For quite a while I have been thinking that I have been carrying an ultralight backpacking kit. My base weight pack weighs about 20# without any food or water, but with everything else. However, the more that I think of it, I'm really carrying a lightweight backpack, not ultralight. Here's my logic. I carry everything that I need in my pack. It's as lightweight as I can find and my light weight gear is not cheap. But I don't leave anything out. It seems to me that I have to start leaving things out in order to consider my backpack "ultralight". For instance I could leave the tent and just use a tarp. I could leave out the canister stove & fuel, then just cook over a campfire like I use to when I was a kid. Or I could forget cooking all together and just eat no-cook snacks. The only thing that I carry that I don't expect to use is a first aid kit. I could strip that down some, but I wouldn't want to leave it out all together.
That base weight does not include any gear for hunting or fishing or climbing. That would all be extra.
How about you guys. Do you consider your backpack lightweight or ultra light?
