As promised, here’s our gear list. I’ll do my best to include weights now that I’ve put a new battery in my kitchen scale. (I’ve used grams, since they’re easier to add up — here’s a converter if you need it).

Bear in mind the well-known gear maxim: Losing pounds is cheap; losing ounces is expensive. This trip was a celebration of my 50th birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary.  What better way of showing your love for each other than buying outrageously expensive gear?  That said, we got a lot of stuff on sale at Campsaver. Some of it we had already. Also bear in mind that we’re not hard core UL backpackers. If you want that, just type “UL backpacking gear” into Google and make sure to increase the limit on your Visa card.

Packs (1757 g)
JepPaks 45L+ toploading packs: 850.5 g (each)
Custom packs with padded hip/shoulder straps, mesh pockets on outside & belt, two bottle pockets. Removable aluminum frames & 200d dyneema reinforced nylon for sturdiness. (Update: they seem to have gone out of business. ULA packs are similar.)
Trash compactor bags to line the packs: 28g (each)

Shelter (1929g)
MSR Hubba Hubba NX (Marc carried tent, Mary carried poles): 1729g
Tent Footprint (not technically necessary, but extends the life of your tent): 200g

Water gear (843g)
Sawyer mini filter (at only $25, you’d be crazy to use any other system IMO): 57g
Chlorine dioxide water treatment drops such as aquamira (def have for large H2O quantities): 28g
Platypus 2L bladder: 35g
Platypus 6L reservoir: 113g
1L Nalgene bottle (Mary): 184g
Two 1.5L Sigg aluminum bottles (Marc): 213g (each)

Sleeping gear (1707g)
Wastern Mountaineering Summerlite : 540g
Western Mountaineering Everlite: 397g
Thermarest neoair xlite pads: 340g (each)
Exped air pillows (a little luxury): 45g (each)

Cooking/food gear(1363g)
Snow Peak Gigapower manual stove: 92g
GP stove windscreen: 57g
Snow Peak titanium cookset: 367g
Titanium french press (marc’s luxury item): 179g
Titanium double-walled mugs: 119g (each)
2 Plastic sporks: 25g
Reflectix pot cozies for large pot and coffee press (link to video): 25g
Aluminum pot gripper (you need this if you use the cozies): 43g
Opsak food storage bags (odor-free for bear control!): 25g (each)
Cuben fiber bear bag (made by Sam at JepPaks): 28g
Shine Line nylon cord/carabiner for bear bag hanging: 85g

Miscellaneous (2207g)
UL First Aid Kit: 227g
Headlamp (we only needed one): 71g
Black Diamond Distance Carbon Z trekking poles: 283g (each pair)
Anker external battery pack & wall charger: 326g
Kindle Voyage (a standard bubble mailer fits for protection): 179g
Two x iPhone 5S: 113g (each)
Toiletries (Advil, deet, eye drops, lip balm, sunscreen, comb, toothpaste & brushes, floss, TP): 500g?
Mini Swiss Army knife (with scissors!): 28g
2 sets of UL ditty bags: 23g each
two Sea to Summit compression sacks: 65g (each)
waterproof matches: 28g
emergency blankets: 25g
Two Deuce of Spades cathole diggers: 17g (each)
Sunglasses (very important): 25g

Clothing (Marc) (3784g)
2 Icebreaker cool-lite t-shirts (they don’t stink): 128g (each)
2 pairs Darn Tough hiking socks: 57g (each)
1 pair cotton socks: 43g
2 pairs of running shorts: 113g (each)
260-weight Icebreaker thermal top & bottom (leftover from a trip to the North Pole): 510g
Patagonia down sweater jacket: 371g
Marmot super mica rain jacket: 247g
Patagonia rain pants: 227g
Salomon x-ultra goretex hiking shoes: 822g
PearlIzumi N2 Trail running shoes (I tried to get him to use crocs, but no…): 500g
Wool hat & gloves: 142g
1 short sleeve button-up shirt (who knows why?): 142g
1 underwear: 71g
baseball cap: 113g

Clothing (Mary) (3180g)
2 Icebreaker cool-lite t-shirts: 113g (each)
1 pair darn tough socks: 60g
1 pair injinji toe socks: 57g
Cloudveil hiking shorts (fat): 170g
Kuhl hiking shorts (skinny): 213g
Marmot Jena hoody down jacket: 431g
Marmot super mica rain jacket: 247g
Marmot rain pants: 283g
Icebreaker 200-weight thermal top & bottom: 354g
2 jockey comfies underwear (they dry really fast on your body): 40g (each)
Jockey sports bra: 71g
Balaclava and mittens: 227g
Crocs: 340g
La Sportiva Wildcat trail running shoes: 328g
Outdoor Research Helios sun hat: 65g
Sun Sleeves: 28g

Total base weight is 16.77 kg or just about 37 pounds, including the shoes and clothing we were wearing while hiking, and our poles. That translates into about 8.4 kg or 18.5 pounds each.

What could we have done without?

• the 6 L reservoir
• we could have used a smaller anker battery pack
• We started with head nets, two headlamps, bear bells & a knife, and ditched them.

What did we consider essential?

• Thermarest neoair xlite pads. They’re warm, light and comfy.
• Down jackets & thermals. We wore them inside our sleeping bags almost every night.
• Trekking poles. Essential for balance and help up the hills.
• Sunscreen, sunglasses. It’s high altitude, folks.
• The IceBreaker t-shirts. Worth the price.
• The tent. You gotta keep the bugs and rain out.
• The chlorine dioxide drops. Much faster than the filter for large quantities of H2O.
• I will never backpack without crocs again. Light, waterproof, easy to get into.
• My La Sportiva’s were the absolute bomb. Best hiking shoes ever.

What did we wish we had?

• Possibly an Ursack? or at least a slightly larger bear bag.
• Warmer sleeping bags. (brrrr)
• Lighter water bottles. Maybe a second Platypus 2L.