Hey all, I REALLY need help with my gear list from hikers-in-the-know. I am planning to thru-hike the AT starting February 15, 2018 and am attempting to do so with as much of an UL pack weight as possible. However, I have no backpacking experience myself so all the information I found online regarding hiking clothes, packed clothes, layers, etc. is over my head. As such, I have no idea if items in my list (clothes in particular) apply for the category I've put them, or even if some of my categories are redundant, or if specific items are redundant because some camp clothes should be the same as my hiking clothes, etc. Seriously, for clothing, I simply added every #1 rated item from Outdoor Gear Lab reviews for each category. So actually, this is more like a gear wish list. So please advise on items that aren't good for a said category, alternatives that are better, or better advice on the layers!

Also, although I don't have ANY gear of my own; I'm starting from scratch; I'm trying to be UL; all my prices are conservative/worse-case scenarios of full-price; and I do plan to keep an eye out for sales/deals, the $$ total in my list is about 1K more than I'll be able to save by the time I start. So any lower-priced alternatives that you all know of, that don't significantly increase pack weight, would be greatly appreciated.

So, please look over my draft gear list in the Google Sheets link below and let me know your thoughts, critiques, advice, suggest edits, and let me know if I'm missing anything. I tried to make it as clean, thorough and organized as possible. Thanks so much for the help!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing


FYI, I realize "no backpacking experience" and "February" might freak some people out but some 2016 hikers who live close to the trail and had a Feb start offered for me to come up and train whenever I needed so I intend to take advantage of that if I can. I'll make a separate thread sometime soon seeking help and advice with the aspects of a winter-start hike

Spreadsheet Footnotes:
* I'm a female
* The Big 3 and the sleeping pad have already been or will be purchased this Black Friday weekend so those are unchangeable unless a BIG concern is noted.
* This a Winter gear list (heaviest pack weight) but I intended for it to also include ALL my gear for a full thru because it includes summer gear where you see Generic (read Walmart) in shirts and shorts. (Again, tell me if I'm wrong!)
* In all my past overnight camping during Fall in Georgia, I've always slept cold and wake up repeatedly throughout the night, so warmth is a big player in my choices here.
* Price columns with "purchased" or "own" indicate items I already obtained prior to the creation of this list and thus their prices did not play a part in this list's total
* Clothing weights were mostly guesses/estimates since I couldn't find weights listed on manufacturer websites (if you know real weights please let me know!)
* Red weights (in lbs) are the total in pounds for the corresponding red category