When it comes to enjoying a backpacking trip, to some
extent it’s all about stuff. Not necessarily getting more stuff, but
less – well at least stuff that weighs less. The more your backpack
weighs, the harder you are working on the trail. Hiking up a mountain
side with a 40 pound pack on your back is quite a bit more difficult than
the same hike with a lightweight 15 pound backpack. Sometimes it may
be better exercise to carry more weight, and if you are in training for a
big trip you may want to do that. Normally carrying more weight is
just a pain in the…back.
The heavier your backpack the more
likely your energy is going to peter out before you really want to stop.
A heavier pack increases the chance of getting hurt. You’re walking
along and your mind wonders, suddenly you slip on a rock or stick your toe
in a hole and you land on the edge of your foot. With a light pack,
maybe no big deal, with a 40+ pound pack, maybe you just twisted you ankle.
Maybe you sprained you ankle. That kind of takes the fun out of the
backpacking trip. Even if you don’t get hurt, I know from my own
experience the older I get the more aches and pains I feel when I put more
stress on my body. A lighter pack reduces the aches and lets me
appreciate the nature around me rather than thinking about my body.
So what is a reasonable weight for you backpack and how light can you
make it? I’ve heard people say your backpack should be no more then
1/4th you body weight. I also heard 1/3rd your weight and 1/5th
y your weight. I weigh about 170 pounds. One third my body
weight would be 56 pounds! One fourth, 42 pounds. One fifth 35
pounds. Before I decided to lighten up, my backpack normally was
between 35 and 40 pounds. It was quite manageable really, I could live
with it.
Then I realized I didn’t have live with it.
I realized I didn’t have to become some kind of ultra-light obsessed hiking
maniac in order to ditch fifteen or twenty pounds. I could still have a
nice tent, a comfortable pack, a warm sleeping bag. I could still
bring food. I could do it without hiring a Sherpa. All I had to do was make
some not to hard choices about what to leave behind and swap out some heavy
things for some light things and my pack weight dropped fast; although it
would still be nice to have a Sherpa.
BTW: Short of a
Sherpa one of the simplest ways to cut weight is to share. Hiking with a
friend you can share a tent, stove, pots, etc. effectively cutting the
weight of each of those items in half. But most of us carry our own stuff.
So how did I to do it? First let’s get some terminology straight. When we
talk about the weight of a pack what are we measuring? There are two main
ways to measure it:
Pack weight – Meaning the weight of the entire pack filled with all your stuff EXCEPT consumables, i.e. food and water.
FSO weight – From the Skin Out. The weight of everything. Weigh yourself naked, and then put on all the stuff you are going to wear including boots and full pack (again; except food and water) and weigh yourself again. The difference is you FSO weight. This is a much more accurate total of what you are carrying.
I’m shooting for a Pack Weight of 16 pounds or less.
Let’s start with the heaviest items, then work our way down the list (trying
not to become too obsessive). The three heaviest items are normally the
tent, the sleeping bag and the backpack itself. The weight of all
these items can be drastically cut, starting with the tent… Continued…Click
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