Do you weigh your pack before walking?

[David M]

Do you weigh your pack before walking? I know some people know their exact pack weight, ohers don't know or care.

Is pack weight so important?

What do you do?

[ILUVSWTAS]

I wouldnt say it's important, but I always do. Just out of curiosity.

[The Trout Hunter]

I used to pack everything I wanted/needed, try the pack on and if I was happy I would weigh before setting off, just out of curiosity.. Now I have tried to weigh all my larger items along with my pack and it's amazing when you see where most of your weight is.

After doing this I have quickly seen where I can drop my weights and have acted on this whenever I need or want to upgrade some of my gear. I'm not too particular with everything being the lightest it can be, but I always have the weight and thought in my head to try and keep it down I have dropped on average from around 25kgs to approx 18kgs just by adjusting a few items.. Definitely helps knowing what could be too heavy

Gram Weenie is a good helper too if you have an iPhone..

Cheers
Brad

[wayno]

yup,
and if i saw items in shops or online that might be a lot lighter than what i already had , i'd weigh my item to see if there was going to be much reduction in weight if I changed,
I ended up saving about 5 kilos in pack weight by doing this.
there has to be a reasonable saving in weight usually in teh hundreds of grams per item or a reasonable percentage difference in weight for me to change,
I"m not fussed if there is a small difference in weight between what i already have and something I am considering buying, its not a case of every last gram i save counts.
i dont go for ultralight gear. it's just that i started out with some pretty heavyweight gear i didnt need any longer and technology had moved on and i had old gear that i didnt mind replacing.. I still keep some heavier gear for the colder weather and pull out the lighter stuff in the warmer seasons.

[Dale]

David I think it depends. If you're gear is fairly 'dialled in' meaning you take similar items for most of your trips and you are comfortable with your pack weight, then you probably don't need to. If your pack is not comfortable, or you want to reduce weight for whatever reason, than more important than measuring final pack weight is to weigh and record each item. The main reason to weigh your pack before a trip is in case you have a prankster in the house who hides a brick in your pack.

[Miyata610]

Yes I weigh my pack. It can vary quite a lot.

[frenchy_84]

I dont even own a pair of scales

[wayno]

I dont even own a pair of scales

you dont know what fun you're missing....

[walkinTas]

I dont even own a pair of scales

you dont know what fun you're missing....

If ignorance is bliss he should be really happy not knowing....

[wayno]

yeah ignorance was alright bliss when i used to haul around an extra ten kilos of gear.....

[forest]

The main reason to weigh your pack before a trip is in case you have a prankster in the house who hides a brick in your pack.

LOL, yep always check your pack.... We hid a small bottle of white port in a mates pack down at Kosci a few years ago on a week walk. We only smuggled it out from the bottom of his pack in a hut when he went out to the loo.
How he hadn't found it is beyond us but he had heaps of spare stuff and we burried it good !!
He was impressed that "I" had such a low pack weight even with the port bottle.

He did comment that his pack was heaps lighter the next morning.... must have been the extra chocolate he had eaten with the port......

We showed him the action pic's of the bottle removal after we got home...... via an email so we were not in his swing range.
It was funny as I had dinner with the guys last night.... every catch up and this topic comes up at some stage.

[roysta]

I have every piece of gear I own weight listed in my computer.
Doesn't take much time to work it out for each trip.

[TerraMer]

I like to weigh it with and without the consumables, including average daily water, so I know how delightfully light it will be on the last day or before pick up the next cache

[Explorer_Sam]

Dad and I weigh our packs before we walk. Here are some reasons why:

Firstly, we simply like to know how much we carry.
It gives us an idea of how we've packed and whether me may have over-packed.
Dad says that when he weighs his pack and it's lighter than what he thinks it gives him a psychological boost

[stepbystep]

Only on 4+ day trips. On 3 or less day trips I take just as much as the longer trips so there's some luxuries to be had

[South_Aussie_Hiker]

No, I don't weigh the whole pack.

But I do weigh everything that goes in there separately in days/weeks leading up to a trip

Have it saved on excel, and can just manipulate it here and there for each new trip.

People might scoff at gram weenies, and I can understand why. It seems like so much time/effort/money for such tiny gains (a few hundred grams) - time which could be better spent actually on the track!

But for people like me who can only get out once a year due to family committments, weighing & logging gear weights religiously does help you get your total weight down - and makes for a much more enjoyable walk.

The best thing about it on excel is you can get another column going with "wanted" new gear, and when you look at buying new gear you can see what affect it has on your total weight. I do this for all the gear I'm thinking of upgrading/replacing, then I can easily see where I get the biggest gains. For example, you might think your sleeping bag is a problem - but do a spreadsheet, and suddenly you will find by spending the same amount of money on a new tent, you make double the weight savings.

I've lost about 3-4 kgs in a couple of years by choosing gear carefully... without sacrificing or removing luxuries like some ultralight gram weenies do.

[nq111]

No, I don't weigh the whole pack.

But I do weigh everything that goes in there separately in days/weeks leading up to a trip

Have it saved on excel, and can just manipulate it here and there for each new trip.

People might scoff at gram weenies, and I can understand why. It seems like so much time/effort/money for such tiny gains (a few hundred grams) - time which could be better spent actually on the track!

But for people like me who can only get out once a year due to family committments, weighing & logging gear weights religiously does help you get your total weight down - and makes for a much more enjoyable walk.

The best thing about it on excel is you can get another column going with "wanted" new gear, and when you look at buying new gear you can see what affect it has on your total weight. I do this for all the gear I'm thinking of upgrading/replacing, then I can easily see where I get the biggest gains. For example, you might think your sleeping bag is a problem - but do a spreadsheet, and suddenly you will find by spending the same amount of money on a new tent, you make double the weight savings.

I've lost about 3-4 kgs in a couple of years by choosing gear carefully... without sacrificing or removing luxuries like some ultralight gram weenies do.

Sounds very similar to what I do - you forgot to mention one thing - this OCD behaviour also serves as a (poor) substitute for actually getting out

[Strider]

Me too. I've dropped 2.2kg so far just by replacing a few items (stove, pack, mat), and will drop another 2kg once I upgrade my shelter. Good to see where the weight lies!

[wayno]

i never used to give a second thought to the weight of my gear, it was browsing gear on the internet that got me started on saving weight, you'd see the weight of gear listed and I'd realise how much the weight of gear can vary... i had a three and a half kilo pack and changed it for one half the weight.... had a one kilo coat and changed it for one less than half the weight and another one a fifth of the weight... bought boots three quarters of a kilo lighter.. apparently every gram on your foot it the same as eight in your pack for the effort required to move it.... earlier boots were full grain leather that took on a lot of water, now i have synthetic boots that dont hold the water...
found a sleeping bag a kilo lighter than my old one with heavy nylon.... got rid of the burner with a built in heavy steel fuel tank.... for one that uses a fuel bottle for the tank...
when i started tramping all my warm clothing was wool. and not lightweight merino gear.. thick heavy wool, now its all lightweight synthetic, not to mention all the extra water the wool would hold when i was wet.
switching to a lightweight sleeing mat shaved hundreds more grams off..
so for me it was worth it to start paying attention to how much weight i was carrying, of course would have been better if I had of paid attention to the weight of the original gear i bought but I never recall weight being listed in the shops back when i bought it in the eighties,,, and there wasn't a lot of lightweight gear available back then, i tended to frown apon lightweight gear then as being flimsy, now materials have improved and the lightweight gear is stronger than it used to be.

[Ent]

Hi

On long trip I have a spreadsheet with everything weighed but on shorter ones used to use bathroom scales but found despite the claims to accuracy a two to four kilogram variation. So I invested in a set of luggage scales. I then weigh the pack more out of interest but it can be frightening what the pack weighs. This weekend with snow gear and meals for three nights out and four days it came in at just under twenty-seven kilograms

Also find that with a wet tent, pack, etc the weight rises on the trip.

As for gear choices I tend to swing back and forth from lighter weight gear to traditional gear. Winter time in Tassie is when gear must work and that is where I find that lot of lighter weight gear is not up to the the hype. But then some lighter gear is. Love my Versalite sleeping bag and Montane Terra Pants for example but when the weather turn nasty then give me my Paddy Pallin Vista coat and Goretex pants. It is the rain/wind shield layer that gives me huge trouble in saving weight. Love the Montane Air jacket but it does not stand up to pack use. I do chuckle when one of my walking companions turns up at a hut with his MacPac Hollyford jacket and when people express an interest in its length and the fact it is the new "wonder" material eVent then he describes it as a plastic bag. Sort of takes the steam out of their interest. On the last trip when he removed the jacket I wondered if apart from the wind protection if he would be better off without it. Seriously, it is that bad. His Montane Air by comparison is a great jacket for breathability. I do long for the day when long rain coats make a reappearance as when my Vista dies I will be rather at a loss and even that is shorter than I would like. It was the longest Goretex coat I could find.

The scales are a great tool but should not become the master, well at least in my humble opinion.

Cheers

[nq111]

Hi
This weekend with snow gear and meals for three nights out and four days it came in at just under twenty-seven kilograms
Cheers

Don't worry - first time i set out on the overland track as a late teenager on a solo trip I was 33kg . I had a decent tent and sleeping bag - beyond that is was cotton, flannel, wool (including a beanie i found on the face track at the start - my first ).

Actually Tassie I find now easy to get weights reasonable. Next 5 day walk down there I am looking at just under 19kg including food and water - that also includes a heavy bomber tent.

Some walks in Queensland are tougher weight-wise because of water. Two days hot walking without water resupply - there goes 12kg straight up.

No way skimp on water supply! I ran out one afternoon with a days walk out when i was young (saved about a mouthful for the morning). You sleep very poorly when dehydrated (dry horrors) and walking the next morning was not good. I sucked dry the first muddy puddle I found the next afternoon at the base of the mountain without the slightest thought for water contamination. BTW I hadn't forgot to bring water (I had about 6l from memory) but the route was tougher and the weather hotter than anticipated. Bad news.

[Ent]

Yes water. Made a big mistake on the Western Arthurs on water availability. Something that is not pleasant. So much water raining down but so little around.

I would imagine in warmer climates careful consideration is required.

[corvus]

Yes!!
corvus

[ULWalkingPhil]

I alway's weigh my pack. Never used to, but my back is not what it used to be. So for me to continue enjoying my passion I must keep to a very lightweight pack. It's brilliant. Hiking is so much more enjoyable now.

[north-north-west]

No.
I don't weigh it afterwards, either.

I don't need to know how much it weighs - it's mostly the same gear with a few additions of food for longer trips. And it always feels heavier as the walk goes on. Knowing the actual weight is too much of a psychological drag.

[nq111]

And it always feels heavier as the walk goes on.

Really? 2nd day is always heaviest for me. After that it just feels lighter each day.

[north-north-west]

The thing is you expect it to get lighter, so your mind automatically adjusts to any reduction in actual weight and it feels heavier.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Feels lighter for me as each day goes pass as I consume my food.

[Miyata610]

Sometimes my pack seems to weigh only a tiny fraction of its starting weight on the way home. Lol.

[abowen]

Yes, definitely. And sometimes at the end. Surprising how little actually comes off. On very wet trips I surmise that there is some gain with moisture captured by the pack fabric and other gear - a sweat soaked woollen thermal for example.