welcome back guys and gals matty back again
today we are straight up going to be talking about whether or not ultralight
backpacking is actually safe now for today's video we are going to
talk about ultralight backpacking as a 10 pound base weight we'll be
talking about 10 pounds because 10 pounds is sort of the generally accepted
number that people strive towards when you're
trying to get to that ultralight backpacking gear load out
now if you guys aren't sure what a base weight is the base weight of your
backpacking gear is the weight of all your gear including your pack
minus your consumables your consumables are food
your fuel and your water now holding up these bottles this is actually what
sparked the idea behind this video to begin with
now i very recently did a video on backpacking mistakes
and i listed one of the backpacking mistakes i see a ton of people making
is still carrying a nalgene bottle over a disposable bottle
for their summer backpacking trips and i do stand behind what i said
i still personally think carrying a seven and a half ounce nalgene bottle
that's just carrying water in your backpack over
a disposable bottle that weighs an ounce and a quarter i do still think that
that's a mistake but the reason that i'm talking about this from a safety aspect
is because the big reasons that people said carrying a nalgene bottle
is better than carrying a smart bottle is a lot of safety reasons and one of
the biggest safety reasons that people talked about was the ability
to put hot water inside a nalgene and put it into your sleeping bag for a
little bit of extra warmth at night now to me it was kind of ridiculous that
people were talking about that as a safety concern
because to me being safe would be carrying the right sleeping bag or quilt
for the area and the temperature range that
you're going into but i thought it would be a good idea to make a video and cover
some of the other misconceptions that people have
when it comes to ultralight backpacking and safety concerns i'm sure somebody's
gonna light me up and say but maddie we've seen your backpacking
gear loto videos and you don't carry a 10 pound base weight your base weight is
like 12 pounds and yes the lightest base weight that i
can get to is a 12 pound base weight with my hammock or with my tent set up
the big difference between my backpacking gear loadout
and a lot of the ultralight backpackers out there is
i don't have a cuban fiber tarp or a cuban fiber tent to go with my
backpacking year loadout if i was to switch out my 3ful lanchan
1p or my ugq winner dream 12 tarp with
cuban fiber versions of those tents or tarps i would drop over a pound out of
my backpacking gear loadout and that would get me to just under 11
pounds for my backpacking baseway and you've also got to take into account i
carry these guys right here which are two very very vital pieces of
safety gear for the areas that i backpack
this guy here is my delorme inreach this is my two-way satellite communication
device and it's also got an sos function so if i ever get myself into trouble in
the backcountry and i ever have a massive safety concern and i need to get
an evac out of the backcountry i can trigger the
sos function on this guy and i've also got two-way communication
so when i link this up with my cell phone it is almost like texting in the
back country so this guy here is a very vital piece
of safety gear that is included in my base
as is this guy here this is my bear spray now for the areas that i backpack
it is heavy grizzly and heavy black bear country
so carrying bear spray to me is an absolute no-brainer
i have not seen very many other backpackers out there listing in reach
and bear spray as part of their base weight in their backpacking kit
so add just over a pound to my backpacking base weight with these two
guys here so if i had the aforementioned cuban fiber tent or cuban fiber tarp
and wasn't including these guys here on my base weight i would be actually
underneath that 10 pound base weight that people talk about for ultralight
backpacking so covering two big safety concerns let's dive into some other
safety concerns that people have when it comes to ultralight backpacking
originally coming from a more traditional backpacking gear loadout
where i was carrying a 20 to 25 pound base weight for every backpacking trip
i had a lot of these concerns as well when it came to ultralight backpacking
where i thought you were going to be uncomfortable there's no way you're
going to be warm and how can you be safe out in those
conditions when you're only carrying 10 pounds on your back but
the more i started looking into it getting a more ultra light backpacking
gear loadout is just simply using a lot of gear that you have
for dual purpose a prime example of a piece of gear that is dual purpose and
has helped me shave a whack of weight out of my base weight is this guy right
here on my head my toque or my beanie where this is dual purpose for me is
obviously i wear this in the evenings when it gets cool
i'll throw this on keeps my ears warm as a teenager i got frostbite so my ears
are ridiculously susceptible to cold so i carry a tooth with me almost all
summer i can't handle the cold on my ears
but where this becomes a dual purpose piece of gear for me and helped me shave
a ton of weight out of my backpacking gear loadout is when i made the switch
from a traditional mummy sleeping bag to a backpacking quilt now i'm not going
to dive into all the differences between a quilt and a sleeping bag
i've already made that video and if you guys want to see it i'll link it up over
here for you guys but where this piece of gear becomes
dual purpose is my backpacking quilt does not have a
hood on it so i just wear my toque at night
it keeps my ears warm so it eliminates the need for having a hood on my mommy
sleeping bag and it's a piece of gear that i'm pretty
sure most people are already carrying with them anyways
i did not sacrifice any safety at all going from a traditional mummy sleeping
bag to a top coat they did not sacrifice any warmth
and i was able to use my toque as a dual purpose piece of gear
now taking dual piece
uh taking dual piece taking dual purpose gear to another level
with my hammock setup i was able to incorporate my thermores z seed into my
sleep system and what i do with my thermora zc
besides using this as my sit pad and you know putting it over a stump or
a log and putting my bum down on and giving myself a little bit of cushion
when i'm sitting down is in my sleep i open it up and i put it
into the foot box of my top quilt and i rest my heels and my calves on
here and that allows me to carry a partial length under quilt
so the under quilt i carry on my hammock only goes to the back of my calves
and this guy here keeps my feet and my heels warm
so i was able to save almost a quarter pound off my backpacking base weight by
going with a partial leg thunder quilt by just simply using a little bit of
gear for dual purpose because at night my z seed would just be laying
underneath my hammock underneath me so using it as part of my sleep system
helped me save a bunch of weight and i did not sacrifice any safety going that
route now we briefly talked about shelter
systems at the start and i want to dive into it a little bit more
a big way that you can save a bunch of weight out of your backpacking base
weight and you're not sacrificing any safety or
comfort at all is by going with a trekking pole tent
now this guy right here in the stuff sag is my 3ful 1.5 p
lanchen tent and if you guys want a little bit of information on this tent
here i'm not going to dive into it too much in this video
but i'll pop a link in the cards over here for you guys i did a full review
on this video and i've also got a setup video that you can find in the
description of that video there the primary reason we're talking about my
tent right now is because it's a trekking pole tent
so it does not have any poles that come with the tent i use a trekking pole to
set it up i'm sure like myself most people are
carrying at least one or two trekking poles with you
so using your trekking pole in a dual purpose fashion because you know
obviously i'm using it while i'm hiking but also using this to help me set up my
tent this becomes dual purpose so it helps me shave a bunch of weight
out of my backpacking base weight and i'm not sacrificing any comfort or
safety going with a trekkie bowl tent over a traditional dome tent like say my
old msr hubba hubba tent that i was using prior
obviously i've talked about a whole bunch of different gear choices that
i've made that helped me get closer to an ultralight base weight and
i didn't really sacrifice any safety and i did not sacrifice any comfort going
that route but for me the biggest reason why i
think that ultralight backpacking is a safe route to go
it's just simply your on trail experience myself personally i like
doing longer hikes i like the backpacking trips where i'm
out there for at least four to five days and i like doing a lot of longer miles
to me i prefer doing say a 20 to 25 kilometer day
because i maximize my time out in the backcountry where i'm at in my life
right now i don't get all backpacking as much as i would like to
and as much as i used to i just i have a lot more commitments back at home with
my fiance and my family back home so i personally like to maximize my time
out in the backcountry now where ultralight backpacking has really helped
me is getting down to my 12 pound base
weight that i'm currently sitting at going out on say a five day backpacking
trip i know that with my food fuel and water
my backpack is going to be under 24 pounds for me hitting a 25 to 30
kilometer day with 24 pounds on my back is absolutely nothing with the
backpacking gear loadout that i was carrying prior when i was doing a more
traditional backpacking cure loadout my backpack would be upwards of 40 to 45
pounds my shoulders would be sore my back would
be a little bit stiff when i got to camp so to me that in itself is actually
safer when you're going longer distances and
you're trekking through some of the train and some of the conditions that i
do backpack in i personally feel that carrying a
lighter backpack makes my experience out there safer
i'm not getting as fatigued less chance i'm going to roll an ankle or suffer a
devastating injury out on trail simply because i have way less weight on
my back in the long run so hopefully this has helped clear up some of the
concerns with safety and ultralight backpacking
if you guys are interested in ultralight backpacking you're looking at driving
your own basement down what i've got over here is an entire
playlist full of videos on backpacking weight saving tips so when you guys are
done watching this one head on over there find a video on the
playlist to check out as always guys i am maddie thank you guys so dang much
for watching and i will see you guys on the next one