Reviewing the very best ultralight backpacking gear
The Adventure Alan Featured Gear Reviews are comprised of deep dive write ups on a selection of recent and/or highly relevant hiking gear and apparel, with a focus on ultralight models. All of these products come highly recommended. As we publish new in-depth single product content, we will add it to the featured gear reviews section.
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Hyperlite Mountain Gear Southwest 55 (2025 Edition)
30.8 oz | $399
Hyperlite Mountain Gear Southwest 55 is the most iconic ultralight backpack of all time, rereleased for 2025 with an improved version of 100% woven Dyneema Composite Fabric. It may not be the innovative market smasher of 15+ years ago, but it’s still an excellent performer after all this time; proven to be approximately as reliable as death and taxes.
Zpacks Duplex Pro
19.5 oz | $799
Zpacks Duplex Pro is an iterative overall improvement to the most iconic and popular ultralight tent on the market, the Duplex Classic. By and large, Pro is the same DCF trekking pole tent that you already know and love, for an extra $100 and 1.6 oz worth of upgrades including: dual L-shaped mesh doors; reinforced guyout points; peak vents; zippered vestibules, and a width that (technically) accommodates two 25” sleeping pads.
HOKA Challenger 8
20.2 oz | $155
HOKA’s most popular trail-road-gravel hybrid, the Challenger, returns in its 8th edition, now with an even cushier ride AND better traction. Holy stack height, Batman! It’s 42mm at the heel and you can really feel it. Challenger has been one of our favorite trail running shoes and we expect to crush serious mileage in the new version.
Zpacks Pivot Duo
18.6 oz | $849
Wow, the Zpacks Pivot Duo is a marvelous tent to behold! Its useable interior volume and overall headroom is so good that either end can be the head end, despite its asymmetrical shape. A unique double wall mesh foot end protects the end of your quilt’s footbox from getting wet, and it comes with all of the fixins, including DCF canopy and floor fabric, magnetic door toggles, dual peak vents, and full size vestibules. All of that, and it still weighs less than 20 ounces!
Durston X-Dome 2
44 oz | $469
After the smash hit success of its 1P sibling, Durston X-Dome 2 is easily the most hyped backpacking tent release of 2025. And for good reason! This tent delivers a wallop of innovation to the two-person category, and is larger, lighter, stronger, and less expensive than most of its peers. It is an immediate contender for best freestanding lightweight tent, and we recommend it highly.
Hyperlite Mountain Gear CrossPeak 2
34.0 oz | $950
The HMG CrossPeak 2 Tent is emblematic of a new generation of high performance, ultralight, fully-freestanding tents, and an exemplary addition to the HMG lineup. At just over two pounds, it competes directly with the pre-existing best-in-class options from Zpacks and Durston, while besting nearly all other options currently available from mainstream brands like Big Agnes and NEMO. Ultralight gear enthusiasts will defintely want to check this one out! Read more in our full length Hyperlite Mountain Gear CrossPeak Tent Review.
Aarn Mountain Magic 50 Pro
41.0 oz | $349
If you want to feel the least amount of weight possible on your shoulders while carrying loads in the 30-40lb range, the Aarn Mountain Magic 50 Pro would be a great choice. Especially so if you intend to use it for long water carries. Compared to traditional backpacks, the Aarn system improves your center of gravity by front mounting additional weight onto your hips, thereby improving both balance and hiking efficiency. The cost for all of those amazing benefits? Adapting to a more complex backpack system with a steeper learning curve and a bevy of additional straps/adjusters, thereby increasing the potential for tangling and number of breakable components.
The North Face Papsura Jacket
7.9 oz | $350
The new-for-2025 The North Face Papsura Jacket is a true 3-layer ultralight minimalist rain shell, weighing in at just eight ounces for a men’s medium. Those attributes alone place it into an elite class of performance rainwear vying for the best-in-class-for-hiking title; a complete surprise considering how far TNF has repeatedly drifted towards gorpcore and away from technical outerwear. Read more in our full length The North Face Papsura Jacket Review.
HydraPak Breakaway Filter Bottle
4.0 oz | $46 (600 ml version)
The HydraPak Breakaway Filter Bottle was designed for mountain biking, but is secretly great for hiking and backpacking too. This hard-sided bottle is lightweight, well-balanced, front-mountable, easy to drink from, and filters water quickly; a distinct user-experience upgrade over the much more popular Smartwater + Sawyer filter combo. Can it compete with that system? Read on in our HydraPak Breakaway Review.
NEMO Tensor Elite
8.5 oz | $230
The NEMO Tensor Elite is a predecessor of the now out-of-production Therm-a-Rest Uberlite, and the new lightest sleeping pad on the market at just 8.5 ounces for a full length mummy. To save weight compared to the Tensor All Season, Trail, and Extreme, Elite reduces thickness by half an inch, ands swaps the 20/40 denier face fabric with a 10d custom cordura nylon. Its 2.4 R-value makes this a 2-season pad. Only time will tell if this product proves more deflation-resistant than Uberlite, but we hope to see it gracing many ultralight kits going forward.
Backcountry Highliner PrimaLoft Air-Perm Fleece Hoodie
6.6 oz | $99
Backcountry’s Highliner Air Perm Fleece is made with PrimaLoft Active Evolve 95gsm, a clone of Polartec Alpha Direct which is the best ultralight fleece material on the market. This is due to its immaculate warmth-to-weight ratio, quick drying properties, and supreme breathability. From our non-scientific field performance analysis, Active Evolve is a marginal downgrade from Alpha Direct across the board, but mostly in regard to moisture retention and upfront fuzz shedding. Nonetheless, from an ultralight perspective, Highliner easily trumps traditional grid fleeces and micro fleeces, is 100% recycled, and has a nice kangaroo pocket. And unlike Alpha Direct hoodies, Highliner is readily available from a mainstream retailer, which makes acquiring one much easier.
Sea To Summit Ether Light XR Insulated ASC
16.6 oz | $199
A next gen version of the acclaimed Sea To Summit Ether Light series is here, and it’s a nice little upgrade over the original. Compared to its Ether Light XT predecessor, XR saves .7 ounces of weight while also increasing the R-Value by .9, up to R-4.1 from R-3.2. The weight savings and R-value boost are likely both due to the switch to thermal mylar layers, the current best insulator and what’s used by both NeoAir and Tensor pads alike. All three are now competing on a similar level. Beyond that, XR appears to be built with the same chassis with a comfy ridged/valley’d surface (referred to as Air Sprung Cell) and full perimeter bumpers to keep the user centered. STS notes that they’ve doubled the weld strength, which we don’t recall as having been an issue with the original, but it certainly is an appreciated durability boost.
Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2
42 oz | $550
Big Agnes Copper Spur is the most popular lightweight backpacking tent on the market, and it just got a refresh for 2025! Instead of its “HV UL” forebears, there are now three versions: Copper Spur “UL” 1P-5P (same size as corresponding HV UL), “Limited (2P-3P), and “UL XL” 2P & 3P. The latter is non-tapering, and designed to accommodate 25″ width pads. Used across the entire line is Big Agnes’ new “HyperBead” fly fabric, which is “6% lighter, 25% more waterproof and 50% stronger than traditional fly fabrics,” which might explain the one ounce total weight savings compared to its HV UL predecessor. Notably, there is no proclaimed improvement to the fact that nylon sags when wet, and we’re very keen to see how this stacks up against polyester, which decreases the sag factor. Closing things out, we see the same DAC NFL poles, award winning awning vestibule, and bountiful mesh interior pockets as before, plus a $20 price increase (probably more for inflation than new tech).
Zpacks Pivot Solo
13.5 oz | $599
Zpacks Pivot Solo combines the brand’s signature full height offset head-end trekking pole configuration, with a trendy, length-wise diagonal ridgeline tracing to a half-height center-foot-end pole. Pivot Solo is like the lovechild of Plex Solo and Offset Solo. The end result yields a bizarre, asymmetrical shape, a vertical foot end wall, and a generous interior volume. Overall, it seems like a livability upgrade compared to traditional 1P single pole tents for virtually no weight increase, albeit a more complex pitch.
ULA Ultra Circuit SV
35.8 oz | $389
The new-for-2024 ULA Ultra Circuit SV delivers a lower volume, but otherwise identical alternative to the existing Ultra Circuit, one of the most durable, comfortable, well-featured, and beloved ultralight packs on the PCT. While the 68L base model can accommodate a wider range of trip lengths and gear needs, the SV’s slightly narrower chassis offers superior carrying physics and balance whenever 48L is sufficient.
Mammut Taiss IN Jacket
12.1 oz | $399
The Mammut Taiss IN Jacket fills a unique role in the high-warmth-to-weight-ratio ultralight puffy jacket landscape, and we find it to be perfect specifically for late spring or early fall, or for those who simply run cold. It’s warmer than your average sweater weight down jacket, but less warm than the least insulated down parka. Notably, also hybrid mapped for increased moisture-resistance.
Hyperlite Mountain Gear Aero 28
17.8 oz | $349
Hyperlite Mountain Gear Aero 28 is the latest contender in the fast-growing and highly competitive vestpack genre, and we’re stoked to see HMG entering the fray. At baseline, this is a smaller version of your quintessential Dyneema roll top pack, adorned with exterior pockets. However, this model is designed to sit slightly higher up the torso with vest harness straps that reduce bounce and sway while moving fast.
CTUG Ultralight Backpack
32.0 oz | $400
For a design as comfortable and functional as it is brilliantly colored, choose the Chicken Tramper backpack, ultralight and fully framed. This impeccable pack is most notable for the carbon fiber arrow shaft frame, massive external mesh pockets, and a multitude of customizable Xpac color combinations.
Zpacks Octa Fleece Hoody
5.0 oz | $100
The Zpacks Octa Fleece is a highly effective ultralight mid-layer, optimized for warmth-to-weight ratio and breathability. What’s more, it comes with what is arguably the perfect feature set – quarter zip, kangaroo pocket, and thumb loops. At five ounces, it weighs less than half as much as popular options like the Patagonia R1 Air, but is at least half as warm, and far less expensive.
Black Diamond Deploy Down Hoody
5.2 oz | $395
Weighing just 5.2 oz in men’s medium, Black Diamond Deploy Down Hoody is the self-proclaimed lightest down hoody in the world… And as a far as we can tell, it actually is! That being said, it may also be the least warm and least durable. Despite that, it offers a top tier warmth-to-weight ratio and is immediately notable within the ultralight niche.
Arc’teryx Beta SL Jacket
12.0 oz | $500
The new-for-2024 Arc’teryx Beta SL Jacket, formerly known as Beta Lightweight or Beta LT, is an update to the classic that you already know and love. It’s still maximally protective, but now made with a next-gen Gore-Tex ePE (expanded polyethylene) membrane which is just as waterproof/breathable, but significantly more sustainable. It’s a smidge lighter than past versions too, but still solidly midweight and kind of bulky to stow in a backpack.
Zpacks Super Nero Ultra 50L
12.1 – 20.6 oz | $269-$445
The Zpacks Super Nero Ultra 50L, alongside the Nero Ultra 38 and Sub Nero Ultra 30 are our new editor’s choice ultralight frameless fastpacks! This series is most notable for a best-in-class vest harness design, the ability to switch between vest and standard straps, ultralight weight, flawless main body compartment design, and high performance waterproof durable UltraX fabric.
HOKA Speedgoat 6
9.8 oz | $155
The HOKA Speedgoat 6‘s are an excellent all-around trail shoe, but shin brightest on challenging, rugged terrain. They excel wherever traction is needed most, thanks to the Vibram Megagrip outsole with aggressive 5mm lugs. What’s more, they’re extremely comfortable due to the 40mm thick CM EVA cushioned midsole, breathable and quick-drying upper, and universally appealing fit, width, and 5mm forefoot drop. At time of publication, the HOKA Speedgoat 6 are our go-to trail running and hiking shoes; we recommend them highly.
HMG Contour 35
16.2 oz | $329
The HMG Contour 35 is an exemplary frameless fastpack, built with top of the line materials, great stats, and nearly all of the most desirable features. We’re particularly keen on its wide shoulder straps, massive side pockets, and the inclusion of a bottom pocket. This pack is too small to be universally appealing, but for the dialed-in ultralight backpacker, it is perfect for short multi-day outings, and summer weather when less down insulation is required.
Zpacks Free Zip 2P Freestanding Tent
31.3 oz | $899
The Zpacks Free Zip 2p is 25-50% lighter than its freestanding peers, has an exceptional wind-resistance-to-weight ratio, is made with best in-class-materials, and offers above average headroom. However, it’s also very expensive, has a smaller-than-average interior, and the smallest vestibules in its category. Nonetheless, this is likely one of the best, and virtually only, true ultralight freestanding tent on the market. It is an exceptionally useful and versatile shelter to add to your quiver for use in wind and when unable to pitch non-freestanding tents.
Adventure Alan Featured Gear Reviews Conclusion
We hope you’ve found something you like in our featured gear reviews. Stay tuned and check back often as we’ll be adding more content to this section. Happy hiking!