Weighing Gear

“Office Max has a cool scale on sale. I am going to weigh my gear again before my trip on the Rae Lakes Loop. I did it before the San Gorognio trip and lightened my pack quite a bit... Although I went with less food than I would have liked.
But it is amazing when you weigh your gear how your priorities adjust to Lighter total pack weight and not "I MIGHT need this on the trip"”

“I got a digital fish weigher at Wal-Mart that goes up to 50 pounds. Weighs in pounds & ounces.
I only use it it for backpacking cause I don't ever expect to catch a 50 pound fish.”

“I gotta do somethin'. My last pack would've overloaded walkindude's scale!”

“Well, my pack weight ranged from 55 to 75 lbs. But when I took every single thing out and weighed it. I began realizing I never use a lot of the stuff. And as Snow Nymph always reminds me.
"ounces equals pounds"
I have learned a lot from her!”

“I got a scale recently and experienced the same realization.”

“I've never met Snow Nymph but she got more experience than most here. She's a good one to listen to.

The only way my pack would weight over 50 pounds would be if I was going out for 10 day to two weeks with no resupply. I like to keep it less than 30 pounds.”

“Geeze you guys, my pack weighed 38lbs once and I thought it was going to kill me! 50? Hack, hack, cough, cough. What are you carrying in there?

I've just got a small game scale that I use to weigh it after I've got it loaded but I rarely use it. I heft it after it's loaded and if I think it's too heavy or off balance, it gets re-done.”

“Winter weight for me 30 to 45.
Spring into Summer 20 to 30.
Fall into Winter 25 to 35.

Thats how I about do!

8)”

“When I was planning my AT long-distance hike in '99, I thought, "hey, I'm a big guy. What's another few pounds or so." So I threw in all those things that seem cool to have. Hell, I even brought my 2-book set of Homer's Odyssey in the original greek. Christ, I was kicking myself after 'bout 2 miles into the approach trail. My pack must've been damn near 60 lbs in the beginning. Every town I stopped in for the next 200 miles I dropped something, either mailed it home or threw it away. By the end, the pack weighed 'bout 35-40 lbs. fully-loaded with food.

Now as I plan my trip to finish the AT this summer, I'm going to have to do alot of rethinking 'bout weight. I've made a checklist of all the things I might wanna bring, and, my goodness, its longer than God's jimmy. I'm thinking the best way to handle this is to set a weight, e.g. 40 lbs., and to ABSOLUTELY not let the pack exceed that mark. If, fully-packed, it weighs more than 40, I'll just have to make some very difficult decisions.

I'm going to have to buy one of those fancy schmancy scales y'all are talkin' 'bout. Then I can weigh the usefullness of each piece of gear 'gainst its actual weight.”

“What happened to just standing on a scale with and without your pack and using a little subtraction?

I usually go 37-40 lbs. fully loaded on weekend outings and 50 lbs. for a week trip. But that is too much. I am really going to lighten up this summer. Don't know how yet, but I have to. I hiked with 30 lbs. once a few years ago and it was so much nicer.”

“I found the best thing to do is get one of those semi-cheap Wal-Mart scales that weighs to the 1/10th of an ounce but won't weigh more than 3 pounds. If any item is heavier than 3 pounds you should replace it.

Now I'm at 27.75 pounds for a week of hiking down to 0 farenheit. Makes way more sense than the 65 I would carry on a 3 day at one time.

The more I carry, the more I enjoy camping, the less I carry, the more I enjoy hiking.”

“I just have a diet scale my Mom bought me--it is not terribly accurate. I have weighed my stuff to the nearest ounce--I round up--and put it all on a nice spreadsheet someone gave me a long time ago. I can put checks by the items I am thinking about carrying and get a pretty close estimate of how much the pack will weigh.

I do what Phil does when I am done packing--food, water and all-- and just get on the scale and see what it says.

I have saved myself grief in both directions by weighing my food. I don't want too much or too little. I have found that a pound a day is plenty for me if it is all very dry stuff. Try weighing the food you would normally take and then weigh what is left (or how soon you ran out LOL). This should give you a round number idea of how much you consume each day and make future planning better.”

“The more I carry, the more I enjoy camping, the less I
carry, the more I enjoy hiking."
SGT R0ck
04:23:38 PM
05/19/02





I like that.”

“Sirpete...

makes sense if you think about it doesn't it.”

“when I want to camp, I take my girl, the dogs and the trailer.


otherwise I am always looking for ways to reduce weight from my pack.”

“I got the idea of the equasion when going thru my packing list. Do I need an item to camp or hike? If I only need it to camp, then it probably gets ditched.

Who needs a fork and a knife with the spoon? Why have two pots and a pan? Why have a cup, bowl, and a plate? Who needs the thick pad that becomes a chair? Why have lots of warm clothing? The answer was to camp, not to hike.

When I had all that stuff I hiked until I dropped. Then set up the camp with a huge tent, gas stove, 2L pot, huge meal, chair, pillow, thick sleeping pad, etc. so I could unwind from a hard day of hiking. Took lots of time to set up and tear down.

I can now hike all day and enjoy it. Now when I hike light, I can hike from sun up to sun down, feel beter while doing it. My camp takes a quarter of the time to set up and tear down, and I don't need all the distractions to pass the time in camp while resting and recharging.

I spend about an hour in camp before and after bed, and about 9 hours sleeping, that leaves me 13 hours of hiking and playing! I can walk slow and still do 15 miles in a day.”

“'WAYing' your pack is important.If you don't use it,give it 'aWAY',or leave it by the 'WAY'. that 'Royal Ex3'scale the Sgt. mentioned is the way to go.”

“I could lighten my pack a little more, but I would give up comfort. By weighing everything, I realized how much extra I was carrying, and upgraded my gear. By weighing my food and repackaging, I don't come back with extra food, except my emergency snacks.

My pack for a 10 day trip (solo) would be 42 lbs max, which would include my chair, SLR camera and film (both very important to me).”

“Maybe if I dumped the gun and all that ammunition...”

“Snow--that is the neat thing about getting the basics down really light, you can carry your camera and your chair.

Winter camping in Arizona is like spring in colder places--we never have to have ice axes or bear cans or lots of clothing. Makes it easier to go light. I can get that ten day load to about 25 pounds--that includes two quarts of water and 10 pounds of food. I have never been out for as long as ten days though.”

“Lighter gear is next on my list. Hmmm, a Bearicade, Warmlite. These alone would save 7 lbs...”

“WLD, it would save you 9 lbs.”

“Well I stripped the Marmot down to minimum weight...”