Backpacking Checklist: Essential Gear for New & Experienced Hikers

Closely following a packing list might seem restrictive—particularly for an outdoor activity as liberating as backpacking. But take it from someone who forgot to pack a water bottle on a trek in Peru and ended up getting a crushing stomach bug from untreated stream water, a bit of planning is well worth the effort. Making and following a packing list ensures you have everything you need to stay as comfortable and safe as possible when you are heading deep into the backcountry. If I had a list, it would have certainly included a water bottle and not just the iodine tablets I had brought but couldn’t really use—like my better prepared adventure buddies.

Whether it’s one night at a nearby state park, a week-long hut-to-hut hike like the GR20 or Alta Via 1, or a much larger endeavor on one of the country’s scenic long-distance thru-hikes like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail, proper planning and appropriate packing make for a successful backpacking trip.

This can seem like a daunting task, especially when staring at a closet full of bins or the aisles of a gear store, but with a little practice, a comprehensive list, and good prep-work—don’t stress procrastinators, you’ve got this—it can quickly become muscle memory. While hiking prep lands solely on you, we’re here to help with a complete backpacking checklist to ease the process and help you pack your backpacking for hiking like a pro.

How to Use This Backpacking Checklist

This checklist incorporates the longstanding “Ten Essentials,” a list of gear considered crucial to have in case of an emergency, compiled in the 1930s by The Mountaineers, a Seattle-based outdoors group. The Ten Essentials provides a great framework for any backpacking checklist no matter what kind of trip you're taking. Although it looked different back then, many of the same principles still apply; today, it has evolved into a categorical list of gear that helps new and experienced hikers dial in their backpacking essentials.

The Ten Essentials
1. Navigation
2. Headlamp
3. Sun protection
4. First aid
5. Knife
6. Fire
7. Shelter
8. Extra food
9. Extra water
10. Extra clothes

Six Pro Tips for Packing

Using the Ten Essentials as a starting point, we handpicked the best backpacking gear for each category based on our team's decades of combined testing and research, plus other items to ensure you have everything you need to get out and adventure safely. But first, some other pieces of advice to keep in mind as you’re filling your pack.

Pack for Your Trip
It’s important to remember that while the Ten Essentials and this checklist as a whole offer a great framework—they are just that, a framework. Use your best judgment to decide what you’ll need and what you don’t according to the trip that you’re taking. Hike your own hike, as the thru-hiking maxim goes, and tweak the packing list to suit your specific needs and the needs of your trip so it aligns with things like weather, climate, distance, and location, among others. All are essential for leaninhow to pack your backpack.

Adopt a Group Mindset
Most people backpack with other backpackers. Have a conversation well before you reach the trailhead about how you can split up your weight (and purchases), so that everyone can more easily handle the literal and financial load of the trip. Things like cook kits, food, shelter, and water filtration are great items to share between your trekking partners.

Get Some Multi-use Gear
One of the best ways to save weight is to pack things that can serve multiple purposes. Something that pulls double duty halves your weight as well and financial strain. Great examples of this are well built knives that can help with first aid, shelter building, and cooking or a comfortable insulating jacket that can be worn while hiking as well as in your sleeping bag.

Try Going Ultralight
Although this packing list looks long, these are just the basics for a light load that doesn't sacrifice comfort, preparedness, and safety. However, lightweight backpacking doesn’t necessarily mean ultralight backpacking; if that's something that’s important to you, go for ultralight gear to shave off every ounce possible.

Or, Consider the "Donkey Weight" Approach
There are backpackers who employ the opposite approach of ultralight obsessives, where they don’t stress about weight at all. Instead, they backpack with whatever gear they have and fill it with all the accessories and food they’ll need to make life at camp luxurious. I call this approach “Donkey Weight” backpacking, because you basically make yourself the pack animal. It works well for people with strong backs and ham hock legs, but it can make traversing long distances between camp absolutely brutal. The approach is unpopular among many of my ultralight enthusiast colleagues here at Field Mag, but heavier gear is almost always more affordable than similar optimized ultralight analogues. And anyway, you can slowly add more expensive pieces to your kit after you’ve caught the backpacking bug.

Leave No Trace
Finally, remember to always tread lightly and follow the seven principles of Leave No Trace to do your part in respecting and maintaining the good condition of these trails and wild places. Don’t worry, we’ve included gear to help you do that too.

Now that we’re on the same page, the following gear list represents a few of the finer options from well-regarded brands, suitable for most any backpacking trip or outdoor adventure. Read on, click around, then log off and get out there.

Field Mag's Ultimate Backpacking Checklist

The Backpack

Unlike lighter daypacks used for a day hike, it’s important to have a rain cover during overnight hiking trips to make sure everything stays dry in case of rain. If the backpack doesn’t come with a rain cover, it’s a good idea to buy one and take it with you. If a rain cover is out of your price range—you can purchase a trash compactor bag to pack all of your gear into before it goes inside your bag. This makes your gear instantly waterproof for under a dollar. If this seems wasteful, know that you can dry out and reuse the bag as many times as possible. I have gotten half a dozen uses out of one of these bags (alas, it was a horrifying lavender scent: learn from my mistake and always purchase unscented ones). Once this bag is no longer waterproof, use it as a trash bag to clean up a local park or trailhead or something. Trekking poles are another great piece of backpacking gear that can provide stability on slippery surfaces and save sore knees while hiking. Both are optional.

• Backpack: Hyperlite Mountain Gear 2400 Southwest Pack or Deuter Aircontact Lite 50 + 10
• Rain Cover (optional): REI Co-op Duck's Back Rain Cover
• Trash Compactor Bag (optional): Ace 4-Gallon No-Scent Trash Twist Tie Bag (36-pack)
• Trekking Poles (optional): Black Diamond Alpine Cork Trekking Poles or REI Co-op Trailmade Trekking Poles

Shelter & Sleeping Gear

if you're worried about maxing out the credit card on these big ticket backpacking gear items, rest assured that a well-made tent and sleeping bag are meant to last five to ten years. By investing in quality gear that suits your specific needs, you’ll sleep better (literally) and ultimately save money that would otherwise be spent replacing cheaper gear down the road. It also might be helpful to think of these purchases in terms of other types of shelter we pay for. If someone offered an automatic upgrade to five star hotels for the next five years every time you take a vacation for a single payment of under two thousand dollars it would likely be seen as a killer deal. I would make the case that buying expensive shelter backpacking is going to upgrade your sleep quality in a comparable way for years. Make sure everything fits in your pack by doing a dry run before the trip, and always cinch the straps on the stuff sacks for the smallest size possible. (More room for trail snacks!) Play around with where you put the heaviest items in your pack and where you place the items you’ll want to grab while walking like water and food as part of your dry run. If you are feeling overwhelmed about how to pack your pack check out our guide on how to organize a backpack.

• Backpacking Tent: Sea to Summit Alto TR2 or MSR Hubba Hubba LT 2
• Sleeping Pad: Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite Sol or Klymit Static V Sleeping Pad
• Sleeping Bag: Mountain Equipment Xenith III or NEMO Forte Endless Promise
  
• Backpacking Pillow (optional): Therm-a-Rest Compressible Pillow or All of the Layers You Don’t Sleep in Stuffed Into a Shirt

Food & Camp Kitchen Gear

Bringing along enough sustenance, the right cookware, plus plenty of water is key to a successful backpacking trip. Luckily, backpacking food is tastier than ever, so you’ll eat well on the trail without skimping on flavor or precious space in the pack. For longer trips, scope out water sources for refilling ahead of time and bring a purifier or other preferred method of water treatment to stay healthy and hydrated. A solid knife is one of those multi-use tools that can help you prepare dinner or build a shelter in a pinch—while you can get away with cheaper cookware, a well built and lightweight knife is a smart place to spend your money.

• Backpacking Stove & Fuel: MSR PocketRocket Deluxe Stove or JetBoil MiniMo Cooking System
• Backpacking Meals: Good-to-Go Weekender Pack or Backpacker’s Pantry Meals
• Cookware Set: Sea to Summit Alpha Cookset or GSI Outdoors Pinnacle Cookset
• Utensils: Gerber ComplEAT Tool or Sea to Summit Titanium Spoon, Fork & Knife Set
• Knife: Benchmade Bugout Mini
• Camp Mug: Snow Peak Titanium Mug or MIIR Camp Cup
• Hydration: Gregory 3D Hydro Hydration Reservoir 3L or a Smartwater bottle
• Water Filter: LifeStraw Peak Squeeze Water Filter System or Platypus Gravity Works Water Filter

Clothing & Footwear

Outdoorsy types recommend quick-drying, moisture-wicking base layers because they pull sweat and moisture away from the body. That's not just good for comfort but safety too, helping to avoid dangerous fluctuations in the body’s core temperature. Be extra prepared and stash a pair of rain pants, gaiters, long-sleeve shirts for colder temps, or even a pair of leggings in your pack for camp. If you can’t afford rain gear, you can make a poncho out of a trash compactor or lawncare grades trash bag. Neither of these will keep you as comfortable as a solid jacket and pants.

Pro-tip: Never take brand new hiking shoes out on a multi-day trek; break them in by walking around the neighborhood or shorter trails to avoid dreaded blisters. If a hiking boot company says their shoes require no break in: do NOT take their word for it. We are not calling them liars, but we have lost the bet on a pair of hiking boots being trail ready before a big backpacking trip too many times to make it feel worth taking ever again.

• Hiking baselayers: Patagonia Capilene T-Shirt or Paka Everyday Baselayer
• Hiking pants or shorts: Fjällräven Keb Trousers or Patagonia Baggies
• Rain jacket: Mountain Hardwear Stretch Ozonic or Arc’teryx Beta AR
• Down jacket or fleece: Patagonia Nano Puff or Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer
• Hiking socks: Darn Tough Crew Socks or REI Co-op Merino Wool Socks
• Hiking underwear: ExOfficio Bikini Underwear or Lululemon Always in Motion Briefs
• Hiking Boots: Danner Mountain 600 Boots or Hoka Anacapa Boots

Extra Clothing & Layers

Sometimes an extra layer of warmth or sun protection can act as a piece of safety gear if the weather turns during a backpacking trip. Don’t skimp on bringing extra clothes if you can handle the weight. We’d also suggest packing for potential extreme weather shifts if you are backpacking in an area where that is a possibility.

• Hat: Outdoor Research Sun Hat or Autumn Headwear Beanie
• Gloves: Smartwool Liner Gloves
• Buff: Buff CoolNet UV
• Sandals/camp shoes: The North Face ThermoBall Traction Mules or Chaco Lowdown

Emergency Gear

Have you ever heard a crazy story about someone having to spend a harrowing, cold, life endangering night out in the woods because they remembered to pack their headlamp? No. It is the forgetting of the below essentials that create the epic stories that we’d all prefer not to tell. A note on first aid kits—while you can probably put together an excellent one on your own, buying all of the pieces ends up being more expensive than a thoughtfully put together one from a reputable brand like Adventure Medical Kits.

• First Aid Kit: Adventure Medical Kits
• Emergency Beacon: SPOT Gen4
• Bivvy Sack: SOL Bivvies
• Headlamp: Black Diamond Cosmo 350 Headlamp
• Lighter: Bic (Ideally wrapped in duct tape)
• Repair Tape: Tenacious Tape
• Emergency Fire Starter: Cotton Balls Soaked in Vaseline (make it yourself, trust us)

Personal Items & Toiletries

Disposing of your waste properly is one of the main tenets of Leave No Trace to make sure you have a minimal impact on the environment. And yes, that means all of it—no matter how uncomfortable you are about putting foul used TP in your pack. Many of the items below are included with this in mind. Need further instruction on all the dirty details, check out Leave No Trace’s website to learn more. Also, while the extra ounces from sunscreen and insect repellant might seem superfluous at home—mitigating trip-ruining mosquito bites and sunburn is arguably priceless.

• Toothbrush: Aurelle Toob Brush and Alpine Provisions Toothpaste Tabs
• Biodegradable soap: Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap or Sea to Summit Wilderness Wipes
• Sunscreen: Supergoop Mineral Sunscreen Stick
• Bug repellent: Ben's Insect Repellent
• Lip balm: Sun Bum SPF Lip Balm
• Quick-dry towel: REI Co-op Multi Towel Lite
• Trowel: TheTentLab The Deuce #2 and Wag Bags
• Hand sanitizer: Dr. Bronner's Hand Sanitizer

Navigation Tools

Backpacking offers a significant jump in requirements for navigation skills from day hiking and other closer to home outdoor activities. There are ways to boost your phone’s signal and use navigation apps in the backcountry as well as satellite communicators like the three below that more closely resemble the navigation tools most of us use in town. We would suggest learning how to use a map and compass no matter how bomber the technology you invested in seems. Technology has an uncanny way of failing and without the backup of knowing how to get around with a map and compass you can be left dangerously stranded.

• Map: Location-specific
• Navigation: Compass
• Satellite Navigation: Garmin inReach Mini 2