Pack weights

I need to get a licence and get my rods out again.

Back to pack weights ------- I have a 90l pack which gets filled when I go on a 5 day fishing/tramping trip. I doubt it weighs more than 17 - 18 kg as I don't get hooked into buying all that crap that fishing magazines etc insist I need! (Fishing lures catch fishermen's wallets mostly! lol ) I wear long sleeved polyprops and leggings to beat the sandflies and just my heavy duty tramping boots - after 5 minutes I don't even feel the cold anymore and, yes, I do go into snowy peaks territory to fish. A good lightweight tarp with trekking poles for poles (of which one is essential for wading). I try and keep weights down but from reading this thread I obviously have a weigh to go!

I've just come back from a 9 day trip in Nelson Lakes where my starting pack weight was 14kg. Admittedly someone else was carrying the tent and cooker. I had to buy a bigger pack this time as my usual 37 litre pack wouldn't quite fit everything. That said, I have done a 9 day trip with my smaller pack although the two others in that group had larger packs so took more of the group gear. The main items in my pack were: Sleeping bag (summer weight) Thermarest Clothes (incl. full rain gear & plenty of warm clothes) Food (incl. 2.2kg of breakfasts, lunches, and snacks) Billy 1 litre of fuelite 1.5 litres of water By the end of the trip my pack was only around 9kg (best guess).

Hey, I am one of those Yanks with a 4 to 4.5kg base weight. That weight does not include food or water. My pack is a ULA Catalyst. Like many I have slowly down weighted my gear to this point. Other than my pack the second biggest weight saver I did was switching from a 2kg sleeping bag to a 1kg bag. I also tarptent saving 500g. My stove is an alkystove made out of a cat food can. I bought my pot at a 5 and 10 for almost zip. I have not gone to trail runners as I like the ankle support. From what I am reading I am cautious. I am moving to NZ and am wondering about my gear. Since you say the conditions as so much worse than here. Is it the temperature? the remoteness (5-7 days with no resupply) or the bush (thorns etc) that makes ultralight gear not survive?

pretty much, can snow year round, horizontal rain any time of year... ultralighters dont fare well when the weather turns bad, hypothermia... sharp rocks on various tracks will rip lightweight footwear to pieces.

Nothing like bush lawyer to challenge ultra light gear but then again the only sure fire way to protect against it is 2 swanies. Bush lawyer is a vine that can be many metres long and about 3mm diameter with its leaves and stems completely covered in small rose thorns (the ultra sharp type) With NZ tracks as soon as you get off the major tracks (including some of the Te Araroa trail) your tracks become little more than an orange triangle every few trees and if you get beyond that you find trails that are little more than a description in a guide book. Weather is what catches most out. NZ has a lattitude similar to Spain but narrow and completely surrounded by open ocean with nothing stopping a storm originating in Antarctica reaching here Today in Wellington city its 22C but if a storm was coming tomorrow it could be 5C In the lower south island it can change from 25 or more to below 0C in a matter of hours.Even in summer. Also precipitation is much higher than you would expect except for a few lowland eastern areas. A strange fact with hyperthermia is that its more likely to kill you in temperatures near 0C than it is at much colder temperatures. Part of this is that you are more likely to be prepared for colder temps but also at the warmer temperature your more likely to be wet. On paper our weather isnt that bad and our mountains are not that high but they dont take prisoners.

they've just had a couple of metres of snow high in teh alps

This was a good article that waynowski shared, although not NZ themed, the message is still relevant. http://andrewskurka.com/2012/stupid-light-not-always-right-or-better/

As one gets older a certain weight shedding does occur i guess. However im one of those people thats a reluctant shopper, and hence have a strong dislike of things that dont last long. For that reason, im sticking with the (pre fairydown) Cascade and the La Sportiva boots. Both have been good friends for many years and will be so for many more. Those two items alone are almost 5kg. But none of that sickening feeling you get when you have to toss something out.

Hi @Reverse. Some ultra-lighters fare fine in bad conditions here if they know what they're doing, but there are probably no shortage of ultra-lighters who think they know what they're doing and really don't. Look up the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people, even experts, are generally very bad at rating their own expertise. I'm wary of offering advice because going seriously light-weight is not a hobby I can be bothered with for myself right now. If you're looking for a NZ perspective on ultra-light, you could check out a blog like http://www.lightweightrob.com/ Again I won't vouch for its reliability.