Who are the gram weenies?

**Ramblinrev** · 09-05-2009, 08:39

The whole concept is so relative I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. To my wife... I am a gram weenie. For her... if it will fit in the car and we can carry it together to fire ring it is good to go. But to others I have no sense of weight at all.

Plus the fact that base weight is a useful piece of knowledge, but mine will never approach some of the other ones here. I don't want a pack that isn't made of ballistic nylon. Well, let me rephrase. I would like one, but I fall enough that I would be afraid for it's integrity. Similarly I need some robust things like trekking poles but to get really light ones is well beyond my budget. In addition I need to carry items that don't even appear on other peoples spread sheets. It's not a case of I want to... I absolutely NEED to. My life depends on them.

I went through a stage of being totally anal-retentive about what I packed. I never got out and when I did I never had fun. So now, I pack what I need and let the realities be just that. If I were hiking to camp that would be one thing. But with a practical daily mileage of three miles before I fall over (literally) I am not as concerned as I once was.

**Wags** · 09-05-2009, 08:53

my base weight is around 14 lbs, but i go light so i can carry a lot of food! mmm

**Scratch** · 09-05-2009, 09:09

Originally Posted by Ramblinrev

I went through a stage of being totally anal-retentive about what I packed. I never got out and when I did I never had fun. So now, I pack what I need and let the realities be just that.

I hear ya. I went through that stage too. I've finally decided that I'll never be able to get below a 12lb base weight and enjoy backpacking. I might enjoy it 'once' ... just to know I could achieve, say a 5lb base weight. But knowing the way I hike and how I like to spend the night, I seriously doubt I would enjoy the trip. A good night's sleep was the one thing I could never quite perfect. I probably dumped the most money into buying equipment to achieve a lightweight, good night's sleep. With a hammock, I feel like I've arrived! And my total 'sleep weight' isn't much different than it was with a tent/sleeping bag/pad.

I still mull over my spreadsheets, trying to save another gram here and there. I can't help it

**DuctTape** · 09-05-2009, 09:54

My base is 12.36#. If I went to a minimalist tarp, and a no-net travel hammock with basic strap suspension I could go to 11.97#, but I like my claytor and extra tarp coverage.

I cut weight to carry a more comfortable hammock and more food.

**drewboy** · 09-05-2009, 10:47

It looks like a pent up demand around here for gram weenie types of discussion, so let's bring it! My usual base weight hovers somewhere around 15lbs, but can depend a lot on what luxuries/toys I bring along such as Ipod speakers, gps, camera, SPOT, monocular, fishing gear etc. My philosophy is to employ ultralight methods wherever possible to get my weight down to where I can bring along luxury items and still have a reasonable weight to haul around. I just went on a 5-day Colorado backpacking trip where I brought along tons of luxury items and many redundancies for safety, such as backup lights, stoves and water treatment and still ended up in the 17lb base weight range.

For a weekend trip to attempt an SUL base weight, this is what I came up with:

(Carried)

WB Traveler hammock, SL 1.7 w/susp 15.60
Te-wa underquilt 12.65
MLD cuben minimalist tarp 3.90
Guylines (8x6)+(10x2) 0.18
Fig 9's 0.28
Titanium skewer stakes (6) 1.302
BPL Pro-90 top quilt 12.75
underquilt susp 1.70
GG whisper pack w/pad sleeve acc 6.15
GG NightLight pad 3.60
BPL Firelite 550 mug 2.75
Caldera cone stove w/fuel bottle 2.6
Caldera caddy w/cozy 2.00
BPL Ti long handled spoon 0.39
Bic lighter 0.80
BPL food bag/bear hanging system 2.93
patagonia houdini windshirt 4.20
Golite Whim windpants 3.70
Snowpeak UL umbrella 4.70
2L Platypus bottle 1.30
Micropur (10 tabs) 0.20
Photon freedom LED light w/clip 0.40
Smartwool trail runner socks (spare) 1.40
First aid kit Adventure Medical 0.5 3.40
Micropuff insulated vest 6.45
BPL wool hoody 8.20
BPL mosquito headnet 0.33
Misc toiletries 2.00
Montbell cat hole digger 1.40
LightTrek 3 hiking poles 5.0
Ditty bag 0.50

Total weight carried (lbs) 7.05

(Worn)

Rail riders adventure pants 10.3
Tilley LTM5 airflo hat 3.5
Patagonia Capilene 1 T-shirt 4.5
Patagonia Capilene boxer briefs 2.5
Smartwool trail runner socks 1.4
Solomon trail runner shoes 27.4
Cotton bandanna 0.9
Spyderco folding knife 2.8
Coughlan 4-function whistle 1.0
Oakley sunglasses 0.9

Total weight worn (lbs) 3.5

As you can see, I did not make SUL at 7.05 lbs. I could have gone lower in weight by not bringing the wool hoody (8.2oz) and wind pants (3.7oz). For summer conditions where only light rains are possible, that could work. I could also have left behind the Caldera Cone and used a BPL titanium wing esbit stove and wind screen and saved another 4oz. And I could have left the hiking poles at home. So all that together shaved another ~1.5 lb off the base weight. OK, I could have left the potty trowel behind and saved another 1.4oz! But these were things that I decided would make my trip more pleasant over a wider range of weather conditions and the caldera cone kit just works so well for me and includes many cooking accessories such as spare cup, cozy, etc. On the other hand, I could have brought my Bushbuddy Ultra wood stove and the fuel savings would have been about a wash in weight. One thing I am a bit uncomfortable about is the minimal MLD cuben tarp. It's only about 4ft wide, and provides very little side coverage. It just happens to be a tarp that I have right now, as is all the gear in this list. I would probably spend a few more oz and get a tarp with better side coverage.

Hmmm... compared to Te-wa's SUL list I'm still at least a lb heavier. He's got a 3oz advantage over me b/c he's a lightweight little **** and can use a SL 1.1 traveler.

Let's see - a couple oz less for the down vest and a couple oz less for the first aid kit, and a couple oz less for the stove. I guess it adds up. Just keeping you honest dude!

This is a great discussion to have. It's making me stretch a bit on my kit, and actually I don't see that I'm really giving up that much at 7.05 lbs. Anybody see anything obvious that I missed?

**ritzhenson** · 09-05-2009, 10:53

I'm at 18 pounds WITH food, fuel, and water for three season overnighter/ weekender. So, I guess i'm a weenie too. I'm OK with that. :0)

**gaidal** · 09-05-2009, 11:22

What's our definition of base weight here?
Weight of backpack + sleeping and shelter, or simply everything except food/water/fuel?

**drewboy** · 09-05-2009, 11:32

The definitions are a bit nebulous, and people can trade back and forth between "worn" and carried and make their base weight seem better. Probably the best and most consistent definition is to just lump everything into a "carried plus worn" category (otherwise known as skin out weight) and maintain a separate category for the consumables (water, food, fuel). For SUL this becomes a big deal since your clothing weight is a significant fraction of the total weight. ****, just realized I forgot my shoes in the list above. Off to do a post edit ...