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  1. #1
    Registered User Spirit Bear's Avatar
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    Default What's your base weight?

    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.
    You're not going to live forever
    Find this to be true
    Use your past as a guide
    While you're alive
    Live

  2. #2
    Hiker bigcranky's Avatar
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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.
    Ken B
    'Big Cranky'
    Our Long Trail journal

  3. #3
    Registered User Spirit Bear's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigcranky View Post
    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
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  4. #4
    PCT 2013, most of AT 2011, rest of AT 2014
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    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

    http://www.scrubhiker.com/

  5. #5
    Garlic
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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. #6
    Registered User Spirit Bear's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SCRUB HIKER View Post
    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.
    Hence why I'm discussing it on a message board.
    You're not going to live forever
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  7. #7
    Registered User bubonicplay's Avatar
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    Default What's your base weight?

    6.29 and just a few cuben stuff sacks. Full inflatable air mattress.

  8. #8
    PCT, Sheltowee, Pinhoti, LT , BMT, AT, SHT, CDT, TRT 10-K's Avatar
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    I'm shooting for 6 lbs this spring/summer - everything but food and water.

  9. #9
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    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.

  10. #10

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    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

  11. #11
    Registered User Old Boots's Avatar
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    I want to see all you bare naked hikers sleeping under a Cuban fiber sheet on pine boughs.

  12. #12
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    Relative proximity to the equator is also relevant to one what includes in his 3-season base weight, lol.

  13. #13

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    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.

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by WingedMonkey View Post
    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.

    I thought I was the only one that thought like this.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by WingedMonkey View Post
    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.

    Yeah, like taking micro spikes when there's no ice and not taking them when you have to slide down the trail on your butt.

  16. #16

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    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.

  17. #17
    ...Or is it Hiker Trash? Almost There's Avatar
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    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

  18. #18
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    I'm at 20lbs with food but no water.
    Let me go

  19. #19
    Registered User kayak karl's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Old Boots View Post
    I want to see all you bare naked hikers sleeping under a Cuban fiber sheet on pine boughs.
    You do, do ya
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

  20. #20

    Default

    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

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