10 Minimalist Packing Tips For Cold Weather Travel | How To Pack Light & Keep Warm (Fall & Winter)

– In this video, we are gonna be taking a look at “10 Minimalist PackingTips For Cold Weather Travel”.

I'm Tom the founder of Pack Hacker where we like to use our expertiseand real world experience to provide practicalresources and honest opinions guiding you towards smarter travel.

So if you're new to thechannel, consider subscribing.

Most people on the team havetraveled for long periods of time in different climates.

Personally I have been to 37countries between the years of 2016 and 2017.

I traveled for about two years, everything from really hotweather to cold weather, and everything I needed hasfit into a 40 Liter backpack.

So if you plan it out right, this is definitely doable.

With an organized system, you'll be packing light in warm countries and you'll be ready for thecoldest weather as well.

So bundle up for 10actionable and detailed tips on how to stay warm andpack light on the road.

This video is sponsored byBackcountry and stay tuned for an exclusive discount.

And remember some of the best comments come from you the communityso feel free to let us know your tips in thecomment section below.

Let's get into the video.

(soft music) (whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) For those of you that like Pack Hacker and have watched our previous videos, this might seem obvious.

But for those of you that are new here, we love backpacks.

Carrying a backpack asopposed to wheeled luggage in inclement weather, especially the snow isgreat because then you don't have your wheeled luggage sliding around behind you and makingit hard to carry around.

With a backpack, you can kind of justglide through everything.

It's on your back.

Both of your hands are free.

This makes it even better for winter and cold weather travel.

We recommend taking a backpackof around 30 to 40 Liters.

There is ample space tohold everything inside as well as the bag willstill be carry-on compliant on most airlines.

Here are a couple ofbags that we recommend and be sure to check out our full reviews on all of these as well asthe carry-on compliance.

Try to see what airlines will accept it and ones where the bagsare a little bit too big to carry on.

The Farpoint 40 is apopular travel backpack and you've likely seen it before.

It's a solid all arounderfor a good price.

Be sure to check out the women's version called the Fairview as well.

The Topo Designs Travel Bagcomes in either 30 or 40 Liters.

It offers some greatorganization in a heritage style.

And comes in a more boxy shape for maximum packing edge to edge.

The Thule Subterra 34 is azippered and roll top bag hybrid that functions good as a travel backpack and even a daypack if you'd like.

And lastly the Cotopaxi Allpa, consued both urban andoutdoorsy travelers alike.

Plus it uses a tarpaulinmaterial on the exterior for added weather resistance.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) One of the best keys to stayingwarm and traveling light is to get your layering strategy down.

So there may be some daysespecially colder days when you feel like you're wearing literally everysingle piece of clothing out of your one bag travelbackpack, and that's fine.

That means you're doing it right.

The beauty of this strategy isthat it allows you to really fine tune your warmth, so if it gets 10 degrees warmer, it's easy to peel something off.

If it gets 20 degrees cooler, maybe throw on a couple of extra layers.

So here is the layeringstrategy, tried and tested, that we found works well.

Starting with the base layer, consider grabbing a pieceof thermal clothing.

Merino wool also works really great here.

Now the goal of thislayer is to basically lock all the heat against your bodyand keep a really tight seal.

As an example we have a smart wool, Merino wool 150 base layer.

It's really soft to thetouch, locks the heat in, and dries quickly sinceit's made of Merino wool.

Plus you can wear thiscasually on it's own as well.

For a minimalist, one bag travel, we recommend grabbing acouple of different mid layers that can work well with each other as well as on their own.

Versatility is key here.

A lighter sweater thatcould double as a mid layer or something that you'dwear to a nice meeting or a decent dinner is a greatoption to have in your kit.

A sweatshirt, maybe even one with a hood, is great to have in your kitas well to keep your head warm.

When you're thinking aboutyou layering strategy, just be sure to try toavoid the hood overload.

If every single articlein your kit has a hood, they could get bulky andannoying quite quickly.

Right here we've gotthe Patagonia R1 hoodie.

Now some people will wearthis as a base layer.

Works well as a mid layer too, and you can also wear it alittle bit more casually as well.

And the warmth to weightratio is really great, which makes it an excellentoption for travel.

A compressible puffyjacket is lightweight, traps all the heat in, and has an incrediblewarmth to weight ratio.

We recommend something likethe Patagonia Micro Puff which packs down really small.

We've reviewed this andfeatured it on a lot of our packing lists and guides.

We really love thislightweight jacket for travel.

And lastly for an outer shell, we recommend a rain jacketthat's gonna be great for keeping any precipitation off of you and blocking the wind as well.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) Piggybacking off of that last tip, a rain jacket is essentialif you're trying to stay dry and stay protected from the elements.

First the obvious, it blocks precipitationand snow from soaking in through the rest of your layers.

Staying dry is really important, but more on that later.

Second it does a greatjob at blocking wind.

So even if there's noprecipitation in the forecast, best just to throw this thingon top for another layer.

It'll protect you from thewind and keep you warmer.

The Arc'teryx line of rain jackets including the Beta SL and Zeta SL are super robust and do agreat job at protecting you from the elements especially the wind.

Third rain jackets typicallypack up quite small and some even compress into themselves.

So take for instance herethe Patagonia Storm Racer.

While you have it compressedand it's inside of your bag, you'll barely know it'sthere and when you need it, just grab, uncompress, and you're good to go.

If you're looking to get Arc'teryx andPatagonia all in one stop, Backcountry has both ofthese brands and more available over on their website.

We like to put productsto the test by traveling, exploring, and trying new things.

And we like to enable youto do the same thing as well through our reviews and guides.

The beauty of travel isexploring new cultures, trying new foods, andlearning more about the world through experiencing it.

Great gear enables great travel.

We're really lucky to have a well traveled and knowledgeable crewof travelers over here in the Pack Hacker community.

And we try to connect with each of you on an individual level.

Backcountry does the samewith their Gearheads.

Whenever you have a question on something, you're looking at the best gear to get for a specific situation, you can definitely askus down in the comments.

Backcountry has a livechat feature as well over on the site.

You can get a hold of themvia the webchat, email, or by phone and they'llguide you through exactly what you need for your needs.

Included in that creware seasoned travelers, former Olympians, and athletes, and just overall great group of people that love adventure and travel.

We dig having sponsors thatshare the same values as us.

We're partnering withBackcountry to encourage you to keep going on adventuresand finding your own back country where ever that may be.

So down in the description below, we have a promo code for15% off your first order.

Some exclusions apply.

That's 15% off of gear, bags, and other travel accessories.

And speaking of travel accessories, they can make or break your ability to stay warm on the road, so let's get into the next tip.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) Items like gloves, scarves, a hat, and buff are crucial tostaying warm while on the road.

And you can lose a ton ofheat through your neck, your head, your hands, so it's really great to have these items in your kit as well.

So how do you dial everything in without adding a ton of bulk and weight? Well first of all look foritems with a really great warmth to weight ratio.

And then look for versatile items again.

So this buff by Buff USAis a Merino Wool buff that I've personally beentraveling with for three years.

This is an awesome highvalue and versatile purchase.

So most of the times, I'm wearing this aroundmy neck as a scarf, but sometimes I'll wear it as a hat if I want additional protection as well after zipping up all the other mid layers that I'm wearing completely.

Consider keeping theseaccessories in your jacket pockets at all times, so when you're wearing your jacket, they're always there if you need them.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) Picking out a cohesive aestheticwhile you're on the road, can help you mix and match the clothing that you wear to createfull outfits a lot easier.

We personally lean towardsdarker and more neutral colors since they easily go welltogether and typically hide dirt.

Now if you want to, you can grab clothing with a heather pattern likewe have in this buff here, and that hides dirt evenbetter than a solid dark color.

We're not against lighter orbrighter colors by any means.

It's just that darker is alittle bit easier to match and keep cohesive witha little extra effort, you could get everything ina green color if you wanted or you could even mix and match colors if you're really mindfulabout each piece of clothing and the outfits that they can create.

When everything goes with everything, it's really easy to pullthe clothing out of your bag and just be ready to go forwhatever the road throws at you.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) When you mix precipitationwith a low temperature, things can get cold really fast.

And one of the best ways tomitigate this is by choosing clothing and items with alot of great weatherproofing.

Look for bags that are weather proofed to keep everything dry inside.

There's a big misconceptionaround what's waterproof and what's just simply weather proof, so we will just clear that up here.

Waterproof means that somethingis completely submersible.

You can dunk it completely under water and all the items insidewill stay completely dry.

Water resistant, weatherproof and weather resistant means that the piece of gearuses some of these materials, but it's possible for water to seep inside through seams or zippers.

Some gear companies willtry to skirt around this by saying that a bag is madewith waterproof materials, but that doesn't necessarilymean it's waterproof especially if thereare zippers on the bag.

So be sure to look out forthis just so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into.

If you wanna keep items insideof your bag completely dry, take a look at somethinglike this from Osprey.

This is their Pack Liner.

Works really well fortop loading backpacks, 'cause you can justthrow everything inside and you're good to go.

If you want a bit moreof a modular approach, this Ultra-sil Dry Sack from Sea to Summit does something very similar, but it's smaller, so you cankind of use it as packing cubes and keep it organized.

This works a little bitbetter for a clamshell bag.

When you're out and about, it is best to change wet clothing as quickly as possible as well.

So if anything gets wet, change it out.

For instance, if you're feet get wet, walking through fresh snow or a puddle, or you're simply wearing boots that are a little too bulkyfor the temperature, changing out your socks canmean the difference between soaked and cold feet versusfeet that are nice and toasty.

It may sound weird, but itreally helps and the same goes for all other articlesof clothing from shirts, to underwear, to pants, keep it dry.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) Carrying around a bunch ofclothing to keep you warm, can get bulky very quickly.

It can be hard to keep it organized, so here are a couple oftips to keep everything compartmentalized andorganized inside of your bag.

First you can roll your hoodieor other jacket into itself and neatly store the excessfabric inside of the hood.

You can get compressible packing cubes like the Eagle CreekPack-It Specter Cubes, put everything inside and then use that compression zipper to make everything even more low profile.

And something like the Hyperlite MountainGear Stuff Sack Pillow, is pretty similar to that as well, plus when everything's inside of here, flip it inside out, youget this nice soft side.

This is like a Dyneema on this side.

Put everything in here and you have a nice little pillowwhile you're on the road.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) Even with your gear compressedcold weather clothing, it never really takes up a lot more room than if you're just packing shorts and a T-shirt to go to warm weather.

So with all of your other gear, you wanna think small inorder to keep a lot of room for that bulkier winter gear.

Here are a couple ofdifferent ways to save space so first of all, you can tryto miniaturize your items that you already have.

So for instance if you'retraveling with a toothbrush, consider cutting the handleoff and just using the top in order to save space.

Same goes with a razor.

If you can forgo the razor handle, you're gonna save that space as well.

Heck I did that for two years while I was traveling the world.

I never had a razor handle, just the cartridges.

Also you can get itemsthat are compressible.

For instance a water bottle.

So here we have the oneLiter HydrPak water bottle.

It compresses reallysmall when not in use.

Bring a packable Daypack, so if you are traveling aroundwith a bunch of winter gear, chances are that's a pretty big backpack, so one of these little guys, this is the Eagle CreekPackable Daypack, 13 Liters.

These are handy to haveinside of your bag.

Take them out, unzip them, unfold it.

Put everything inside thatyou want for a day trip.

And we love these bags somuch that we made a guide over on packhacker.

comdedicated exclusively to travel Daypacks.

So be sure to check that out if you're taking a look at these.

So basically find a miniversion of everything, modify the items that youhave to make them smaller, or just leave it at home.

One of the beautiful thingsabout urban minimalist travel is that you can likelybuy any item that you want once you get to your destination.

You'll feel a lot more freeon the road with less stuff on your back.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) In addition to finding thesmallest version of everything.

It is great to also try to find the lightestversion of everything.

With airline carry-on weight allowances that seem to decrease every year, it is important to stayas light as possible.

Especially if you have a lot of heavier winter gear with you.

Clothing items with a greatwarmth to weight ratio can save a ton of weight in your bag.

And remember if you wannamake sure that your bag stays within that carry-on allowance limit, you can wear some extra layers while you're going through security and while you're gettingeverything checked.

Sure it might be a little bit toasty, but you'll stay within thatcarry-on weight allowance.

Here are a couple of ordinaryitems that folks travel with that you can findlightweight versions of.

For instance a lightweight wallet.

Take this one fromHyperlite Mountain Gear.

Not counting the cards and cash inside, it is .

71 ounces.

Consider a lightweight thermos.

This one from Sea to Summitis right around 4 ounces and although it doesn'tkeep things as cold as a stainless steelmug or a thermos would, it does do a pretty great job.

Plus if you have thisthing at the coffee shop, you can avoid using abunch of disposable cups over and over again.

Fill this thing up, goodfor the environment.

Next up, lightweight footwear.

Take something like the LensBoulder Boot for instance.

They're right around9.

9 ounces for a size 43 and are a lot more lightweight than boots.

And if you wanna keep them more insulated, just double up on the socksand stay nice and toasty.

Remember all this stuff adds up.

To save pounds, cut ounces.

If every single item in yourbag is a little bit lighter, it's gonna be a much smoother trip.

(whooshing) (soft music) (whooshing) When packing, consideryour coldest destination and maybe even prepare alittle bit more than that.

You never know if there's gonna be a random layover somewhere ora sudden drop in temperature.

It's always best to be prepared.

No one wants to spend thefirst part of their trip scrambling around lookingfor a winter jacket either.

Be sure to consider thetype of cool that will be at your destination.

For instance, sharp windrequires different gear than a wet winter.

A Merino wool sweater won'tdo much for the former, but it works really well in the later.

So there you have it.

Our 10 minimalist packingtips for cold weather travel.

And be sure to use that codein the description below for 15% off your firstorder at Backcountry.

Like we said earlier, the folks over atBackcountry are great people.

Not only were they niceenough to offer you 15% off the first purchaseat Backcountry.

com, but they have been also donatingto The Nature Conservancy since 2008 which we love becauseit helps protect the world and allows us to traveland experience more.

Thanks for keeping it here at Pack Hacker.

Your guide to smarter travel.

We'll see you in the next video.

.