Pack Weight?

[Tree Nerd]

So in prep for my Thru I have been fine tuning my gear. Yesterday I signed out an electric scale from one of my professors to start weighing out my gear. I compiled a pretty impresses excel spread sheet that includes EVERYTHING I plan to take with me. Anyway, after weighing everything out I came up with 33lbs, including stove fuel, but not including food or water. On a day over 50 with no rain or high winds my pack would weigh roughly 28lbs and on a day under 30 with no snow or high winds my pack would weigh 26lbs. These weights are the highest they will be throughout my Thru (excluding food or water), they will be lighter in the summer when I send some of my winter stuff home, say 4 or 5 lbs lighter.

I know there is room for improvement, but is that a fairly good weight to be at?

Here is the list if that helps:

Gear list.jpg

What do you guys think?

[CarlZ993]

I can't read the spreadsheet. Print is too small in the jpeg. You might try saving it as a google doc w/ a link (or use geargrams.com). Having a scale is your first step in lowering your pack weight.

The term I use is 'Base Pack Weight.' Some people have different definitions of what this means. To me, this includes everything but food, fuel, and water. These are consumables that will change while on the hike (more after a resupply, less just before getting a resupply). My plan is to be well under 20 lbs (shooting for around 12 - 15) with my base pack weight. With your pack weight being upper 20's before food, I'd serious look at ways to lighten your load further.

Fortunately, the beginning of the trail (assuming you're going NOBO) offers several opportunities to mail unneeded equipment home. See if you can save yourself some money by culling out the excessive stuff before you go. Your young joints might be able to handle it. I know my old bones can't. Regardless, have fun on your hike. I hope you're able to complete your thru.

[BirdBrain]

Print is not too small (on my screen anyways). Click on the picture. It gets much larger.

[BirdBrain]

Others will be more helpful, I am sure.
Rain gear could be lighter by skipping rain-pants and using packa as jacket and pack cover.
Sleeping setup (between bag, liner, and pad) seems a bit heavy.
Leave the cards home.
A lot of this is preference. Just my preferences speaking.

[Kaptain Kangaroo]

Your base weight looks higher than it should as you have included items that most people don't count as pack weight eg. hiking poles, boots, clothes worn while actually hiking.... take those out for a better comparison.... But regardless, it is not a ridiculous weight to start with & you will figure out more reductions as you go !!!

Head out feeling confident & safe with what you are carrying & change it as you get experience on the trail.

[punkin pie]

My pack wieght befor food and water is 32 lbs. Don't obsess about wieght. take just what you think YOU need.

[garlic08]

I agree it's hard to judge someone else's pack. There's no way you'd ever want to hike with MY pack, and I wouldn't hike with anyone else's. But since you asked....It was hard to read your list on my small screen, but I noticed you have roughly 60 items in your list, which is pretty typical. My list, with similar detail (one lump sum "first aid kit", for instance), has about 25 items and totals up to under 10 pounds. The best way I've found to drop weight is to leave stuff behind. But that took many trips over many seasons, slowly gaining experience and confidence along the way. You'll figure it out, probably not all at once.

[Tree Nerd]

You can see the picture bigger.....click on it: a smll screen will pop up with it, click that and another window will pop up with it even larger. Click on it again and it will magnify the picture. Let me know if you all have any more problems viewing it and I can link a file.

[Malto]

Agree with Garlic on this one. Cut as much as you're comfortable with and then hike. You will have hours to think about what is next to drop. You often see a lot of "surplus" equipment on the approach trail up to Springer. While I'm a big believer in lightweight, an extra lb of gear won't kill you. Experience will be the best teacher in finding the right balance between weight, comfort, safety and luxury.

[swjohnsey]

Plenty of folks have hiked the trail with 45 + pound packs. It is easier with a lighter pack. You can do it with a 20 pound pack including food and water without doing without anything you need.

[Prime Time]

Very personal choices, to be sure. If it were me, I'd carry a smart phone which would act as my phone, camera, journal, library, music, internet connection.
2 pairs of socks is plenty.
My first aid kit weighs 5 ounces.
Why 2 stoves?
I'd ditch the Camelback and the Nalgene bottle. Use two empty 1 liter gatorade bottles. You will need a 4 or 6 liter camp water container which weighs about 4 ounces.
I purify water with a Steripen. Weighs 3.5 oz.
1 small Bic lighter is all you need for fire starting. Just change it out every 3 weeks or so BEFORE it runs out. No need to carry a spare.
Same goes for extra batteries. Just change them out before they run out. Experience is obviously helpful for this.
Do you really need the belt?
For your AT guide, just carry what you need for the upcoming section and pick up future sections in mail drops.
Lastly, that's a pretty heavy pack, especially if you can get another 3 or 4 pounds of gear out of it. Look at Granite Gear ultra light packs. About half the weight.

[swjohnsey]

Granite Gear made in China. ULA made in the USA. It is a good idea to have two ways of making fire.

[leaftye]

There's a lot of redundancy in there. Why is that?


Firestarters
You're on a social trail. If one fire starter doesn't work, camp with someone that has one that works until you get back into town in a couple days and can get a new fire starter.

First aid kit
Same as above.

Stoves
Pick one. Both are reliable. It won't kill you if your stove doesn't work.

Pack out or skin out weight
Your spreadsheet doesn't accurately represent what will be in your pack.




In any case, a good weight is the weight you're comfortable with. Some people are comfortable with a 30 pound base weight, but others can't stand having more than 12 pounds on their back with food and water.

Let's say you want to go lighter. Will you achieve that goal by changing your techniques or by spending money?

[4shot]

WB is a good resource and you are getting/will get great advice. With that being said, pack weight is probably the passionate and most-often discussed topic by those in the planning stage but is, in actuality, probably one of the least important items in finishing a thru hike. I knew plenty of hikers that got off along the way - I don't think if they had carried 2 less pounds that they would have stayed on. Just one opinion of course.I'm sure others will disagree with this.

as others have said, just start with what you think you need. You will adjust/adapt along the way. It's rare to see anyone who is serious about a thru and has done any sort of preparation show up at K or S with 50-60 lb. packs. Too much information is available these days.

[AllTheWayToMordor]

I hiked the Colorado trail with a similar weight (mine was heavier actually). I had the heaviest pack of the group I was with, and I was also the slowest hiker. But, I got through it. For my 2013 thru on the AT my goal was to substantially lighten my load. My pack is now less than 20# for cold weather, but it cost me some dolars.

You'll be fine with that to start, and I bet it will get lighter. Be careful starting out though. I sprained my ankle the first week of the ct and had to tape it for the rest of the month. Had it been a 6 month trip it would have been a problem.

The only specifics I have are to lighten your sleep system. The pad could be lighter, the bag liner cod be lighter. And its not clear, are you taking 2 stoves?

[AllTheWayToMordor]

Also, chacos are pretty heavy for camp shoes. Look on sale racks. I just found some Patagonia moccasin type shoes that weight less than 5 oz each for $30.

[Tree Nerd]

Thanks for all the info and opinions guys, I just want to clarify some stuff. So overall weight (everything I will take with me including the stuff that will be worn on my body) is 33lbs, as of right now my pack weight w/o food or water will vary between 28 and 25lbs.

So onto my redundancy and items in question:
-Stoves: This is one that probably most confusing to everyone. So the alcohol stove is my main stove and I will use it the most. The vargo is used as a wind screen and pot stand for my alcohol stove. The vargo also doubles as a wood burning stove encase anything happens to my alcohol stove (crushed, cracked, run out of fuel).
-Stove fuel: So the reason I have such a big fuel bottle is because I use grain alcohol. Almost an entire fifth of grain alcohol will fit in the bottle, this way, I can buy alcohol once and I am good for a couple weeks without having throw much out or carry the bottle with me. Also, if I am real desperate I can drink some alcohol (real desperate....grain alcohol is so nasty) and still have some to cook with.
-Fire Starter: I am a big fire fan. I can defiantly drop the candle and magnesium stick, but keep the lint and fire starters encase I want/need to start a fire easily, they also help with the wood burning stove.
-Extra Batteries: I am really bad about turning off my headlamp and sometime I can get it to die in one day if I am not careful. I bring extra batteries because I don't trust myself.
-AT guide: The wieght listed is the weight of the total loose leaf guide, I only plan to take half or quarter of it at a time. I just put total weight so I wasn't under estimating.
-Water Containers: I definitely need to do something about this, I just haven't found anything I like yet. I like having a camelbak but don't like it in my pack, in result I have to strap it to the outside and need the camelbak pack for that. The nalgene will be replaced with a Gatorade bottle for my thru, I just listed my nalgene because I didnt have a Gatorade bottle to use (again I would rather over estimate than under).
-First Aid Kit: This "first aid" is not only for me but all my gear, it includes tent and pad patches, thread and needle, nail clippers, super small scissors, tweezers as well as meds, bandaids, and some other stuff. It started as a 4 person kit because I like the size of the bag (i could put all my other "first aid" stuff in it) and I can definitely refine it and drop some stuff.
-Sleeping Pad: I can definitely get a lighter pad, but as of right now its what I have until I get more funds.
-Sleeping Pad Liner: I am not sure I will bring this yet. I just made it and haven't used it yet except for sleeping at friends houses. I still have to try it out with my bag to decide if I want to take it.
-Rain Gear: I can definitely go lighter, but as of right now its what I have until I get more funds.

Again, thanks everyone for reviewing my stuff and giving me some pointers. I am hiking about 70 miles of the Foothills Trail in less than a Month with everything Listed. That will be a good test run for my gear set-up.

Overall, I think I have a good pack weight. Before I weighed everything out I thought I was going to have around a 35lb. pack weight and I completely overestimated. Currently at roughly 28-25lbs there is some room for improvement, but only by a 2-5lbs. Also, I agree that pack weight isn't the most important part in completing a thru hike, but in preparation, I would like to get it as low as possible without sacrificing stuff I want or my wallet.

[yellowsirocco]

Your backup stove should be your ability to make a campfire and cook on it.

[Tree Nerd]

Also, chacos are pretty heavy for camp shoes. Look on sale racks. I just found some Patagonia moccasin type shoes that weight less than 5 oz each for $30.

The chacos have not been listed on there yet for weight because I have not yet received them. They are the newest model they have come out with (still on backorder), the chaco rex, and they are suppose to be 40% lighter than older chacos; a little over one pound for the pair. I am not sure if I will bring them yet, they are more of a luxury item and something I would like to have because they are comfortable to hike in if need be.

[Datto]

By the time you reach Fontana Dam (just before entering the Smoky Mountains) your pack weight is likely to be considerably lighter than what you show on your spreadsheet. After you get to the Trail it's unlikely you'll choose to carry so much -- particularly after you see those climbs in Georgia and North Carolina -- As I remember you can see Clingman's Dome up top from Fontana Dam down below. Once you see that climb up ahead you'll start dumping anything else that you haven't dumped already in order to save weight.

Don't worry though -- pretty much every AT thru-hiker, including me, dumped loads of stuff that seemed to be "necessary" while sitting at home and quickly became unnecessary after the climbs were started in Georgia.

Here are my comments:

* Camp Shoes/Sandles -- Dump all camp shoes -- total waste of backpack space and weight. Camp shoes are for day hikers, not AT thru-hikers. Just wear your regular hiking shoes.
* Water filter -- I, like many others, started with a Pur type filter and quickly realized it's too much trouble and the untreated water gets into everything anyhow. I switched to Potable Aqua tablets (I've hiked more than 7,000 trail miles with only Potable Aqua tables) and others switched to Polarpure or similar. Note that Potable Aqua tablets aren't for people with a thyroid problem.
* Nalgene Bottles -- most thru-hikers don't use those because they weigh too much -- A standard Gatorade bottle weighs much less and is very rugged.
* Water Carrier -- I do think it's worthwhile to carry a large capacity water carrier so you only have to get water down the cliff once per night rather than once at night and once in the morning. I used a 96oz Nalgene Canteen (pretty lightweight) and have used that ever since on all my other hikes. I did try a Platypus once in the desert but it soon fell apart (not a thing to have happen in the desert) and I've never carried a Platypus again.
* Stove Fuel -- You'll probably need to switch to Heet for fuel (don't use Isopropyl Alcohol -- only buy Heet brand) for alcohol fuel due to availability.
* Socks -- Two pair only -- both will get wet. You'll live with it when that happens. Actually, everything will get wet on an AT thru-hike and you, as an AT thru-hiker, learn to live with things being wet all the time
* Pants -- one pair of whatever you want -- don't take the others
* Shorts -- just take one pair -- the compression shorts or the other pair -- don't take both
* Rainpants -- leave home -- these are one of the first things to be sent home by AT thru-hikers in order to save weight
* T-shirts -- just take one -- leave the other at home -- extra shirts of any type are one of the first things sent home by AT thru-hikers -- it won't take long before your mind blocks out your smell and the other AT thru-hikers won't notice your smell either. The town folk and the hitchhike rides? Well, ha, yeah they'll notice right away. But that's not worth carrying any extra weight for shirts
* Warm Jacket -- I didn't see anything listed for a thermal insulating jacket -- that fleece won't likely be warm enough -- you'll freeze. When it gets cold you use your thermal insulating jacket under your raincoat (you'll be wet on your skin much of the time from sweating so the rain jacket doesn't actually keep you dry -- it keeps you warm and stops the wind). If you have a choice, buy an insulating jacket that is made of man made insulation -- Polarguard for instance -- since the insulation is going to be wet some of the time when you wear it under your rain jacket or when you wear it in light rain.
* Deck of Cards -- forget that, leave home. You won't have time if you're an AT thru-hiker trying to make your miles for the day.
* Sleeping Pad -- There's a good chance you'll choose to switch to a Ridgerest to save weight up the Trail. By that time you'll be able to fall asleep on pretty much any surface after cranking out miles during the day.


Datto