For some time I have been thinking about doing some videos to compliment my blog, and finally got around to it today. I filmed a "what's in my pack" video that I will post below, but first wanted to elaborate on some things that slipped my mind while I was speaking in the video. It's hard to cover everything you want to express in a short amount of time, and after watching my finished video there were several times I wish I would have said more. Then again, if I would have said more, it would probably been way too long.
I really wish I would have said "Uhh" much less--but hey, it's my first video that I've posted online, so cut me some slack. And after doing several takes I don't feel like going back and re-shooting at this point, so it is what it is. While editing I cut out a lot of pauses and rambling to try and make it flow better, which explains all the cuts in the video.
Before I forget, here's the gear list in full, with all the weights and more details, via Gear Grams.
The total weight is 3283g / 7.2lbs for both my base pack weight plus items carried. The only thing not included (excluding consumables) is my clothing worn, which in case you are interested is 1460g / 3.2lbs. So what you see is pretty much everything I take with me minus my hiking outfit, food, and water--though I of course didn't include the weight of my alcohol fuel on my gear list, but you get to see it anyhow.
On to some additional information that might be helpful/interesting, or things I forgot to mention in the video:
I say my name using English pronunciation because I am speaking English, and this video I am guessing will be seen by a lot of Americans. However most of my family and friends call me by the Spanish pronunciation of my name, which is more like "Seh-sar" rather than "See-zer."
I am around 183cm / 6ft tall. It's been a while since I weighed myself, but I would guess it's around 80-84kg / 175-185lbs. This is good to know for sizing/weight of clothing and gear (e.g. backpack, jacket, sleeping bag, etc.).
My trip this coming weekend will be a continuation of my E1 trail hikes, and will be at the most roughly 80km.
I forgot to mention that my Borah Cuben bivy is modified with a vapor vent, and you can see pictures and read more on that here. It breaths great and I have very little issues with condensation inside my bivy--hardly any, even.
The clothing is perhaps a bit overkill with the Borah down vest, but there have been plenty of times that cold saps happen and it's several degrees below the weather reports low temps. Plus gives me the flexibility to be able to camp in a place that is a cold air sink if I want to, such as right next to a big lake. And makes for a great pillow inside my pillow sack anyhow, not to mention it's only 105g.
The Nemo Zor sleeping pad has an R value of 2.3, so more than enough for my needs.
My Zpacks sleeping bag is the wide/long version.
I forgot to note that my Zpacks Zero pack has a webbing hip belt. You can also see lots of pictures of it in action and read my full thoughts on this wonderful backpack in this long term review.
Here is a picture of my shelter system in action from my last trip:
I am in the process of making a warm weather (i.e. 11-18 C / 50-65 F) hoodless sleeping bag. We have all the materials but just need the time to sit and make them (this is hard with kids and jobs!), but it's been a rather mild summer so far, so no big deal. I expect it to weigh around 250g, give or take, and along with leaving a few pieces of clothing behind, in warmer temps my base weight would probably drop to around 2.6kg / 5.7lbs. I have been less interested in no-cook food as of late, or I would also leave my cook kit and fuel at home as well to go even lighter.
I think that's about all I have to add to the topic at hand, so here's what's in my pack:
Thanks for reading/watching, and as always feel free to leave comments with any questions or feedback.
And again for the record, I am still not sponsored by any company and pay full price for all my gear.
Update (about 6 hours after posting): On reddit someone pointed out that my list looked heavier than my initial total weight, so I went back and double checked. Sure enough, I forgot to add my cook kit and a stuff sack into the gear list, but have sinced fixed this on my Gear Grams list and on the title of my youtube video. Sorry about this mistake, and everything should be in order now. Good thing I didn't mention my final weight in the video, that would have been more of a pain to fix.
Update 01/07/2014: At the last minute before the trip I decided to take my MLD gaiters and to wear two t-shirts (one cotton and one synthetic on top). The gaiters slipped my mind, but the extra shirt in my clothing worn was due to the weather reports changing from scattered showers to heavy rain. Both shirts stayed quite dry thanks to my rain poncho, however, but it was nice to have them and I will probably continue to use them in the summer. I really liked the flexibility of having each of them for the pros and cons of each fabric for use in warmer weather. I updated my clothing worn weight above to accurately reflect what I wore for this trip.
I also just uploaded a post trip talk video on youtube related to this hike, which you can check out here.
Update 08/07/2014: I recently uploaded another video related to the contents of my small diddy bags. In the video above where I go through all my gear, I only show the baggies of small things quickly and say a few things about them. But they have a lot of little things and some things it's helpful to elaborate on, so I made another video to do just that. You can check it out below:
