Our Latest Gear Upgrades
Hi everyone! This summer we decided to upgrade a few items in our backpacking gear including our tent, our backpacking stove, my sleeping bag, my sleeping pad and our water filter (kinda). We went backpacking in The Enchantments earlier this summer and after that trip I just knew we had to cut back on weight. So I shopped sales and kept my eye out for the things we wanted to upgrade to! Here’s what we bought:
The Tent
This was the biggest purchase for us and what we spent the most time researching. The #1 requirement was that we wanted something that was lighter than the Alps Mountaineering tent which weighed a whopping 6lbs. We settled on the Nemo Dagger 2P tent for a few reasons. First, it has a lot of floor space (including the vestibules) for being a 2 person tent. We were able to take it on a quick overnight and Michael and I fit very comfortably and there’s actually more headspace now, however the tent is slightly more narrow. Second, the tent is considerably lighter and lastly, the doors to enter the vestibule areas are so much easier to use than our last tent. We have yet to use it in any inclement weather or high winds, but I’m confident this tent will end up performing well for a long time for us. I really loved our old tent though and you can read my review here.
The Backpacking Stove
This was our second big gear upgrade. We loved our Whisperlite stove but it was such a pain in the ass to get started - it took forever to get it heated up. Plus, we had to bring the stove and an additional kettle to boil water so we decided to upgrade to the MSR Windburner for a quicker experience and more compact system. It’s also lighter! I am 100% a loyal MSR customer so I absolutely could not bring myself to buy a JetBoil, but if you want something similar for cheaper, you can get a JetBoil (they copied the MSR Windburner). I’ve only used this once but WOW did it make the biggest difference! Set up was an absolute breeze and it boiled my water in less than 5 minutes. LOVE THIS STOVE SYSTEM!!
My Sleeping Bag
OLD
The North Face Kid’s Sleeping Bag $???.??
This was a upgrade that really need to happen (nervous laugh). My old sleeping bag was acquired when Michael was moving out of his apartment the summer of 2016. His roommate threw this bag into the trash and I happened to see it so I pulled it out because I needed a new sleeping bag. I have absolutely no idea what the temperature rating is, but I know it’s not below 35 degrees. The one thing I did love about the old bag was how well it fit my height, so enter the new Big Agnes Elsie 15F bag. Meant for someone 5’5 or shorter and perfect for colder temps in the backcountry!
Our Sawyer Filtration System
This isn’t so much as an “upgrade” as we just needed a new filter and decided to go with a different model. The Sawyer Mini is great if you’re an ultralight backpacker and seriously need to count every ounce, but we just don’t and I was getting frustrated with the tiny bladder that came with the mini and wanted something bigger. We decided to get the Sawyer Squeeze Filter System because it comes with two larger bladders and a larger filter as well as a bag to turn one of the bladders into an easy gravity sack.
My Sleeping Pad
I admit this upgrade was an impulse buy. My therm-a-rest pad is amazing (and I’m still going to use it for cold weather backpacking/camping) but it’s just so big and I was getting sick of having to roll it up and strap it below my pack. So when I saw the Klymit Insulated pad on sale on Amazon I just bought it. I don’t know what the R value on my Therm-a-rest is because it was from the early 2000s but I think it’s more than my new Klymit pad (R value is 4.4). The Klymit pad takes about 12 breaths to blow up which is amazing and it packs down to the size of a Nalgene bottle so it’s much more compact. It’s also much lighter. So far I’m really happy with this purchase but we’ll see how warm it is when we go on some colder weather backpacking trips this fall.
There are a few more items we have our eyes on but for now, that’s what we upgraded this year!