Wednesday, August 6, 2014

All packed!

Except food and water.  Lacking anything other than a bathroom scale to weigh it, I weighed myself without the pack, then put the packed up pack on, then added the fanny pack.  Got a base pack weight of 15.8 lbs, which sounds really pretty good, especially considering that I cut a lot of costs by not buying super expensive ultralight stuff, like a really lightweight, great tent, etc.

But the fanny pack was an additional 3.2 lbs.  Combined total base pack weight--and I think it's only fair to combine them--is 19.0 lbs.  Not exactly ultralight, but certainly lightweight compared to the crazy pack weights we used to haul around as teenagers.  I'm not unhappy.  I had estimated a total of 16.5 lbs, but I added a few minor items, and ended up using small bungee cords to hold the sleeping pad in place.  I could have cut off some paracord and saved some weight there, but it's not worth the effort.

I could also shave a little weight by getting rid of a few things--the fanny pack could be repackaged inside the backpack, saving the fanny pack weight.  I could ditch the SteriPEN and camera cases.  I could probably ditch the tarp.

But frankly, I think the fanny pack concept is too convenient.  So what if it adds a pound or so?  Totally worth it to have stuff readily and easily available without having to stop, take my pack off and dig through the side pockets.

The corner of my room looking a bit more organized...

1 comment:

  1. I also went to my "improved gear list" tab and tallied up my estimated weight there. I'd have a net gain of about 2.75 lbs., although that's mostly made up of the Jetboil stove and fuel cannister and a handful of other items that I don't currently have. Otherwise, I'd be replacing what I have now with something of equal or lighter weight (tent, for example, saves me a pound or two.) With a stove and set-up for one, I'd be over 20 lbs pretty easy, but not a lot. If I continued cookless but got the lighter tent, I'd be about 17-17.5 lbs.

    I'm actually quite happy with the results, even though it's a few pounds higher than my estimate. This is still a good result, I think, in terms of weight reduction compared to what I'm used to. And I'm willing to take on a few pounds (easily less than five) for the convenience of my set-up, to say nothing of the cost compared to expensive ultralight options.

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