Ultralight backpacking (3.9lb base) and ridge traversing kit

Made a video about the overnight camping kit I bring when I go longer climbing missions, backpacking/peak bagging trips or solo ridge traverses with a rap line. Hope someone finds this useful.
I didn’t include a tent in this video, but use an old BD Highlight and would love to get my hands on one of the tents made by Z-Packs. They look sweet/light but expensive. If I survive the traverse though…

You gotta admit the 3.9lb total base weight is a little disingenuous. Your clothing list is basically a puffy and a rain shell. I guess the rest is what you're wearing already, which you do not list as part of the base weight. You state the same for your sleep setup, where you initially say this is a good sleep setup for 50-70 degrees - which I agree with, but then you say, "but hey 14,000' and low 30's you could probably do too!", which yeah: you could survive at, but I don't know if I'd be happy on a 14,000' summit with that. For your stove setup, you didn't mention fuel. You also list sunscreen as optional (in the Sierra?). And I think half the stuff you have splayed around is just other stuff that isn't put in the pack, or weighed - you have a whole 'nother pack just taking up space. 

So what did you use for an actual trip? Your traverse resume is indeed impressive.

Vitaliy, just ignore the hate. some just don't get it. they don't know who you are, where you've come from or what you've done.

ranger danger.... does this help spell it out for you? feel free to dig about his blog. it's humbling.

I would bet Vitaliy climbs, runs, jumps, dumps, and humps better than any one of us.

jcs

Long Ranger can be right, as well as Vitally being a bad ass. Those aren't mutually exclusive.

Curious, Vitally, if you include a ground pad in your setup, as well as a ground sheet? Would you include a watch, hat, phone, or camera in your base weight calculations?

Great video, props to you for putting it out there. Love seeing people good at playing the UL Game!

Thanks for posting... I just hiked into the Wind River range with 45lbs on my back... thinking I was light!

Never again

I didn't critique anything about Vitaliy the person or Vitaliy's trips - in fact I did the opposite. I'd love to get out with him! I'm critiquing the video as being confusing. That's not hating, that's feedback. I do similar things and I know gear too.

Thanks for sharing Vitaliy! Interesting to hear what you take on your long traverses. Do you take some webbing or cord for rap stations or do you have some ghosting technique for that?

This got me siked man thank you

Woah I didn’t mean for this to be personal on any level and don’t take any comments that raise valid questions or make good points as a personal attack! :) 

I feel like some things are misunderstood and let me answer a few questions:

1) I made the video to raise awareness of some great lightweight options, NOT for people to focus on the weight of my pack in this particular video. What I will be carrying on my typical trip will have a lot of variation based on what I decide before that particular trip.

The ridge traverse pack is a SAMPLE. What I will carry on THE big ridge traverse I am planning will include 7-8 days of food for starters. But 95% of the gear that I showcase, though I cut out about 7M of rope since I made the video, in order to make the rope a 60…

2) Base weight DOES not include fuel/food. My final weight of 8.6 (?) lbs did include 3 day/2nights (on very lean side), fuel, all the camping gear that is included in 3.9 lbs, clothing I mentioned, 67ish M rope, headlamp, toiletries, charging cables, sunscreen, goal zero battery, helmet.

3) There is a lot of stuff that was scattered that didn’t go in the backpack because I wanted to talk about that gear separately. BUT the whole video recording exhausted me mentally, as I’m not used to talking to a camera and it was getting late, so basically I gave up. :(

Example of some of the things that were laying around include a more comfortable pad, which I often use on a backpacking trips, as comfort matters more to me with already a light bag. Also, vibram 5 fingers shoes, which I mentioned to kids that surrounded me in the end. They work great for descent from multi pitch routes (think regular route on Fairview dome, Cathedral Peak or climbing on lovers leap…or Angel Wings… :) ). Jetboil, which heats up water much faster and it’s performance puts it in my pack if I’m not doing something solo, as warming up water for more than one person is annoying on BRS 3000, but can totally be done.

 Curious, Vitally, if you include a ground pad in your setup, as well as a ground sheet? Would you include a watch, hat, phone, or camera in your base weight calculations?

4) For the ridge traverse. No ground pad or sheet. I will be using my pack under the pad and also will be putting the pad inside the bivy sack.
I am not planning to bring a watch (climbing with a watch is a horrible idea if you plan on doing hand jamming), or hat, or a camera on the ridge traverse. I will have my phone in my pocket, which is the camera, so I feel like that doesn’t need to be on a scale, as well as all the clothing that I’m wearing (shoes, base layer, pants). 

5) I personally DO NOT use sunscreen for any Sierra missions. Or even for El Cap routes, which used to FRY me. I used to have horrible eczema and sunscreen irritates my skin. In the last couple years I got dark enough that I do not really get sunburned anymore. So I said ‘sunscreen optional’ because some people use sunscreen and some people don’t. I have a few other friends who do not, so I know I’m not the only weird one. :)

But I did throw sunscreen into the backpack and it was in the final ridge traverse kit.

 You gotta admit the 3.9lb total base weight is a little disingenuous. Your clothing list is basically a puffy and a rain shell. I guess the rest is what you're wearing already, which you do not list as part of the base weight. You state the same for your sleep setup, where you initially say this is a good sleep setup for 50-70 degrees - which I agree with, but then you say, "but hey 14,000' and low 30's you could probably do too!", which yeah: you could survive at, but I don't know if I'd be happy on a 14,000' summit with that. For your stove setup, you didn't mention fuel.

6) To be disingenuous I would have to cover something up or lie about something. But I put everything I mentioned into the pack, so I don’t really understand how so is it not sincere? See answer #1 and 2. Yes, base weight does not include food and fuel. Yes, clothing I mentioned are only clothing items which have a chance to be in the pack. See #5 for my sunscreen answer - optional for me, but I actually put it in the pack and it was weighted for the 2nd weight in which included my climbing gear. See #3 for why there is a bunch of other gear that wasn’t packed and why there is another pack infront of me. That’s a Hyperlite pack I been using for last 3 years. Wanted to give some of that gear and the pack praise, but was too pooped from talking to the camera so much and trying to stay on topic. My hat is off to all the actors and YouTubers that are crushing. It’s not easy. Camera basically turned me into someone super boring

I’m expecting the lows to not be lower than 30F at 13-14K when I go, so to me the 30F quilt, bivy sack and all my clothing seems sufficient, when I’m trying to bring bare minimum. But this video isn’t meant to be an instructional video on camping. It is only meant to show some light gear options, like Quilts or 6oz bivy sacks of high quality. Everyone can decide for themselves if they want to buy a 20F quilt or a 0F quilt in order to camp with forecasted lows of 30F or lows of 50F.

I would bet Vitaliy climbs, runs, jumps, dumps, and humps better than any one of us.

7) I’m actually quite average when it comes to all that. I am very passionate about a lot of types of climbing and like to push myself, so at times I accomplish things that may seem impressive just because I keep going like a dumb ox. 

Will you do another pack breakdown for your recent ascent of The Diamond on Denali?

8) LOL before one can go up there with an honest intention to attempt the Denali Diamond, they will probably know what gear they would want. Not to make it sound like we did something mind blowing, but making only 8th ascent/2nd free ascent and only ascent of the South face this year (as far as I know) is not that easy either. It was eye opening to see how many people plan to do the Cassin vs the fraction that gets to its base. Climbing anything up there, even west buttress is hard work. 
We brought a FM radio, which probably was a first for that route. :)

I thought this was a very useful video. Gives me some good ideas for how to further trim what I thought was a reasonably light kit. Thank you. 

Thanks, awesome video.  The lightweight gear we have available to us these days is unreal.  I think it will take some time for climbers to fully realize its potential.

Here's an example of a pack list, that includes absolutely every single item I brought on a 6+ day trip, including food, fuel, toiletries, what I wore/what I brought: 

https://justinsimoni.com/sangre-de-cristo-range-traverse/gear-list/

If I was asked by someone that wanted to go on a similar trip what I brought, I just point them here, and from there: they can adjust for their own ability, speed, and preferences. I also think it is useful to count things like water, fuel, and food when planning a trip in pack weight, not only to double-check you have a pack with the room to bring it, but also to estimate how fast you can move. A pack that's 10lb is a whole lot different to hike in than a pack that's 30lbs. Less hypotheticals at the beginning can help with less guess work while doing something. The pack weight for this trip is quite a bit heavier, but that's how it goes for unsupported trips in harsh environments. Leaving out 13lbs of food changes speed/planning drastically.

I'd compare it to someone else's pack who did the same trip, but there hasn't been anyone (yet). I had a few niceties like a camera, and a butt pad, but I also was skirting what I think was realistic, like my sleep system to bivy at 14,000' (again, not as a theoretical idea - I was bivvying at 14,000').

So that's kind of my suggestion (to all): don't forget anything on weigh-in time when planning a trip. It's a sinking feeling to put on a pack that weighs much more than you had initially planned for, but you didn't want to see reality until the day of.

Vitaly, since food can be a lot of extra weight, what kind of food do you bring for these kind of long multi-day ridge traverses in the Sierras?

Ethan Ayer wrote:

Vitaly, since food can be a lot of extra weight, what kind of food do you bring for these kind of long multi-day ridge traverses in the Sierras?

It depends on the day, amount of exertion I expect and what I feel like eating.
Yesterday, for example, I did the North Arete (800’-ish 5.8) of Bear Creek Spire car to car. I ate a chocolate coconut flavored Pro Meal Bar, 1 packet of sour skittles and two GU packets. Day prior I crashed and did north arete of crystal crag and brought no food or water for crystal crag because I expected it to go very fast. On BCS I mainly tried to drink water with electrolyte/lemonade mix. I usually rig a lightweight plastic bottle from BAI drinks and use it to fill up from streams/lakes as I pass them. Feels like a lighter option compared to Gatorade/Powerade bottle, but has wide enough mouth. Because I didn’t plan this day to be too long, I didn’t bring much food. Ended up being 4 hours 49 mins c2c. After that I got food in Bishop and returned to Rock Creek to camp by a lake and take some Milky Way photos. I brought a freeze dried dinner, salad, jerkey and Trader Joe’s dried baby bananas (that’s the shit!). I actually made a video about heavier backpacking gear that I didn’t have the time to talk about in the first video, as I had some time to kill.

For ridge traverses on which I’m planning to bivy (where I actually pay attention to every ounce), I sit down and make breakfast mix for 3-10 days. Because I can use them on any backpacking trip, it’s easier to make them all in one sitting. I use a small zip lock and pack it with - 2 brown sugar oatmeal packets, half a scoop of vanilla protein powder, instant coffee packet/mocha mix, raisins and nuts or dried baby bananas or dried blueberries. Sometimes I throw in some chocolate in there. Like for this traverse I’m hoping to try this summer, I will be doing about 9000ft of gain a day for like a week, so more calories will be nice to have.

For snacks, I feel like each individual knows what they like to snack on more and it is highly subjective, just like choosing the flavor of your freeze dried meal or if you want to substitute oatmeal with ramen for breakfast. But I personally always include one protein bar, which I eat towards late middle part of the day. With intention to help start the recovery process. Or at least make me think that I’m doing something right. :) I supplement that with either cookies from Costco, skittles, pro meal bar, hazelnut butter packet, snickers bar, GU, chocolate and shotblocks. I used to not bring GU, ever, because to me it feels like taking overpriced sugar that is not as tasty as something like sour gummies or skittles or other sugary options, but I feel like marketing got to me and I’m not sure how much it helps performance over other sugar, but at least it is easy to consume. For long days, I also try to bring salty snacks. Things like salami, peanut butter pretzels, cheese…and for big days that are stacked, and feature a lot of ‘don’t fuck up’ terrain, I would pack about 1400 calories worth of snacks. If it was the last day and was mainly not technical, I probably would bring like 600 calories worth, because I don’t have to be as sharp. I’ve done trips on which I would do couple of days with 8000-9000 foot of elevation gain and no snacks at all, to see how I feel. On a lot of my trips I intentionally do not bring snacks or breakfast, or skip breakfast on a hike out day, even when the hike out is longer than 15 miles. Just to train my body for long days on little to no food, and it seems like it works well. Not that I recommend other people to do that. Before trying that in the backcountry, one should experiment with intermittent fasting and working out on empty stomach. Sorry for a drift…

For dinners, I use one quality freeze dried bag by backpackers pantry (those bags are way more burly compared to Mountain House), open it, take the little preservation packet out. Rest of the freeze dried dinners, or ramen/mashed potatoes with some sort of protein (tuna packet or jerky or salami/cheese), I take out of their original packaging and place in small zip lock bags. Then I make all those dinners and breakfasts in either that one freeze dried bag or in a Nalgene.

If you have Grocery Outlet near by, check if they have Perky Jerky on sale. One in Bishop had a lid and the flavor is great from original, to Teriyaki or the spicy kind. It’s nice to add it into freeze dried to increase amount of protein and to make you feel fuller for longer. Of course, it’s not as calorie-dense as peanut butter or nuts, but it should keep you less hungry for longer. 

This is a great thing about Nalgene - you can hydrate your food in it and bring no original packaging at all. But nalgenes are way heavier than let’s say hydrapak seeker 2-3L flexible container or 2L platypus. It is actually a hard choice for me - 1L Nalgene (I found sort of a lightweight Nalgene) and 2L platypus container vs 3L hydrapak seeker and one freeze dried container to eat in. I think I will go with the Nalgene option because of durability and you can also place it in your sleeping bag while the food is hydrating without being worried about spilling the contents out.

For electrolytes I bring Tailwind, scratch labs, nuun and/or different flavored propel/lemonade mix. Tailwind is what a lot of runners like. I try to pay attention to the running world because it’s a much older sport, with more dedicated following and it is a lot harder to promote products that don’t deliver results to such a huge community.

Also, when bringing food for a big traverse I will bring food that is GOOD for the approach and till it gets gnar, no matter how heavy it is. A favorite burrito, sushi or a fancy sandwich is way better than freeze dried.

I’ve experimented with not bringing a stove/fuel. For me, It worked well while soloing Shortest Straw on el cap earlier this year. But doesn’t work as well in the backcountry. I think hydrating food saves enough weight and gives you more flexibility with being able to melt snow in case there isn’t a water source and of course warm food is nice to have.

This all is just a personal preference and I don’t think my way is better or worse than any other way, it’s just what I like. If anything, I bet you all will think it’s weird I take all my freeze dried out of the original packaging. I do only when I really want to save weight/get rid of bulk. Otherwise I don’t bother with any of that. 

Long Ranger wrote:

Here's an example of a pack list, that includes absolutely every single item I brought on a 6+ day trip, including food, fuel, toiletries, what I wore/what I brought: 

https://justinsimoni.com/sangre-de-cristo-range-traverse/gear-list/

If I was asked by someone that wanted to go on a similar trip what I brought, I just point them here, and from there: they can adjust for their own ability, speed, and preferences. I also think it is useful to count things like water, fuel, and food when planning a trip in pack weight, not only to double-check you have a pack with the room to bring it, but also to estimate how fast you can move. A pack that's 10lb is a whole lot different to hike in than a pack that's 30lbs. Less hypotheticals at the beginning can help with less guess work while doing something. The pack weight for this trip is quite a bit heavier, but that's how it goes for unsupported trips in harsh environments. Leaving out 13lbs of food changes speed/planning drastically.

I'd compare it to someone else's pack who did the same trip, but there hasn't been anyone (yet). I had a few niceties like a camera, and a butt pad, but I also was skirting what I think was realistic, like my sleep system to bivy at 14,000' (again, not as a theoretical idea - I was bivvying at 14,000').

So that's kind of my suggestion (to all): don't forget anything on weigh-in time when planning a trip. It's a sinking feeling to put on a pack that weighs much more than you had initially planned for, but you didn't want to see reality until the day of.

That’s a well organized and comprehensive review of every piece of gear you used, and you point out a few things that are very useful to a beginner backpacker - like the need to understand the food and water will take up a significant portion of the pack’s weight and space. Well done! At times I wish I climbed less, or something, so I had time/energy to post reports to my blog, make better organized review of gear I find useful, or even to share more general knowledge. I’m no expert, but I feel like all of us have something to share and to learn from. Before I made that video, I knew I had little time, no experience of talking in front of a camera and my hope was to share lighter options for backpacking gear. Hopefully at least the content was good, even if some people don’t agree with what has to be included into the ‘base weight’ or whatever. Like I said, the final weight is not what the focus of the video was, for me, it was desire to share that REI is not the only place where sleeping bags can be sold, that quilts can be a much better pound for pound options etc. But I didn’t want to chew it up for the viewer either. I’m not trying to sell these products and if someone got interested in one of them, they would have to do some of their own research and see why these products are great. It’s kind of like drawing a topo of a route with intention to show exactly where to go, but preserve some adventure :)

Just FYI I have used my sleep system for multiple nights between 13 and 14k last year, it’s not a theoretical idea. One exception is that I had an emergency blanket that I would wrap around my quilt on the colder nights. Because those don’t breathe at all, I replaced it with the solo bivy sack and got down socks just in case the weather forecast is colder than I want. I have used the system with the emergency blanket a few years prior too, on a first solo/first alpine style ascent of the full evolution crest (VI 5.9) where I spent most nights sleeping between 12 and 13k. Emergency blanket is not an ideal thing to cover with, but it’s light/cheap and worked out. What can I say, hopefully the upgrades make it a much nicer experience.

Thanks for the food beta. its very helpful.

SirTobyThe3rd M wrote:

I use a small zip lock and pack it with - 2 brown sugar oatmeal packets, half a scoop of vanilla protein powder, instant coffee packet/mocha mix, raisins and nuts or dried baby bananas or dried blueberries. Sometimes I throw in some chocolate in there.

How do you eat this mix?
Do you just add boiling water?
How does vanilla protein powder behave when mixed with boiling water?

I used a similar approach with milk powder instead of protein powder and was not happy with results due to milk powder clumps.

Yury wrote:

How do you eat this mix?
Do you just add boiling water?
How does vanilla protein powder behave when mixed with boiling water?

I used a similar approach with milk powder instead of protein powder and was not happy with results due to milk powder clumps.

Yes, boiling water. I think it depends on the brand of protein. I had that problem before as well and I agree it SUCKS. It's working alright with Optimum Nutrition, which is one of the more legit brands I remember from back in my weight lifting days.

Because it is instant oatmeal, I have hydrated it overnight with cold water too. But if the morning is cold, it is quite nice to have warm food, and warming it up mixed sucks because the bottom of the pot will get burned lumps unless you are doing an amazing job stirring super fast. 

Recap of the traverse I was hesitant to talk about is at Alpinist.com and climbing.com 

Vitaliy Musiyenko completes 32-mile Goliath Traverse in High Sierra - Alpinist.com

Climbing.com - First Ascent of the Sierra Nevada's Goliath Traverse 

SirTobyThe3rd M wrote:

Recap of the traverse I was hesitant to talk about is at Alpinist.com and climbing.com 

Vitaliy Musiyenko completes 32-mile Goliath Traverse in High Sierra - Alpinist.com

Climbing.com - First Ascent of the Sierra Nevada's Goliath Traverse 

Good for you Vitaliy. Truly next level! Grateful you share your knowledge. 

jcs

Vitaliy you're a beast dude.