W_D, this is really just meant to be an exercise. It's for fun and learning, and I did provide a "Simple Baseline" for the conditions to shoot for. I admit that they're mild, but the idea is that this is for a newbie with limited funds or the smarts not to go hog wild spending money for their first trip, and I'll assume the expectation that they'll be going someplace that suits their skill level.

As for food and water, I think the lists here and the one OM linked to did include those, but there was not a lot of detail on that and weights are only given as an estimate. As for clothing, I don't think either list included that in their pack weights.



I agree, and I think this exercise is where a group with some experience can provide some insight on what can be expected from taking this approach.

For example, on Mark Henley's list he suggest using a "Wendy's spoon" and "Homemade Coat Hanger Stakes", and "Small Garbage Bags" for a pillow and stuff sacks.

Those are all light, but they might not even last one 3-day trip, so they wouldn't be my first choice. Neither would a pop-can stove. I prefer and would put on my list a Cat Stove instead. In my experience they are much easier to make and to light off. If there are any advantages to making and using a pop-can stove, I don't know what they are yet (other than they do look more impressive when they're burning

The other thing I'd like to mention is that, if one enters the sport after reading just the resources OM posted, they might be encouraged with knowing it's not going to take a 1k investment to get started. After those first few trips they'd have a lot of time and headroom to improve their gear, and some experience to help them with their choices.

I bought everything I needed to make a Cat Stove for $2 at Wal-Mart and my 10 x as heavy, $50 (on sale), Coleman exponent xtreme stove sits on a shelf now.

I have an $80 (on sale) exponent tent, and what now cost $90 (I paid $39) eureka bivy tent, that sit on the shelf because I use a $39 (I paid $29) Byer hammock that is lighter and more comfortable than either of the above.

Now, as you can see from the above, I have always approached this from a lowest cost position. And my progression has been both less expensive and lighter each time, but even I could have saved money and gone lighter, sooner, if I'd had found some good info sooner.

I don't use the Byer hammock, or the Cat Stove because I, or they, are necessarily cheap, I use them because they work well for me and I prefer them to the more expensive gear I have on hand. I think most all of us have made similar changes in our gear list, and, maybe we can improve on what's been out there on the subject for a bit.

I doubt we could come to any unanimously conclusive, hard list of gear, but we can offer our personal choices considering the outlines of the exercise, and those will have value based on experience.