My back-packing experience is mostly confined to one three-week excursion in the Blue Ridge mountains. I've heard some veteran back-packers, like the Appalachian Trail folks, take such extremes as breaking the handles off their toothbrushes to keep the weight down. Though this sounds sort of fanciful to me, it is an argument for nose warmer cobs as camping pipes for shear light weight. Just don't turn around and tell me you took along your espresso pot.