Lighterpack: tj5sma
This list contains a lot of errors and guesswork. In between being a mum, being a person, a human and trying to be a somewhat outdoorsy type of person, this was the best I could do – which honestly is an impressive feat in itself, considering the amount of items.
I won’t go into too much detail – just follow the link to lighterpack, or scroll down see the table down at the bottom.
The big three
The big three refers to three items that are usually the heaviest: Backpack, sleep system (sleeping bag and sleeping pad) and shelter (usually a tent, but could also be a tarp). I guess it would make more sense to call it the big four, but unfortunately, I didn’t get to coin this term.
The weather forecast said that there’d be down to 3°C, so I basically brought double sleeping bags. I had Nordisk Yeti Passion Three, which has a comfort rating of 7° combined with a Coccoon merino fleece bag liner, which I forget the rating of, on top of Thermarest Uberlite L and a Sarek super thin closed cell foam pad. I was cold as fuck.
Junior got a Nordisk Tension Junior (including the footbox extender), a Rumpl puffy down blanket and a Asivik Arctic closed cellfoam pad (still in it’s full length before I cut it down) and was toasty when paired with loads of wool clothing.
We slept in a Naturehike Mongar 2 tent, which held up perfectly, despite strong wind gusts; I think it topped at maybe 10 m/s. The pockets are not as nice as in our big 4-person tent (Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL4), but it makes up for it with a nice mesh loft pocket, that fits a tablet perfectly. At 1.9 kg, it’s not a particularly UL tent, but it comes close enough.
Everything was packed into my Exped Thunder 70, which has the most amazing feature for a backpack ever: two front zippers, so you can see the entire compartment at once – invaluable when you’re packing for several people. I bought this pack specifically for family hiking, because I wanted the easy access, and at roughly 1600 g, it has a lot of neat features without weighing all too much.
Kitchen
I decided against purchasing a new titanium pot set, and decided on just bringing the pots from my Trangia set. A tip I got online: The Trangia 27 (smaller series) pan fits over the Trangia 25 (bigger series) inner pot, so I did invest in a new pan
This brought my kitchen set down to a pot, pan, pot gripper, gas burner plus gas, some utensils and Fozzils Snapfold bowls, that also folded out into neat little plates. The whole thing didn’t nest neatly in itself as I would have preferred, but it was both compact and light enough anyway.
Clothing
Lots of wool. Tip: always bring a full spare set of clothes for kids. Sleep clothes make for a poor replacement.
I opted to sleep in wool leggings and my puffy jacket, which I hope I never have to do again. Junior slept in a wool baselayer/nightwear set, a thick wool sweater and and some thick socks on top of their regular socks, plus maybe I think a beanie. They were cosy all night.
Toiletries & First aid
We always combine all our toiletries in one bag, and pack out first aid in another. I have two first aid kits, a big and a small one, and on this trip I brought the small one, since it was an overnight trip at an organized festival. I might go into details about what exactly I bring it my first aid kit in future post.
Entertainment
I get exhausted easily, so I opt for cheat codes. In this case a tablet and some headphones.
Electronics
A whopping 30k powerbank to charge our devices to our hearts content, plus an assortment of small cables and one or two light sources.
Ditty bag
I’ve gotten into the habit of bringing a fanny pack with a somewhat large capacity. It works amazing as a ‘carry on’ bag, for when I lift the big backpack up on the hat shelf in the train (or, rarely, pack in in the trunk of a car), and for bringing on small trips after we’ve made camp. I store all my small items in it, including my water bottle when I go around camp. It goes in the brain of the big bag.
Food
I brought some so-so Knorr dinner kits, that it turned out that Junior didn’t even like, so I bought some other food at the supermarket. We shared a portion of cup noodles and a bag of tortilla wraps with trailmix. A lot of spare food was carried home again. Conclusion? Don’t pack when stressed. Buy a smaller bag of crisps. Ask you kids if they even like this bag of pasta dish before you head out.
I can’t think of more to add, but I might just come back and tweak a few tidbits here and there.
Lighterpack list
For the uninitiated, lighter pack is a site where you plot in each and every item, including the weight of those items. The idea is to easier to be able to get an overview of what gear weighs a lot, in in which categories you can cut down a bit. There’s absolutely no need to do this to go on a casual trip, but I like stats, so here you go:
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