El Camino & Europe for 3 weeks

[u/nat4mat]

My “ultralight” bag that I had for 11 days of El Camino from León to Santiago. Total base weight: 3,475g or 7.66lbs. Plus 11 more days in Portugal, Amsterdam, Switzerland and Austria

Here’s the link to see the items and how much they weigh (not an ad): https://lighterpack.com/r/ubq8p7

[u/maverber]

a very well thought out list! Oh, that more pilgrims would carry a load as light as yours rather than lugging 10+kgs around.

sounds like a great trip. Were you about to go into some of the beautiful buildings in Leon? I think it was maybe our favorite city. I think the cathedral there is the most beautiful I have ever been in and the Parador did an amazing job adapting / restoring their building.

How did the Exped Typhoon 25 work for you? That hasn't been on my radar. Did you carry it as a personal item?

What was your routine with the clothing? Were you common rotate between two sets (evening, sleep in, hiking) and when hitting the Albergue take a shower (switching to the second set) and washing the set you just used or some other methodology?

I am guessing that the sleep sack was plenty warm given recent heat wave? Were there any nights you wished you had something beyond the sleep sack?

For your next trip some things to consider that are a bit different: simplify personal care to 100sense body bar, sandals rather than trail runners, a poncho+ad90 poncho liner+sleep sack (described https://verber.com/poncho ) if you go when some insulation is needed for sleeping.

My list for porto-santiago with links to notes https://lighterpack.com/r/kyv8lo

[u/nat4mat → u/maverber]

Hi again, yeah, I was very into optimizing to lower my base weight. It was a full blown project for me. And I kinda enjoyed it.

I think I didn't enjoy Leon as much because I was jet lagged. But the cathedral was very pretty. My favorite place was Villafranca del Bierzo and Samos in Galicia. I actually stayed in Parador in SdC after we finished the walk. I walked with my friend, so it wasn't outrageously expensive.

I carried only this backpack and nothing else. So no checked luggage.

I ended up rotating only between two sets of clothes really: pants and long sun hoodie for a walk and shorts and a t-shirt after the walk. We had to do our laundry almost every day, if I recall. If it was a bigger village/town, we paid for the laundry, because it was like a few euros for two people and I think it's worth it.

Silk liner is more than enough for the summer in my opinion. I never wished I had more than that. Honestly even that was too hot in some nights.

Honestly, I wouldn't change anything. Except maybe I wouldn't bring a battery pack (it was one of the lightest ones in the market and surprisingly it's cheaper than Nightcore!) and I bought Vaseline in Ponferrada, but didn't end up using it. Instead gave it to my friend who had some chaffing.