My 3-season solo home away from home

 

On my previous post I detailed my 265g portable kitchen. This is my current ultralight shelter/sleep setup for 3-season solo trips and is what I will travel with on the Kiwi Brevet next week. I believe that this set of a equipment is light, without being stupid self-destructing or getting myself into trouble kind of ultralight. For example, the McIII sleeping bag is rated to –2C which should make this camp setup useful for all non-alpine, 3-Season conditions.

 

This setup is based around an incredibly light cuben fibre shelter from Zpacks.com. It is difficult to find weight efficient solo shelters. I haven’t used this the ZPacks shelter enough to judge yet but I may be close to having cracked that issue. It is so light, it can be difficult to trust it not to tear requiring mental recognition of the science of the amount of power this fabric can handle when used for sails in yacht racing. For tramping trips I can leave out the pole and use a trekking pole instead. There is no external loop for tieing the peak of the roof to a tree, or upside down bicycle so a pole is needed for bikepacking journeys. I will be interested to see how this shelter compares to my Huntech Two-man Bivvy which I rate highly, but it is much larger and substantively heavier.

 

 

The titanium pegs are light, but easy to lose. I painted the heads to make them more difficult to lose in the grass. ZPacks.com also offer an option of pre-painted peg heads for a fee.

 

I could probably shave grams from the groundsheet by trimming it a bit. I do find myself using it folded, but all the same I like having it oversized for comfort and use under the stars on a clear night, or in a rock bivvy etc. A lighter cuben fibre groundsheet would be a lot lighter (and more expen$ive ) too. For jaunts into sandfly territory swapping the groundsheet for a ZPacks Hexanet bug shelter could be a great investment for very few additional net-grams. [hint: birthday; christmas :D]

 

I’m still using the same Thermarest Prolite 4 Short mattress that I have for years. It seems current models offer more insulation for less weight but with an emphasis on flash-packing and comfort not a lot of opportunity to save weight. As I favour through-trips and spend more time carrying than camping so comfort for me is making it easy to carry.

 

There are several sleeping bags lighter than the Mc-III but were not stocked by my local retailers. I haven’t gone extreme on the saving of the grams here with the Mc-III is a quality bag rated down to –2C which will meet my 3 season requirements. My scales weighed it in at 758g including the manufacturer supplied Cordura™ compression sack (claimed 680g is presumably sans compression sack).

 

 

tem	Brand	My scales
Cuben fibre Fly/Tarp	ZPacks Hexamid Solo-Plus, including tie lines & stuff bag	111g
Carbon fibre pole	ZPacks	30g
8 Pegs	Titanium – from Zpacks, I added some paint on the heads	46g
Large Tyvek groundsheet	Dupont (“homewrap”)	193g
Sleeping insulation mat	Thermarest Prolite 4 (short)	384g
Sleeping bag	Sea to Summit McIII	758g
Total		1,522g

 

Adding in my 265g kitchen, I now have a 1.787g solo 3-season ultralight camping setup for use on both tramping and bikepacking trips. This provides me with a complete camp and kitchen setup for approximately half of the weight of most popular tramping backpacks.

A complete, functional, durable and inexpensive camp kitchen in just 265 grams

Making your pack, or saddlebag lighter is not always about departing with hard earned cash. With a combination of items l already owned I now have what I would consider an ideal, durable yet ultra-light cookset. No individual item cost more than NZD$12.00 although I have owned most it for some years assembled in different and heavier configurations. This setup has neither expensive titanium nor any gimmicky plastic components.

 

It may well be possible to get this to sub-250g. It should be possible to save at least another 10g on a lighter lid - the Milo tin was surprisingly thick and durable.

 

My ultralight, yet fully functional and durable cooking setup:

 

Item	Brand	My scales
1 litre anodised aluminium billy	Old and has no labels	117g
Plastic smiley mug	Generic MIC from the Red Shed	30g
Pot lid	DIY (from large Milo tin)	30g
Ghetto Beer Can Stove	DIY (from two aluminium beer cans)	11g
No6 wire pot stand	DIY (some orange paint to prevent losing in grass etc)	13g
Fire-steels	Light My Fire	26g
Anodised aluminium spoon	Sea to Summit	14g
Knife	Victorinox (+ inner tube sheath)	18g + 8g
Total	weighed together (2g lighter due rounding)	265g

 

 

The 1 litre billy came with a second billy of soup bowl dimensions that could be stacked above it to provide a fuel efficient lid. I did not find the dimensions of that billy useful, and it made a terrible mug. From the base of a Milo tin, some plastic tubing and some wire came the 30g lid. Amazingly, the rim from the tin lid fits perfectly around the edge of the billy. I think It should be possible to make an equivalent lid for less than 20g if only I could find the right bits… With the lid removed, you can see the mug, pot-stand, ghetto stove and fire steels contained within. With the fire steels I do not have to worry about wet matches, or broken cigarette lighter flints ever again.. yay! To complete the kit, the cutlery. A Sea-to-Summit spoon and a Victorinox steak knife that will easily slice through vegetables, cable-ties or anything else I may need a knife for.

 

 

To think I used to carry a very good, but unfortunately heavy MSR Billy set that was 379g without cutlery, cooker, lighting equipment or a mug!! The lid/frypan 135g and pot-lifter 45g made the whole set if carried a whopping 559g!!

GSI Halulite Minimalist Ultralight Cookset Review

As I look forward to Kiwi Brevet, I have been tweaking and lightening my kit for both Bikepacking and Tramping applications.

Unfortunately while this cookset has some excellent ideas, it didn’t quite reach my expectations.

 

The minimalist set is designed to operate as a billy by being made of cooking grade anodized aluminium, with the addition of a neoprene sleeve and a sipper lid to turn it into a mug. It also comes with a foldable spork (or foon?) and is designed to be able to enclose a small butane burner with a 110g canister as a single tight cooking package.

 

 

The weigh-in according to the manufacturer, and my independent but not certified as calibrated scales:

 

Item	Claimed	My scales
600ml billy	92g	100g
Sipper lid	42g	44g
Neoprene sleeve	20g	24g
Silicone pot gripper	14g	12g
Spork/Foon	9g	9g
	177g	189g

 

What I like:

• Single integrated and adaptable package
• Large mug is good for social cups of tea
• Neoprene sleeve works well (and also reduces rattling when placed inside other items)
• Fairly inexpensive
• The silicone pot gripper is very functional and could be used for other hot items too – e.g. move pot stands or other peoples pots.

What I didn’t like:

• Because the anodised aluminium stays hotter than the contents, without the sipper lid it is too hot for my lips
• While the sipper may keep a drink hot for longer, it doesn’t have the same ambience of a cup of billy tea in the outdoors
• The lid it too heavy (nearly half the weight of the function pot!)
• Couldn’t bring myself to depend on the reliability of foldable/ and gimmicky spork/foon
• Not so “ultralight:” – I have a 1 litre billy with handles that weights 117g. This billy is 40% smaller, and with the silicone gripper only saves 5g.

What could be improved:

• A silicone or plastic ring or sleeve around the rim would address many of the things I don’t like about this set – providing the user kept the flames away from the rim. It would eliminate the need for the sipper lid, neoprene sleeve and pot-gripper which would bring it down toward 100g.
• More solid cutlery, a straight spoon would suffice.

Bottom-line:

Hard to knock something for a soft issue like ‘ambience’, so if drinking a cup of tea at a campsite with a takeaway coffee cup feeling does not disturb you, and you want something solid and light then this set may work well for you. If not, there are some great ideas in this set to borrow to either customise this kit or another that you may already own.