shorter trips with sub 6kg (13.2 lbs) total weight on shoulders including consumables, but I know the CT is more demanding than my Australian, lower altitude, warmer experiences.

A recent longer trek I did exposed issues with my old kit: the consumables needed for 5 day sections brought my total weight on shoulders up around 9-10kg and I was NOT pleased with that. I learnt some valuable lessons about food choices on that trek (thanks, SKEP!)

I’m now hungry to push into far lighter territory, hence these plans and shakedown request

[EDIT: four changes made to my plans in response to helpful comments:

1. I’ve removed a Montbell plasma puffy and instead will layer my rain jacket over fleece hoodie for cold/wind/rain (-143 grams)
2. In the absence of a puffy, have upgraded my fleece from a senchi designs alpha crew neck to their alpha hoodie (+12 grams)
3. Removed groundsheet (-92 grams)
4. pivoted to lighter food bag: Adotec 14L Grizzly Bear Locker (199g) + OdorNo 2-gal HD odor barrier liner (16g). (-177 grams)

TOTAL REDUCTION of 400 grams 😀🙏 Thanks all for your suggestions and encouragement.
]

Hi everyone, I have a 5-day Cooloola Great Walk trek in a few days.

How does my kit look, and have I set up my lighterpack lists acceptably enough for the r/ultralight community’s standards?

https://lighterpack.com/r/3uwl3q

Thanks in advance for your input! Be kind!

Hello everyone… an Aussie here, planning a month-long wilderness trip in the US for late summer 2029. Which trails should I do given I only want a month? My timing is flexible in the window spanning July/Aug/Sep.

I’d LOVE to do PCT but don’t have time. JMT is next on my mind but I worry I’d need more time to build trail legs and acclimate to altitude, and permits look tricky to get. It looks incredible, but maybe I should save it for a future PCT trek?

I’ve never hiked in the US before.

If you had a full month, would you do JMT, or go elsewhere? I'd love to hear how people would structure a month under these limitations, and which other 3 to 4 week options I should look into.

My gear is mostly sorted, I’m pleased with it! Base weight under 8 lb, core elements being an x-mid 1, Pa’Lante Joey pack, CCF pad, S2S traveller bag that might need substitution because it’s only 7C, but it’s lightweight. I’ve worked hard to minimise my kit all round and love hiking with it. It is dialled in for warmer Aussie trips so will likely need some tweaking for altitude

Hello everyone… an Aussie here, planning a month-long wilderness trip in the US for late summer 2029. Which trails should I do given I only want a month? My timing is flexible in the window spanning July/Aug/Sep.

I’d LOVE to do PCT but don’t have time. JMT is next on my mind but I worry I’d need more time to build trail legs and acclimate to altitude, and permits look tricky to get. It looks incredible, but maybe I should save it for a future PCT trek?

So… right now, I'm looking at doing the Tahoe Rim Trail and then continuing to either Rae Lakes Loop or heading up to Oregon or Washington for lower elevations and self-issue permits. Tahoe looks like a good intro for me to build up to PCT in future. I’ve never hiked in the US before.

If you had a full month, would you do a Tahoe and Rae combo, or go elsewhere? I'd love to hear how people would structure a month under these limitations, or if there are other 3 to 4 week options I should look into.

My gear is mostly sorted, I’m pleased with it! Base weight under 8 lb, core elements being an x-mid 1, Pa’Lante Joey pack, CCF pad, S2S traveller bag that might need substitution because it’s only 7C, but it’s lightweight. I’ve worked hard to minimise my kit all round and love hiking with it. It is dialled in for warmer Aussie trips so will likely need some tweaking for altitude