View Full Version : Base weight list?
Sun Blazed
05-02-2011, 18:27
Hey guys, this is my first time really trying to make a list of my base weight! Here it is: http://www.geargrams.com/list?id=3173
Can you guys tell me if I should be more picky and not weight things in groups, or if weighing stuff in individual groups is okay? It maybe a little off, but that's as good as I can guess. Do the weights look correct? I'm really trying to do this right, so that I can monitor myself as I'm going to start lightening up my gear.
Thanks.
Sun Blazed :sun
it's best to list and weigh every item in ounces/grams, don't guess, know exactly, digital scales aren't expensive
example- your cook kit doesn't list an eating utensil at least not that I saw, spoon, spork, chopsticks it all counts and adds up
If you are serious about lightening up and carrying an UL pack, do not weigh your items in groups. weigh each item individually so that you are able to see the complete breakdown of what each item in your pack weighs. If you are not one of those people (I am) then weighing items in groups is fine. I imagine you are not trying to be an ULer with that gear so there is no need to worry over every little thing. And just to help you organize your list better, 0.15 pounds is not the same as 15oz
Snowleopard
05-02-2011, 18:41
You can do it either way, but when you go to replace things with lighter stuff it's nice to have the individual items weights. Still, with what have there, you can see pretty easily what you can lighten up on
I think your weights for everything under 'tools' are wrong -- Katadyn Hiker pro wf is not 0.15 oz.
Sun Blazed
05-02-2011, 19:08
it's best to list and weigh every item in ounces/grams, don't guess, know exactly, digital scales aren't expensive
example- your cook kit doesn't list an eating utensil at least not that I saw, spoon, spork, chopsticks it all counts and adds up
Aww, I completely forgot to add the spoon. My bad. I'm still trying to figure what all I have/had. As of right now the spoon seems to be missing! :eek: And I have weighed everything as far as I can figure I have transferred over everything as accurately as possible. Maybe with a few mistakes. Whoops! :D
If you are serious about lightening up and carrying an UL pack, do not weigh your items in groups. weigh each item individually so that you are able to see the complete breakdown of what each item in your pack weighs. If you are not one of those people (I am) then weighing items in groups is fine. I imagine you are not trying to be an ULer with that gear so there is no need to worry over every little thing. And just to help you organize your list better, 0.15 pounds is not the same as 15oz
I'm still trying to figure this gear grams thing out. But I don't see where you came up with that? But you might just be trying to make a point.
You can do it either way, but when you go to replace things with lighter stuff it's nice to have the individual items weights. Still, with what have there, you can see pretty easily what you can lighten up on
I think your weights for everything under 'tools' are wrong -- Katadyn Hiker pro wf is not 0.15 oz.
My bad Snowleopard I just re-weighed my water filter and it came out to a pound over all.
Jersey Tim
05-02-2011, 19:19
Gear selection looks OK, though you can definitely do better than paracord if you want to trim weight for your tarp guylines. Some of the weights are definitely off though, looks like the decimal points are just in the wrong place: for example, if a small Jetboil can has 4oz of fuel, it's gotta weigh at least that much, right? Not a big deal, just straighten out the decimals. Like everyone above, I'd also recommend getting yourself a small digital scale and weighing every item individually, which will give you a much clearer picture of what you've got and where you can improve.
Bottom line: between lowball guesses and non-UL choices, I'll throw out a rough estimate and say you're probably looking at closer to 30lbs. of base weight than 20. But people have begun much heavier (like, 50lbs.+), so if that stuff is what's going to make you happy and you feel up to carrying it, go for it.
Sun Blazed
05-02-2011, 19:30
Well, see one of the reasons why I thought that was right is because with 4 days of food and 3L of water my pack only weighed 33.6 pounds.
Sun Blazed
05-02-2011, 19:37
Does that seem a little better? http://www.geargrams.com/list?id=3173
Jersey Tim
05-02-2011, 20:14
Yes, much better. I still think you're lowballing in a few places though. REI lists your pack at 5lbs. 9oz instead of 4.11lbs.; weighing it on a scale may give you something slightly different but not by that much. Your clothing weight seems low, not absurdly so but probably a little bit. And don't forget your iPhone charger. :)
Sun Blazed
05-02-2011, 22:20
Yes, much better. I still think you're lowballing in a few places though. REI lists your pack at 5lbs. 9oz instead of 4.11lbs.; weighing it on a scale may give you something slightly different but not by that much. Your clothing weight seems low, not absurdly so but probably a little bit. And don't forget your iPhone charger. :)
Everything is completely and totally true. It is the really old one so it might have been lighter. But I don't know, and I forgot to mention I had a solar charger.
See this is just my first one. I wanted to get some what of a base before I start changing my gear around to go for UL. I'm getting rid of the Jetboil, going for the super cat alcohol stove that I made. I'm going to change the bag up a little bit for summer. I'm thinking of going with Montbell Super Spiral Burrow #3 Long or something else. Shelter I'm still a little if-y on. I'm getting rid of the backpack and just ordered a ULA Circuit. I'm gonna do this. Haha. :D
mweinstone
05-02-2011, 22:37
i think your takeing all the right advise and doing well.
Sun Blazed
05-02-2011, 23:05
i think your takeing all the right advise and doing well.
Thanks mweinstone! That means a lot.
88BlueGT
05-03-2011, 11:15
I can see how it keeps changing everything back to grams, even when you initially enter it in as 'OZ', you have to go in and change it before it will stay.
This a great system to help identify what your carrying, how much, where your lacking and where your doing well.
Making my list now.....
Sun Blazed
05-03-2011, 17:52
I can see how it keeps changing everything back to grams, even when you initially enter it in as 'OZ', you have to go in and change it before it will stay.
This a great system to help identify what your carrying, how much, where your lacking and where your doing well.
Making my list now.....
Yeah, it's a great little program. I run up on it when I was browsing the forums the other day. I really like it. I just can't wait to go UL. :D
88BlueGT
05-03-2011, 18:03
The problem w/ UL is that its never light enough. Once you buy something, its great. best piece of gear you own, than 3 months later, you find someone else thats 1oz lighter and for me, it bothers the ***** out of me! lol I'm not as UL as I thought after compiling my list. I'll post it a little later tonight after I go through all my misc stuff
Sun Blazed
05-03-2011, 19:16
That would be awesome! Then I could kinda have someone elses to work off of too. Instead of taking guess if mines right, I could see how you did it.
And the thing about UL is that I'm not really looking to go like super UL. I just want to get my pack, or base weight out of the twenties and into the tens.
Wow that's amazing. I had no idea. I just pack all my stuff and stand on the bathroom scale with and without it. base wt 20lbs. I think that's OK too, right?
88BlueGT
05-03-2011, 19:30
That shouldn't be too difficult. On the spreadsheet my base weight is 10.02 lbs but I think I may be missing a few things. Regardless, I just HAVE to get into the single digits now! lolllll guess its time for tag trimming :D
88BlueGT
05-03-2011, 19:32
Wow that's amazing. I had no idea. I just pack all my stuff and stand on the bathroom scale with and without it. base wt 20lbs. I think that's OK too, right?
Whats your full pack weight? (w/ consumables)
Whats your full pack weight? (w/ consumables)
I train with 35lbs total. 5days of food and 3 liters of water. I won't need to carry that much on the AT. Florida is tough on resuppy and water sources. I'll carry 3-4days of food and 1.5 liter of water on the AT so that will shed at least 5lbs.
Dang, why does food and water have to weigh more than gear? In this way UL would be tough.:confused:
88BlueGT
05-03-2011, 20:05
I know! Its kind of funny when you think about it. People go out and spend HUNDREDS of dollars (sometimes more) just to shed a few pounds from their pack and all they really have to do is just dump out some water! lol
I don't think I'd be comfortable without my tent, sleeping bag and BA pad. BTW I have no kitchen. I get to take a break from cooking until I feel like it :)
You know, this hiking thing is suppose to be fun and liberating. I can't get weighed down in the planning and details. Nothing is written in stone. Not what we plan, wear, what we carry, how we eat. There is no real itinerary. Even the hiking partners we choose can change. It's all up for grabs so my only plan is to chill and enjoy. It's all good!
88BlueGT
05-04-2011, 10:37
SunBlazed, here is my list. I BELIEVE I have everything listed but may be missing a few. The weight as well will be a little off as I did not record the weight on a few items. Add approx 1lb to this for a more accurate weight. This would be based off a 5-7 day trip.
http://www.geargrams.com/list?id=3199
If you are interested, I will post a full list when all the numbers are completed.
nice organization. haven't seen anything that technical before.
88BlueGT
05-04-2011, 12:24
Thank you for the compliment, even though I think the compliment belongs to the designer of geargrams.com. Its very simple, just enter your numbers and it does all the work for you!
Sun Blazed
05-04-2011, 14:41
Don't you just love gear grams? I do. I haven't got a chance to check out you list yet, I'm at work on my phone and it doesn't have flash. :/ stupid iPhone.
88BlueGT
05-04-2011, 15:26
^^ LOL I KNOW I went through the same thing yesterday as I tried to show someone the list on my iPhone.
I train with 35lbs total. 5days of food and 3 liters of water. I won't need to carry that much on the AT. Florida is tough on resuppy and water sources. I'll carry 3-4days of food and 1.5 liter of water on the AT so that will shed at least 5lbs.
Dang, why does food and water have to weigh more than gear? In this way UL would be tough.:confused:
Yes, but one can carry an infinite amount of dehydrated water. :)
Sun Blazed
05-04-2011, 22:50
SunBlazed, here is my list. I BELIEVE I have everything listed but may be missing a few. The weight as well will be a little off as I did not record the weight on a few items. Add approx 1lb to this for a more accurate weight. This would be based off a 5-7 day trip.
http://www.geargrams.com/list?id=3199
If you are interested, I will post a full list when all the numbers are completed.
This looks very nice, Blue. I do have a question though, the stuff that is 0 grams does that mean you aren't taking it or does that mean it weighs next to nothing?
But I do love how you split everything up, when I change my gear around a little bit, then I think that I'll probably make another one. But I glad you did this it gives me a base to go off of.
And if you don't mind post that full list when you get done.
88BlueGT
05-04-2011, 23:46
The '0' items definitely have weight! LOL I just didn't get a chance to weigh them and I didn't just want to come up with a number off the top of my head. Thats the main reason why its incomplete, as far as actual gear goes, 99% is listed.
Sorry its taking so long to post a complete list I've been super swamped with school writing papers, finals, etc. I will post the full list within the next day or two.
You know, this hiking thing is suppose to be fun and liberating. I can't get weighed down in the planning and details. Nothing is written in stone. Not what we plan, wear, what we carry, how we eat. There is no real itinerary. Even the hiking partners we choose can change. It's all up for grabs so my only plan is to chill and enjoy. It's all good!
Hiking is much more fun when you aren't weighed down with a heavy pack. And the planning and details are what happens before the hike anyway. I actually found the greatest expression of creativity for myself when I got really into figuring out how to lighten my load. I loved making a lot of my own gear and being creative about my gear. I didn't have perfect weights for everything, but I was still able to make a huge difference just by being creative.
The reason to put each individual item separately is so you can go through each individual item and see if you can lighten it. Do you need 4 oz of DEET? Can you carry just enough for the weekend in a tiny Visine bottle? Do you need the lid that came with your pot? Would foil do? Do you need all the waterproof matches in that container or could you just bring a few? Do these warm socks weigh less than these others? Just keep doing that to each individual item and you'll be amazed how much weight comes off.
You do have to buy a few nice things, like a tent, sleeping bag, backpack, to get your weight low. But after that, you can really just forget about shopping and lower your weight with ingenuity, creativity and good campsite selection. I seriously do not care that there are lighter tents out there. My weight is low enough now because of all the freebie things I did.
88BlueGT
05-05-2011, 09:44
^^ +1
Plus, most 'UL' gear is made from cottage companies and are relatively cheap compared to their heavier, mainstream rivals. UL tents CAN be cheap, UL packs are cheap as well. The most money you will spend on a piece of UL equipment will be a nice down bag.
Like SB said, once yours done w/ your 'Big 4' you can lighten the load with ingenuity. Becoming a "lightweight" backpacker has made my trips more enjoyable and I enjoy backpacking more as a whole.
Plus, it gives us stuff to do and things to talk about while were not out hiking :D
I know! Its kind of funny when you think about it. People go out and spend HUNDREDS of dollars (sometimes more) just to shed a few pounds from their pack and all they really have to do is just dump out some water! lol
what's really funny is that people spend much money (and worrying) cutting a few pounds/oz. then show up at Springer with way too much body weight. The 40 pounds i lost off myself more than compensated for any gear change I could have made. I carried 42 lbs with 4 days food and 2 liters of water. the guy at Mt.Crossing said he could get my weight down another 3-4 lbs. but irt required switching out some gear. i declined, probably lost that much weight off myself in the first week.
88BlueGT
05-05-2011, 09:52
This is true, however, only to a point. When you you are talking 40lbs, this is something that you can certainly feel. I'm sure you felt 10x's better hiking, walking, moving in general.
BUT
When it comes to a few pounds, if I gained 5-6lbs it would not affect the way that I hike or how I feel, however, add 5-6lbs to your pack or remove 5-6lbs and you will DEFINITELY feel a difference. Losing weight certainly helps with endurance, etc. but I could imagine you would only feel a difference if the weight loss was/is significant. I'll stick with the shedding weight from gear method, its more fun than working out anyway :D
Sun Blazed
05-06-2011, 22:37
Whenever you get that list blue just send it to me or post it on here.
That site makes nice gear list. But I agree, that it is a great idea to list everything separate and to post the correct amounts with them. This way, it is easier to look at the list and figure out what you want/need to change out or to simply leave behind. I would suggest getting a set of scales that will weigh down to a single gram though. I use an American Weigh Digital scale (http://sticksblog.com/clothes/american-weigh-amw-13-digital-postalkitchen-scale/) and have been happy with it. It was $20 on Amazon.
I use a simple spreadsheet to organize my gear list's. I can simply plug in formulas to do all of my tallying so that is nice. Here is my AT thru hike gear list that I have made (and still constantly change):
AT Thru Hike Gear List (https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aqh886ycFM9kdEs3VnNWTUsxQmJxbWJYdldCTzJ2M 0E&hl=en)
Sun Blazed
05-07-2011, 23:17
That site makes nice gear list. But I agree, that it is a great idea to list everything separate and to post the correct amounts with them. This way, it is easier to look at the list and figure out what you want/need to change out or to simply leave behind. I would suggest getting a set of scales that will weigh down to a single gram though. I use an American Weigh Digital scale (http://sticksblog.com/clothes/american-weigh-amw-13-digital-postalkitchen-scale/) and have been happy with it. It was $20 on Amazon.
I use a simple spreadsheet to organize my gear list's. I can simply plug in formulas to do all of my tallying so that is nice. Here is my AT thru hike gear list that I have made (and still constantly change):
AT Thru Hike Gear List (https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aqh886ycFM9kdEs3VnNWTUsxQmJxbWJYdldCTzJ2M 0E&hl=en)
Thanks STICK, I had actually already looked at yours. I ran into it the other day when I was searching google.
Hiking is much more fun when you aren't weighed down with a heavy pack. And the planning and details are what happens before the hike anyway. I actually found the greatest expression of creativity for myself when I got really into figuring out how to lighten my load. I loved making a lot of my own gear and being creative about my gear. I didn't have perfect weights for everything, but I was still able to make a huge difference just by being creative.
The reason to put each individual item separately is so you can go through each individual item and see if you can lighten it. Do you need 4 oz of DEET? Can you carry just enough for the weekend in a tiny Visine bottle? Do you need the lid that came with your pot? Would foil do? Do you need all the waterproof matches in that container or could you just bring a few? Do these warm socks weigh less than these others? Just keep doing that to each individual item and you'll be amazed how much weight comes off.
You do have to buy a few nice things, like a tent, sleeping bag, backpack, to get your weight low. But after that, you can really just forget about shopping and lower your weight with ingenuity, creativity and good campsite selection. I seriously do not care that there are lighter tents out there. My weight is low enough now because of all the freebie things I did.
Fun in the planning. Maybe I'll get there one day. I have no long distance experience until I hit the trail in 3wks. I've had no real fun in the planning. I'm alone in my quest. Those around me are supportive but sick of the subject.:o