My base weight for spring summer and fall is 14.4lbs.
Is this good bad or outstanding?
Im new to backpacking, old car camper, just started hiking last January. a year ago my baseweight was around 27lbs.
My base weight for spring summer and fall is 14.4lbs.
Is this good bad or outstanding?
Im new to backpacking, old car camper, just started hiking last January. a year ago my baseweight was around 27lbs.
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Use your past as a guide
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Outstanding. Well, pretty darn good for starting out. I assume this is *everything* except food and water, and not just the weight of your tent/pack/bag, right?
I'm always happy with a ~15 pound base weight for spring and fall hiking. Winter starts pushing 20, and summer closer to 12-13.
Yea, that's everything except my 2 liters of water and food. I am still trying to figure out what's the best food on the trial, calories per oz ratio. I don't like cooking, so I only eat a hot meal for dinner. Either pasta sides, ramin or Rice dishes. I add bacon bits, peporni to them or whatever else I find at the local grocery/gas stations in towns. Breakfast is poptarts or bars, penut butter for lunch with ritz crackers and then my own gorp formula (gummy bears, m&ms, hot peanuts, and raisens)
You're not going to live forever
Find this to be true
Use your past as a guide
While you're alive
Live
You can be fine with 25 or fine with 10, it really doesn't matter as long as you know how to use your stuff. Stop worrying about it; no one talks about these things in the woods anyway.
"Hahk your own hahk." - Ron Haven
"The world is a book, of which those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine
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Yes, it is good. It took me several seasons to drop that much weight.
I notice you automatically said "2 liters of water". One thing you'll notice as your pack gets lighter is the water weight. One liter of water is the heaviest thing in my pack, including the pack, so I'm pretty frugal with the water I carry. On much of the AT, at least in spring, I carried no water at all. The springs were flowing, it was cool, and I saw no need to burden myself with water until I planned to camp. I would stop to eat and rest at springs. It's nice to not schlep an extra kilogram of mass if you don't really need to.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
6.29 and just a few cuben stuff sacks. Full inflatable air mattress.
I'm shooting for 6 lbs this spring/summer - everything but food and water.
I don't know. I don't bother to weigh any more. I know what I want to take with me depending on where I'm going and what conditions to expect.
And still every trip there is always a little something I wish I'd left at home, and a little something I wish I had brought with me.
The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
You never know which one is talking.
17 sounds really good. Not too crazy UL but thoughtful about what you pack. Mine is anywhere from 16 to 19 depending on the season. Winter gear is heavier. I used to try to cut so much then I learned I really DO want that 4.1 oz double insulated cup instead of the .6 oz plastic one and I really DO want the 11 oz air mattress instead of the 7 oz zrest! It's about what works for you! BTW my first pack, 15 years ago, weighed 45
I want to see all you bare naked hikers sleeping under a Cuban fiber sheet on pine boughs.
Relative proximity to the equator is also relevant to one what includes in his 3-season base weight, lol.
Id say its darned good for starting out. It means you selected gear with weight in mind, and made effort to eliminate things that werent really needed.
My base runs between 6-9 lbs, depending on trip length, pack used, gear used, etc. Tailor it to the conditions.
Also dont worry about it much. I have gear list I bring, it changes very little. Maybe heavier long johns, maybe heavier bag, maybe heavier pack, maybe heavier pad, maybe synthetic insulation vs down, etc. But the gear list, is basically always the same, with very few exceptions, and none that are significant.
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 04-03-2013 at 18:15.
Fifteen to nineteen pounds depending on the season. I did a lot of research before I bought stuff for my first backpacking trip back in 2006 and my base weight for that first trip was between 15 and 16 pounds. Since then it's stayed about the same, as I add a little or take away a little as I gain experience.
About 14lbs for everything but food and water. Depends on which electronic gadgets I bring, could get down to 13. My big 3 come in at just under 6lbs.
Walking Dead Bear
Formerly the Hiker Known as Almost There
I'm at 20lbs with food but no water.
Let me go
This is my list of base weight material. I haven't gotten my shorts yet and there are a few miscellaneous items not yet included such as maps, matches, but spray etc., but the remaining items shouldn't add up to more than a pound. My total is about 20lbs.
Item Lb. Oz. Total Z rest 15.7 0.98125 Sleeping Bag 3 8 3.5 Tent 2 11 2.6875 Steaks 0 Ground Tarp 0 Columbia Rain Jacket 1 0 1 Frog Togs Rain Pants 0 11.1 0.69375 Galyans Pack Cover 7.8 0.4875 Down Jacket 1 5 1.3125 Champion Shirt 5.1 0.31875 Button up shirt 5.1 0.31875 Flashlight 1.6 0.1 Leatherman 4.6 0.2875 Stove 14.5 0.90625 Gas 12 0.75 Pack 5 11 5.6875 Total 19.03125