Thread: Pack Weight

Nimrod on the old fishnhunt forum said. "A heavy pack is made of many light things. "
Wise words.

i found writing down individual weights of all my gear helpful and then comparing to other products to see where i could get lots of bang for buck weight savings for price,
Exo Mtn gear have a spreadsheet you can copy on their website which i copied and modified

Don’t weigh your stuff, thin it out and think about what’s important and what’s not but I’ve been down that track of weighing stuff and you just end up making dumb decisions on what’s good and what’s not based on trying to get to some kind of magical number. Clothing is a big one I think heaps of guys carry way too much clothing, just get yourself a simple system that works and run with it, keep your clothes dry and you don’t need to cart around a full change of clothes for everyday, pants are a waste of time and weight in my opinion, focus on keeping your core dry and warm, legs can handle heaps of cold/wet etc as long as you keep your core warm, carry a set of thermal leggings if need be but only wear them if it’s dry, you can use them for sleeping too. Don’t get suckered into the lightweight pack thing, saving a kg on your pack might feel nice when you first set off but three days in it will feel like you’ve been carrying around an extra 5kg the whole time.
Look at your tent, do you really need a big heavy tent? I’ve just gone to a siltarp and learnt to set it up in different pitches, you can keep surprisingly warm and dry and comfortable with a good tarp pitched in the tent pitch. Look carefully at your food, too many people take the bare minimum freeze drys etc but you’re not feeding your body enough carbs and calories and it’s counter productive, some “normal food, some cheese and chocolate and milk powder mixed with milo for a few shakes etc doesn’t weigh all that much more but will pay dividends by feeding your body what it needs to push hard all day, your moral and mental fortitude comes into this too, you might be able to feed your body all it needs on dehy meals and other cardboard tasting rubbish but it will chip away at you over time, you may not even realise it.
Biggest bang for buck thing I ever did was go to a lightweight boot, a kg off your feet is like taking 5kg off your back. Comfort and looking after your body wins over being super lightweight at the end of the day. There’s a balance there somewhere you just have to find what works for you.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Clothing is a big one I think heaps of guys carry way too much clothing.

I totally agree with this.
When a group of us were doing the NW circuit on Stewart Island, I told everyone two sets of clothes was all they needed - one set for walking in, and another dry set for around the hut, sleeping etc. I relented a bit and said they could take an third pair of underwear and socks.
I probably should also admit that most of my walking set of clothes went in the bin when we got back to Oban....

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

When you get back ditch anything you didn't use for next time. Make list of what you did and didn't use.

My parents did this whenever they travelled overseas. Nowadays they go for a two week trip and only take a carry-on with no checked luggage. I went to North America for two months and only used about half of the clothes I took.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Don’t weigh your stuff, thin it out and think about what’s important and what’s not but I’ve been down that track of weighing stuff and you just end up making dumb decisions on what’s good and what’s not based on trying to get to some kind of magical number. Clothing is a big one I think heaps of guys carry way too much clothing, just get yourself a simple system that works and run with it, keep your clothes dry and you don’t need to cart around a full change of clothes for everyday, pants are a waste of time and weight in my opinion, focus on keeping your core dry and warm, legs can handle heaps of cold/wet etc as long as you keep your core warm, carry a set of thermal leggings if need be but only wear them if it’s dry, you can use them for sleeping too. Don’t get suckered into the lightweight pack thing, saving a kg on your pack might feel nice when you first set off but three days in it will feel like you’ve been carrying around an extra 5kg the whole time.
Look at your tent, do you really need a big heavy tent? I’ve just gone to a siltarp and learnt to set it up in different pitches, you can keep surprisingly warm and dry and comfortable with a good tarp pitched in the tent pitch. Look carefully at your food, too many people take the bare minimum freeze drys etc but you’re not feeding your body enough carbs and calories and it’s counter productive, some “normal food, some cheese and chocolate and milk powder mixed with milo for a few shakes etc doesn’t weigh all that much more but will pay dividends by feeding your body what it needs to push hard all day, your moral and mental fortitude comes into this too, you might be able to feed your body all it needs on dehy meals and other cardboard tasting rubbish but it will chip away at you over time, you may not even realise it.
Biggest bang for buck thing I ever did was go to a lightweight boot, a kg off your feet is like taking 5kg off your back. Comfort and looking after your body wins over being super lightweight at the end of the day. There’s a balance there somewhere you just have to find what works for you.

I agree on the food thing, last trip I did was 3 days with Shearer. I only took dehy for evenings. Breakfast is always quick oats mixed with Milo or drinking chocolate and milk powder. On that trip I took pita breads and salami as fat is what your body craves when working hard and salami keeps for days.

yeah to be honest guys with out taking no gun, food or spare cloths am not going to get super light like the weights above.
I have 4 days to get 2hrs to next base camp. So might move a hour down after 1 day or could end up staying put for 6 days. With out going out and replacing all my gear i will just have to deal with it and in future when replacing items try buying lighter gear.
To be honest three off us are in the same boat. just because we don't do hunts like this.

Also am going down for a good time to enjoy myself and have a holiday at the same time.

Don’t worry about including the weight of your rifle in your calculations. Here is my gear weight list, just be aware that there are some double ups in fly/tent/ hammock depending on which one I take. I also have two pack weights there as well. For me the main difference between a weekend trip and a week long trip is the amount of food I take.
Attachment 195450

When you start on the light weight journey, I agree with the dry gear, wet gear idea. You then need to decide if your dry gear can tolerate some wet at all.... think emergency.... when you are parred down to just two sets of clothing. Can you get away with pure down for warmth and weight or are you beter to trade off a bit for synthetics, that can still work when wetted or at least will dry out to be of use on the trip.
Mostly food stays at 1 Kg per day however you take it.
Can you do two sleeping bags not just one bulky job. Can you use a lightweight booster bag, that does duty as a summer bag too.
A merino / thermal base layer can be your sleep wear and hut wear too.
Options have never been greater than they are today, try to make every choice of gear do double duty or at least fill a redundancy.

Back in the 1970's a 10 day trip used to require our packs weighed 65 ish lbs. Thats 29kgs in metrics. Thats no fancy synthetics etc. Rifle was on top of that. So with all the flash harry clothing and gear available to everyone nowadays no one should be anywhere near that number.

Originally Posted by XR500

Back in the 1970's a 10 day trip used to require our packs weighed 65 ish lbs. Thats 29kgs in metrics. Thats no fancy synthetics etc. Rifle was on top of that. So with all the flash harry clothing and gear available to everyone nowadays no one should be anywhere near that number.

We set off for 14 days in Fiordland (basically a "half traverse" down to the south coast) in 1985 and my pack weight was 23 kgs. That included a shared tent and a shared big old Mtn radio. I dont think it included my rifle,that was pretty light though, a VZ 33 8x57 with a 2.5x scope - those were the days !! I still have the Torres pack I used on that trip!

I took 38kg 5hours up into the tararuas for 7 days hahaha. But we had shitty weather due, so better to be safe than sorry. That was fully loaded including what I was wearing, ammo binos, battery packs, food, tents sleeping bag etc

Originally Posted by Larskramer

I took 38kg 5hours up into the tararuas for 7 days hahaha. But we had shitty weather due, so better to be safe than sorry. That was fully loaded including what I was wearing, ammo binos, battery packs, food, tents sleeping bag etc

Jeepers!!

My pack weight for multi day trips. A couple of things might get left behind, this does include rifle etc and using the Spika pack which is a fantastic load carrier.

@Happy Jack IF you add on a tent, food for five plus days realistic number for spare cloths, ice axe that's about where i am sitting

The most difficult bit of "multi day trip" equipment to sort I think is the daypack/knifebelt/binopouch thing. I like to leave my main pack in camp, usually nice and tidy with most stuff stowed in case a quick exit is required- weathers setting in/shoot something right on dark and want to get out ahead of the game.

My usual day pack (twin needle mollyme) is way to heavy to carry "extra",a bumbag doesn't sit well under a normal pack/waist belt (for me anyway) and a bino pouch's I've seen don't have enough room to carry all the day stuff ....Thought on what works for you ??