Kids on the mountain - The gear

When I was about to hike with my kids I felt a bit insecure as to what to pack. Consequently prior to leaving I solicited some good advice from fellow family outdoorsmen in Sweden on the Utsidan Internet-forum. They gave me the following good gear list which I more or less followed:

1. Sleeping bag or Winter overall
2. Windproof fast-drying pants
3. Rain clothes
4. Insulated jacket or fleece
5. Rubber boots or sneakers
6. 2-3 pairs of socks
7. Base layers 
8. Plastic bags for carrying soiled clothes
9. Windproof jacket
10. Baseball Cap
11. Warm cap
12. Mosquito repellent and headnet
13. Mittens
14. Good food with deserts
15. Huge amounts of sweets and nuts
16. Extra pairs of underwear
17. Backpack

The kids clothes

For some reason it was absolutely impossible to find fast-drying pants the week before I left. Everything was sold out during the summer sale. I was forced to pack the thinnest cotton pants I could find instead. This worked since we had fairly nice weather with no rain, but I would definetely not recommend it since the pants took a long time to dry and I needed to pack several pairs of pants. In the worst case however, they could always have hiked in their merino long-johns and rain clothes. 
Rain clothes by the way is probably the most important piece of kit. I found very light jackets at Decathlon in France. We had such good weather however that they were not put to the test on this trip. As pants we used the kids normal rubberized pants. More so than the jackets, the pants really get a beating, so I'm a bit hesitant to try light pants. The concept of hard wearing shell pants could perhaps be interesting, but they can be a bit pricey and in addition to that I'm afraid the kids will sweat too much in them if they would wear them all the time. I know I do.

Drying lousy cotton clothes while getting some precious rest

The sleeping bags


A part from finding good pants I found that the biggest problem was finding good sleeping bags. Most children sleeping bags are not made for temperatures as cold as around zero degrees. There are expensive alternatives for sure, but since the kids are growing fast I find it a bit waste of money. In the end I opted to use their normal toy +5-10C bags and complement with another +10C bag on top of them. A big problem with this approach however was the bulk and to a lesser extent weight. Keeping the third bag on top of the kids was also a major problem. Although this system kept us warm and alive I'm not satisfied. Next time I will probably try the winter overall system and/or make/buy proper warm sleeping bags for the kids.

The backpacks

One thing you quickly notice when you pack for any trip with small children is that you need a lot of space. They cannot carry all their belongings, so you will have to pack most of the kids stuff. The Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus really is very handy for this purpose since it is very voluminous without much of a weight penalty. The outside mesh pockets are also very handy for drying clothing and quickly stuffing items (it seems you are always busy packing and unpacking stuff for the kids.).

Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus fully stuffed with three sleeping bags, tent and cooking gear

The kids can however carry some things themselves. Of course, out of principle, I wanted them to have ultralight backpacks. The market for kids UL-packs is however small, not to say non-existant. Luckily I found a good and cheap solution in France: The Decathlon Diosaz Ultralight runners packs in size 10L and 5L. For around 20-25€ these are good light packs that also come with hydration bladders (They weigh around 250g without bladders.). I'm not very fond of hydration bladders myself, but the kids quite like them. As an added bonus I can use the packs myself for running (It has only happened twice, but it is nice to know the possibility exists.). The shoulder straps are too wide for the kids, but this was easily solved using a carabiner to bring the straps closer together.

Simon is happy with his brand new Quechua Diosaz 5L ultralight pack

Observe the carabiner attached to the hydration-tube holder straps. It is needed to make a good fit for the shoulder straps

In the small 5L pack you could just about fit the rain clothes and a fleece jacket. In the 10L pack you could almost fit a sleeping bag (but no fleece-jacket). In hindsight, Filip the 5-year old could have had a larger 15-20L pack.

Filip with his sleeping bag protruding from the too small 10L Quechua pack

The footwear question

Few questions elicit soo much debate in the lightweight-backpacking area as the question of wet feet. Of course I don't want my children to have wet feet if I can avoid it, but the fact is, you mostly can't. Even with completely waterproof footwear such as rubber boots, the likelihood of water finding it's way in is very large, even close to a certainty. By the way, the same goes for all the kids clothes.

Hazardous activity

In the end we tried both rubber boots and sneakers and both worked. Simon had to switch to his new sneakers since his rubber boots turned out to be too small (It would have been a good idea to try them at him first ; ). Filip is older and it seems already more set in his ways and did not want to try the wet feet concept. I have heard of other parents kids who hike in sneakers. One advantage of doing this is that it can reduce the likelihood of blisters. I would not use normal boots in Scandinavia since they will most certainly get wet the first day and then stay wet the rest of the trip. With bigger kids normal boots might work.

Simon in sneakers and Filip in rubber boots

Shelter

An advantage with small kids is that they are small in size too. A roomy two-man shelter can funtion well even with two kids and two adults. I had three choices here: My Bergans Kompakt Light 3, The Tarptent Cloudburst 2 and the Six Moon Designs Lunar Duo. The Bergans was out of the question mainly because of the bulk. If I had chosen it I would have had to switch to my traditional 80L backpack. That would have been a capitulation. The fact that it weighs 3kg is less of a concern on such a short trip, but the total effect of taking it would have been a weight increase of around 3-4kg (+1,6kg for the tent and approximately 2-3kg for the backpack.). The choice between the Cloudburst and the Lunar Duo was harder. Anyone of them would have worked. The Cloudburst is probably better in high winds and it's surface area is very big when lying down, but the ceiling is lower which makes it more awkward to change clothes inside. On the plus side it's less bulky and ca 300g lighter than the Lunar Duo. In the end I chose the Lunar Duo partly because I wanted to test it and mainly because of the higher ceiling. Another factor was that the Lunar Duo fly can be pinned to the ground and thus reduce draft better. I was quite afraid that the kids would be cold in their simple sleeping bags.

Lunar Duo pitched for siesta

Conclusion

Compiling the ultimate gear list might seem daunting, but in reality the important thing is to get out there and see what works for you. If you stay reasonably close to civilisation you can always turn back if the trip gets unpleasant. Most of the time with the small kids the challenge has nothing to do with gear, it is managing attitudes (your own, as well as the kids) that's important and difficult. It is however comforting to know that with light gear you can get by without being too overburdened. I would guess that my pack for this overnight trip did not weigh much more than 12kg.