ULTIMATE Wild Camping Kit List - (Includes Spring to Winter Gear) (2024)

Finally, here’s my wild camping kit list with all the equipment I carry in my backpack on my adventures.

I’ve been wild camping in the UK for nearly 5 years, totalling over 100 wild camps, wow, how did that happen! From some epic multi-day adventures like my E2W Challenge, (hiking across Britain over 57 days), long-distance trails plus many overnight and weekend wild camps in the Peak District, Lake District and Snowdonia.

I’ve found some amazing wild camps spots along the way, as well as some not so glamorous spots! There have been magnificent sunsets and sunrises as well as heavy rain and 40 mph winds, yes, I wild camp in all weathers!

You might have read my beginners guide on wild camping with tips and useful information but here you can find out exactly what equipment I take on my wild camping trips in the UK.

Here I’ve included my wild camping kit list for all seasons. This is pretty much what I take on all my hiking/wild camping trips, I swap gear depending on the temperature and also whether that big black rain cloud is hovering above!

I’ve included links to the gear I use now but please remember there’s no right or wrong equipment here. I personally prefer to keep my pack weight lighter as I find it more enjoyable to hike. When I started out, back in 2016 on a cool September day I had a heavier tent, backpack and sleeping set up but I still had a brilliant and memorable first wild camp in the Peak District.

If you’re interested in lightweight wild camping I’ve included a few tips at the bottom to help save both space and weight. 🙂

And finally, for inspiration I’ve included some of my multi-day adventures where I’ve wild camped in the UK

Wild Camping Kit List + Equipment

Backpack + dry bags

First what backpack do I use for my wild camping trips? I swap my wild camping backpack depending on whether I’m doing a longer multi-day trip, winter adventure or a spring/summer overnight/weekend camp.

Inside my backpack, I havepack liner(30 or 50-70 litre) then I use these ultralight Osprey dry sacksto keep my gear organised and easy to find things! I use in all seasons, because you never know when it might rain or your backpack might fall in a river/stream (I know 3 people this has happened to!).

Wild camping backpack

I love a backpack with plenty of pockets, especially hip pockets, very useful for snacks. Also for my longer trips I opted for a heavier backpack that offers more hip support and good shoulder padding.

Spring/summer/autumn

• Osprey Kyte 36-litre (1.5 kg) or
• Salomon Out-Night 33-litre (0.8 kg)

Winter/multi-day

• Osprey Ariel 65-litre* (2.2 kg)

*This has an option to remove the lid, reducing by approx 5-litres.

Tent or bivvy

The choice is yours here, my preference is to take a tent the majority of the time. But if the weather is amazing (hmm once a year) then a bivvy is great lightweight option.

I mostly began wild camping in warmer weather and only recently added a winter tent to my wild camping kit so prior to having a winter tent I upgraded my winter sleeping bag and mat first. Read my tips for keeping warm when winter camping here.

Spring/summer

• MSR Hubba NX (1.3 kg) or
• Alpkit Hunka Bivvy(400 g)

Autumn/winter

• MSR Hubba NX (1.3 kg) or
• MSR Access 2(1.9 kg)

I’ve done 100+ wild camping trips in my MSR Hubba NX and have a detailed review here if you want to read.

Wild camping sleeping set up

This includes my sleeping bag/quilt, sleeping mat and sleeping bag liner. Again with my tent set up I mix and match items according to the weather and how lightweight I want to go. I swapped from a sleeping bag to a quilt last year and love it.

My sleeping bag liner comes on every trip, it’s lightweight, an extra layer for warmth but also much easier to wash than a sleeping bag! And my new addition, my pillow is amazing, I wish I’d got sooner, makes such a difference to a good night’s sleep.

Spring/summer

• 2/3 season sleeping quilt – Thermarest Corus Quilt*(560 g)
• Sleeping mat – Thermarest Uber Lite(250 g)or Thermarest X-Lite (360 g)
• Silk sleeping bag liner – Rab silk liner (130 g)
• Pillow – Thermarest Air Head(145 g)

*Comfort rating 5 degrees. Limit 0 degrees.

Weight – 1.1 kg or 1.2 kg

Autumn/winter

• 4-season sleeping bag – Thermarest Oberon*(1.1 kg)
• Winter sleeping mat –Thermarest X-Therm(430 g)
• Silk sleeping bag liner – Rab silk liner (130 g)
• Pillow – Thermarest Air Head(145 g)

*Comfort rating -10 degrees. Limit -18 degrees.

Weight – 1.1 kg or 1.2 kg

Cooking set up

My cooking set up remains pretty much the same for every trip. I do enjoy a cup of Peppermint tea at night and coffee in the morning as well as a hot meal. However, you can easily wild camp without having a cooking set up and eat/drink cold pre-prepared items.

• Cooking stove – MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe(83 g)
• Cooking pot + bowl – MSR one-person cooking set(130 g)
• Windshield(135 g)
• Titanium mug(54 g)
• Titanium Spork(21 g)
• Medium-sized gas (367 g)
• Swiss army knife (119 g)
• Lighter (10 g)
• Dishcloth – cut up

Cooking gear weight = 0.9 kg

(Save more weight on overnight trips by taking half-used gas canisters/smaller canisters)

Extra clothes for camp

In addition to the clothes I’d be wearing/take for my hike, ie. waterproof jacket + trousers, mid layer, gloves, hat, buff, I also pack my camp clothes!

• Merino wool thermal top + bottoms – Helly Hanson*
• Warm down jacket – Salomon
• Beanie hat
• Spare socks
• Spare underwear

I put these items in a dry bag with my sleeping bag/mat so if I’m soaked I’ll always have dry clothes to put on.

Merino wool are perfect base layers, they both keep you warm and don’t smell, especially for multi-day hikes! I have a few different ones that I wear for winter hiking and wild camping. Read more about choosing a base layer here.

Other items + wild camping equipment

Many of these items will also be in my backpack for day hikes but I wanted to include here so you’ve got the full wild camp kit list of everything I carry.

• Toilet kit (trowel, wipes, tissues, bag for rubbish) –(277 g)
• First aid kit (including tick tweezers) –(239 g)
• Head torch*(97 g) (LedLenser rechargeable torch)

*I will fully charge at home after each trip so I only take cable when I’m doing multi-day trips.

• Small tripod (76 g) –optional!
• Phone + cable
• Waterproof phone case – Aquapac(43 g)
• Power bank (Anker power bank 359 g or smaller one 192 g)*
• Toiletries – Toothbrush, toothpaste, hanky + lip balm
• Suncream/sunglasses + bug spray

*For overnight wild camping trips I take my smaller power bank but I bought the Anker power bank for my Bob Graham hike in 2020. I used it to charge my phone and watch and it still didn’t run out of power over the 5 days, so for multi-day trips I’d opt for the larger one.

Food + water for your wild camp

For water on my wild camping trips I take some tap water but I’ll also carry a water filter as well so I can top up from streams on the trip. For summer trips, I’ll often take my hydration pack with tube to ensure I’m drinking enough, but I do mix and match depending on the length of trip.

• Filter water bottle – Water-to-Go 750 ml(176 g) or Salomon 500 ml soft flask + XA filter (66 g)
• Or Platypus Gravity filter with 2-litre hydration pack + tube

Food depends on whether I’m doing an overnight or multi-day trip. I initially used freeze-dried meals but when you wild camp regularly these can get expensive, I sometimes take a home-cooked pasta meal in a zip-lock bag and reheat in my cooking pot. But have recently ordered Huel which seems to be a lower budget option – I’ll let you know feedback!

Base Camp Food have a range of different freeze-fried food, instead of buying one brand you can select different meals from their range of brands, including Summit to Eat, Firepot and Expedition Foods.

• Porridge – sachets from Aldi!
• Peppermint tea bags
• Coffee sachets
• Freeze-dried meals (for dinner)
• Lunch (sandwiches, pork pies, crisps, pasties, wraps)
• Snack bars/breakfast bars
• Chocolate
• Trail mix (own mix include dried fruit, nuts, sweets)

10 tips for a lightweight wild camping trip

First of all there’s the obvious one, swap out your camping gear for lighter and compact alternatives. But that’s sometimes more a long-tern goal depending on finances so here are a few other ways to save weight and space.

If you’re wondering how much my backpack weighs, for longer trips with food and water it’s up to 15 kg, for shorter weekend trips it’s approximately 10 kg and for the cheeky overnighter it can be about 5 kg. But it changes so much depending on my kit and number of days food I need to carry, so they are only approximate amounts,

1. Water is one of the heaviest items in your pack. Get yourself a water filter bottle or water filter and this will save you a couple of kgs. Make sure you check what water sources are on your route but high up there’s normally plenty of streams and tarns to filter water from.

2. Use your backpack side pockets – this is one to save space inside your pack and you’ll be amazed at what you can fit in them.

3. Separate your tent inner and flysheet from the poles, pop the poles in a side pocket/front pouch to save space in your backpack.

4. Take items out of bags/covers – a small saving but it does help. Take your sleeping bag, mat, liner out of their individual bags and pop in one dry bag that you can squeeze all the air out of and make really small.

5. Pack mini sizes of things – (toothpaste, sun cream, bug spray), you don’t need the biggest bottle for an overnight trip.

6. Don’t overpack – you really can manage in the same clothes for a day or two, maybe spare underwear or socks but you don’t need a full clean outfit every day.

7. Camping gas – try to save full gas canisters for longer trips but for overnight ones take a half full canister (Top tip – weigh them to see how full it is – see weights below).

8. A wet tent is heavier than a dry one! If the rain eases then get your tent out to dry off mid-hike!

9. Have a good meal before you go camping, it saves carrying extra food, you literally carry it in your tummy!

10. And my last tip, for those serious about going lightweight, weigh all your items, to help you decide what comes and what stays at home!

Camping gas weight + usage

I use a medium sized gas canister, it’s a decent size and also more cost efficient that buying the mini size. I did take the large on my multi-day trip but that was 2 months!

The gas canister is 410 ml and the weight of the full canister is 370 g (weighed on my kitchen scales – it says 230 g on the can which is the weigh of the gas minus the actual canister)

An empty canister weight is approximately 140 g, therefore you can work out how much gas you use it time and plan whether you have enough for your trip.

I roughly use between 20-30 grams for each wild camping night (dinner/breakfast), depending on the weather* and how many cups of tea I want so a full can last me between 7 to 11 adventures! *In winter, it takes longer to heat so you’ll use more.

I also have a windshield which helps boil quicker on windy days.

Therefore based on a medium canister here are my approximate calculations**

• Full gas (370 g) – Up to 11 trips
• 300 g – Between 7-10 trips
• 250 g – Between 4-6 trips
• 200 g – Only 1-3 trips

**It’s worth calculating this for yourself, if you use for cooking full meals (I mostly boil water or reheat stuff) or if you use a different stove as this might effect the usage.

I hope you’ve found that wild camping kit list useful for your future adventures. If you have any other questions then please ask me in the comments below.

More wild camping guides + trips

You can read my other posts on wild camping here:

• A BEGINNERS Guide to Camping in the Wild
• Wild Camping Toilet Tips | How To Pee + Poo Outdoors?
• Wild Camping in the Peak District | Gear, Tips + Where to Camp?

Or if you’re looking for some inspiration on trips where I’ve wild camped then check out these adventures (Cumbria Way will be in June)

• Hiking the Bob Graham Round In 5 Days
• Next Trip: Walking the Cumbria Way (+ Wild Camping)
• Jurassic Coast Walk | (From Start To Finish)
• Ultimate Guide to Hiking + Camping the West Highland Way (in 5 Days)