Acceptance
These terms govern your access to and use of ultralightsetup.com, including the gear list builder, the calculators, the buildouts, the reference charts and every article on the site. If you do not accept them, please do not use the site. We may revise these terms; the date above reflects the current version, and continued use after a revision means you accept it.
What this site is
UltraLightSetup.com publishes researched guidance on lightweight and ultralight backpacking gear, together with free tools that do arithmetic on numbers you supply. It is an informational and editorial publication. It is not a retailer, an outfitter, a guide service, a search and rescue organisation, or a source of professional instruction, and nothing here is medical, legal or safety advice.
We research published manufacturer specifications and verified owner reviews. We do not test gear in person and we do not claim to. Every weight quoted on this site is the manufacturer's published figure for the size and configuration named unless we state otherwise, and published weights are optimistic often enough that you should weigh your own kit before relying on any total, including ours.
The tools
The gear list builder and the calculators run in your browser and are provided as is. They return arithmetic on the numbers you enter. They do not know your fitness, your experience, your route, the forecast, the snowpack, the water report, the fire restrictions or the permit conditions, and none of those things can be inferred from a base weight. A number produced by a tool on this site is an input to a decision, never the decision itself.
Because gear lists are stored in the page URL rather than on our servers, we cannot recover, restore or back up a list you lose. Keep your own copy of anything that matters to you.
Assumption of risk
Backcountry travel carries a real and irreducible risk of injury and death. Hypothermia, dehydration, waterborne illness, falls, rockfall, avalanche, wildlife encounters, lightning, wildfire, flash flooding, getting lost and being unable to summon help are all genuine hazards, and some of them arrive without warning in conditions that looked benign at the trailhead.
Cutting pack weight means cutting margin. That trade is legitimate and it is the subject of this entire site, but it is your trade to make and yours to live with. Going ultralight must not mean going unprepared. You are solely responsible for carrying shelter and insulation adequate to the conditions you will actually meet, for treating your water, for navigating, for having a way to call for help, and for turning around. Nothing on this site is a licence to leave any of that behind, and no gear list published here is a recommendation for your specific trip, because we do not know what your trip is.
Two specific points recur throughout the site and are repeated here because they are the two that most often hurt people. Sleeping bag and quilt temperature ratings published to EN 13537 or ISO 23537 are survival ratings, not comfort ratings: the limit figure describes the temperature at which an average sleeper survives the night curled up, the comfort rating typically sits 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit warmer, and the extreme rating is a survival-with-injury figure that must never be used for planning. And hollow fibre water filters remove bacteria and protozoa but not viruses, and a single freeze cracks the fibres with no visible sign at all, so a filter that has frozen is scrap.
Check current conditions, closures, permits, fire restrictions and food storage regulations with the managing agency before every trip. Regulations change, and an approved bear canister list is a list rather than a guideline.
Accuracy and availability
We work hard to get the numbers right and we correct errors promptly when they are reported. We do not warrant that every figure on the site is accurate, complete or current. Prices, stock, specifications and product availability change constantly and are controlled by the retailers and manufacturers, not by us, so confirm both the price and the specification on the retailer's page before you buy anything. If you find a wrong number, tell us on the contact page; corrections are the most useful mail we get.
The site is provided on an as available basis. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access and we may change, suspend or remove any part of it at any time.
Affiliate relationships
This site earns commissions from Backcountry and, as an Amazon Associate, from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no additional cost to you. Some gear is sold direct by small manufacturers with no affiliate program, and those links earn us nothing and are marked as such. Full detail is on the affiliate disclosure page. Commercial relationships never determine what gets recommended, and we do not sell verdicts.
Intellectual property
The text, tables, charts, tools and design of this site are the property of Cozy River Studios and are protected by copyright. You are welcome to link to any page here, to quote a short passage or a table row with attribution and a link, and to use the tools for your own planning. You may not republish substantial portions of the site, scrape it wholesale, or present its content as your own. Product names, brand names and images belong to their respective owners and appear here for identification.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cozy River Studios and UltraLightSetup.com are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages arising from your use of this site, from reliance on any information or calculation published here, from any purchase made through a link on this site, or from any trip you take. This includes, without limitation, personal injury, illness, property damage and financial loss. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, in which case the limitations above apply to the maximum extent those jurisdictions permit.
Third party sites
We link to retailers, manufacturers, land management agencies and other resources. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content, their pricing, their fulfilment or their privacy practices, and a link is not an endorsement of everything on the destination. Once you leave ultralightsetup.com, that site's terms apply rather than ours.
Governing law and contact
These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state in which Cozy River Studios is organised, without regard to conflict of law provisions. Questions about these terms go through the contact page. See also the privacy policy and the disclaimer.