Rain skirt is one of the easiest pieces of hiking and backpacking gear to make yourself. An ultra-light rain skirt is handy to pack in your pocket and pull over your hiking pants when it starts raining.
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Lightweight Backpacking
The long-distance fall hike is the most wonderful hike of the year. The best hiking season in the Nordics begins in the middle of September. Check your gear and you are ready to go!
When you want to hike with lightweight backpack, choose the 'big three' from the light end: sleeping system (sleeping bag and sleeping pad), tent, and your hiking rucksack. When weighing the options on a tight budget, consider which items are worth investing and which items are not that important.
For a long-distance or multi-day fall hike, you need more or less the same equipment as for a summer hike, especially if you're heading to Lapland or to the mountains. Hiking gear in fall is often supplemented with warmer layers of clothing, but if you have initially chosen equipment for three seasons, there is no need to make any new purchases.
In this article, I listed my own favorites, which I use on hikes from spring to late fall in the Nordics, some also go with me in winter. Here you can find gear list for lightweight backpacking for a week's hike (or longer):
- Sleeping bag
- Sleeping pad
- Tent
- Hiking Backpack
- Cooking essentials
- Clothes and hiking shoes for fall
- Essential gear (first aid, toilet paper, electronics, map, etc.)
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Are down jackets good for hiking and backpacking? One of the most important equipment for outdoor adventures is clothing suitable for layering. The light down jacket is an insulating layer that has incredible warmth to weight ratio compared to other alternatives.
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Choosing the right sleeping bag and sleeping pad for lightweight and ultralight backpacking may seem like a daunting task with all the various ratings and ever-increasing options. We are often advised to first think about what kind of backpacker you are: do you enjoy road trips and camping, or do you hike in a traditional style or do you want to shave as much weight as possible.
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Lightweight backpacking means hiking with lightweight equipment. In lightweight and ultralight backpacking, the focus is on packing only the necessary equipment and on reducing the weight wherever possible.
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Sarek National Park is located in Swedish Lapland, in Jokkmokk Municipality. The ruggedly beautiful Sarek is the oldest national park in Europe, and it is often called the last great wilderness of the North. Six out of thirteen peaks over 2,000 m are located within the boundaries of the national park, and there are around 100 glaciers.
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It’s usually recommended not to hike solo or go to the wilderness alone. But that doesn't mean you couldn't or shouldn't do it. I always run alone on the trails. I go hiking solo. And I go alone to the mountains and multi-day trekking journeys. Most of the time I don’t want to have company. I like the solitude and the silence, the freedom from distraction, being my own boss, and the boost to my self-esteem when I have managed difficult things all by myself. There are some outdoors sports that I wouldn’t do alone, such as kayaking, especially when going to the sea or for several days of kayak camping. But when I have solid ground under my feet, nothing could stop me from going for an adventure just by myself. It doesn’t matter whether I’m running alone in a forest for an hour or hiking two weeks – soloing has positive impacts on all areas of my life.
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