MY GEAR

MY GEAR

PACIFIC CREST TRAIL

 

BIG 3

 

 

TENT

I spent months thinking about which tent I should buy an read endless blogsposts to figure out what might work best for me. I finally decided to go for the Zpacks Duplex for several reasons.

Mainly because it is super light, only 595 gramm. It doesnt need tent poles, you just use your trakking poles instead. This saves more weight because I’ll carry trekking poles anyway.

Yes I could have saved another 156 gramm if I opted for the Soloplex, but I wanted to be able to have my backpack with me Inside of the tent and there will be friends visiting me on the trail and hiking for a few weeks with me. If my tent is big enough for them, they dont have to carry another tent.

 

 

BACKPACK

My old backpack ( Deuter Aircontact 75+10 ) was just too heavy at over 3 Kg so I had to choose a new backpack for my trip. I had to find the perfect split between weight and comfort which is not easy. Again I found that Zpacks does a great job in ultra lightweight gear and I bought the Arc Blast.

It comes with 55 Liters of storage space at only 595 gramm ( 620 with the extra pockets I ordered ). This is more than enough space for everything I need. The Bear Canister BV500 fits in the pack, but its also possible to attach it on top.

I went for a few small training sessions with it fully packed at about 15 kg and it worked flawless. Much more comfortable than I thought it could be at its very low weight. For now I am happy with it, I’ll see how it is after the first 1000 km.

 

 

SLEEPING

 

SLEEPING-BAG

I did not choose to go with a down sleeping bag because I dont like the idea of it getting wet somehow and that it wont be isolation well so I opted for the syntetic version. It has a limit temperature of 2 C° which is fine for me because I am not a cold sleeper. I have the Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor which ads +- 10 degrees in case it’ll be really cold and if that still isnt enough I can always wear some clothes to sleep.

If you ever tried to sleep in a sleeping bag which is to hot you’ll understand why I went for this way.

 

 

AIRMATRESS

Because having a good sleep is very important to stay motivated and fit I went for the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite instead of a foam pad. I dont mind the extra weight and on a previous multiple day hike I tried both the Neoair is just so much more comfortable that I dont mind the extra weight.

 

 

COOKING

 

Going stoveless was never an option because I like to eat a warm meal. Especially on cold day this might be not nessesarily life-saving but at least it’ll make your day better if you know you can set up camp and have something hot to eat.

 

At first I had the MSR WhisperLite Universal because I know it works and I used it quite a lot over the last 13 years.

But because of its weight (540 gramm) and because of the possible fire restrictions in some natural parcs I changed to the MSR PocketRocket 2 ( 76 gramm ).  You can get a small gas-cartridge from 230 gramm, with the Whisperlite you looking at 150 gramm for a small bottle + 400 ml of fuel. That’s a lot of weight you can save very easily.

 

 

CLOTHES

 

I dont need a lot, everyone will smell bad so it doesnt matter if you have 4 sets of clothes that stink or just 2.  Save the extra weight and try to wash what you have. Here is my list:

 

  • 1 T-shirt
  • 1 lightweight long-sleeve shirt
  • 1 Merino-wool long-sleeve
  • 1 Mont-Bell down jacket
  • 1 Quechua pants with removable legs
  • 1 Merino-wool long underwear
  • 2 pairs of underwear
  • 2 pairs of ankle-high socks
  • hat
  • thin gloves
  • trail runners
  • flip-flops
  • rain-poncho

 

 

ELECTRONICS

 

So far I’ve done pretty well saving weight an beeing efficient in leavin unnecessary stuff at home.

So far…

I like to take pictures, film what I see and I fear running out of battery life. That’s why I’ll carry all of the following:

 

To keep everything going:

 

All those luxury items weigh 2,5 kg  which increases my base weight ( final weight without water & food ) by 50% from 5kg to 7,5 kg. Which is still not too bad. I like taking pictures and I know how grumpy I will be if I dont get a good shot with my phone camera. It doesnt matter if it is because I cant zoom in far enough, if I dont get enough light to fall into the sensor or if the limited shutter speeds dont work out for what I am looking for. If you ever flew with a drone you will never want to travel without one anymore.