Location and Goal: I'm from the northeast, going to be doing a 2.5 week trip in the High Sierras this August, mainly around the HST and summiting Mt. Langley and Mt. Whitney. One leg will involve over a week without resupply. I'm not an ultralight fanatic per se, but I certainly don't want to be carrying extra weight. Don't have a magic number I'm trying to be under, just want to take what I need for a good trip--no less no more.

Budget: Not a hard budget but I'd rather not spend more than $250 on improving my gear, especially since I still need to buy the Garmin and new pad too unless I just go with my existing ~1 lb CCF.

Non-negotiable and unusual gear: Everything is negotiable! However, I will say

1. I know my emergency kit is a bit heavy. I am open to ideas to trim it but I'd really rather be prepared than not. I'm taking small quantities of almost everything in there (e.g., 10 aspirin as opposed to a bottle, 20 potable aqua tabs in a baggie, etc.).
2. The monocular (mini telescope) is important to me because I want to look at stars and because I am worried about getting lost above tree line (my eyesight is not very good and I sometimes miss cairns).
3. I'm on the fence about taking a 4 oz dynema day pack. I like to take it for summit day trips or walking around on zeros. But I'll probably skip it and just rely on slackpacking or whatever.
4. I find camp shoes make a real difference to my experience. I usually regret not taking them, especially if my trail shoes are going to be wet at night. I've never used the imagos and am skeptical but might try them.

Additional Info: I'm very undecided about clothing and would especially appreciate ideas there. I tend to run hot. Usually I hike in leggings, shorts, and a synthetic long or short T-shirt even when the temperature is down in the 40s. When I take wind or rain pants in the northeast I almost never wear them. I'll wear some kind of jacket at camp. But I am worried about being cold at altitude.

I've used stars in lighterpack to color code items that are still TBD, items I'm especially on the fence about, or items I could return.

As for shelter, I recently bought the X-mid 2 after a lot of consideration. I don't own a lighter 1p tent, otherwise I'd take that. I did toy with buying a Gossamer Gear The One or Lanshan 1 Pro, but I think the x-mid 2 is a better overall fit for me so I'm probably just going to take that.

Solo

Lighter Pack: https://lighterpack.com/r/ngsla8