The Five Gallon Challenge illustrates the benefits of carrying less backpacking gear and more compressible gear in a more visual way than is possible with a gear list. It’s particularly effective for gear shakedowns in groups where people can compare the volume and space that their gear requires with other people’s backpack contents.

Directions

To participate in this challenge, put all of the gear you carry inside your backpack, in the exterior pockets, or lashed to the outside, into a 5-gallon bucket. Leave your backpack out, in addition to food, water, water bottles, and fuel.

Emphasis on Gear Volume, Not Weight

The important thing to emphasize in the Five Gallon Challenge isn’t the weight of the gear in the bucket, but whether the gear fits in the bucket. Gear that is highly compressible and requires less volume is almost always lighter, if only because you need a smaller volume and a lighter backpack to carry it.

If you can’t get all of your backpacking gear into a five-gallon bucket, there are some common gear swaps or removals that you can use to reduce the volume that your gear requires:

• Quilts require less volume than bulkier sleeping bags
• Down sleeping insulation is more compressible than synthetic sleeping insulation
• Trekking pole tents require less volume than ones that require separate tent poles
• Siliconized polyester or siliconized nylon tents require less volume than tents made with Dyneema DCF.
• Single-wall tents, tarps, or mids require less volume than double-wall tents
• Stoves and fuel that can be packed inside cook pots require less volume
• Carrying fewer clothes reduces the required volume
• and so on.

Five Gallon Challenge – More traditional backpackers with bulkier gear will have a harder time fitting it all into the five gallon bucket

More traditional backpackers who use bulkier gear or who bring extra clothes won’t be able to get as much gear into the bucket, which provides an opportunity to go through their pack and eliminate unnecessary items.

Relaxing the Five Gallon Challenge

If you’re trying the Five Gallon Challenge with a group, and it’s clear no one is going to be able to fit all of their gear into the bucket, you can relax the rules a bit by letting participants leave out a shared item like a tent or a bulky item like a sleeping bag. Going through the exercise will still have merit because participants will see the impact that bringing extra clothes, bulky cooking gear, or a large sleeping pad can have on the volume of their gear.

Credits

I didn’t invent the Five Gallon Challenge. I learned about it from two friends named Ken “DripDry” Holder and Lee “RevLee” Fields. They use it to teach Boy Scouts and their parents about the benefits of bringing less unnecessary gear on backpacking trips.

I think the Five Gallon Challenge is a brilliant idea and one that resonates with people who aren’t as number-oriented, but are more visual. An overflowing bucket does make for a memorable image.

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