Smart

Videos like that are the reason why you have 364 subscribes.

Newb here. Love my stuff sacks for various reasons and most definitely I am taking my inflatable pillow covered with a t shirt. Gotta sleep between bear encounters! 😁

Helpful, thanks

I just take everything that can compress down, put it in a dry bag, and compress it all together. I keep my tarp and ridge line on the top, it's the first thing I pull out.

Your focus on UPF is pathological. Humans need sunshine. Humans need water. Drinking too much water can be deadly, but too little kills many more. Likewise sunshine. Humans need enough sunshine, not too much. But how much is too much? They say 15-minutes per day is the minimum recommended amount of sun. If there are eight suntan hours in a day, then 15-min is 3% of available sunshine. Nobody will say what the maximum is, but presumably it's higher than 3% for normal (not at risk) people? If one plans to be outside the whole day and they want the minimum 3%, then UPF should be no higher than 30. Those wanting more than just the bare minimum may feel sun starved at UPF 15? (more...) Here's the table: UPF %Transmitted 15 6.7 20 4.2 25 4.0 30 3.3 35 2.6 40 2.5 50 2.0 [source: sierra.com/blog/lifestyle/sierra-trading-post-explores-how-does-upf-work/. ]

I'm not sure...but, I've heard that in cold climates when you blow in the air, it creates condensation that makes your pad colder. Something you wouldn't want.

I somehow lost my stuff sack for Zpacks altaplex was told it could harm the tent if I just stuff in pack can anyone confirm or deny this

You need to redo this experiment using exactly the same gear items, else it dosn't mean a thing.

I line my packs with a 10 mil bag used to dispose of asbestos. They literally last for years. For the soft gear like sleeping bag or quilt, tent, fly, down jacket. I put them in oversized stuff bags.. Every piece of gear is separated and contained in its own oversized color coded bag. This allows them to be squished and fill all the spaces and makes them much easier to pull out when needed. I use a combination of stuffing of squishy stuff and cubes for other gear such as clothing and toilet kit. Items like the tent fly that may be wet or damp go on the outside of the 10 mil bag liner. The large cub filled with clothing becomes my pillow.

Well, the key here is to NOT stack them on each other. I place them in length-wise. Maybe put two in and then fill in those gaps. Then put the next layer of stuff sacks in and fill in those gaps. Easy. I do it all the time. Nothing bulging or hitting my back.

Fail

You can make it way easier if you use a shopping cart

But I really! want it!

Would this trash compactor bag make a decent stuff sack just to compress everything down?

I don’t overpack my pack so gaps for me are a non issue.

good to know!

Is that the Durston pack?

This is something I've been thinking about for my SASH'es... do you have a recommendation for size of the trash compactor bag for a 40-50L pack?

WHAT THE HELL? How is that in any way shape or form having any detrimental effect toward your pack? It may be KILLING you, but it is not harming your pack! Let alone killing it!!! I HATE CLICKBATE TITLES!!!!

Lid would give faster boil, save fuel. That Durston gear is tempting. I’m also in desert. Pre-loading salt has been a game changer. Subbed.

1000th like 👍✨

This is spot on. 20 year 11B Army Vet here and for that time I spent a total of years & years in the field and always lined the inside of my ruck with 3 large trash bags and packed liked you did. I may have had the interior get soaked once from leaving the trash bags opened in those 20 years. Well done Sir.

I started doing this too! Great work man- so that Kakawa is on my list to get- how is it dude?

You need to be intelligent in using stuff sacks. if you use a large stuff sack for your closths you can mold it aroung other items. Depending on the activity you are doing you may want stuff sacks. The main thing stuff sacks do is allow orginization. But the key is use oversiaed stuff sacks.

I agree that you dont need many stuff sacks, or maybe none. A tent does not need one. But if you DO use stuff sacks, and you might, fill them at most 2/3 full, or 1/2 full. They are not stuffed, but loosely filled, soft and flexible instead of being hard balls. In wet weather to keep items dry I find that smaller sacks work better than a large plastic bag within a back pack. Whats in a pack? Tent, sleeping bag, clothing, food, a cook kit, and a misc bag. Food is always well packed, double or triple bagged. The cook kit needs no rain protection, not even the stove. Other things can go in several bags, loosely filled except for the sleeping bag. The rain fly on tent needs no water protection. You can put the inner tent in a bag, loose, but its not necessary, unless conditions are extreme. Bread bags work fine and are very light. But I do use 2 or so ultra light stuff sacks, as they are not much heavier and can be convenient in camp. This will fill out your back pack properly. Modern back packs should be filled tight, with no empty spaces, so the pack supports itself. When "inflated" by tight packing, it will carry much better, even if the pack has metal stays.

My summer base weight is 9.998 lbs. I will try this for winter pack. It has a bit more gear !

I agree with the premise presented here completely (and have the same experience myself). Another KZbinr (I forget who) gave a very good explanation regarding stuff sacks and organization in a pack. He said, in a nut shell, that having each individual item (or like items) in a separate stuff sack does not make you more organized. You just end up with a pack full of random stuff sacks, which you have to use a lot of effort to make fit in the space...and the overall organization is NO better for it. I have dumped all of my stuff sacks, with the exception of 2. One for my clothes (which gets used as a pillow). Two, one as a food bag, when I am not carrying a bear can. That's it. Small items get grouped together in appropriately - sized ziploc bags, which weigh less, are transparent and end up being flatter in shape (so I can stack them with far less wasted space. As such, I have moved to a 25 litre pack...and 10 lb. base weight.

Good tips, thank you. My tent goes into the bottom section of the bag, so even if its wet it doesnt affect anything else. Ive a folded up plastic bag liner which I can either put wet or dry stuff in to isolate it from the rest of the wet/dry stuff. I saw a tip about taking stuff out of stuff sacks and have done that ever since, but still use the pillow and bag liner ones as theyre small. I also collect cooking stuff, food stuff, electronics together in a stuff sack.

Better to load your cylindrical stuff sacks parallel to the pack interior, not perpendicular. Then, rather than putting your clothes in a stuff sack, push all your clothes into the open spaces between your stuff sacks that have your gear in them. This packs much better and allows for a smaller pack to be used, or for you to carry more gear if you need to.

Looking at the amount of degradation my stuff sacks go through I'd wager that leaving them out will seriously reduce the lifetime of all that expensive equipment. Those 30-50g are well spent...

I use organizational, waterproof bags for the following: 1. X-Pak roll-top bag for food (because I want my gear to be separated from my smelly, sticky food bag). 2. DCF roll-top sack for my quilt and pillow. I’m not playing games with the possibility of my quilt getting even slightly wet. 3. DCF roll-top sack for my battery bank and charging cords. 4. DCF roll-top sack for my hygiene items. My hygiene kit is very tiny, but contains tiny containers holding sunscreen, soap, DEET, and I want those items to be as protected as possible to prevent any of my other gear getting sticky in case one of those containers leaks. 5. Tiny DCF tent-stake carrier for my five tent stakes. Not trying to let my other gear get damaged from the pokiness of my tent stakes. 6. A DCF roll-top sack to hold my tent. My tent is a single-walled trekking pole tent that gets dirty and sometimes gets condensation and I want that separated from my the rest of my gear. Then I use a nylofume pack liner that goes into the main compartment of my bag and my spare clothing items go on top of my quilt (in the DCF stuff sack).

This is precisely why the Hyperlite Mountain Gear pods (that are highly water resistant and contour to the pack shape perfectly and leave no wasted space gaps) are gold Jerry! GOLD!

Wow lots of haters in here, but unfortunately we can't see downvotes because I'd love to see the overall consensus on this. While certain waterproof stuff, compression, and organization bags have their time and place. KISS, less is more and I'm not even an UL person. I typically have a trash compactor bag, 2 trash bags and a pancho. Trash compactor bag just as a main pack liner and trash bag 1 for dirty laundry (if it's over a 2 day trip), trash bag 2 for trash and cleanup along the trail (I wish more people did this, especially at trailheads.) People in general are over-packing and quick access stuff or gear that you need "organization" for should be on easy access pockets or zippered side areas.

Probably true, but I will continue to benefit from those couple organizational ounces. I have cut pounds out of my pack, and added ounces of luxury and fun!

I see a video with a Durston Kakwa pack and I click. Lol I am in love with that thing! Great video man! 🤙🏼

Thanks! So are you folding things in there? Assuming so!

I was told that the air pump's benefit is that it keeps us from blowing our germs and moisture into the pads, helping give the pad a longer life span maybe? Then they said they use it as a tent lantern too but i dont really use it for that much lol

Appreciate the video! Planning a trip there around the same time. Curious about permits - Ive read that if you camp outside the park boundaries along the trail, you don’t need backcountry permits through the park. Is that still true?

Take that container and fill it with stuff sacks (maybe put your spare socks in some spaces), and then take that container and fill it with unstuffed ... stuff and show me how you really have done anything with what you consider wasted space. You went from a small compression bag for a sleeping bag to that uncompressed sleeping bag taking over a quarter to half of the space in the container. Sure, you can press it down, only to have it puff right back up anytime you access the pack to rummage around for whatever it is you need. You lose organization and easy access for, from what I can tell, no reason outside of a small loss of weight from the bags themselves.

Have you ever tried turkey bags?

Controversial take… why not use packing cubes if the shape is the problem? You can still get the benefits of compression and organization, while being in a more comfortable and efficient form factor. As most aren’t waterproof, a pack liner is still a good idea, but now things are easier to find and take out as well. There are lots of light weight cubes one the market, and might be a great solution to this problem. Ultimately though, you do you. Disclaimer: I work for an outdoor retailer, and the above is my own opinion and does not represent the company that I work for.

I put “sleep “ gear at the bottom like this: sleeping bag, pad, pillow, dry clothes and tent body. Then put tent fly in outer mesh pocket with no stuff sack.

I started out with this mentality but with my synthetic sleeping bags that don't compress worth a damn I have found it essential to put them in a compression sack or else they take up at least half the volume of my pack. Pushing stuff down on top of the sleeping bag in one area caused shit to pop up somewhere else. The sleeping bag is only thing I do this with though. Also my compression sack is one that has compression straps both radially around the bag and length wise, meaning you can choose which dimension to compress. I usually leave the radial compression straps all the way loose and tighten the lengthwise straps just enough so that I can wedge it sideways into the bottom of my pack and it fits in there pretty snug and takes up much less space in my pack.

Weight weenies don't go near stuff sacks at around 100 grams each :)

Maybe the clothes is a good idea but the sleeping bag expanded to triple the size. The sleeping bag alone took up half the container.

I kinda do this but still use compression sack for sleeping bag, I couldn’t keep it compressed enough but if I just do the sleeping bag in a compression sack I can then pack the other stuff around it… or I’ve 1 bigger compression sack that fits everything in and once compressed it completely fills half my pack without gaps… but I kinda failed at not use anything I was just battling with the bag 😂

Well it's a great thing, that not everybody's opinion is the same. I bought my rucksack thirty plus years ago. It's a great, strong, mountain pack, however, the material is not waterproof anymore. So I use stuff sacs.

2:51 I hate this plastic noise. Why not just buy a drybag and using it many years.

What the heck is a”bear can”?