Megan Dimozantos leads and manages hut maintenance and rebuilds in the North Island for the Backcountry Trust. She is a LandSAR volunteer and a member of the Federated Mountain Clubs executive. She can be found in the hills packrafting, tramping, mountain biking, skiing, climbing or wielding a hammer or chainsaw.

“My pack is a changeable beast whose contents fluctuate depending on how much water is in the rivers, how much snow is on the hills, and what outcomes I’m chasing on any given day,” she says. Excluding Megan’s camera and packrafting gear, her base pack weight is 5.5kg.

Pack

My custom-made 90l Southern Lite pack is the most comfortable I’ve ever owned and only weighs a kilo! It swallows huge volumes of gear, carries big loads and compresses well for smaller loads and for my packraft.

Shelter

My usual go-to is my Tarptent Aeon Li. It’s super liveable, pitches well, has a vestibule for my gear and only weighs 450g.

Packrafting gear

Alpacka Wolverine self-bailer boat, Rochfort custom carbon paddle, Palm Rescue PFD, Sweet Protection Wanderer helmet, NRS throw rope, NRS Pilot Knife, Alpacka bow bag, Kokatat Hydrus drysuit.

Clothing

I swap between Rab Torque shorts and pants. My go-to tee is the Rab Syncrino. The Rab Alpha Flash Fleece and old faithful Rab Stretch Neo pants have an incredible warmth-to-weight ratio. A Rab Kaon down jacket and Arc’teryx Alpha SV Jacket go over the top of it all when things get really cold or wet.

Sleeping

In summer and shoulder seasons the Rab Mythic 180 Ultra is seriously light and warm. Once things get colder I use my Kiwi Ultralight -5 Quilt. The Therm-a-rest Neoair Xlite is my fave sleeping pad – 340g with 5.4 R-value – and the Nemo Fillo Elite pillow cushions my noggin.

Camera

Olympus OMD-EM5 MKIII with two lenses. The camera stays accessible on a Peak Design Capture Clip attached to my pack strap.

Cooking

An MSR Pocket Rocket, Toaks titanium pot, Toaks spork and a lightweight cup meet all my needs. I rehydrate meals in a recycled thermal bag from an earlier dehy meal. Not quite as convenient as a bowl, but it’s light and saves on waste. I carry a separate bag for organic waste to compost when I get home.

Emergency stuff

Garmin inReach Mini, first aid kit, sticks of fatwood for fire lighting, compass, whistle, Petzl e+Lite emergency headlamp. All kept in a bright orange dry bag.

Essentials

Silky Pocket Boy for trail clearing and cutting firewood, Kiwi Ultralight pee rag, 1m tape measure to measure up jobs I come across, Nightcore NB10000 power bank. I run navigation on my phone for convenience, but back it up thrice with my Garmin Fenix 7, inReach Mini and paper map and compass.