Sometimes, planning a trip can be the hardest part. Choosing what gear to take, and what not to take can be a messy obstacle, with gear strewn about your room and you crossing things off the paper list you wrote while punching grams, pounds or ounces into your calculator. Then, by the next trip you’ve forgotten what everything weighs and have to do it all again. That’s where LighterPack.com comes in. It’s a free, online tool that allows you to compile lists of gear and its corresponding weight. It’s simple, straight forward functionality sets it apart from its alternatives.

Getting started

When you visit the site you’ll be asked to either register (which simply requires an email, password and a username) or to ‘save locally’. You’ll want to register if you intend on sharing your gear lists with others. Once you’ve done that, here’s the interface you’ll be greeted with:

Then it’s just a matter of adding appropriate categories such as clothing or consumables, followed by each individual items name, description, weight and quantity. The categories then appear in the form of a color coordinated pie chart.

Hovering over each listed item with the mouse reveals five further options. You can upload a photo of each item from your device or from an online URL. Also, you can link the item to a URL, for example linking an item you’ve yet to buy to its official site or its listing on an appropriate retail site. You can mark the item as worn, consumable, or ‘star this item’. Each of these simply makes a small relevant icon appear next to the item when listed.

Notice all the kit you list appears in the grey column on the left of your Lighter Pack page. All that gear is now in a searchable database so you can find relevant items when compiling lists for different expeditions. Select ‘Add new list’ to make a new list.

You can then share your list with others, and likewise view other peoples lists. It’s a great way to get new ideas. Maybe learn names of kit you might not have heard of, and share inventories when planning a group hike.

All in all, LighterPack.com makes packing my kit significantly simpler, and best of all its free.

If you found this article interesting why not take a look at our other articles on web tools relevant to the world of camping, hiking, ultra light and light weight backpacking.