Fastpacking 101
Fastpacking 101
What is fastpacking?
How will it improve your wilderness experience?
There are a few different ways that humans can travel through wilderness terrain. The most common method is by “backpacking.” Backpacking consists of traveling on foot while carrying all your gear and food on your back. Traditionally “backpacking” packs are between 40-80 liters in volume. A fully loaded pack for weekend trips typically land between 30-60lbs. This includes the weight of the pack, tent, sleeping bag, pad, clothes, cooking equipment, food, water, first aid, and other miscellaneous items.
In most ways, fastpacking is the same as backpacking. We travel on foot with all our gear, food, and water on our backs. The difference is the size of the packs that we use and the type of gear that we put in them. Fastpacking packs are typically 20-35 liters in volume. A fully loaded pack for weekend trips weighs between 12-20lbs. This includes all of the items detailed above in the section about backpacking. If you are interested in learning more about gear and how it’s possible to fastpack with such a small amount of weight, head to our page all about gear.
At Wilderness Fastpacking, we believe there is a profound freedom in shedding weight without sacrificing safety, comfort, or enjoyment.
We are able to cover more ground with less effort. For those who like to run, we are able to jog on flat and downhill terrain with our full packs, creating a totally different yet very familiar way of traveling through the best wild landscapes.
We are committed to practicing and teaching the strong leave no trace ethics on all of our fastpacking trips. Without these principles, knowing them, and using them every day out in these wilderness areas we would jeopardize the very essence of what we love about these landscapes. Read more about Leave No Trace and make these 7 principles habit.