• Consider the main activity you will be using your lightweight tent for - are you camping with your family, from the car, or looking to escape the campsite and explore, adventure racing or taking part in a mountain marathon? This will determine the tent design and the combination of weight, stability, ease of pitching, room etc. you require.
• Think about how much storage space you will need for your kit. For example, camping in winter will require extra room for all your gear both internally and in the porch. These factors will determine the design and size of tent you require.
• Choose the best lightweight tent you can afford. If you plan to use it regularly, a trekking or mountain tent will stand up to the use and conditions better than a basic tent. In the long run you will save on repair bills and eventually replacement cost.

• The most common rain shelter in use is the tent, but these are relatively heavy due to a number of reasons. They are often designed from two layers of fabric (to address the internal condensation problem), often require the use of metal poles, stakes, and sometimes include a separate ground cloth to protect the tent bottom. Replacing a double-wall tent with a simple tarp and bivy combination will reduce not only weight but also volume carried in a backpack. Other methods to reduce shelter weight include single layer tarp tent hybrids, hammocks, poncho-tarps, or the use of a bivy sack or bag (Alpine style) as the sole-shelter.

• Reduction in weight of the sleeping system, is achieved through reduction of the quantity of fabric used in its manufacture or through use of lighterweight materials in its construction. The use of down as an insulation material which is lighter by volume than currently available synthetic fibers will decrease bag weight but alternately suffer from its susceptibility to loft loss caused by moisture.
• Reducing the overall weight of a sleeping bag by eliminating superfluous material will reduce its weight. An example of this is the use of a sleeping quilt or top bag.
• A sleeping quilt is a bottom-less insulated blanket which has no insulation on its bottom side, relying on the user's sleeping pad to guard against conductive heat loss into the ground.
• A Top Bag is more like a conventional sleeping bag in that it wraps around the user's entire body but the bottom fabric contains no insulation.
• The philosophy behind these two alternatives is that insulation crushed under a person's weight is devoid of air and therefore useless). Some modern down sleeping bags are through-baffled and under-filled such that the user can shift all the insulation to the top of their body thereby maximizing its potential to retain heat.
• Ultralight Backpackers also tend to carry bags rated for warmer temperatures than traditional-weight backpackers - making up the difference on cold nights by wearing insulated clothing to bed such as a balaclava or insulated jacket. Proper camping site selection that avoids colder hollows (low points where cold air tends to collect) or that makes use of natural wind barriers such as thick vegetation or cliffs makes up the difference in heat lost by lighter gear.

• The Ultralight Backpack can consist of lighter material and a less bulky frame or no frame at all.
• The common Ultralight Backpacking alternative to an internal frame pack is a frameless pack made of ripstop nylon, silnylon, or Dyneema, with a carrying limit of 25 pounds (11 kg).
• An internal-frame pack can weigh upwards of 6 pounds (2.7 kg) with features such as hip belt stabilizers, lifter straps, sternum straps, and compression straps.
• Frameless Ultralight Backpacks are commercially available in weights ranging from eight to fourteen ounces (200-400 g) and can consist of not much more than a sack with shoulder straps, a return to the simplicity of the rucksack. Jardine's book includes directions to make your own Ultralight Backpack. Grandma Gatewood used a lightweight duffel bag slung across her shoulder and stated that "Most people are pantywaists".

Three Steps to Ultralight Backpacking

Step One to Ultralight Backpacking

• Leave items that are unnecessary at home. This often includes camping luxuries such as camp chairs, coffee makers, electronic gadgets, multiple items of clothing, etc. This is the initial step taken by any backpacker seeking less weight on their back.

Step Two to Ultralight Backpacking

• Reduce item weight. Modifying items to reduce superfluous weight, such as removing the handle from a toothbrush or cutting tags off of clothing is one example of reducing an item's weight.
• Replacing heavy items all together is another means by which to reduce an item's weight.
• Replacing items manufactured using heavy materials with items made from lighter ones will help as well. For instance, Ripstop nylon can make a much lighter pack than canvas material. The fabrics Silnylon, spinnaker sailcloths and spectra-woven Cuben Fiber (UHMWPE) are regularly used in Ultralight Backpacking applications for their low ratio of weight to surface area.
• Exchanging fully-featured items for minimalist (and therefore lighter) items will save weight as well. For instance an inflatable sleeping pad is more feature-rich and weighs more than a closed-cell foam pad, yet both serve the same intrinsic purpose.
• There are many options, so reducing item weight has innumerable choices.

Step Three to Ultralight Backpacking

• Utilize multi-purpose gear - one piece of gear which serves the purpose of two, thereby theoretically cutting the weight of the item in half. For example, a lightweight rain poncho which is modified with tie-outs (or tied out with sheet bends) also serves as a tarp shelter. According to Jordan: "The poncho-tarp is probably the lightest possible combination of shelter and raingear..."
• Another example is an insulated sweater or jacket used in conjunction with a lightweight sleeping bag which boosts the efficiency of the lightweight sleeping bag as well as remaining a useful clothing item. By using an insulated sweater in conjunction with a lightweight sleeping bag a warmer rated sleeping bag may be made appropriate for the current weather. Warmer weather sleeping bags tend to be lighter and more compressible than colder weather sleeping bags.