- In this video,
we are gonna be taking a look
at "10 Minimalist Packing Tips For Cold Weather Travel".
I'm Tom the founder of Pack Hacker
where we like to use our expertise and real world experience
to provide practical resources and honest opinions
guiding you towards smarter travel.
So if you're new to the channel, consider subscribing.
Most people on the team have traveled for long periods
of time in different climates.
Personally I have been to 37 countries between the years
of 2016 and 2017.
I traveled for about two years,
everything from really hot weather to cold weather,
and everything I needed has fit into a 40 Liter backpack.
So if you plan it out right,
this is definitely doable.
With an organized system,
you'll be packing light in warm countries
and you'll be ready for the coldest weather as well.
So bundle up for 10 actionable and detailed tips
on how to stay warm and pack light on the road.
This video is sponsored by Backcountry and stay tuned
for an exclusive discount.
And remember some of the best comments
come from you the community so feel free to let us
know your tips in the comment section below.
Let's get into the video.
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For those of you that like Pack Hacker
and have watched our previous videos,
this might seem obvious.
But for those of you that are new here,
we love backpacks.
Carrying a backpack as opposed to wheeled luggage
in inclement weather,
especially the snow is great because then you don't
have your wheeled luggage sliding
around behind you and making it hard to carry around.
With a backpack,
you can kind of just glide through everything.
It's on your back.
Both of your hands are free.
This makes it even better for winter
and cold weather travel.
We recommend taking a backpack of around 30 to 40 Liters.
There is ample space to hold everything inside
as well as the bag will still be carry-on compliant
on most airlines.
Here are a couple of bags that we recommend
and be sure to check out our full reviews
on all of these as well as the carry-on compliance.
Try to see what airlines will accept it
and ones where the bags are a little bit too big
to carry on.
The Farpoint 40 is a popular travel backpack
and you've likely seen it before.
It's a solid all arounder for a good price.
Be sure to check out the women's version
called the Fairview as well.
The Topo Designs Travel Bag comes in either 30 or 40 Liters.
It offers some great organization in a heritage style.
And comes in a more boxy shape
for maximum packing edge to edge.
The Thule Subterra 34 is a zippered and roll top bag hybrid
that functions good as a travel backpack
and even a daypack if you'd like.
And lastly the Cotopaxi Allpa,
consued both urban and outdoorsy travelers alike.
Plus it uses a tarpaulin material on the exterior
for added weather resistance.
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One of the best keys to staying warm and traveling light
is to get your layering strategy down.
So there may be some days especially colder days
when you feel like you're
wearing literally every single piece of clothing
out of your one bag travel backpack, and that's fine.
That means you're doing it right.
The beauty of this strategy is that it allows you to really
fine tune your warmth,
so if it gets 10 degrees warmer,
it's easy to peel something off.
If it gets 20 degrees cooler,
maybe throw on a couple of extra layers.
So here is the layering strategy, tried and tested,
that we found works well.
Starting with the base layer,
consider grabbing a piece of thermal clothing.
Merino wool also works really great here.
Now the goal of this layer is to basically lock
all the heat against your body and keep a really tight seal.
As an example we have a smart wool,
Merino wool 150 base layer.
It's really soft to the touch, locks the heat in,
and dries quickly since it's made of Merino wool.
Plus you can wear this casually on it's own as well.
For a minimalist, one bag travel,
we recommend grabbing a couple of different mid layers
that can work well
with each other as well as on their own.
Versatility is key here.
A lighter sweater that could double as a mid layer
or something that you'd wear to a nice meeting
or a decent dinner is a great option to have in your kit.
A sweatshirt, maybe even one with a hood,
is great to have in your kit as well to keep your head warm.
When you're thinking about you layering strategy,
just be sure to try to avoid the hood overload.
If every single article in your kit has a hood,
they could get bulky and annoying quite quickly.
Right here we've got the Patagonia R1 hoodie.
Now some people will wear this as a base layer.
Works well as a mid layer too,
and you can also wear it a little bit more casually as well.
And the warmth to weight ratio is really great,
which makes it an excellent option for travel.
A compressible puffy jacket is lightweight,
traps all the heat in,
and has an incredible warmth to weight ratio.
We recommend something like the Patagonia Micro Puff
which packs down really small.
We've reviewed this and featured it on a lot
of our packing lists and guides.
We really love this lightweight jacket for travel.
And lastly for an outer shell,
we recommend a rain jacket that's gonna be great
for keeping any precipitation off of you
and blocking the wind as well.
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Piggybacking off of that last tip,
a rain jacket is essential if you're trying to stay dry
and stay protected from the elements.
First the obvious,
it blocks precipitation and snow from soaking in
through the rest of your layers.
Staying dry is really important,
but more on that later.
Second it does a great job at blocking wind.
So even if there's no precipitation in the forecast,
best just to throw this thing on top for another layer.
It'll protect you from the wind and keep you warmer.
The Arc'teryx line of rain jackets
including the Beta SL and Zeta SL
are super robust and do a great job at protecting you
from the elements especially the wind.
Third rain jackets typically pack up quite small
and some even compress into themselves.
So take for instance here the Patagonia Storm Racer.
While you have it compressed and it's inside of your bag,
you'll barely know it's there and when you need it,
just grab, uncompress, and you're good to go.
If you're looking
to get Arc'teryx and Patagonia all in one stop,
Backcountry has both of these brands and more
available over on their website.
We like to put products to the test by traveling,
exploring, and trying new things.
And we like to enable you to do the same thing as well
through our reviews and guides.
The beauty of travel is exploring new cultures,
trying new foods, and learning more about the world
through experiencing it.
Great gear enables great travel.
We're really lucky to have a well traveled
and knowledgeable crew of travelers over here
in the Pack Hacker community.
And we try to connect with each of you
on an individual level.
Backcountry does the same with their Gearheads.
Whenever you have a question on something,
you're looking at the best gear to get
for a specific situation,
you can definitely ask us down in the comments.
Backcountry has a live chat feature as well
over on the site.
You can get a hold of them via the webchat, email,
or by phone and they'll guide you through exactly
what you need for your needs.
Included in that crew are seasoned travelers,
former Olympians, and athletes,
and just overall great group of people
that love adventure and travel.
We dig having sponsors that share the same values as us.
We're partnering with Backcountry to encourage you
to keep going on adventures and finding your own
back country where ever that may be.
So down in the description below,
we have a promo code for 15% off your first order.
Some exclusions apply.
That's 15% off of gear, bags,
and other travel accessories.
And speaking of travel accessories,
they can make or break your ability
to stay warm on the road,
so let's get into the next tip.
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Items like gloves, scarves, a hat,
and buff are crucial to staying warm while on the road.
And you can lose a ton of heat through your neck,
your head, your hands,
so it's really great to have these items
in your kit as well.
So how do you dial everything in
without adding a ton of bulk and weight?
Well first of all look for items with a really great
warmth to weight ratio.
And then look for versatile items again.
So this buff by Buff USA is a Merino Wool buff
that I've personally been traveling with for three years.
This is an awesome high value and versatile purchase.
So most of the times,
I'm wearing this around my neck as a scarf,
but sometimes I'll wear it as a hat
if I want additional protection as well
after zipping up all the other mid layers
that I'm wearing completely.
Consider keeping these accessories in your jacket pockets
at all times,
so when you're wearing your jacket,
they're always there if you need them.
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Picking out a cohesive aesthetic while you're on the road,
can help you mix and match the clothing
that you wear to create full outfits a lot easier.
We personally lean towards darker and more neutral colors
since they easily go well together and typically hide dirt.
Now if you want to, you can grab clothing
with a heather pattern like we have in this buff here,
and that hides dirt even better than a solid dark color.
We're not against lighter or brighter colors by any means.
It's just that darker is a little bit easier to match
and keep cohesive with a little extra effort,
you could get everything in a green color if you wanted
or you could even mix and match colors
if you're really mindful about each piece of clothing
and the outfits that they can create.
When everything goes with everything,
it's really easy to pull the clothing out of your bag
and just be ready to go for whatever the road throws at you.
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When you mix precipitation with a low temperature,
things can get cold really fast.
And one of the best ways to mitigate this is by choosing
clothing and items with a lot of great weatherproofing.
Look for bags that are weather proofed
to keep everything dry inside.
There's a big misconception around what's waterproof
and what's just simply weather proof,
so we will just clear that up here.
Waterproof means that something is completely submersible.
You can dunk it completely under water
and all the items inside will stay completely dry.
Water resistant, weather proof and weather resistant
means that the piece of gear uses some of these materials,
but it's possible for water to seep inside
through seams or zippers.
Some gear companies will try to skirt around this
by saying that a bag is made with waterproof materials,
but that doesn't necessarily mean it's waterproof
especially if there are zippers on the bag.
So be sure to look out for this just so you know exactly
what you're getting yourself into.
If you wanna keep items inside of your bag completely dry,
take a look at something like this from Osprey.
This is their Pack Liner.
Works really well for top loading backpacks,
'cause you can just throw everything inside
and you're good to go.
If you want a bit more of a modular approach,
this Ultra-sil Dry Sack from Sea to Summit
does something very similar,
but it's smaller, so you can kind of use it as packing cubes
and keep it organized.
This works a little bit better for a clamshell bag.
When you're out and about,
it is best to change wet clothing
as quickly as possible as well.
So if anything gets wet, change it out.
For instance, if you're feet get wet,
walking through fresh snow or a puddle,
or you're simply wearing boots that
are a little too bulky for the temperature,
changing out your socks can mean the difference between
soaked and cold feet versus feet that are nice and toasty.
It may sound weird, but it really helps and the same goes
for all other articles of clothing from shirts,
to underwear, to pants, keep it dry.
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Carrying around a bunch of clothing to keep you warm,
can get bulky very quickly.
It can be hard to keep it organized,
so here are a couple of tips to keep everything
compartmentalized and organized inside of your bag.
First you can roll your hoodie or other jacket into itself
and neatly store the excess fabric inside of the hood.
You can get compressible packing cubes
like the Eagle Creek Pack-It Specter Cubes,
put everything inside and then use
that compression zipper to make everything
even more low profile.
And something like
the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Stuff Sack Pillow,
is pretty similar to that as well,
plus when everything's inside of here,
flip it inside out, you get this nice soft side.
This is like a Dyneema on this side.
Put everything in here and you
have a nice little pillow while you're on the road.
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Even with your gear compressed cold weather clothing,
it never really takes up a lot more room
than if you're just packing shorts
and a T-shirt to go to warm weather.
So with all of your other gear,
you wanna think small in order to keep a lot of room
for that bulkier winter gear.
Here are a couple of different ways to save space
so first of all, you can try to miniaturize your items
that you already have.
So for instance if you're traveling with a toothbrush,
consider cutting the handle off and just using the top
in order to save space.
Same goes with a razor.
If you can forgo the razor handle,
you're gonna save that space as well.
Heck I did that for two years
while I was traveling the world.
I never had a razor handle, just the cartridges.
Also you can get items that are compressible.
For instance a water bottle.
So here we have the one Liter HydrPak water bottle.
It compresses really small when not in use.
Bring a packable Daypack,
so if you are traveling around with a bunch of winter gear,
chances are that's a pretty big backpack,
so one of these little guys,
this is the Eagle Creek Packable Daypack, 13 Liters.
These are handy to have inside of your bag.
Take them out, unzip them, unfold it.
Put everything inside that you want for a day trip.
And we love these bags so much that we made a guide
over on packhacker.com dedicated exclusively
to travel Daypacks.
So be sure to check that out if you're
taking a look at these.
So basically find a mini version of everything,
modify the items that you have to make them smaller,
or just leave it at home.
One of the beautiful things about urban minimalist travel
is that you can likely buy any item that you want
once you get to your destination.
You'll feel a lot more free on the road with less stuff
on your back.
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In addition to finding the smallest version of everything.
It is great to also try
to find the lightest version of everything.
With airline carry-on weight allowances
that seem to decrease every year,
it is important to stay as light as possible.
Especially if you have a lot
of heavier winter gear with you.
Clothing items with a great warmth to weight ratio
can save a ton of weight in your bag.
And remember if you wanna make sure that your bag stays
within that carry-on allowance limit,
you can wear some extra layers
while you're going through security
and while you're getting everything checked.
Sure it might be a little bit toasty,
but you'll stay within that carry-on weight allowance.
Here are a couple of ordinary items that folks travel
with that you can find lightweight versions of.
For instance a lightweight wallet.
Take this one from Hyperlite Mountain Gear.
Not counting the cards and cash inside,
it is .71 ounces.
Consider a lightweight thermos.
This one from Sea to Summit is right around 4 ounces
and although it doesn't keep things as cold
as a stainless steel mug or a thermos would,
it does do a pretty great job.
Plus if you have this thing at the coffee shop,
you can avoid using a bunch of disposable cups
over and over again.
Fill this thing up, good for the environment.
Next up, lightweight footwear.
Take something like the Lens Boulder Boot for instance.
They're right around 9.9 ounces for a size 43
and are a lot more lightweight than boots.
And if you wanna keep them more insulated,
just double up on the socks and stay nice and toasty.
Remember all this stuff adds up.
To save pounds, cut ounces.
If every single item in your bag is a little bit lighter,
it's gonna be a much smoother trip.
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When packing, consider your coldest destination
and maybe even prepare a little bit more than that.
You never know if there's gonna be
a random layover somewhere or a sudden drop in temperature.
It's always best to be prepared.
No one wants to spend the first part of their trip
scrambling around looking for a winter jacket either.
Be sure to consider the type of cool that will be
at your destination.
For instance, sharp wind requires different gear
than a wet winter.
A Merino wool sweater won't do much for the former,
but it works really well in the later.
So there you have it.
Our 10 minimalist packing tips for cold weather travel.
And be sure to use that code in the description below
for 15% off your first order at Backcountry.
Like we said earlier,
the folks over at Backcountry are great people.
Not only were they nice enough to offer you
15% off the first purchase at Backcountry.com,
but they have been also donating to The Nature Conservancy
since 2008 which we love because it helps protect the world
and allows us to travel and experience more.
Thanks for keeping it here at Pack Hacker.
Your guide to smarter travel.
We'll see you in the next video.