pack weight insanity

[Mickl]

Couple of things I thought at a quick glance..

Pack cover could save 40-50 grams if you grab a S2S Ultra Sil bag cover for $35-$40
You have a lot of weight in stuff sacks etc which are also in a bag liner already. Could minimize the bag liner weight with an UL version or cheaper still use a garbage bag. You also have get UL stuff sack or perhaps plastic bags or something lighter.
Looks like you have 2 mugs and a bowl. Do you need 2 mugs and can you not eat from the pot once foods cooked?
Oil and spice seems heavy @ 10% of your total 2kg food weight?
Honey is very heavy @ almost 15% of your total 2kg food weight?
Nalgene jars are heavy.
Nalgenes bottles and the dromy weigh heaps empty so could save a fair bit with a standard spring water or soft drink / Gatorade bottles.
First aid is huge and could be reduced heaps, you have mentioned that though already. Main thing I saw was a heat bivy and a heat blanket...Probably don't need both. The knee brace could be made up with bandages so could go and the bag its in weights 88 grams on its own by the looks so that could be a lot lighter (think heavy duty zip lock - Ikea make good double seal ones.)
Strap / 5mm cord not sure what that's for but seems like a lot of weight if its just spare cord for 'just in case.' Could replace with 2mm or similar if you need something.
Knives @ 217 Grams seems like a heavy knife/s and unless you are hunting and killing animals for food I doubt you would need anything that big? Gerber sell some really good folding mini knives that weight under 50 grams and do anything I can think of needed while hiking.
2 x buffs listed as well and could probably make do with one.
Ribz pack - Weight listed as half of your pack weight for the ribs? Can't imagine you would need that as well as a 75 litre pack in 3 seasons weather for 5 or 6 day trips.
I use a BD Spot and Storm and find them good torches with the wide beam and red leds as well. I use the red and spread beam more than the spot beam on most trips plus the spot can dim which is handy.

[Gadgetgeek]

Some good thoughts there. Keeping in mind that I'm in charge of kids, my gear has to be pretty self sufficient, I can't baby it. Yes a silnylon cover would be lighter, but the one I've got is tough. The liner is sil, and lighter than most of the heavy duty bags ive seen. If I was only walking, I'd go with less waterproofing, but often have a canoe section. But I get the point. First aid bag is a sealline nimbus, lightest watertight bag I could find. I might trust a Ziploc for my use, bit not with kids. Often I use work supplied kits, sometimes I need my own.knives and tools, a leatherman is super handy, I like having a can opener. I also need no excuse to buy knives, but the reality is that I am not comfortable cheaping there. It's been too important too often. My thing. On solo, maybe loose redundancy, but not at work. And 250 is better than 400.
Heatsheets, yeah I'll drop one. Ribz pack is how I keep organized but in total is only 1400g, and that includes a lot of normal stuff. Time is never on my side.
Water capacity is based on my needs, as well as spare, matches up with my filter. I've never liked pet bottles much. Could do cheap, opted for durable, would like a dromlite down the track.
Look, not shutting down your ideas, they will become a part of my thought process, just also sharing mine. There are some bits that may have been errors, and some that might be worth changing. Raw sugar over honey? But I tell you, showing someone a tea set not out of manky old ziplocs gets points. And if it costs and extra 100g, I'll find it somewhere else. But yeah, things to look over.

[Mickl]

No worries and only what stood out at a quick look.

I look after school kids as well on walks from year 8 - 12 so I know what you are talking about and I don't think that really makes any difference to the gear I personally take and use myself. The kids should all be carrying there own gear and really only carrying a shared first aid kit and also a shared tarp or similar for an emergency shelter. Other than that they should have everything in their groups like cooking etc.

I guess I look at things like a tough bag cover and then think the reality is that it will spend 99% of the time in my bag so it doesn't need to be tough. Same goes with stuff sacks etc, there in your pack so unlikely to get damaged.

Again with the first aid having to be tough...how often do you actually use it? If you do it should really be you getting it out and removing what you need from it and then putting it back so how does it need to be.

The knife I don't get either and can't imagine what you would need a big knife for but that seems like it may be your thing as you said.

Ribz pack is how I keep organized but in total is only 1400g I think that's the whole point and what you really need to focus on. Its all these little things that will drop kilos from your pack weight.

Sugar over honey would be what I would take and just not so much! I find a few of the little sachets from Maccas or similar is enough per walk. I'm not sure what you mean about the tea set from a zip lock so will leave that.

When I got back into walking a few year ago I was carrying huge packs and was miserable most of the time. But I always thought to myself what if I need that random thing? Problem is those things are what add weight! My last trip was 5 days and including water and food I was at about 13-14KG at the start. Its not UL but it was comfortable and probably 5-6KG less than when I first started. I think I have it to a level that I can manage now and there is only a few minor things I want to change. It's taken me a while to convince myself but to be honest most things only took me leaving them behind once, managing without them and then I didn't worry about it next time.

You're on the right track though and asking questions etc is a good way to start. Good luck with it and believe me its worth the effort.

[Gadgetgeek]

Each organization is different, as is each program. I'm not going to make it sound tougher than it is, most of the trips I do are really pretty easy, and that's mostly since there isn't much sell in the rough and wet misery anymore. As far as tea, and all that goes, one of the things that the folks I work with really try to do is keep the helpers and teachers from the schools happy, and being able to lay out a selection of tea, honey, milk (even if it is powder) really goes a long way to help them get by in what can be a very unfamiliar and out of their control situation. Feeling like I'm handing them a tea ration just doesn't do it. plus when I'm half awake I don't have to battle the jars like I do ziplocs.
And the groups I work for are looking to add to their client lists. I just did a camp with kids who's last camp had been evacuated due to flooding after spending two nights sleeping under a tarp. I'd tell cadets to do it, not private school year 7s. So yeah, we were a bit soft on them. But the kids do carry quite a lot (my food mostly for one!)
Most of my knives are fairly small, and now that I see how heavy they end up being, I'll be sticking to the littler ones. Even smaller swiss army knives can be pretty heavy, but at the end of the day, for me they are well above their weight in utility. call it an addiction, if I'm wearing pants there's a blade there somewhere, unless I'm flying, and even then its until I get into the building.
First aid. I don't trust plastic bags. Some people like them. The nimbus bag seems really durable, no risk of the seal popping. easy math in my mind.
I could dump a few things, some guys carry very little and make the kids carry it all. I'm not mean enough to make some kid clean a trangia after breakfast just so I could have coffee, and I hate shining trangias.
I guess a lot of it comes from my style of teaching. I have all my stuff wired so that I can let them learn by doing, rather than having to micro-manage the entire group. The other thing with the ribz, and maybe this comes from growing up in a country that the weather will kill you before anything else, and developing a bit of unpreparedness paranoia, its pretty well a stand along survival kit as well as everything else. Am I likely to be separated from my pack? no, but that's also what everyone who is thinks too.

I've also found it really helpful to just keep looking over the list and decide which things are really redundant, or are things that are incidental doubles. Some things I can kick out because they are activity specific, or might be better gone about in a different way.

[Gadgetgeek]

Mickl, been taking a bunch of your thoughts on-board, and so far I've chewed the total weight down to 12.5kg dry. Still some ways to go, and some numbers are guesses, but its getting there. There is still about a kilo flex as far as clothes and insulation, and another half in regards to water treatment(partly offset with first aid reductions). I'm going to look at all the food and such to be separate as I have two ways to do it. all food for myself only, or a shared food load. Just comes down to what I want to take to share, and how that all adds up. I swapped the 5mm cord for more 3mm, I need two pieces anyway to hang my tarp if its not on the hammock, so it made sense. I'll probably try to get some zing-it for an additional weight saving, as well as increased strength.

Getting there slowly. thankfully the gear I have is pretty light weight, so its not like I have to go looking to replace a lot of stuff. That's a bonus.

[Mickl]

Good to hear mate. I guess what works for one won't work for everyone but sounds like you're doing well on reducing your weight. Main thing I would say is each trip you do keep note of what you don't use and if its doesn't really get used on two or more trips then get rid of it from your pack.

I have a tarp set up with zing it (one set up with tarp wasps on two lines and the other one is a continuous ridgeline set up.) If you use a hammock the continuous set up would be the go as you can throw your line up and then add tarp and move as you need it easily along the line. As far as zing it goes in that set up it is mega strong and super easy to get a taught ridgeline. I walked into it one night last trip half asleep and nearly close lined myself as it just doesn't move! I might add a review and some pic's up soon a Terra Rossa gear tarp and the two ridgeline set ups.

Mick