Lighterweight Repair Kit

I’ve spoken on here about my efforts to reduce the weight of what I carry around with me. My repair kit seems to have been growing in size and weight for a while now. It all fit into a Kifaru ChamberPocket and consists of the hussif and repair kit, zip ties, a few more stealth repair buckles, a patching kit for inflatable seats and mattresses, a Goretex repair kit, Tenacious Tape, some other stuff I think – it had become altogether too hefty a bundle.

Decided it was time to scale back. The ability to mend everything short of a rift in the space-time continuum is swell and all, but it’s just too much. For a little two nighter hike not too far from home, that amount of stuff is just silly. It could be argued (and probably successfully) that even this is too much stuff. The inner tinkerer in me is a tough beast to tame though. This assemblage of stuff is about 120 grams, a far cry from the 540 grams of my other set up. I think that one will go into the INCH bag.

Two perspectives of the contents. Spiralling clockwise in the top picture, and spiralling counter-clockwise in the bottom picture. 
(Clicking on them will bring up a large picture.)

1. repair ladder lock
2. adjustable stealth buckle
3. 2 repair stealth buckles
4. 1" D ring
5. 2 siamese slik clips
6. cord lock
7. 4.5 cm x 5 cm marpat McNett Goretex repair material 
8. 6.7 cm x 7.5 cm sage green McNett Tenacious Tape 
9. 50 cm of foliage green 43668 webbing
10. 8 cm of 1cm shrink tubing
11. 8 cm of 1.5 cm shrink tubing
12. 8 cm of 2cm shrink tubing
13. OD “Canadian” 2 cm button 
14. 2 OD 4 hole buttons
15. OD “Canadian” 3 cm button
16. 7.5 cm kilt pin
17. 2 5 cm safety pins 
18. 2 3 cm safety pins
19. 5 cm cotter pin
20. 3.2 cm cotter pin
21. 2 1.8 cm cotter pins
22. assortment of needles
23. ?m of slate Coats upholstery thread 
24. ?m of black Coats upholstery thread
25. ?m of chona brown Coats upholstery thread
26. ? m of gun tape
27. 27 mm ID key ring
28. 20 mm ID key ring
29. 9 mm ID key ring
30. 8 mm ID key ring
31. 6 mm ID key ring
32. O ring for Fenix A or AA flashlight
33. 2 15 cm zip ties
34. 3 10 cm zip ties
35. rubber thimble (I always use these for hand sewing)
36. 10 m of 190 lb. cord 
37. 10 m of 96 lb. cord 
38. 10 m of 45 lb. cord 
39. 17 cm x 22 cm piece of OD polyester/cotton blend

I think about the only thing I’m tempted to add to this is a small amount of thin stainless steel wire. There might be some other things I should have in here, and maybe some things I can forego. Time will tell.

Toiletry Bottle Labels

In an ongoing effort to reduce the weight of the stuff I schlep around, I’ve been setting up different sized bottles for the length of time I’ll be out. I have some 5ml bottles for anything lasting up to about 2 to 3 days, 15 ml bottles for anything lasting up to 1 week, and 25 ml bottles for anything lasting up to about 2 weeks.

Another refinement I’ve been contemplating is to have one large stuff sack with the things that I would use no matter how long the trip lasts – tooth brush, towel, nail clippers – and then have a second stuff sack with the consumables inside that.

A stuff sack I made for the smallest set up.

The (as yet incomplete) contents. Little container of shea butter (great to treat and prevent chafing - walk 40 clicks in 30°C weather and you’ll understand), sun block, bug repellent, hand sanitizer, Op Drops (for cleaning glasses), hand moisturizer, tooth paste and tooth brush. I’m also going to make tooth powder to use in lieu of tooth paste. That gooey gloppy mess that tooth paste makes is easy enough to wash out of the brush when you have the luxury of a tap with running water. When it takes a half liter of potable water to do the same out in the woods, it doesn’t seem like such a good thing. There are times when getting water is not that easy, and in those cases it is a really stupid waste of a valuable commodity.

I also need to score another little bottle that size for soap. I’ve been using a larger size bottle of soap but I want a smaller one.

The 25ml size bottles.

Since most of the dropper bottles are opaque and white, I figured it would be handy to put some labels on the outside to easily distinguish what’s what.

I quickly cobbled these together in Illustrator, pretty much just culling some things from the massive database of imagery I’ve accumulated over the last 20 years. Printed them out, laminated them, and taped them on. The tape may get a little grungy after a while, but the labels being laminated, I can just remove the tape and replace it. I have one for the soap, but all the bottles I’ve used for it have been clear, so it’s easy enough to distinguish it. And the sun screen I don’t even bother with the dropper part anymore. The stuff is so viscous that it’s impossible to squeeze through the small aperture of the dropper.

Some Observations about Height and (light)Weight

The older I get, the more I want to reduce the amount of weight I carry on my adventures. I can and have carried some monstrous loads, but  really don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. Some of it just consists of doing away with unnecessary items, and a big part of it is just using lighter items. It’s been a gradual, ongoing process. Some of the stuff is purchased, and can be a bit spendy, and some of it is self made. To get the money to buy or find the time to make, the whole process to shave off the weight on my back will happen over a period of time. And I’m certainly not obsessive about it. When I read about people drilling holes in a titanium spoon or rejecting a cord lock because it weighs 2 milligrams, I think that’s taking it to an extreme.

I frequent various lightweight backpacking / hiking forums, and I love the concepts I glean, the innovative ideas others showcase, the DIY ethic, the information about new and improved gear. But reading through them, I sometimes get the sense that some people set a very arbitrary weight limit to strive for. “I must get my base weight down to X amount of grams!” Some of the weights being advocated as desirable by ultra-lighters, are not very realistic for everyone. Given times of year, given locales, and given body size, they strike this wandering wookie as flights of fancy at best. Making that gear is fun, and buying that gear is fun, and trying out that gear is fun, but I have to wonder if a bit of zealotry isn’t creeping into the mindset of some folks.  

I was thinking about it a while back and it struck me that the ability to go down to a 5 pound base pack weight is partially contingent on where one lives. A lot of people advocating those weights live in Florida or Texas or California. But if I go for a hike here in Ontario in October, the temps can go from 20°C in the day time to -5°C at night. Not sure that I want to be traipsing around with gossamer light gear that has no margin for error under those parameters. “I must get my base weight down to X amount of grams!” That’s swell when you live in San Diego and you’re going for a an overnighter in summer. But when you’re in more northern climes, with far greater variances of temps and conditions, the less realistic that goal becomes.

But something else affects my ability to trim weight off my loadout. My height.

I’m 6'7" or a touch over 2 meters, and a solidly built 235 pounds or a bit over 100 kilos.

I’m a big guy.

My hammock is bigger. My tarp is bigger. My quilt is bigger. My underquilt is bigger. My clothes are bigger. The stuff sacks they go into are slightly bigger. If I was to use a tent, there are many that I can’t fit into, necessitating a larger model. My pack consequently needs to be a bit bigger. I tend to eat slightly bigger portions than a smaller person.“I must get my base weight down to X amount of grams!” That’s swell when you’re a 5'4" woman who weighs 130 lbs. But when you’re a burly giant, the less realistic that goal becomes.

I can try and shave weight off where I can, but at some point I hit a limit that someone a foot and a half shorter than me can squeeze past. Obviously some things are size independent - stove, pot, tools, etc. - but there are certain things that a smaller person has a distinct advantage with.

Sure I'd love to have a feather weight pack as I traipse around. But an extra foot of insulation over me and an extra foot of insulation under me, and an extra foot of nylon to suspend me in the air, and an extra foot of nylon to keep the rain off of me, and the extra length of wool to clothe me make that a more difficult goal to attain.

Height has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages.

I guess all I can do is enjoy the good aspects of the hand that fate dealt me, and cheerfully deal with the not so good aspects. And to keep on hiking and to keep on striving to shave off weight where I can.