Gear list builder
Add what you carry, and watch base weight, worn weight and consumables separate themselves out. Everything stays in your browser. Nothing needs an account, and the share link carries the whole list inside it.
Add an item
Weigh it yourself if you can. Manufacturer figures run light often enough to matter.
Category decides the bucket. Shelter, sleep and pack are the Big Three and count toward base weight. Worn and carried is what is on your body at the trailhead, so it is not base weight. Consumables are food, water and fuel, which get lighter as you walk.
What counts as base weight?
Base weight is everything in or on your pack that you do not eat, drink, wear or burn. The pack itself counts. Food, water and fuel do not, because they change every day of the trip, and clothing on your body at the trailhead does not either. That single definition is why two hikers can quote wildly different numbers for what looks like the same kit, and it is why this tool separates the three buckets instead of showing one total.
The number people quote is base weight because it is the only figure that stays still. Consumables are set by the trip: five days of food at 1.5 lb per day is 7.5 lb whatever gear you own, and four litres of water is 8.8 lb. Worn weight is set by the weather. Base weight is the part you actually bought, so it is the part worth optimising, and it is the number every gear list on the internet is quoting when it says "11 pounds".
What is a good base weight?
The bands below are the ones the community uses. They are conventions rather than standards, and nothing bad happens if you sit between two of them. Most people are best served aiming for the lightweight band first, because the jump from 20 lb to 15 lb costs a few hundred dollars and the jump from 15 lb to 10 lb costs a few thousand.
| Band | Base weight | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Super ultralight | Under 5 lb | Tarp, no stove, minimal spare clothing. A skills-heavy kit with very little margin |
| Ultralight | Under 10 lb | Trekking pole shelter, quilt, frameless or lightly framed pack, cottage gear |
| Lightweight | Under 20 lb | Freestanding tent, real pad, framed pack. Where most people should aim first |
| Traditional | 20 lb and up | Heavier and often more durable gear, and completely capable of finishing a long trail |
How is this different from LighterPack?
It does the same core job, in the browser, with no account. Three things are different. The category vocabulary here is fixed rather than freeform, which means the tool can tell you what your Big Three total is without you tagging anything. Every band and every category is tied to written guidance on this site, so a number links to an explanation. And there are six complete example kits you can load in one click and then edit, which is usually faster than typing forty items from scratch.
What it does not do is host your list on a server. The share link carries the entire list inside the URL, so it works for sending a friend a shakedown request and it does not work as a permanent public page. If you want to keep a copy, use the CSV button.
How do I get the number down?
Sort your list by weight and look at the top ten lines. Almost always the Big Three account for half of the total, and almost always there are three or four pounds of small items nobody has weighed in years. The ordered method is in how to cut base weight, and the mistake worth avoiding is buying the pack first: a frameless pack carries badly over roughly 25 lb, so the load comes down before the pack does.
When you have a number you want a second opinion on, run it through the shakedown guide, and compare it against the example buildouts at the weight you are aiming for. Seeing a finished kit that lands where you want to be is usually more useful than another article about ounces.
Where does the weight actually go?
If your list is heavy and you cannot see why, the usual answers are in this order: a pack over 3 lb, a tent over 4 lb, a sleeping bag rated far colder than you need, two pairs of spare clothes that never come out of the stuff sack, and a kitchen built for cooking when you only ever rehydrate. Check those five before you spend anything, because four of them cost nothing to fix.