Import your LighterPack list

TrailGearList reads the CSV file that LighterPack exports and rebuilds your list from it: sections, items, weights, quantities, worn and consumable flags. I built the importer around that file, so the whole move takes a couple of minutes. This page walks through the steps and tells you honestly what carries over and what doesn't.

Why move a list at all

LighterPack is free and it's still the standard on r/Ultralight, so if it does everything you need, keep using it. The reason I built TrailGearList is the workflow around the list. It's mobile-first and installs as a PWA, so editing on your phone in a gear shop or in your tent works properly. Every list splits automatically into base weight, worn weight, and consumables, with per-section totals. Your gear lives in a library with photos, brands, and tags, so building your second list takes minutes instead of an evening. You sign in with a code sent to your email, no password. It's free with no list limit, I plan my own trips in it, and new features ship regularly.

Step 1: export the CSV from LighterPack

Open your list on lighterpack.com and hover over Share, at the top right. The popover that appears holds your share link, an embed snippet, and below those a link named Export to CSV. Click it and a .csv file named after your list downloads.

That file is your entire list in plain text: one row per item, with columns for name, section (LighterPack calls it category), description, quantity, weight, unit, product link, price, and the worn and consumable marks.

Step 2: sign in to TrailGearList

Create an account if you don't have one. Enter your email, type in the code it sends you, and you're on your dashboard. No password to invent and forget.

Step 3: import the file

On the dashboard, click Import CSV and pick the file you just downloaded. TrailGearList creates a new list named after the file, rebuilds your sections in their original order, and drops you into the editor. The imported items also land in your gear library, so your next list starts from the same collection; there's a toggle in the import dialog if you'd rather keep them out.

What carries over

Sections and their order. Items with their weights, converted to grams whether you entered them in ounces, pounds, or kilograms. Quantities, worn flags, consumable flags, item descriptions, prices, and product links. The first word of an item name becomes the brand in your library, so "Durston X-Mid 1" files under Durston.

What doesn't carry over: item photos. LighterPack's CSV has no image column, so pictures can't travel in the file. Adding photos to your gear in TrailGearList afterwards is manual work.

If the import complains

Three things worth knowing, all of them properties of the CSV itself:

• The new list is named after the file. Rename My_Summer_List.csv before importing, or rename the list afterwards.
• Import the downloaded file as is. Opening it in Excel and re-saving can mangle the header row, and the importer then refuses the file and lists the columns it expects.
• Empty sections don't come over. The CSV only contains item rows, so a section with nothing in it doesn't exist in the file.

Keep the old list

There's no need to delete anything on the LighterPack side. I'd leave the original list up as an archive: it costs nothing, and links you've posted in old shakedown threads keep pointing at it. If you want to weigh the two tools against each other first, I wrote an honest comparison.

When you're ready, import your LighterPack list and see what your base weight comes out to.