FAQ

• General
• Shipping Questions
• Pack Questions
• Shelter Questions
• Lightrek™ Questions
• Sleep Pad Questions
• Other Questions

Gossamer Gear™ has been in business since 1998 producing and selling the lightest gear on the planet. Please see About Us for some of the history, some milestones, and some fascinating trivia.

All of our products are produced in the US. We make every effort to keep GG a homegrown company. We do however have to purchase materials that are made overseas sometimes, simply because there is no domestic choice.

You bet, depending on the size of the order and where too. We ship frequently to most of Europe as well as to our friends down under and in New Zealand. We use USPS Express Mail International exclusively because it’s the best price with tracking we can get.
A note to UK customers: For whatever reason, shipments to the UK tend to get caught up somewhere over there, possibly in customs, so be patient, they always come through eventually.

Normal shipment times are 5 business days, depending the destination. Customs can add time to that. So unfortunately, there is no way we can guarantee delivery times as a result of that.

You just go through the normal order process from the site.

You will see a shipping charge or shipping charge options when you order. This will happen before you have to enter your payment.

We offer USPS Priority and many UPS options. The postal service recently raised rates so UPS is becoming a more viable option price-wise and we prefer it, as the tracking is much better.

We have shipped many times to the trail via general delivery USPS Priority. UPS will not deliver to the trails.

You can look at all the tradeoffs in the Pack Comparison Matrix. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us and we will be happy to talk you through it.

We have included the torso and hip belt sizes on each pack product page under the specifications. To simplify the process a bit, we have also put together a chart that shows how your pack fits according to your height and waist size. We find that in most cases this works well.

What we generally say is pick one closest and try it. If it doesn’t fit and the pack is unused and clean, feel free to return it and we will be happy to exchange it for the one that does.

You can find a great discussion of torso sizes at this link. It has detailed instructions on measuring torso size which may help you better decide which size to try. You can find how sizing of the pack corresponds to torso size by looking in the specification section on each pack’s product page. Keep in mind that Gossamer Gear™ packs are basic in nature, and the torso measurements are a guideline only. For what it's worth, most women find that the small fits them better than the medium.

Try removing the foam padding and putting extra socks or something more round in the straps. This produces the effect of rounding out the strap and making it taller and more narrow and is even softer to boot.

So that if you are a true gram weenie or Van Peski accolyte you can put your extra socks and/or gloves in the straps in lieu of the foam and save some real weight. Wrapping these things in some sort of plastic or in a plastic baggie will alleviate the problem of them catching on the hook and loop closures.

You bet. A lot of folks, especially those with lighter weights, find that they just don’t need them.

There are a lot of options here, and final choice is really a judgment call, depending mainly on (a) what your sleeping pad setup is and (b) what feels the most comfortable to you. The most popular answers are:

SitLight™ pad – This is the lightest and coolest option and is the best option with a pack with stays. It forces the pack to ride closer to your back than the others. In this case, whatever pad you’re sleeping on goes in or on the pack somewhere.

NightLight™ Torso - This option gives you the double duty of being able to use it to stiffen your pack and to sleep on it as well. It will make your pack ride further off of your back, give you tons of cushion, and will be warmer on the back. This option is best used without stays in the pack.

NightLight™ 3/4 - This option can be used with a pack if you are using a pack without stays. You can roll the pad up and insert vertically into the main pack body. Then insert your gear down into the middle of the rolled pad. This makes a virtual frame that eliminates the need for stays or anything in the pad holder pocket.

ThinLight™ 1/8” – This pad will fit in the pad holder pocket if you fold it to fit the pocket.

Thinlight™ 3/8” – This option can be used just like the NightLight™ 3/4 where you roll it up and use it as a virtual frame.

An inflatable air mattress - Many of these will fit. As long as the pad is 20” wide and not too thick when deflated it will work. A down air mattress will work too but will be very warm on your back. With any air mattress, experiment with how much air you put in the pad. Almost empty is usually best.

You can look at all the tradeoffs in the Shelter Comparison Matrix. If you have any questions feel free to contact us and we will be happy to talk you through it.

The spinnaker fabric employed in the construction of the G5™, Whisper™, Murmur™, or GG tarp or tent is some pretty interesting fabric that we’re fond of for many reasons. When it’s new it is a bit “rippy” which means it’s crinkly, feels and sounds like tissue paper, and is slightly more prone to damage. As it ages, it gains strength and it softens to a hand very much like silk. The sound can be irritating at first but more annoying to your hiking partners than the sound, will be the knowledge that you have a pack or shelter that weighs less than theirs. Be aware there are some minor differences in the blue spinnaker used on our packs and the grey spinnaker used for our shelters. The SpinnSheet™ ground cloths also use a different type of spinnaker than either the packs or shetlers.

You can ease this some by putting spinnaker in a dryer with NO HEAT WHATSOVER and a couple of tennis balls for 15 minutes or so. This will start the softening process. Another cool factoid about the spinnaker is that unlike many other nylon fabrics it will not stretch or sag, even when wet, which means no re-staking a shelter in the rain or after the dew.

It is inevitable that your new GG tarp or shelter will get dirty over time with continuous use. We have found that using cold water and a sponge (and occasionally mild detergent) after each hike or two works well at keeping the spinnaker shelter looking clean and new. We do not recommend washing the shelter in a conventional clothes washing machine.

We have gone to great lengths to find a fabric that is lighter than the conventional ultralight shelter fabric, silnylon, but that still offers the same weather protection. Our spinnaker fabric has a higher thread count than silnylon. Additionally, the fabric is coated using a long, precision coating knife, which ensures even coating on our fabric to .001 inch. With a higher thread count and virtually “perfect” coating applications, our spinn fabric achieves virtually zero porosity in field conditions. Spinnaker fabric currently available achieves rain protection to about 1 PSI, and can wet out fairly quickly. Our fabric withstood water pressure tests of 2 PSI, the same levels achieved by silnylon fabric. The savings of approximately .04 oz/sq. yd. over conventional silnylon is worth it, we think.

The two loops at the peak are multi purpose; They can be used to hang a clothesline inside the tarp from peak to peak. The front one should be used to clip our Bug Canopy to, to lift the so-see-um off your face and bag. You can also simply hang a line or shock cord from the front inner loop for glasses, reading light, whatever you can think of.

The best way to figure length is to take an adjustable set of trekking poles and adjust them so that when your upper arm is parallel with your body, your lower arm is parallel with the ground. Measure the height from the very top of the pole handle to the very bottom of the pole tip. If measuring in inches, multiply by 2.54 cm. and round to the nearest 5 cm. to get your size. If adjustable trekking poles aren’t available, then just place your arm in the position described above and measure from the top of your hand when making a fist, like gripping a pole handle, to the ground.

The current Lightrek™ 3 poles are plenty tough for hiking on established trails and even some bushwhacking. There are sets of them out there with thousands of miles on them.

With a fixed length, many people prefer slightly longer poles. When they are going downhill, the additional length allows them to extend the pole in front of them and reduce the impact to the knees. When going uphill, the poles can be placed with the tips slightly behind you, resulting in an angle that takes up the additional length. If you still can't decide, consider ordering two pair, trying them out in your living room or yard and return the set with the least comfortable fit. Just be sure the tips aren’t used on any hard surfaces, such as rocks or cement, and the poles aren’t dirty before returning.

The Lightrek™ poles are not designed to be used with traditional straps. If a light cord strap is desired for reducing dropped poles or allowing photo-taking without setting down the poles, consider attaching a 18" - 30" piece of cord to the small loop of EZC2 just below the handle.

The carbide tips are roughly equivalent to other common trekking pole tips. Leki® baskets will fit onto your Lightrek™ poles. Trekking baskets are shipped with the poles, but some people may want to purchase (elsewhere) a set of snow baskets for winter use.

Gossamer Gear™ has not paid for the testing necessary to provide an exact R-value, in order to keep prices low. For reference, the formerly available Mt. Washington pads, also constructed from convoluted Evazote® foam in the same dimensions as the NightLight™ pads, had an R-value quoted in literature of 2.27.

The Evazote® foam used in NightLight™ pads is a closed cell foam. So generally speaking, the foam does not absorb water. When the foam is cut to form the pads, cells that are on the edge of the pads will create tiny 'cups' that can hold water. Unscientific measurements on NightLight™ pads suggest something like 0.01 pounds per square foot would be a reasonable expectation.

Sometimes, but we almost never sponsor people who ask if we will sponsor them. Keep in mind we’re a small company with no advertising budget and very little money for marketing. We put our money into product. We do a lot of testing ourselves, so the offer to "test" new gear for us does not generally excite us. And finally, many well-known people use and love the equipment, so offering to lend your good name doesn't go real far either. Heck, Brian Robinson paid for the first G4™ he ordered for his single calendar year triple crown. That being said, people we have sponsored include Brian Robinson, Nimblewill Nomad, and Francis Tapon. Also, we do use customers for testing, especially repeat customers we have a relationship with who know our gear.