u/RunWithBluntScissors

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?

Hello all,

I have been backpacking since I was about 10 years old. I have done many trips of various lengths and mileages with friends, family, and scouts.

Adulthood has come less downtime for me as life responsibilities take precedent. About 4 years back I went on a 6 nighter after a long dry spell. It was after that trip and seemingly having the biggest and heaviest pack on the trail, along with some knee pain, and a couple of mild gear issues, that I decided I wanted to move towards a more ultralight approach.

I neglected doing much to lighten up my pack in the time that passed until me and a friend planned a backpacking deer hunting trip and I had a little less than a month to prepare. I bought a couple of ultralight pieces but didn’t have the time or the budget to touch the big 4 or make any serious changes. Hunting gear is heavy. My pack was crushing, yet I loved the trip and wanted to start planning out the next year and do it again, but lighter and more efficiently.

This is my current setup assuming I am not hunting or fishing. That gear is being worked on as well, but I will leave that out of this discussion. I have been out with this setup just last week and had a great time trout fishing in the Sierras.

https://lighterpack.com/r/lu4qzl

Current plans I have:
- Buy KUIU ULTRA Merino 210 Fingerless Gloves and toss my old beat up sun gloves
- Buy KUIU Kutana Stretch Woven Pants to swap my Attack pants with for hotter trips
- Buy a Litesmith 10ml dropper bottle for my soap
- Buy a Litesmith 4oz Malibu tube bottle for blister cream
- Get a dehydrator and dial in food for increased effeciency

Things I would like the most feedback on:
- First Aid
- Cooking
- All feedback greatly appreciated :)

EDIT: Not getting a new phone anymore.

Looking to rant and hear any advice. Make sure I'M not the crazy one.

Started a new job on Monday. Unfortunately, due to "confidentiality," I had no idea what chemicals I'd be working with during the interview process. Today, I found out that my lab works with HF at least weekly. Now, I've worked with HF before. I certainly don't love it, but I had to use it occasionally at my last job in small, dilute amounts. We used it infrequently and I felt comfortable with the controls we had in place, and I knew my co-workers take safety as seriously as I do.

I have big concerns around the use of HF at my new lab. First, the lab does not have calcium gluconate. I asked my manager about this and he told me that the previous lab manager "went up the chain" saying that the lab needed calcium gluconate and was told no. ... wtf? The "plan" in case of exposure is to use the safety shower and then go to the campus nurse. I have no idea where the nurse's office is, and who's to say my co-workers do? How do we even know the nurse has calcium gluconate? Apparently the safety shower triggers medical care to come to you ... so we have to tell them it's an HF exposure and to bring the calgonate? and hope they have it, know where it is, and can find our lab quickly in this massive campus?

I'll buy my own calcium gluconate if I have to, but I'm just extremely concerned by the way this has been handled so far. It makes me worry that other important safety aspects regarding HF have been overlooked, too. My lab manager said "just be careful" and "it's never happened while I've been working here." 'Just be careful' is not an exposure control plan!

There's more ... the way the lab is set up, the HF operator would need to cross the lab space to go from the fume hood to the instrument. The HF fume hood and the instrument are right at the entrance of the lab ... so anyone walking through the lab to get to other instruments (and may not be dressed in an acid-resistant apron, etc) has the potential to collide with the HF operator as they're turning around to get to the instrument. I hope that description of our layout makes sense. Ideally there would be some sort of a buddy helping to make sure that wouldn't happen but who even knows at this point! My manager did say no one works with HF alone, but I'm not sure if that means there's a designated safety buddy role in place or just "make sure someone else is around." Feel like I can't trust anything after knowing there's no calcium gluconate on hand and the company literally denied the request.

I am planning on asking my manager a lot more questions about HF safety and controls. Is there even a spill kit? Any documentation / SOPs? I'm also planning on going to the company safety officers / EHS. Hopefully they're more helpful than whoever said "no" on the calcium gluconate.

For context, until now I've always used a 90's style backpacking set up and I'm thinking of getting into ultralight. My first question is, as someone who doesn't use trecking poles, should I be looking at trecking pole tents (most companies seem to offer poles, or I could use durston z-flicks or something)? Or are other tent designs better, given that I would be packing tent poles regardless. I realize that in some sense the answer is "pick the tent that is best for you, making sure to account for the weight and cost of the poles" but given the plethora of options, I'm hoping to narrow things down a bit. Thanks!

Hi — I’m going back to work next week, my first full-time job in almost a year. I could use some help brainstorming safe and easy meals that will be both gluten-free and easy for my ADHD to plan for!

I got a little extra money and I'm thinking about going 'ultralight' on my Big 3 items - but to get much lighter than my Durston X-Dome 1+ I have to go with a trekking pole tent - and I'm nervous about it.

I've recently backpacked in

• San Jacinto
• Crystal Cove Laguna Beach
• Yosemite
  • Little Yosemite Valley
  • Volgelsang
  • Glenn Aulin
  • May Lake
  • Sunrise Lakes
  • Merced Lake
  • near Cloud's rest
  • the backpackers camp in the valley
• Trans Catalina Trail

And I'd like to go to Grand Canyon at some point.

My concern is staking a tent correctly in conditions where the ground is very hard to get stakes in - like it's very rocky or very uneven, or very windy.

Are there good tips on how to switch from freestanding to one you have to stake out?

I think saving a pound of weight would be worth it - but I'm concerned that I'll buy a tent and won't be able to get it pitched in certain areas or have a miserable time.

(Tent recommendations would be welcome too - I think Gossamer Gear One is easily in my budget - or even a Zpacks is in my budget if I push it and sell my Durston and my Big Agnes.Let's treat money as a secondary concern.)

Hey guys, I’m looking for some advice from people who love moving light. I’m a big fan of minimalism, I just want to carry what’s strictly necessary.

​When I started planning my sleep system, I first thought about a hammock, then considered a tent for versatility, but eventually realized a tarp is exactly what I want. It’s cheap, versatile, and keeps you connected with nature. But here is my main issue: where I live mosquitoes and insects are everywhere, and they absolutely love biting me.

​I'm a beginner and I'm trying to figure out how to solve this bug problem while keeping my pack size around 20L. I see a lot of "bug bivy" online that cost over €100, but I don't fully get how they work. Do you always have to pitch them under the tarp? Are they waterproof at all, or do you get soaked if you use them alone? How do you guys manage bugs when traveling super minimal under a tarp?

I feel like a lot of people love ultralight gear because it does indeed just make life on the trail easier, especially at areas rapid elevation gain, or high friction like mud and snow. I personally went all ultralight, shaving off every gram I could purely to carry more toilet paper.

While I'm hiking I like drinking from my smartwater (through a filter) because I can easily fill up and filter water without taking off my pack. Once at camp, I'd like to simply filter water from a bladder into my smartwater, but have always wondered whether or not bacteria and viruses cling to the bottle.

Does a simple rinse with clean water do the trick, or do you need to sanitize it further?

This is my first time working in a restaurant. My background is in science, last year I got laid off. I recently started as seasonal support staff in early May at one of my favorite restaurants (hosting, bussing, food running).

I’m having fun at my job — my managers are actually super nice and chill and make us take our breaks lol. Our restaurant is super busy and I am enjoying the pace of the work, and I love talking to the customers. Co-workers are good too.

Tbh I’ve been trying to get out of lab work, after my layoff last year I’ve been trying to do something new. I’m interested in working my way up to bartending, I think being a bartender with chemistry knowledge would be a cool shtick. I feel like this job opens doors to food science, which I’m interested in. Also, the company that owns my restaurant also makes their own beer, wine, spirits, etc, and I know that they hire chemists for that. So I figured this job also opens doors to that avenue since I’m becoming really familiar with the brand.

Well, last week, I ended up getting an offer for a lab job at a large manufacturing company in town. I’m holding them off a bit lol but I can’t hold them off all summer to finish my seasonal job. As I mentioned, I’d ultimately like to get out of lab work, but I need the money right now. I’m already thinking about how I’d like to leave the company after our project is done.

And working both is not an option since I’m 95% sure Big Manufacturer Company won’t let me have a second job, and since the company is right next to the restaurant, we have Big Manufacturer Company people in pretty much every day. The chance of me getting recognized and getting written up is too high.

So, I have to quit a job that I’m having a lot of fun with and I want to try to do this in a way where I can come back someday — let’s say when Big Manufacturer Company lays me off, and/or I get bored and want to return to the pace of a busy restaurant.

Any advice?? I appreciate that my boss took a chance on me, someone who didn’t have any restaurant experience until now.

Another thing … so for my jobs before the layoff, it was easy to resign, I’d just go to my boss’s office at a time when they weren’t busy and ask if we could talk. So what’s the best way to have this conversation when the nature of our work means you usually can’t just find your manager in their office and ask for a few minutes of their time?

I've been getting more into my tarp + bivy setup using a 9x7 flat tarp, but I haven't experienced any inclement weather conditions other than some light showers with it.

I'm planning a trip to Indian Peaks Wilderness and I've seen online that tarps aren't recommended in IPW due to frequent summer thunderstorms and generally being exposed above the treeline, but it also seems to me that a well pitched tarp is not drastically different than a tent.

All this to say: under what circumstances do you leave the tarp behind and take a different shelter (e.g. an x-mid) instead?

I just suddenly got a craving for croutons. Maybe because I’ve been on a salad kick lately and miss croutons lol. Anyone have GF croutons they’d recommend? (I’m in the US, PNW specifically)