What if.......

......money wasn't an issue, what would your set up consist of?

That takes all the fun out of it!

But still, I think we would be happy with what we have: Golite50 packs, a homemade single wall tent for two that weighs three pounds, and some REI sub-Kilo bags.

That's after a half-century of exploring the Sierra...and picking up good gear when it was cheap.

If money were no object, my setup would be carried by a sherpa.

Actually, it would probably look about the same as it does now, except that I might consider a McHale custom-made pack.

There wouldn't be a change.

My gear works for what I do and keeps me comfortable.

No change here.

Backpacking gear is pretty cheap when compared to cars, houses, boats, etc. So from a practical standpoint money is currently no (or a very little) object.

No change. Most my stuff is home made and that which is not works the way I want it. Worrying about gear is what I DON'T want to be doing while out in the boonies. I improve things when they need it, which isn't often these days.

Does Mrs. DJ2 know that you don't consider money an object when it comes to gear?

I was telling my wife about those nifty quilts everyone likes, then I told her how much. Doesn't look like I'll be getting one soon.

Maybe if your happy with what you posters could list there current set up, not the small stuff, just the main equipment.

My nifty quilt costs well under a comparable sleeping bag when you compare temerature ratings and weight. Plus it's super comfortable, if you have not tried one you should. Never again will I be confined to a narrow bag like a sausage!

Oh I'm getting one! It's just hard to justify when I have 2 good backpacking bags. Just have to put a bit aside then chose one.

Setup for what conditions/situation/etc? I.e. ...

What season?
What area(s)?
What kind of hike (base camping or distance hiking, or ...)
What length of hike (days, weeks, months?)
Going solo or with my wife or with a group? If with others, what pace and style constraints do they impose?
For shorter trips (days, not weeks or months) what's the extended weather forecast?

I guess my point is that there isn't a single "setup", for me at least. And I'm disinclined to iterate through all the possibilities ...

I do tend to use one of two different ULA packs depending on the trip (Circuit or an older P2), and I pretty much always use a WM down sleeping bag (which one varies by expected conditions). And I consider those to be pretty optimal choices for pretty much any trip --- wouldn't replace either if I won the lottery.

Jet pack, baby!
/A. Powers

Cheers,

I would probably buy one of everything.

I agree with Brian - the list changes constantly based on what's needed for a given trip.

However, in the spirit of the OP's question (and because it beats working), here's the big stuff that lives in my pack most of the time (Conditions: 3-season in the Ohio River valley):

Gregory Savant 48 or 58 pack, depending on length of trip and cold weather clothing taken.

MSR Carbon Reflex 1 tent; I also take either the footprint or the "mud flap" (vestibule-only footprint) that get used more often as a ground cloth to sit on at lunch, breaks, or around camp. The full footprint also allows me to make a fly-first pitch when it's raining, then attach the inner tent where it's dry. The tent lives in two small stuff sacks (one for the inner, one for the fly), which is more flexible for packing and keeps a dry inner separated from a wet fly.

MSR Hyperflow filter, Nalgene 1-liter bottle (because it has measuring marks and because I like it), and an MSR Dromlite 2L or 4L bag, depending on how much water I might have to carry - inflated with air, it makes a great pillow.

MSR Micro Rocket, Titan kettle, and Titan spoon - entirely adequate for boiling water once a day (twice, if I also want morning tea.) Nice, compact kitchen that stores in the same bag as the food.

Thermarest NeoAir XTherm (48 or 66 inch length, depending on season) - very warm, very comfortable, incredibly light and compact. With the 48 inch, I store my pack under my lower legs; in cold weather, I store it crosswise at the foot of my tent, just beyond my feet which are on the 66 inch pad. I used to carry the chair kit religiously, but find that I'm leaving it behind more often, taking a NeoAir or Z-lite sit pad instead, because it's easier, lighter, and works well with the ground cloth.

Western Mountaineering sleeping bag - Alpinlite, Megalite or Mitylite, depending on forecast temperatures. ("You can have my WM bag when you pry if from my cold, de...wait a minute, I'm never cold in it.") Also WM Flash jacket, pants, vest and/or booties, depending on temperatures. (The bags are roomy enough that I can wear the clothes inside it, which gives me a safety margin when it goes colder than the forecast.)

An Outdoor Research Foray rain jacket and pants, which double as long pants or windbreaker as needed.

A spare pair of wool hiking socks - last, but a long way from least. There's no greater pleasure than changing into clean, dry socks just before slipping into the sleeping bag. (Well, almost no greater pleasure.)

That's about it - nuts, now I gotta go back to work. (It's called work because all the other 4-letter words were taken.)

I have several setups. Depends on conditions, company, expectations and desired addional activities planned.

My first reaction was excitement at all the new gear I could buy! My second thought was that if I listed a whole bunch of different new items I would only be doing so based on hearsay, not on personal experience out on the trail.

I'd love to have the time and money to be able to experiment with a lot of expensive new gear, but they would all be experiments and there would be many mistakes and failures and lots of things discarded in favor of further experiments, so whatever I mentioned today would probably not be on my list two years from now.

Once I realized that, the zest went out of it. Sorry. It was a fun question.

Thanks Glenn! At least for me 3 out of 4 seasons I use the same basic set up, now winter that's different.

nice!

Since Ohio winter is really just fall or spring with a couple of inches of snow, I don't really have a "winter" setup. I do own a pair of snow shoes, but that's just wishful thinking.

You may have noticed a bit of obsessive-compulsive tendency to my choices (MSR, WM) - as an accountant, such behavior is an occupational hazard; I try to control it in the rest of my life, by letting it run amok in my backpacking gear. I'm not trying to imply that those are the only good brands out there; they're not (far from it - you almost have to make an effort to get crappy gear nowadays.)

I wonder what the good folks at REI would sell for? Because if money is truly not an option I'm buying the outfitter! HeY what better tester than the owner;)

And besides its more of an investment/business endeavour. Atleast that's what id tell the wife.

Try that logic - we'd all buy a ticket for THAT conversation!!

I think that if someone dropped a load of money on me (and my wife didn't find out ;-) I think I'd buy more gear without thinking as hard about it because I wouldn't have to wait for budget to reach the level of the expense.

Also, I think I'd get more 'experimental' gear because being disappointed in gear hurts more if it costs a lot.

If I had a load of cash, I'd grab a Patagucci Houdini jacket, a Jacks R Better quilt and some kind of elephant's foot sleeping bag and a hooded down jacket and... and... and... all just to try out different configurations.

I'm not too sure what I'd do. I'm pretty satisfied with my gear as it is now. I try to keep up on new items coming out just for the fun of it, but mostly haven't been tempted.

I might buy a horse or llama and a place I could keep said beast of burden.

Wow, for me unlimited funds would change all kinds of things. I'm sure I'd go buy new everything, even a new can of cat food for my new stove

The best thing about it would be the free time I could buy to use all my new stuff. I could go hike into the most remote places and have my pilot fly my helicopter in to resupply me and let me visit with my wife for a few hours.

OM, I already have my burros, but having the time to work with them as I'd really like to is hard to find. A new truck and trailer to haul them in would sure be nice too.

Yeah, unlimited money would change a lot of things for me, but it's not something I think about much. I'm pretty happy with my gear right now, and with where I am and the opportunities I have to use it.

Oh burros! Or alpacas, I have chickens but they can't carry much and get distracted easily.

All new gear for me too! I use my gear a lot and it is in various stages of delapitation. I am too practical and cheap to buy new gear until the old stuff totaly wears out. I certainly would replace gear more often. I think top of my list would be custom made gear that actually fits me - backpack, shoes and tent in particular. I kind of like the "sherpa" idea too! I do long trips and would love to be able to pay for commercial packer resupplies. Unlimited $$ would also mean that I wound not have to budget gas for trips thus expanding my radius of distance I consider when deciding where to go. And the ability to stay in a nice motel night before trip instead of campground would be nice too.

I would have Western Mountaineering make me a few custom sized sleeping bags, well after I tried on all of theirs and determined it was necessary. I would need a 20F one, a -25F one, a -40F one and maybe a 40F one. And, then a 0F for the wife.
I would get a downmat 9 for me and one for the mrs.
I would have McHale make me a pack for summer and one for winter, and one summer one for the wife. Maybe even a Kifaru UL for good measure.
I would have custom shoes made for summer and some mukluks for winter.
Titanium gigapower stove
Titanium 700ml pot
Titanium 32 oz bottle
titanium spork, light my fire brand
merino wool clothing all around. (I found 2 merino wool sweaters at the thrift store the other day, $5 each).
A couple tarptents for different situations.
A down jacket.
Some winter clothes and gloves from Empire Canvas
A blackbird hammock, and a bridge hammock.
Some cuben tarps.

Well, this could go on.........

I like the sound of your list!

I second the Empire Canvas and the mukluks...

On the other end, what gear would you get of funds where lacking?(I'm somewhere in the lower middle!)

There are a lot of threads with this idea, how to do it cheaply. We did a less than $200 for a total outfit thread a while ago. I know verber has a lot of info on his own site about this. I am generally more interested in what to get with little money, because I am a scout master with lots of scouts. Kids are expensive before you hit camping equipment that they might break or outgrow.

Have you ever considered having them make their own gear? (It's been too long - are there perhaps some other merit badges they could get simultaneously, for sewing, working with tools, etc.?)

Some possible projects include pop-can or cat-food-can alcohol stoves (using empty water bottles like Dasani, etc., for fuel storage, and aluminum flashing for windscreens), ponchos (assuming silnylon or coated nylon isn't hideously expensive), and even (at a higher skill level) frameless packs and tents. (Tarptent and Gossamer Gear used to give away patterns for a basic pack and tent on their websites.) Sleeping bags or quilts are a possiblity, but may well exceed the skill levels available.

Other low-cost options would include using chlorine dioxide tablets instead of filters, and lightweight stainless steel mixing bowl sets (from WalMart or similar; I had one years ago that cost $10, included nesting quart, pint, and cup bowls with plastic lids, and made a great mess kit.) Silnylon tarps are less expensive than tents; the green poly tarps from Walmart are cheaper yet (but a bit harder to use and subject to wear and tear.) Empty bottled water bottles are fine for, well, water bottles. A ziploc bag, some bandaids and moleskin, and a trip to the sample-size counters at the drug store give everyone a start at a first aid kit.

I'm sure others can offer other low-cost gear suggestions for the typical Scout use.

I want to make my own hammock and underquilt. Just haven't been able to shell out a little dough for the materials. If I don't make a mistake, the hammock would only cost 12-15 bucks plus shipping and handling for the materials. Plus I have the option to customize features. Underquilt on the other hand, would probably cost around 50-60 bucks depending on insulation materials, but I'm betting the error cost be higher. Someone on the hammock forum had a calculation on how much down to use and what the projected weight, temp rating, and stuff size would be. When you use synthetic, my biggest question is the stuff size..What if my volume end up being more than mine 15 degree sleep bag? lol. It could become an expensive learning curve.

As much as I can. BSA has a policy against alcohol stoves. The actual rule is sometimes hard to interpret, so I just stay away from it. I have had them make super cats, when I wasn't aware of the rule. However, I bought a jet boil for the troop, and a few of the scouts have their own jet boils. So, a stove isn't on the list for scouts to have to buy. Either are tents. I use troop funds to buy tents. I also bought a filter for the troop. You only need one filter for the troop. They take turns pumping. I have my own filter, so we do have a backup. It does make it a little lighter with the troop mentality. One kid carries the stove, one the pot, one the filter, one the canister, one the other canister....etc. I tell them to bring gatorade bottles, but usually buy one for each boy for the trip. The only thing that I really want them to spend money on is the bag. I can usually scrounge around for packs (borrowing from charter organization members...etc), plus I have a few that I bought with troop funds. A bunch have actually taken my advice of buying thrift store ones and replacing the hip belts with MOLLE belts, cheap and comfortable.