Ultralight Expert's Final Gear Picks and Passes

Nate Pipenberg is writing his final ultralight column for Backpacker Magazine after five years. He uses his last piece to recommend specific gear worth buying and items backpackers should avoid, drawing on extensive testing experience.

Pipenberg's recommendations are personal choices, not a comprehensive guide. He focuses on items he would purchase for himself after evaluating hundreds of products.

Backpacks: Frameless Over High-Tech Fabrics

Pipenberg is a fan of frameless backpacks, particularly those with vest-style or hybrid shoulder straps. He argues they distribute weight across the back, shoulders, and chest better than traditional straps, eliminating pressure points. He appreciates the freedom of movement they provide when carrying a light load without a hip belt.

Conversely, he would not spend money on packs made from Ultra, Dyneema, or Graphite fabrics. He extends this advice to tents and stuff sacks made from similar high-tech composites. Pipenberg claims these fabrics, while marketed as super strong, often have drawbacks like delamination. He finds Dyneema tents, for instance, can be so thin that their durability is compromised. For a backpack, he prefers simple ripstop or Robic nylon, citing the Gossamer Gear Skala 38 as an example.

Clothing and Rain Gear

Pipenberg generally avoids expensive, hiking-specific clothing. He believes standard gym shorts, running tops, and wool sweaters made from nylon, polyester, or wool work fine. If he were to buy one specialized item, it would be an Alpha Direct or TecnoWool hoodie or shirt for active insulation. He calls the FarPointe Outdoor Gear TecnoWool crewneck his "absolute favorite" for its warmth and breathability.

His view on rain gear is nuanced. For years, he used a $25 Frogg Toggs ultralight jacket on long thru-hikes. Recently, however, he became a fan of the Showers Pass Cloudburst jacket, despite its $260 price and 10-ounce weight. He praises its stretchy, quiet, comfortable, and breathable fabric, saying he sometimes wears it as a warm layer even in dry conditions. Paired with an active insulation layer, it forms his ideal softshell system.

Sleep Systems: Winter Pads and Summer Quilts

Pipenberg strongly recommends investing in a winter sleeping pad like the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm NXT. He gives three reasons: superior durability from its 70-denier nylon floor, high warmth with an R-value of 7.3, and overall versatility. He argues the slight weight penalty compared to summer pads is negligible, and a winter pad can be used year-round without causing overheating, eliminating the need for separate seasonal pads.

Finally, he believes every ultralight backpacker should splurge on a true summer-weight sleeping quilt if they can. He highlights their minimal weight and packed size, using the Cumulus Neo Quilt 150 as an example. Pipenberg says once you adapt to a summer quilt, it's hard to return to a heavier sleeping bag, and it prevents overheating at night.

Pipenberg presented these conclusions as his final takeaways from half a decade of gear testing for Backpacker.