Does ultralight gear have to be extremely expensive?

Ultralight backpacking has developed an unfortunate reputation over the years: obsessive, elitist, unsafe, prohibitively expensive. While the first three are debatable (obsessive is the only one I would personally admit to), the accusation that ultralight backpacking is more expensive is based on cherry-picking the most extreme examples.

While you can spend a pretty penny on ultralight hikes thanks to impressively lightweight materials like carbon fiber, Ultra, and Dyneema, there’s plenty of affordable ultralight backpacking gear available. That’s because the ethos behind ultralight backpacking is simple: carry less. So stripping down your gear to just the bare essentials is in the best interest of both your hike and your wallet.

Minimalism and gas station tricks: why ultralight backpacking is cheaper than traditional backpacking

The first ultralight backpackers were trashbaggers and hiker trash, and the most serious ultralight backpackers today are still trashbaggers and hiker trash. These aren’t people with a lot of money; many of these people don’t even have jobs. And they can get away with it because they keep their expenses to an absolute minimum. The best way to save money with ultralight backpacking is to simply buy a lot less gear.

And this is still the best way to save money and ounces while ultralight backpacking. REI may sell backpacking chairs, inflatable pillows, and a five-piece packable cook set, but that doesn’t mean you should buy it.

Ultralight backpackers also find “hacks” all the time that look like they were salvaged from the dumpster behind a trail town gas station. Trash bags instead of pack liners. Disposable water bottles and plastic spoons instead of Nalgenes or sporks. While hiking the Colorado Trail in 2017, I met a fastpacker who had just bought a pair of rubber dishwashing gloves that he swore were lighter and warmer than the best hiking gloves. And I’m not going to judge, especially when my favorite backpacking toothpaste is baking soda.

Dyneema and 900 Fill Power Down: Why Some Ultralight Gear Gets Out of Hand

Of course, no one complains about the cost of toothpaste when they complain about the cost of ultralight backpacking. They complain about the cost of the big items: backpacks, tents, and sleeping bags. It’s easy to spend over $1,000 on just the big three. You could even spend $1,000 on one of these items: the three-person version of our favorite freestanding ultralight tent (the Zpacks Free Zip) costs a cool $999.

Tents

Often the culprit with these expensive items is the cost of materials. Take Dyneema, a popular fabric used in backpacking tents because of its light weight and natural water resistance. It is also ridiculously expensiveworth four to six times the cost of silnylon. An easy way to see how using expensive materials like Dyneema affects the price of a tent is to look at Dan Durston’s offerings. His X-Middle 2 The trekking pole tent, made of silnylon, will cost you $270. The X-Mid 2 Pro, made of Dyneema but with the same tent geometry, will cost you $640. Oh, you wanted the Dyneema floor too? That’ll cost you an extra $100.

For an extra $400, you can halve the weight of your tent. According to Durston, the X-Mid 2 weighs 2 pounds, 6.4 ounces, while the X-Mid 2 Pro weighs 1 pound, 5 ounces. Ultralight backpackers obsessed with weight savings will think $400 for 1 pound, 1.4 ounces is an absolute steal; everyone else will think they’re crazy.

But what gets lost here is that Durston’s X-Mid 2 is a great buy. Especially compared to how much you’ll spend (and how much weight you’ll be carrying) if you pull into a big box store and whip out your credit card. Take the Big Agnes Copper Spur, for example. It’s an excellent tent, topping REI’s best-seller list in the two-person category. It retails for $530 and weighs 3 pounds, 2 ounces. Things are slightly better (or worse, depending on your perspective) over at Cabela’s, where the top-rated backpacking tent is the Marmot Tungsten. It squeaks out the X-Mid 2’s price point at $240, but it weighs in at 5 pounds, 14.2 ounces. That’s a weight that even the most staunch traditional backpacker won’t be able to carry.

Cost effective ultralight tents

Fine equipment

Tarp tent

Six Moon Designs

Durston

Sleeping bags

The issue of material costs is even more pressing when it comes to the best ultralight sleeping bags. As discussed in our Primaloft vs. Down deep dive, the cost of typical 550- to 650-fill-power down fluctuates with the demand for duck and goose meat in China. That’s because so little down is produced from an individual duck that no one would farm them just for their down. But the higher-quality down — the 800- or 900-fill-power down — is even more elusive.

This down comes only from older geese, which are well past the age that geese raised primarily for meat would reach. Higher fill power down comes from geese kept for breeding or raised for foie gras. A quick note on ethical considerations: Due to the potential for abuse of the animals through force-feeding or live-plucking, it is important to look for down products that are certified by the Responsible Down Standard (RDS).

Due to the rarity of quality down, ultralight sleeping bags can get out of hand in terms of price — $600 is pretty standard, which is ridiculous. In our review of the best backpacking sleeping bags, the relatively cost-effective 800-fill-power Therm-a-Rest Parsec costs $470, while the 550-fill-power Kelty Cosmic Down costs $160. But the weight difference between a 550-fill-power down sleeping bag and an 800-fill-power down sleeping bag is also quite significant. The Parsec weighs 1 pound, 12 ounces, while the Cosmic Down weighs 2 pounds, 7 ounces.

And this is why most ultralight backpackers don’t use ultralight sleeping bags—they use backpacking quilts. Because quilts don’t have down on the bottom, they’re generally less expensive than full-fledged sleeping bags. As with all things ultralight, the idea here is to be ruthlessly reducing inefficiencies: 900-fill-power down that your body sleeps on top of can’t puff up, so you don’t need it. (You’ll still need an R-rated backpacking sleeping pad that’s appropriate for your conditions, but you already needed that.)

Read more: What is R-Value? This is why your sleeping bag isn’t keeping you warm

You can see the savings here even with a more extreme ultralight brand like Zpacks. Their 900-fill-power hoodless sleeping bag costs $480, while their 900-fill-power quilt is $400. Ultralight quilt mainstay Enlightened Equipment takes it a step further: Not only do they let you choose between a $345 850-fill-power quilt and a $420 950-fill-power quilt (a weight savings of just under 2 ounces), but you can also opt for a $220 synthetic quilt that weighs in at just 2 pounds, 1 ounce.

Cost-effective ultralight sleeping bags and duvets

Illuminated equipment

Outside Vitals

Hammock equipment

Backpacks

This one’s easy: Many traditional backpacking packs are heavy and no cheaper than their ultralight counterparts. The 5.5-pound Mystery Ranch Bridger and the 4.5-pound Osprey Atmos cost $375 and $340, respectively. A 2.5-pound ULA Circuit in Robic costs $300. And even when the price points start to get a little high, the culprits are usually expensive materials—in this case, more Dyneema and a newer fabric called Ultra.

Cost-effective ultralight backpacks

Fine equipment

Durston

Granite gear

Cost comparison table

Still don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at REI’s best-selling big three and compare them to our top picks for the best backpacking tents, best backpacking packs, and best backpacking blankets.