pack(with gear) weight- pre food/water?

[AWTtrekker]

Juat curious what weight people find their gear runs at before they add food and water? Just made myself up a spread sheet and I am in the tweaking stages looking at my gear for my AAWT walk. Just fiddling to see where I can save some weight here and there. Looking to stay light without any excessive compromises on comfort and have a couple of things I may add back in at the end if I can justify it to myself .

[Mickl]

What are your weights? If you use the website gear grams you can upload all your gear and chop and change lists to see how it effects weight. You can upload a link to your list for people to look at if you want when you're done.

I've just done one for a 4 day trip in a few weeks https://www.geargrams.com/list?id=40864

My list could be about 1kg lighter without the chair, pillow and Minipresso but they make the trip enjoyable so I'm happy to carry the weight.

[AWTtrekker]

Thanks, that looks handy I have mine inputed in to an excel spreadsheet already so I can fiddle. Currently my ex food and water weight is around 11kg including a solid comfy pack, a tent and warm sleeping bag and a couple of luxury items which add comfort. For a seven week walk with up to 12 day stretches with potential bad weather I am inclined to think this isn't too bad. My food is really light as I am dehydrating a lot of my own recipes so I am running 8 days food at about 4kg at this point.

[Mickl]

So basically around 15kg with your food added and no water? 11KG isn't too bad but when you add food and possibly water on top that's a reasonable amount to carry with such a low amount being for the food, I'd be interested to see your list of items your taking. Its surprising how it all adds up when you start listing it all down!

[AWTtrekker]

The items that add the weight are my pack and warm tent/sleeping bag. All lightweight options for their rating but still add up. Necessary for safety though when snow is a very real possibility. There is a fly sheet that is semi-optional and I haven't yet decided on that however I am considering taking my lighter tent and the fly as a combo which still runs at less than 2kg for the two.

[Mark F]

Keep an eye on the weight of your food. 500g per day is usually a bit light after the first two or three days as your appetite builds and it will build over a few weeks of walking. I find I average out at about 650-700 grams per days on longer trips ignoring the luxuries tucked away in each food drop. Perhaps put a bit of effort in getting your base weight below 10kg to allow for this.

[ChrisJHC]

A few things:
1. Most people list their "base weight" excluding food and water as this is highly dependent on the actual trip.
2. I agree that 700g of food per day is more realistic
3. Just did a three-day trip with a base weight of 13kg
4. My "luxuries" are my blow-up pillow, my espresso maker and my sandals (camp shoes plus emergency footwear)


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[AWTtrekker]

Thanks guys. My food is based on a daily intake of approx 13000kj including plenty of protein and slow burning carbs so should be more than adequate, I will be carrying some spare food though as well. .

[nq111]

My food is based on a daily intake of approx 13000kj including plenty of protein and slow burning carbs so should be more than adequate, I will be carrying some spare food though as well. .

I work on 15,000kj per day and still loose weight. I am 6'4" however . I try to average 2,000kj per 100g of food - which is not easy.

Current baseweight for a generic Tassie hills trip is 10.4 kg. Main luxury is a bombproof, heavy tent (Hilleberg Tarra) but work on that being shared by two.

Definitely worth fiddling as much as you can to save some weight - i have been for years and whilst the savings are incremental, over the years have added up to kilograms.

[TerraMer]

For the AAWT in winter I carried about 14-17kg. In summer, autumn and spring about 9-12kg. Walking in more moderate to warm climate zones about 5-9kg. These are just "pack" weights before food and water for a 1-2 week walk.

[onward]

Doing the AAWT at the moment (although with 100km to go my Dad ups and dies...so that last 100kms Sth will have to wait a couple of weeks) but base weight of around 8kgs (and the Aarn pack is 1.9kg of that), food around 700gms a day (but I am dropping around 1kg a week off my body!...best and cheapest weight saving yet) I am on a slightly faster walk of around 33 days (I am 59 so a bit slow on those steep bits and the sun keeps going down earlier) so should really increase the daily kilojoules. Have carried up to 4L of water on top of that because of dry camps. Also carry an extra day of food. So ranging from a delightful 9-10kgs with little food and 1L water to 17kg with 7/8 days food and 4L of water...hate the 7days plus 4L water. So far all gear used except the S2S insect net and the PLB. I do have luxuries such as a solar panel, extra batteries to recharge phone (when it is cloudy/raining for days in a row!), Kindle, pillow, wind jacket, 3L raincoat and that damn guide book, which I would not have for a shorter walk.

[rcaffin]

Check out the definitions of L, UL, SUL etc under Ultralight.
Bear in mind that the American definition of Super UL is a base weight of under 5 POUNDS. And quite a few do that too - but in the Sierras where the weather is ALWAYS good.

For a week in Kosci NP, I carry about 12 kg and my wife carries 9 kg - that's with food and water. We live comfortably.

Cheers

[AWTtrekker]

Thanks guys for all the great replies! I am doing a lot of tweaking at the moment and trying to swap things out for lighter versions where it is feasible so I hope to shave off at least a kilo maybe more just in that process and my total weight currently includes a couple of items which I may decide not to take at all.

nq111 I am a 5'10" female and when I put my details in to calculations for KJ needs per day I actually get a range of 11-12000kj per day so I am allowing some extra over that. I am also currently carrying about 5-6kg over what I would call my preferred bodyweight and to be honest I am quite happy to hold on to that for now on the basis that a fair chunk of that might drop off along the track.

[madmacca]

I am usually around 7kg base weight (ie. excluding food and water). If you post you gear list, I'm sure people will offer a friendly critique.

I agree with Mark F. 500g/day is not enough food for an extended walk. While you can get away with this on a weekend walk by running down your reserves, this is not feasible for an extended walk like AAWT. Walking 6+ hours per day while carrying and pack and climbing mountains adds significant calorie burn in addition to your baseline metabolism shown in most calculators. 15-20,000 kj is more realistic. I plan on 700g per day, with 800g if I intend on covering longer daily distances, and even then I find myself losing significant weight on the trail.

Menu planning and nutrition is a tricky thing. Your body needs protein and carbs to support extended activity like that, but both of these have about 17 kj per gram, while fats come in at 37 kj per gram. Peanut butter is very nutrionally dense, and I try to add about 20 ml of olive oil when cooking up dinner each night.