so i'm out here in the lower pyrenees i'm doing a little bit of a shakedown hike kind of doing
some last minute gear testing and just kind of getting things dialed in but this is going to
be useful for anyone who's into ultra light through hiking backpacking i wanted to share
some of my experiences talk about some of the gear providers that are making really good gear
out of europe and uh not least of all is this prior arm shelter from lightweight equipment
that's kind of the crescendo of the so i'll leave that to last let's get into it
so welcome and welcome back to the channel my name is chase this is all about preparing your
mind your body and your gear for the mountains so let's start with the most important stuff uh
the backpack so pack is from lightweight equipment they are a small ultralight gear
manufacturer out of ukraine and this is made from dcf formerly cuban fibre it's extremely
light less than 500 grams each model is a little bit different as they are hand made this is really
something that has everything that i wanted in a backpack i looked long and hard to find
a manufacturer in europe that was doing really good quality stuff and had all the features that i
wanted so quickly the features that i wanted were lots and lots of pockets i'm big on pockets so
flexible shoulder pockets i'm going to be putting my phone in there you know i can put
my sunglasses in there or whatever i really wanted a little bit of padding both on the shoulders and
the hips a sternum strap just something that i really need in a backpack i always feel far
more comfortable and far more kind of safe and i can adjust the pack weight if it's
if it's annoying my shoulders really uh finely if i've got a sternum strap so i really wanted that
it's got a little whistle there as well which is cool on the hip belts it's got uh two big pockets
also and i really love having pockets at my hips so that was something that i really needed and of
course it's got a hip hip belt clasp as well i've made a little bit of a modification here the pack
uh you know comes without that section what i've done is modify this a little bit this paracord
here i've swapped it from the front of the pack to the back of the pack and i've taken my back
support from my little osprey 22 liter backpack and i've just slid that in here so essentially now
i kind of have like a framed pack for under 500 grams i'm not going super ultra light i'm probably
going to be carrying about 10 kilos i've got lots of camera equipment i'm going to be filming along
the way so it's pretty important for me to have a little bit of back support and be comfortable for
you know the month or so that i'm going to be spending out here on the front of the backpack
you know you see there's a lot of these gear ultralight gear manufacturers now stretchy
pocket on the front so you've got heaps of room you can throw loads of different stuff in there
i've got you know my trowel my toiletry stuff in there so there's lots of room at the front there
typical kind of roll top closure with a big buckle over the front uh lots of kind
of paracord all over it and you know what these packs are like they're pretty simple very light
very basic stuff but what i really wanted for this was to be able to modify it i wanted big pockets
and that's what i got with this backpack i'll go into more detail on a separate video about
this pack later on once i've used it and once i've got to know a little bit but for now
that's it in terms of my water i'm just taking a 1.5 liter plastic water bottle i've got a fair cap
filter really cool little company out of south america and they have a really strong mission
behind their brand helping out people uh buying fresh water to communities in need
in south america so i was very happy to buy one of these and support those guys that screws just
onto the top of the water bottle just like it does with any sawyer or any other kind of
in bottled water filter like that so that is my water system okay in terms of clothing
there's not much of it i'm going pretty light in terms of clothing this is a cool max shirt this
costs 10 euros coolmax is an amazing fabric it breathes really really well it feels like cotton
i don't really like the feel of polyester makes me feel gross sweaty and icky so this breeze really
well it dries very quickly it's super light it's very affordable so i probably will take two of
these cool max shirts i've got my uh super light uh very short running shorts that i'm going to be
wearing along the way i've got thermal longs and thermal top so this one is from smartwool
so that's going to be acting basically as my mid layer i've got an icebreaker merino wool
cap which i'm going to sleep in or wear if it does get super cold which it probably won't
and for that reason you know i'm doing this in august september
it's unlikely to be cold i am probably going to be getting a lot of rain september is typically
really rainy in the pyrenees so i made some crucial decisions here about my clothing i decided
not to bring a down jacket that's because i'm going to be taking a sleeping bag from astookas
there are a company here in the pyrenees that make ultralight sleeping bags i haven't got it yet it
should arrive in a day or two that converts into a poncho which is essentially a down jacket so i can
wear that when i'm cooking and stuff so i'm either going to be wearing the poncho sitting around
at camp or i'm going to be using my 150 weight merino wool in combination with this jacket from
cortazu rain protection was probably my number one priority here so this is a three layer
breathable waterproof jacket it is designed as like a ski mountaineering hiking jacket
it breathes incredibly well it has excellent thermal properties it keeps me very very warm
but also prevents me from sweating so it has a breathable membrane similar to gore-tex throughout
but i really find that it's super comfortable again it's got lots of pockets i actually got
this for more for mountaineering it is a helmet compatible hood so that is going to be my major
you know foul weather jacket whether it's windy or rainy i'm going to be probably wearing this
a lot so i'll have that with the smart wall underneath and i think that'll be plenty of warmth
in terms of other clothing i've got these socks from venturi i've got two pairs of
these so i've got a long pair and then i've got a short pair these are incredible socks i really
recommend you guys look into these they have a lifetime warranty they've got anti-microbial
silverlight technology they dry super quick they breathe they are basically blister proof so if
you've got a good sock shoe combination you really shouldn't have any problems with your feet i think
it's worth investing a lot of money in socks i've always said that i'll continue to say that
i think people overlook socks and how important they are you know if you're walking for 500
miles you really want to have your foot care system down and part of that for me is about
having really really good socks and these venturi socks are ridiculously good they have a lifetime
warranty so even if they do wear out which i'm sure they won't they're crazy durable
um they will send you a new pair so pretty awesome stuff in terms of the shoes these are
my old dynafit trail runners i'm not going to be wearing these i've got a brand new pair of shoes
again they still haven't arrived i'll probably do a separate video all about those and the last
piece of clothing that i'll talk about is my hat this is just from decathlon here uh 11 euros or
something like that very very light i like the light soft material the main reason why i wanted
a hat like this is because it's august september it's going to be very very sunny very very hot
so i really needed like good sun protection that was a very important purchase i'll also take a cap
as well because sometimes i just like wearing it um let's talk food so i'm primarily going to be
doing cold soaking but i do want the luxury of having a hot meal every now and then i'm very
happy to carry the extra 300 grams or whatever to bring a gas canister so i will be bringing
some gas along the way my covia stove which i've talked about in detail before i've just
taken the stability plate from my jetboil and i'm taking that along with me because i pretty
much always need it in terms of my cooking vessel i have a lick sata lit charter titanium 650 mil
pot with a lid so i can cook slash eat out of that i will bring an extra cold soaking container just
like a peanut butter jar or whatever to do my cold soaking in and i'll be cooking you know making
coffee and this thing comes with a nice little soft lightweight pouch so that's essentially
my cook system i have my food bags these are from new dora these are silicon leak proof
like a ziploc kind of bag reusable so in terms of my food this is one thing i spent a really
large amount of time on trying to plan good quality nutritious meals that are lightweight
a lot of the research that i did were from people in the states and they're
eating a lot of like very typical american style food so i'm going to be doing a whole
separate video about you know nutrition on trail and what i'm using this is definitely
one of the meals i'm going to be making on the gr11 these bags are going to be crucial for my
meal planning i got 12 or 15 of these for like 10 euros on amazon um totally worth it
that's an absolute game changer in terms of food definitely look into those other little bits and
pieces that aren't particularly important um just a mosquito head net i actually can't see [ __ ]
uh repair kit my tent stakes i'll talk about my tent in detail pretty shortly i've got my
valon classics sunglasses which i've done a whole video on i might take a different style we'll see
i've got my cedar summit long handled spoon i'm not taking a fork i don't really need a fork
i've got a swiss army knife very old school of me but this has everything i need it's got scissors
screwdriver if i need it can opener obviously a knife all sorts of stuff on there and it doesn't
really weigh that much so i'm going to bring that along with me sunscreen my lighting situation i'm
going to be bringing this phoenix e16 tiny little handheld lamp i don't really want to bring a head
torch because i just don't need one it has a small battery i'm going to bring a spare battery with me
i'm going to clip that onto my hat and that is sufficient for a head torch it's very very light
21 grams there's even rechargeable batteries that you can get with these you can charge with a usb
so i'm going to be using this little guy along the way i'm going to be charging it using
the ravpower 21k milliamp battery this is a gigantic battery the reason why i'm taking this
is because i want to obviously charge my phone the camera that i'm filming
this on needs to be charged as well as my little torch there can be charged by this battery so
i wanted plenty of battery on this trip mainly because i've been doing a lot of filming so
i think this will last me i'm not bringing a solar panel just because i find them annoying
like trying to face them in the sun while i'm walking all the time i just wanted to bring a
really big battery and then i can recharge it when i get into town on my resupplies i can
charge it up and that will last me for three or four days i'm sure the camera i'm using is brand
new it's the canon m50 really nice lightweight perfect the hiking filming camera really i'm just
using the kit lens the 1545 and here i've got a couple of extra sd cards because i want to be
not holding back with the filming i'm going to be making a lot of videos from this trip so i
want lots of storage all right we're getting to the business end of things let's start
talking about sleeping oh i've been kneeling here for a while oh god damn i'm getting oh
like i said i'm going to be using my astute quilt poncho thing i'll do a whole separate
video about that i can't wait to try it out i'm also bringing a super luxury this is a pillow
it's just from foreclos which is a decathlon brand this is super comfortable it was only
eight euros or something and i wore past and grabbed it and it's just so soft so that is a
severe luxury that i'm bringing along with me and will hopefully contribute to some good night's
sleep along the way i think sleep is super important which is why i'm bringing a full
mat as well this one is from camp camp is an italian brand they make pretty amazing stuff
it's full length it is incredibly light 315 grams for me you know i looked at getting like a torso
length mattress it was actually hard to find one i looked at the therm-a-rests the ones that fold up
i thought that would be super annoying it takes up loads of space this thing packs down really tiny i
can stuff it away and provides a very comfortable night's sleep i had my first night on it last
night i chose to use this rather than my cedar summit one because the summit one is quite heavy
and it takes up a lot of space so whilst that is a beautiful insulated mat that i'll be using in the
high mountains in winter and on mountaineering trips i wanted something that was a lot lighter
this very affordable i think it was maybe 45 euros or something like that like i said super
light packs down easily it's a no-brainer i've also brought a saliwa survival blanket
just an emergency blanket i think that's standard procedure they weigh next to nothing you should
always bring one if not for you just for other people if you find them in trouble you can wrap
them up in that that's going to help them the only thing left is to talk about my tent my shelter so
let's get into that so your shelter or your tent your tub is ultimately going to be one of the most
important decisions that you'll make if you're going through hiking so when i started researching
and looking into shelters i originally thought that the best thing for me was to get a tarp
and a ground sheet after plenty of research i decided that it was just too hard to get a hold
of a polycro ground sheet i couldn't find one here in europe without paying an extraordinary amount
in postage for a tiny little lightweight piece of plastic so i decided that i would go with an inner
and the other reason i decided to go with an inner was that the mosquitoes here in august september
in the pyrenees can be pretty rough so i wanted to be able to be comfortable not be harassed by bugs
so i decided to get an inner as well as the outer kind of tarp system so i looked around for loads
of companies that were based here in europe so again i didn't have to pay loads of postage
this company is lightweight equipment it's the same manufacturer as my backpack based in ukraine
the outer is completely separate you can buy that separately that is around 400 grams the inner
again is around 400 grams so you essentially have what could be a two-person tarp that you could use
individually and some nights i may use it without the inner if there isn't too many bugs around so
aside from the bugs the main reason that i decided to get an inner is was that the inner weighed
around the same as the ground sheet that i already have at home so i could have basically brought the
ground sheet it would have weighed the exact same amount as an inner so in this case i get
a mosquito inner i've got a tenth floor here and that's everything i need so that's the tarp
it's around 400 grams super light and that would probably do the job and we've got the inner which
is probably around 300 grams so all up it's like 740 grams something like that so pretty light
so i've used this tent for the first time last night i'm actually out here with my girlfriend
and we slept in there together i probably wouldn't recommend this uh for two people unless you wanted
to have sex with that person i think you've got to be very comfortable with the person that
you're sleeping with if you're in this tent with another person it is primarily a one-person deal
but at a pinch you can squeeze two people in there if you're very close for that person
you will need either a tree branch above or a trekking pole to support the uh the tent itself
that was the one thing about this tent that i wasn't sure about i thought that would become
quite annoying but i think with one person it'll be absolutely fine it won't be a drama so you can
sneak in through the door here the tent as you can see has two doors it is designed to be very
changeable much like a tarp like you can lift up one side for airflow or you can close it all down
cinch it down like you're if you're in a storm for example we had a little storm come through
last night but nothing too serious got a little bit of rain and it held up really well you have
to kind of know how to set this thing up so i will do a whole video on that that will go into
a lot of detail once i've kind of really dialed the system down but it's not like a pop-up easy to
use beginner person's temp i will say that this is really for lightweight hiking long distance
cycling cycle touring anything where weight is a huge issue and protection is a huge issue as well
but so far i love it like i said i'll do a more in-depth video at the end of my trip
where i'll go into a lot more detail about what worked what didn't what i'll change but for now
this has been my little shakedown hike if you've got some value out of this video
please hit the like button it helps me know what kind of content
you like and what i can make in the future thanks for following along i'll see you on the summit
you