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Backpacking Gear List
A trimmed backpacking kit, from pack and shelter to water and first aid, with the weights trip reports give.
A real, editable checklist below — tick, tap a line to rewrite, drag to reorder.
Tick the circles, tap any line to change it, drag the dots to reorder.
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Do the testing before the trailhead. One reply on the Backpacking Light forum says to pitch the tent at home, cut the cord to length, and try your sleeping and cooking gear where you can easily bail out. Another reader counted about 88 items on one beginner's list and called it far too many. For scale, Andrew Skurka's pack weighed 33 lb leaving the trailhead, with food and fuel but no water. By his arithmetic, that leaves roughly 15.5 lb for nine days of food. This list is built from summer trip lists. It leaves out permits and clothing sizes.
Why these items are on the list
- Backpack on the smaller side. Jess Wandering's theory: any bag gets filled, so smaller packs win. The guide's packs run 40 to 65 litres.
- Tent, one or two person. Jess Wandering lists price, weight, interior space and setup as key. She finds ultra-light two-person tents pretty small.
- Sleeping bag rated for the cold. Western Mountaineering UltraLite 20: probably the best all-around bag Jess Wandering has come across recently, at 16 ounces.
- Sleeping pad. A heavier all-season pad at 19 ounces helped recovery after long miles, says Osborn.
- Trash compactor bag liner. On the John Muir Trail, Osborn lined only his pad and sleeping bag. Clothes: stuff sack. Food: bear canister.
- Waterproof clothes stuff sack. Osborn's 5-litre Sea to Summit stuff sack held all his packed clothes. It weighed 1 ounce.
- Rain jacket. Short afternoon monsoon showers hit Skurka's Pfiffner Traverse. Osborn's own Montane Minimus rain jacket weighed 8 ounces.
- Rain pants. Osborn wore his six-ounce rain pants twice: once for warmth in the morning, once in a squall off Muir Pass.
- Merino half-zip insulating layer. Osborn's summer John Muir Trail nights ran close to freezing up high. His merino half-zip sufficed 90% of the time.
- Coghlan's bug net. Osborn never bothers with bug spray, preferring gloves, a jacket and netting. The net weighs 1 ounce.
- Water capacity: Osborn's 2 litres. Osborn says summer John Muir Trail water is plentiful, so 2 litres worked, especially drinking an extra litre at sources.
- Water treatment drops. Osborn burned through about 90% of his Aqua Mira drops on a two-week trip.
- Stove and fuel. Skurka's pack weighed 33 lb leaving the Pfiffner Traverse trailhead, including his food and stove fuel but no water.
- One-litre cook pot. Osborn's list calls his 1-litre anodized Olicamp XTS pot extremely efficient, thanks to its heat exchanger. His weighed 6.7 ounces.
- Spork, lighter, hand sanitizer. Osborn's Light My Fire spork weighed 0.5 ounces, his mini Bic lighter 0.5, his hand sanitizer 1: about 2 ounces.
- Bear canister, where required. Osborn's John Muir Trail parks required one. His Bear Vault BV500 weighed 41 ounces; he called it an unfortunate necessity.
- Small headlamp and pinch light. One forum hiker finds both plenty around camp, since they don't hike much at night.
- Map and compass. On the John Muir Trail list, the mapset weighed 4 ounces and the compass 1 ounce.
- First aid kit and tape. Osborn's first aid kit weighed 5 ounces. He rates Leukotape above duct tape, though it isn't impermeable.
- Multitool or small knife. One forum reply says bring the lighter of two knives. Osborn's own Leatherman Squirt PS4 weighed 2.2 ounces.
- Trowel and toilet paper. One forum reply says a small plastic trowel will do; the poster saw no need for a shovel.
- Sunscreen and lip balm. Skurka found sun intense at 10,000 to 12,000 feet on the Pfiffner Traverse, with reflective snowfields.
- One bandana. One forum reply says one bandana suffices for drying, neck shade and pot-holding. It would drop the rest.
- Whistle or satellite messenger. One forum reply calls an air horn overkill beside a whistle. Osborn's own Spot Messenger weighed 6 ounces.
- Food for each trip day. Skurka's math: a 33-pound trailhead pack leaves about 15.5 pounds for nine days of food, 29 ounces daily.
Work through it on your phone with the gear spread across the floor, and tick only what actually goes in the pack. Share it with your hiking partner so you can see what each of you has ticked.
When to use it
Use it while planning a trip, with time to pitch the tent and test your sleeping and cooking gear at home.