Its free on Amazon as of 12/ 25/ 2013, and I’d recommend it as a decent reference for anyone looking to drop some weight from their packs. As he said himself, if you can shave an average of 4 ounces per step, you’ll drop 3 pounds in weight overall. I’ve found that to be a significant amount in my own trials and errors.

The author is a self-described “Gram Weenie,” regularly repeating “every ounce counts!“ and it shows in some of the choices he makes. I can’t find any real fault in any but one of them (I‘ll get to that,) and I like most of them. But some? Not so much. My caffeine addiction, for one, is too strong to rely on paper cups for its administration. I’d be a miserable prick if I found them crushed after a couple days. No, thanks. A solid cup for me, please!

One of the very first things he said should strike a chord with all of us though:

“Everything in your pack needs to serve at least one purpose related to surviving.”

To his thinking, this means it better do 1 (or more) of 5 things:
-keep you sheltered
-keep you warm
-feed you
-make safe drinking water
-heal you

I say that’s a good start, but not quite there. A quick glance at the 10 Essentials of Backpacking shows a lack of navigation, illumination, and a repair kit/ tools. I personally don’t think the addition of even those 3 categories is enough from a prepping standpoint, so I would personally add the need for physical security and communication.

An argument could be made for the addition of sanitation/ hygiene needs as well, but I’ve strayed far enough down this rabbit trail. I just wanted to get people thinking about how many different things we actually “need”, and how their weight can add up quickly. Many are mentioned in this little ebook, just not as necessities. He looks at some things as luxuries, such as toothpaste…

And it was one hell of an idea he had for that!

Remember, every ounce counts, so he took a look at his “personal” kit, which I took to be (or at least include) a hygiene kit. One of his actions is something I learned a long time ago from the UL community. Cut the handle of a standard toothbrush in ½ to save weight and space. This guy took it one step further, and got rid of his toothpaste tube by squirting single uses into sections of a McDonald’s straw. He melted the ends to contain the paste until needed. Between this and the toothbrush mod he saved 3 ounces. Almost ¼ pound! That surprised me. The other advantage is there’s less bulk in your pack, and it diminishes after each use, unlike even a travel size tube of toothpaste. I like.
Since we’re on the topic of teeth I’ll segue to why we need to scrub them: Food. He mentions in the book that a dentist confirmed toothpaste isn’t necessary. It only knocks down bad breath. We need to scrub to remove food particles. I’ve rabbited again though.

There’s two elements he discussed in reducing the weight of food. One I’ll follow, the other I’ll likely ignore. I bought a Jetboil Flash after seeing one in action, and I’m unlikely to replace that with an alcohol stove, as he recommends. Besides, I’m not sure how much size/ weight savings that really gives when the Flash is a self contained apparatus good for roughly 48 uses, and includes the cup. I may be wrong, but it seems like the stove, liquid fuel, and separate cup could negate the “advantage” of the alcohol stoves smaller size. Can anyone with alcohol stove experience, if not both, educate me here, please?

What I will likely try is repackaging any dehydrated foods (like MH) in Ziploc bags. Discarding the foil packs in their favor saved him ½ ounce per meal. That may not seem like much, but how many of us are packing BOB’s for 2+ people? That ½ ounce just became 1+ ounce real fast, didn’t it? How many hot meals do you want in a day? For sake of argument I’ll assume two: breakfast, and dinner, so that becomes 2+ ounces a day. At the usual standard of 72 hours for a BOB that means you’d be carrying 6 less ounces, just in packaging. That’s over 1/3 of a pound. Between that and losing a toothpaste container we’re at a weight savings of just over 2/3 of pound. Again, I like.

Assuming I found accurate data that means I’ve essentially freed up enough weight, in those two UL changes alone, to accommodate: two more meals or 25 rounds of 5.56, or? without a weight penalty. How awesome is that?

Anyway, moving on, he gained some impressive savings in making changes to his shelter and sleeping bag as well. To the tune of several pounds. First, he advocates the use of down sleeping bags over synthetic, and hammocks over tents or tarps, though he acknowledges tarps are the lightest way to go.

His example on the sleeping bags showed a 21 ounce difference between two of similar rating, but it comes at a cost. There was roughly $330.00 difference between the two. I’m probably going to wish it was a golden egg after I shit a brick over the cost of a down bag rated for -30*F. Hey, don’t judge. I sleep cold! But yeah, back on topic, some of ya’ll further south could save 1 lb. 5 ounces by grabbing a down bag with a 13*F rating.

The biggest savings though, comes in the shelter itself. My Eureka Solitaire is light at 4 pounds, some odd ounces, but how many of us can utilize a single person shelter with no vestibule or storage space? So, for illustrative purposes only, lets assume an average weight of 8 pounds for a tent weight, shall we? A single person hammock is less than half of that. I’d guess a double hammock would be at or just over half of that, with much less bulk. No need for level ground either, but if nothing is available to hang from its tarp could still be used for a ground shelter… the best of both worlds, in my eyes! And it frees up enough weight to carry ½ gallon of water all on its own! Nice!

Speaking of water, he mentioned a product I’d never heard of. A Sawyer Squeeze Filter, that is supposed to be good for 1 million gallons, has its own bag you can drink from to save weight, and costs only $50, which is only $5 more than a replacement cartridge for my Katadyn Hiker…

There’s a lot more in this little book, from clothing selection, to dual purpose items, to methodology for whittling down what you carry in your pack, but for all of that, there was only one thing he said that I absolutely don’t agree with. His entire fire kit is nothing more than a disposable lighter that he emptied, pulled apart, and filled with jute twine. Granted, there are primitive skills we can learn and employ, but the flint in a disposable lighter is awful tiny to rely on consistently, and has anyone else had a lighter like that fall apart on them? I have. Imagine trying to scrape a flint that size… I’d say, if nothing else, add a small ferro rod in with the twine, or upgrade to a zippo and keep a couple extra flints in there… But hey, that’s just me. Overall, I liked what he had to say.