Bought a scale, want to weigh everything

[Rolex]

Hanging scale? Hah . I use a kitchen scale that weighs in grams, up to 5 kg. (If you have any single item heavier than 5kg, you have a problem. ) Weigh each item and write it in a spreadsheet. There are web sites where you can enter it, too, and add everything up before a trip.

Being a "gram weenie" is an occupational hazard.

I use a kitchen scale. For the hanging items, I lay the long bottom of a clothes hanger across it with hook hanging under. Hit the Tare weight and pick it up from bottom of the scale. (I've also used a board ala diving board style to hold it).

And yes, I've weighed even empty plastic bottles to get the lightest one and their caps. It's a terrible affliction.

On a side note, I was training up to go Special Forces in the 90s. I was carrying a full Army ALICE Ruck of everything I could possibly get into that thing and walking it in the desert in El Paso every night and weekends 17-20 miles.
I would love to know how much that heavy pig weighed. It had to break 100 at least based on what I can remember in it and I only weighed around 140!

[Tipi Walter]

I need my Kahtoola microspikes for winter backpacking---what's the point of weighing them? I need my WM down bag for the winter---what's the point of weighing it?

I need my t-shirt and North Face shorts and Smartwool socks and hiking boots and no amount of weighing will change my mind.

Fact is, calculating weight comes when I purchase a backpacking item---say a 2 lb Thermarest---and once this initial figuring is done in my head before purchase it is never ever actually weighed again. I have never weighed individual items before a trip. If I need something or I must have something I try and research the lightest available options and once found the weight is never again considered.

The whole conglomerate pile of crap can then be weighed for overall pack weight including food and water and fuel ETC---what I call my Accoutrements of Idiocy. Individuals who weigh individual items with a scale are in my opinion trying to find a good reason to not leave the house and go outside. If a person is determined to get out no matter what, he'll get whatever gear he wants and go---and not once will he consider using a weight scale to do so.

Can you hike more than 30 feet with a 75 lb pack? If so you're good to go.

[Rolex]

Individuals who weigh individual items with a scale are in my opinion trying to find a good reason to not leave the house and go outside. If a person is determined to get out no matter what, he'll get whatever gear he wants and go---and not once will he consider using a weight scale to do so.

Can you hike more than 30 feet with a 75 lb pack? If so you're good to go.

Tipi, I assure you that your opinion of one of those that weighs things out of idle curiosity is NOT "looking for a reason to not leave the house".
The scale is only another tool/toy to play with relating to the hobby of being outdoors and a side benefit of research to gather all facts about a decision.

And hiking more than 30 feet with a 75 pound pack?
No. You are wrong. Someone that is relatively starting or older with disabilities will be discouraged with weights like this and injured possibly.
that means less hikers. That means less public voices and outcry to keep trails, forests, and BLM lands kept open for our use because our public front gets smaller with each idiot that doesn't get up and go outside.

That's my opinion such as yours. ymmv

[CarlZ993]

It is a sickness that I have. I have learned that I am a carrier. I've given the sickness to many of my backpacking friends.

[Tipi Walter]

The best weight scale is your shoulders, feet, knees and legs. And above all a willing motivated mind to carry your stuff into the mountains.

[LoneStranger]

The best weight scale is your shoulders, feet, knees and legs. And above all a willing motivated mind to carry your stuff into the mountains.

As an aspiring Ultra Loader I can see where you assume the reason to weigh things is to avoid carrying them, but there is, as often the case, much more to be considered. How will you know if you can carry 40 pounds of food or 50 if you don't know how much the rest of what is in your pack weighs? How can you laugh when someone guesses your pack must weigh 70 pounds if you don't know it is well under 40?

There is no absolute right or wrong. Folks should do what makes them happy. Ultra Loaders are just as silly as Ultra Lighters, we just eat better

[Tipi Walter]

As an aspiring Ultra Loader I can see where you assume the reason to weigh things is to avoid carrying them, but there is, as often the case, much more to be considered. How will you know if you can carry 40 pounds of food or 50 if you don't know how much the rest of what is in your pack weighs? How can you laugh when someone guesses your pack must weigh 70 pounds if you don't know it is well under 40?

There is no absolute right or wrong. Folks should do what makes them happy. Ultra Loaders are just as silly as Ultra Lighters, we just eat better

This is I think an excellent post and may even be philosophical, too. Your quote:

THE REASON TO WEIGH THINGS IS TO AVOID CARRYING THEM

is very excellent. I think this one quote should be in a list of Backpacking Pearls of Wisdom.

Most people who guess my pack weight to be 70 lbs are often off by 20 lbs---it's actually 90.

[squeezebox]

Seems to me the UL folks only refer to their summer gear only, never talk about down jackets, double sleeping pads, and such things that are needed in cold weather.
And the Ultrapackers are talking about their winter set up. Hilliberg tent, -20* bag, ice cleats and the rest.
Apples and oranges my friends.
Nobody is going to carry anything they really don't need. Am I gonna buy a snow shovel for a summer trip? No way. But the woman who died in the Whites in deep winter should have had one. But if you have to ask me for blister care, or hot water you made an obvious UL mistake, and just stepped into stupid light. It's not about some holy grail wt. number it's about being safe. Would I go with Tipi in deep winter? Yea. Would I go out with a 5 lb- ULer in July. who is not carrying food or water? No way.
Have fun be safe!!

[jdc5294]

Seems to me the UL folks only refer to their summer gear only, never talk about down jackets, double sleeping pads, and such things that are needed in cold weather.
And the Ultrapackers are talking about their winter set up. Hilliberg tent, -20* bag, ice cleats and the rest.
Apples and oranges my friends.
Nobody is going to carry anything they really don't need. Am I gonna buy a snow shovel for a summer trip? No way. But the woman who died in the Whites in deep winter should have had one. But if you have to ask me for blister care, or hot water you made an obvious UL mistake, and just stepped into stupid light. It's not about some holy grail wt. number it's about being safe. Would I go with Tipi in deep winter? Yea. Would I go out with a 5 lb- ULer in July. who is not carrying food or water? No way.
Have fun be safe!!

I don't know if I could be considered UL but I can tell you my winter base weight is below 15lbs.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Knowing what stuff weighs is a great exercise, but I to backpacking to relax, I analyze spreadsheets at work and it's not my idea if a good time. Tipi rightly points out that the weight of an item is a consideration when you buy it, but after that why sweat it? If you need it then you need it and it should be in your pack. The trick is to know what you need and whet you don't.

When I get ready for a trip I usually just pour a jack and coke the night before and then proceed to throw my gear into my bag. As I do so I ask myself "do I need it?" and "do I really want to carry it." Over the last couple of years, my three season pack weight has dropped down to well under 20lbs with water and three days food and hiking poles. I call that good enough and I got there without obsessing over grams or pouring over spreadsheets. I just carry my needs and leave my "what if's" at home.

[BirdBrain]

Weighed everything, eh? How much do the scales weigh?

[Sarcasm the elf]

I don't know if I could be considered UL but I can tell you my winter base weight is below 15lbs.

I think that people don't discuss winter pack weight because Winter is not a fixed criteria. Winter in Georgia, Connecticut, The White mountains in New Hampshire and the front range in Colorado are all completely different things. Three season backpacking is just so much more homogenous and easier to compare.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Weighed everything, eh? How much do the scales weigh?

Easy to figure out, just turn it on and flip it upside down.

[jdc5294]

I think that people don't discuss winter pack weight because Winter is not a fixed criteria. Winter in Georgia, Connecticut, The White mountains in New Hampshire and the front range in Colorado are all completely different things.

Ha ok true enough. Just for kicks I was actually on the side of Pike's Peak in Colorado last night with my ~15lb set up, and I survived pretty comfortably. Posted up right near the treeline (so around 12,000ft), plenty of snow there even though there's none back on the "ground". I'm really not good at guesstimating temperature but at the summit (2,000 more feet) it's going down to between 10 and 15 each night right now, so maybe around 20 where I was? Had a Feathered Friends 20 degree bag with all the down moved towards the top, and a Neo Air xTherm pad right on the snow. I had an Outdoor Research Helium Bivy with me but I didn't use it. I was also pretty bundled up in my bag. Slept fine even after the fire went out.

11214329_10153132745915636_7529005873121136304_n.jpg

[Tipi Walter]

Nobody is going to carry anything they really don't need. Am I gonna buy a snow shovel for a summer trip? No way. But the woman who died in the Whites in deep winter should have had one.

Have fun be safe!!

It's funny you should bring up Kate Matrosova who as you say died on a dayhike in terrible conditions in the Presidentials.

Erik Thatcher was in a 10 man rescue team that located Kate and this is one of his quotes---

"Kate's kit was rather stripped down to the bare essentials. No partner, no bivy gear, and even relatively light on essential layers in my opinion. This in itself is no sin. What it means is that she was operating with no room for error." ERIK THATCHER.


In the Comment section, Erik mentions what part of her kit she did not have---


"The first is mittens. She had regular gloves which in my experience just doesn't cut it. The second is a neoprene ski mask . . . .no snow shoes, no crampons were on when she was found." ERIK THATCHER.

[jdc5294]

It's funny you should bring up Kate Matrosova who as you say died on a dayhike in terrible conditions in the Presidentials.

Erik Thatcher was in a 10 man rescue team that located Kate and this is one of his quotes---

"Kate's kit was rather stripped down to the bare essentials. No partner, no bivy gear, and even relatively light on essential layers in my opinion. This in itself is no sin. What it means is that she was operating with no room for error." ERIK THATCHER.


In the Comment section, Erik mentions what part of her kit she did not have---


"The first is mittens. She had regular gloves which in my experience just doesn't cut it. The second is a neoprene ski mask . . . .no snow shoes, no crampons were on when she was found." ERIK THATCHER.

If I remember correctly, weather was also a pretty big factor there right? Wasn't she caught in a blizzard with 100mph winds or something? And she tried to keep going instead of coming back down?

[BirdBrain]

Easy to figure out, just turn it on and flip it upside down.

Not sure that would weigh the tray. Not going to check.... yet. Watching Patriots.

[jdc5294]

Not sure that would weigh the tray. Not going to check.... yet. Watching Patriots.

That's a coincidence because they're watching the other team with video cameras

[BirdBrain]

Easy to figure out, just turn it on and flip it upside down.

Not sure that would weigh the tray. Not going to check.... yet. Watching Patriots.

Scale weighs 422 grams. Scale without tray weighs 218 grams. The tray weighs 203 grams. The scale reads 55 grams upside down. Not only does the scale not measure the weight of tray when upside down (that seemed to be a given), it also does not measure the weigh of the weighing mechanism (I overlooked that possibility). It is only measuring the weight of the body that houses the weighing mechanism and possibly part of the weighing mechanism.

But ya', .... my wife's kitchen scale weighs 422 grams. I am not going to dissect my hiking scales.

[Rmcpeak]

LEGO Friends 41092 Stephanie's Pizzeria https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ8EXHM..._c6sqwbBKCA5V7


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