Outdoors
Backpacking Checklist
Everything carried on your back, which is why this list is shorter than the others.
Four steps
How to print a backpacking checklist
- 1
Start from this list
Opens with 39 items chosen for this kind of trip.
- 2
Cut what you do not need
Remove whole sections or single items.
- 3
Add your own
Anything the list cannot know about: medication, the dog, a specific stove.
- 4
Print or save as PDF
Tick boxes are sized to tick with a pen.
- 5
Keep it for next time
Your edits stay in this browser.
What decides this list
Weight decides this list, not comfort. Every item is one you will carry for every mile, so the question for each line is not "would this be nice" but "would I rather have this or the equivalent weight in water". That is why the camp chair, the second pan and the lantern are absent here and present on the car camping list.
The thing most often left behind
Water treatment. It is the one thing that turns a long day into a genuine problem, and it is easy to leave behind because it weighs almost nothing and lives in a different drawer from the rest of the kit.
A habit worth having
Weigh the loaded pack before you go rather than after the first climb. A pack that is comfortable in the hallway and miserable at hour three is usually two or three items over, and finding out at home costs nothing.
What is on it
6 sections and 39 items to start from: pack & carry, ultralight shelter, clothing (backpacking), food & water (backpacking), navigation & safety, leave no trace. All of it is editable, so treat it as a starting point rather than a rule. The things worth adding are the ones no list can know: medication, whatever the dog needs, and the one piece of gear you always forget.
Related printables
The general camping checklist is the balanced version for a weekend at a site with facilities. For the journey there, road trip games and travel forms cover the car, and scavenger hunts work well once you have arrived.
Answers