Thanks for the information. Regarding the tent, I am definitely leaning towards the Gunnison 3.1... at 6lbs 8 oz I think I can handle it. Ideally I would purchase a decent medium size tent and a tent for solo trips... but that's a little more money than I am willing to spend. If I wanted to go ultralight and that was more important than a great shelter I could probably leave the Gunnison itself at home and go with just the rain fly, poles, and footprint. I've seen this done with certain REI tents so it's probably possible with Kelty tents also.

The tent is probably where I'm going to spoil myself with weight. That and I like having a full 100 oz Camelbak so I don't have to stop and filter water every hour(I drink a lot). I don't spoil myself with special food and I am extremely efficient at finding tools that have multiple uses, so I can probably keep the weight down in other areas.

One reason I do the base camp thing is I have a thing for peaks, and tend to climb any near me if it is nontechnical. I like to climb fast and light, and often have more motivation to do this than people I may be camping with, so the base camp method has always worked well with me.

Thanks for the input though. There will almost certainly be situations where ultralight is the way to go.