Thread: Beginner Hunter - need advice

Originally Posted by Jt89

I too am an adult onset hunter and not a born and bred kiwi so thirty years behind everybody else as well. Started with a kifaru pack thinking it was a great idea... Weighed nearly 3kg empty and probably almost 4kg if it was wet... Biffed that for an osprey mutant 52. 1.5ish kg

A hut (in summer) means you practically don't need sleeping gear at all, nor a tent etc. A summer sleeping bag (or quilt if that's how you roll) should be half a Kg or less. Winter obviously different story.

Jetboils and the like are a joke. Bulky, heavy. I'll concede the windburners work well, but they're still heavy for the job. MSR pocket rocket solo set is a good budget cooker that takes up bugger all space and is light enough, a BRS titanium stove and 600ml titanium cup off aliexpress is even lighter and cheaper but I hear they are prone to melting the pot supports eventually.

I don't bother with water at all in a haast roar block, guaranteed it's either all around you or about to fall out of the sky... In the top of the south I carry a litre if I can't hear running water and only 3 or 4 if I'm climbing up and know I'm heading further from a known source rather than closer to another.

Picking the right layers and amount of extras is a learning curve you can only do through hard experience, but a great tip I've learnt is if your sleeping bag is rated warmer than you need it to be just go to sleep fully clothed and wet, you'll be dry in the morning. Packing spare dry layers to sleep in is a waste of time and weight, you'll end up putting wet stuff back on in the morning anyway. Wear merino, get wet and sleep in it, socks and all. I'll bet a box of ammo you'll be toasty dry come time to lace up the boots and slam back a coffee! I only carry extra layers now for adding to what I'm already wearing to keep warm, not to change into and out of. Spare socks and jocks for missions longer than 3 days (turn jocks inside out after second day) If you're really in the pissing rain for days on end, everything gets damp anyway and you're not drying anything.

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if you are doing it that way, A small bar of soap and a regular wash is a good idea. It saves your sleeping bag and sweat rash or jock itch can be no laughing matter when you are two days hike from the road end.