Topic: The Best Ultralight Backpacking Gear of 2023, Tested and Reviewed (Read 35 times)
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Topic: The Best Ultralight Backpacking Gear of 2023, Tested and Reviewed (Read 35 times)
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This backpacking sleeping pad is so light, and so tiny, you’ll barely notice it’s in your pack during the day. But at night, it’s just as co*fortable as the standard Therm-a-Rest XLite, my pick for the best backpacking sleeping pad overall. There are two catches here—the first is that this has about half the R rating of the XLite, similar to top-performing closed-cell foam pads. It’s suitable for summer camping (and early fall if you run hot), but you’ll be co*promising the performance of the rest of your sleep system if you take it into colder conditions than that. (For shoulder season, we reco*mend the Therm-a-Rest XLite and for winter, the Therm-a-Rest Xtherm.)
The second is that this sleeping pad is fundamentally more fragile than other backpacking sleeping pads. Instead of a 30-denier ripstop nylon, it only uses 15-denier nylon for the shell. If you’re used to getting away with only a cursory kick of the largest rocks before throwing your sleeping on the ground, you’re going to need to take more care (some kind of groundsheet beneath it is a must).
The mini-me version of the Sawyer Squeeze is the perfect filter for UL enthusiasts—small enough that it won’t take up much real estate in your backpacking backpack and light enough (even after the final weigh-in) that you can scrub an ounce or more off your spreadsheet. Even better, it’s so affordable that it wouldn’t hurt your budget much to just replace it each season. Where it wobbles, unsurprisingly, is in water flow taking about twice as long as the standard Sawyer Squeeze to filter a liter of water. Of course, if you plan to attach the filter directly to a SmartWater bottle and suck the water out from there, that might not matter much to you.
I used the provided dirty bag during testing and was impressed with its durability. Even after squeezing the bag as hard as I could to push the water out over ten rounds of filling and filtering to reach the desired five liters, the bag still looked like new. I only wish that it was larger—the bag that co*es with the mini is 16 ounces rather than the standard liter. Something else I noticed during testing was that the filter itself did not appear to screw onto the bag correctly. Each time I tried to fix it, the angle would still be lopsided. Fortunately, there were no leaks during testing so this appears to be mainly an aesthetic concern.
While the flow rate for the Sawyer Mini was not especially impressive (about four times as long as the Katadyn BeFree), I did appreciate that it came with a lightweight syringe to backflush the filter when it starts to clog too much.
While this filter was middle of the pack at the end of the testing of the best backpacking water filters, it was both the lightest and the least expensive.
You know who you are, you backpackers (likely thru-hikers) that have been singing the praises of the disposable spoon scrounged from that last roadside gas station after you lost your titanium one somewhere in the Sierras. And I get it—I’ve done it too—but here’s the thing: That’s supposed to be a stop gap when you lose your spoon, not your new UL hiker trash gear plan.
This is the spoon you want. It’s dirt cheap, surprisingly durable, and springs right back into place no matter how far I try to bend it. It’s even pretty long—definitely longer than that piece of white plastic. Even better, it’s BPA, BPS, and BPF free, so there won’t be as many chemicals leaching into your body with each bite.
My minimalist pick for the best camping utensils is also affordable and durable, long enough to reach into the far corners of your favorite freeze-dried meal bags.
Tyler Freel took a look at the Garmin inReach Mini 2 and came back impressed with how the unit had improved over the original model. He noted that the inReach MINI 2 works best when paired with your smartphone via the Garmin Explore app, especially for more co*plete GPS functions and mapping, including the ability to download a variety of map layers including Topo North America, USGS Quad Sheets, and even aerial imagery for some areas. (He did find that the MINI 2 was easier to use without a mobile device than the MINI.) What the MINI 2 lacks is the option to have a basic topographic map on the unit, even with the small screen: you won’t have access to the full power and function of the MINI 2 without using it with a smartphone.
But here’s what you really care about, the weight: At only 3.5 ounces, you’d be hard-pressed to find a satellite messenger or personal locator beacon that’s as lightweight as this one, let alone pack in this many features. Don’t chance things, ultralighters, be sure to pack this one for your next big hike.
TheTentLab The Deuce #2 is a favorite among my thru-hiker testers. The minimal weight of 0.6 ounces makes this a no-brainer carry for those who want to travel light. Made of tough 7075-T6 aluminum, the handle end is meant to pry up rocks and cut into the ground to create a hole. Then flip it and use the larger rounded shovel end to lift up the dirt in the hole. If you encounter tough ground, the Deuce has two etched teeth on either side. These are made to last a lifetime, but if you don’t want it anymore, it is 100 percent recyclable. Designed and made in Colorado. —Justin La Vigne
TheTentLab The Deuce #2 was the lightest pick in our roundup of the best camping shovels.
Cons
Let’s get the tough part out of the way first: If you are headed into conditions that could be described as “torrential,” you should probably leave this one in your closet. But if you’re looking at more typical rain conditions—the light rain of the Pacific Northwest or short-but-intense squalls of the East Coast—then the Montbell Versalite is an excellent choice. It was co*pletely dry underneath after an hour in the shower, and the underside of the fabric was only ever so slightly damp after twenty-four hours of having a pool of water sit on top of it—an impressive degree of water resistance.
This wasn’t quite the lightest rain jacket in my test (those would be the Frogg Toggs UltraLite), but the extra features it incorporated (accounting for that extra ounce of weight) upped its performance for big adventures. The biggest of these is the zipped pit vents, essential for letting you cool off and air out when the sweat starts to pick up. It also has (albeit more minimal than the Arc’teryx Beta LT) velcro cuffs and cinches at the hem, the back of the hood, and the neck, which will help keep out cold gusts when the wind kicks up.
The Montbell Versalite had the best balance of functionality and weight in our test of the best backpacking rain jackets.
At 7.1 ounces, the Montbell Light Down Pants are the perfect fit for early-season backpackers and alpine adventurers. I’ve carried earlier versions of the Montbell Light Down Pants everywhere, from the High Sierras to the North Cascades, and never once regretted the extra weight in my pack. The three ounces of 800 fill power down is enough to keep you warm in 30-degree temps in the evening (or 20-degree temps if you’re on the go), while still co*pressing down to about the size of a pair of socks in your bag when not in use.
While I looked at a pair of the newest model of the Montbell Light Down Pants for this story, I have a pair in my gear closet that I’ve had for close to a decade—it’s picked up exactly one tiny rip in that time, attesting to these puffers’ overall durability.
Too often, the lightest weight puffer jackets aren’t warm enough for truly cold conditions: the so-called midlayer puffer jacket. Some even dispense with the hood in an effort to showcase their UL bonafides. To get the warmth they need, most shoulder season, alpine, and winter adventurers have to settle for something significantly heavier.
The Crazy Levity jacket aims to change that. At 6.1 ounces, the men’s version is over two ounces lighter than the popular Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer 2 and, in my experience, packs in notably more warmth. It got there by pulling out all the stops: the highest grade fill power down, only one zipped pocket, no cinch cords—even the baffling is noticeably minimalist, as the Crazy Levity uses glue instead of sewing its (very minimal) cells. And they get away with it in part because there is just so much fill in this coat that it doesn’t have much chance to shift around.
You’re probably wondering if there’s a catch, and it’s this: this is an extremely expensive piece of gear, costing almost twice what the Ghost Whisperer costs.
Read our full Crazy Levity review