OK, I admit it. I am bored and felt like starting a "discussion".
Subject: Is it a fact or a myth that for every pound of weight on your feet it equals a much larger weight in your pack.
Background: I have seen folks claim numbers from a factor of 3 (this was thirty years ago) up to 6 (in the last couple of weeks). To clarify my understanding of this claim it would go something like this: if your boots weighed 3 lbs apiece then it is the equivalent of adding from 18 to 36 lbs (depending on your favorite factor from above) to your pack over going bare foot.
Question: does anyone actually have scientific (sorry, I am an engineer) proof that some version of the above is true or false.
My opinion: There is some truth to the claim, as experience has demonstrated that the heavier the shoe the more exhaustion one feels at the end of the day. However, experience has also convinced me that the claim is wildly exagerated. For example, when I was much younger I participated in a mountain climbing expedition to the wilds of Alaska. At the time I weighed a very ripped 145 lbs and carried a 110lb pack (camping and climbing equipment plus 21 days of food). As you can imagine there was no room for extra shoes so I (as did everyone else) wore my mountaineering boots. I don't know the actual weight of the boots but I am sure that they were at least 3 lbs each (I think 4 but we will go with 3). Nothing was light 30 years ago! By the figures above this works out to an equivalent of 18 to 36 extra lbs. Or 128 to 146 lbs equivalent. Though I could and did carry that pack all day long, over rough trailless terrain, I do not believe that I could have actually carried the equivalent of 128-146 lbs. The 110 lbs kicked my butt good.
I have thought about this claim some and compared it to other examples I know of in mountaineering and extreme backcountry travel. I just do not believe it can be true. Other examples: in backcountry mountaineering and cross-artic or ant-artic travel it is not uncommon for people to carry 50 lb packs and pull 100+ lb sleds for long periods of time while wearing heavy footwear. Also, thirty years ago many long distance hikers (AT & PCT) carried 60 lb packs, wore heavy hiking boots and managed to do 20 mile days consistantly. I think these examples indicate that factors in the 5-6 lb range must be urban (rural??) legends vice fact.
Anyway, does anyone want to throw in their $.02? No fighting now
Wyo