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The Half Ass Expeditions Backpacking Guide

Fife's winter setup

This list reflects the load for a 4 to 7 day trip in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in January. Expected temperatures may be down to -30 degrees fahrenheit with moderate snow coverage. Small day hikes from a base camp location.

  • Backpack
    The North Face / Capacity: (I forgot, but it’s real big)
  • Lightest down sleeping bag
    My sleeping bag weighs only 1 lb and is rated to 60 degrees –Farenheight, that is, above zero. The secret is in the system, starting with the bivvy. See separate article, “Sleeping with JF” (coming soon).
  • Ridgerest ground pad: long, thin, black, bumpy
    Ridgerest pad: Preferable to self-inflating (ThermaRest) in winter. The latter take a long time to self-inflate when old and cold, tempting you to blow it up, which will only make it soggy and stiff. Use foam instead for winter use.
  • Inflatable neck pillow: like airports sell
    New Item. For years I have just used a stuffsack of clothes for a pillow, but I invariably slide off the pillow, or it’s not full enough, or too lumpy. So forget it. The neck pillow stays on and works consistently, if not ideally.
  • Bivvy bag
    REI Cyclops Bivvy, circa 1990 or so
  • Foam Chair: Eagle Creek, folding, w/webbing
    These are made of a stiff foam, encased in nylon, and fold down the middle, with two straps connecting the chair to the backrest. Well, when the weather gets cold, put it in your bivvy, under the ridgerest, in the torso area.
  • JB's Fat Foam Sit Pad
    Bits of ½” foam, perhaps the size of an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper. All-purpose flour: rest your feet on them while you eat. Put one under your elbow if you lay out on a log. Put your dinner pot on it to keep it warm. Bring them inside your sleeping bag on really cold nights, where your pointy parts squeeze the down too thin and get cold.
  • Silk Pants
  • Silk Shirt
  • Polypro Shirt
  • Spandex Pants
  • Silk Balaclava - lightest/sheerest possible
    You want this real thin, because you turn it around backwards to completely cover your face on bitter cold nights, and breath through the fabric. Real thin material doesn’t get claustrophobic.
  • Neck Gaiter
  • Down Booties
  • Overboots - uninsulated Gore Tex shell
  • Fleece Balaclava
  • Sleeping Hood
    This is a nylon hood with fleece lining, that once was a separate button-on part of a jacket. I use it when I need real head insulation.
  • Wool cap
  • Wool Pants w/ suspenders
  • Wool Shirt
    Do you know you can’t even go into REI and expect to find a wool shirt anymore? Pound-for pound, I don’t know of anything that is as rugged and warm. But Recreational Equipment Incorporated ought to change their name to Fashion Gear Incorporated, FGI.
  • Parka: just a Gortex and nylon shell, no insulation
  • Windbreaker - nylon shell fits in own pocket
  • Down Jacket
  • Polypro Vest
  • Silk/Polypro socks
    I used to want silk and polypro socks just to prevent leather boot blisters. But my new Bunny boots are so damn comfortable, I may obsolete silk and poly very soon. However, the best thing is to have several thin socks (much easier to dry), instead of 2 thick wool pair, so these thin inner layers may stay around.
  • Wool Socks (4 pair)
  • "BUNNY BOOTS" - military Surplus rubber boots
    I got these from Federal Army Navy Surplus in Seattle. They tell me they were first made during the Korean war (although mine say 1982 on them). They’re an all-rubber boot with no fancy lining, and they’re almost as shit-kikin’ hard and ankle-supporting as a Raichle leather boot. But it cannot get wet or stiff or freeze. They even have an internal air pocket for insulation, with a valve that you open before putting them on an unpressurized plane. These are much stiffer than various “Sorrel”-type boots. My leather boot days are over (in winter, anyway). Two more things: A) I do carry extra foot-shaped foam pads to place in the soles of the boots; B) I’m still not sure I can kick through an icy crust on top of snow as well as I could with leather boots. We’ll see.
  • Foam Boot inserts - extra insulation
  • Instep Crampons
  • Gaiters
  • Inner Gloves
  • Fingerless Wool Gloves
  • Wool Mittens, 2 pair
  • Outer Shell Mittens
  • MSR XGK Stove
    The stove’s windscreen is sized to fit snugly around the 1-liter pot. Although the XGK isn’t a “simmering” stove, you can quickly do this: A. Heat water to a boil; B. Turn the valve off and blow out the flame, and remove pot from stove; C. Hold the bottle upright, unscrew the pump and vent the fuel bottle (STOVE FLAME MUST BE OUT!!!); D. Put stove back, open valve to full power, light stove and replace the pot on stove. Stove will run at very low power (even a “candle flame”) indefinitely like this. This sounds complicated, but I can do it in 15 seconds.
  • 22 oz Fuel Bottle
  • Pot Lifter
  • Spoon
  • Cup
  • Butane Lighter
  • One Quart Pot w/ attached Heat Exchanger
    MSR has an XPD “heat exchanger”, made of aluminum that clamps around a pot. When I worked there, I used the production tooling to make a set of brass heat exchanger fins, which I silver-soldered to a 1-liter pot. The fins extend ¾ inch below the pot, which helps it sit just-so around the pot supports of the XGK. My pot is the most efficient setup for heating a small volume of water that I have ever tested, because of the intimate connection of the exchanger and the pot, capturing the heat that would otherwise be blown away from the stove, before reaching the pot.
  • 4 liter Dromedary Bag
  • More Butane Lighters
  • Nalgene Booze bottle, 750 ml
  • Nalgene Water Bottle - 1 liter
  • FOOD BAG - more click HERE
  • Medical Bag
    Asprin/Tylenol/Ibuprophen/Tums/Pepcid AC, Moleskin, Visine, Sunglasses, Lip Grease, Toothbrush, Buttwipes/TP, (Pre-moistened individually wrapped towel-lets are the perfect skid mark preventer, not to mention butt-itch and that awful hair-across your ass. Use T.P. for the heavy lifting, then these towel-letts - a.k.a. “butt swabs” - for that really fresh feeling. Use these to prevent “this”.)
  • LED Headband Flashlight
  • Spare AA cells
  • Monolith Light
  • Spare Monolith Light
  • Duct Tape
  • Camera
  • Film - 2 rolls
  • Tinder Tabs
  • Bungie Cords
    I make super-lightweight Bungies from the lightest weight bungie cordstock REI sells. I make the hooks from coathanger wire, using a pair of plyers.
  • Backpack Cover
  • String
    I use “Surveyor’s string”: lightweight very strong nylon.
  • Snow Shovel
  • Ground Cloth
  • Pocket Knife
  • Snowshoes



    Endangered Species List
  • Ground Cloth - never seem to use it.
  • Tinder Tabs - stove fuel is fine.
  • Film Rolls - soon to be a digital camera.




    • For an Excel Worksheet of this list... CLICK HERE
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    Copyright 2004 Tim Novak and HAE