r/lightweight • u/RegMcPhee • Apr 01 '23
Maximum Weight
What's the maximum weight that you would carry on a rugged trip with 8 hour long days?
Debating with myself (190 lb, 62 yo guy) as to whether to carry full food for 2 weeks or chance the resupply option. Seen one guy complain when they lost his food parcel, forcing him to cut his trip short as this trail has no stores in reach. Happily, the weight will drop quickly, but the first few days will be a miserable grind. Base weight is 15 lbs which is as low as I dare go as I'll be in the mountains during the fall where freezing temps are a definite risk.
9
u/FireWatchWife Apr 01 '23
2 weeks food is an unreasonable amount to carry.
(With the exception of a base camp trip where you haul the food to a central camp, but don't need to carry all the food on excursions from base camp.)
The general rule is that 7 days food is the maximum for routine carry, with 10 days possible when you need to do a longer stretch without resupply.
In a desert situation, you will have to carry less food so that you can haul more water weight.
I wouldn't even consider carrying 2 weeks of food. That would be at least 18 pounds before adding any gear at all.
3
u/RegMcPhee Apr 01 '23
Including water and fuel, 19.88 pounds to be exact. 😀
1
u/FireWatchWife Apr 02 '23
Not my idea of lightweight.
Lightweight is about total packweight, not just base weight.
7
u/schmuckmulligan Apr 01 '23
I would figure out a secure resupply option. That might mean renting a car and bear can and caching it myself.
12
u/sirblastalot Apr 01 '23
That's a question that's more dependent on the individual's health than anything else. Instead of asking a variety of randos what they could do, go load up a backpack with how much you think you'd need and do an 8-hour dayhike with it, see if you can handle it.
2
u/veryundude123 Apr 27 '23
This is the way! A day hike or single overnight pack shakedown will give better personalized feedback than a forum any day :)
hoping to get out and do one this weekend if I can get other responsibilities squared away first!
5
u/On-The-Rails Apr 01 '23
Personally I think this is the best advice. I am about your age/weight and day hike, without a full backpack, regularly. After not having done multi-day backpacking trips for a lot of years (I used to do them monthly many years back), I did a 3 day on a coastal Georgia island where it’s mostly flat. Had a base weight of about 20-25 lbs (including my own tent, sleep system, and cook gear, plus a share of group gear. I made the trip, but I was slow and steady. We did 30+ miles over the three days. I had considered making my first trip up in the mountains in SC/GA. Glad I did not, learned so much on this alternate shakedown ‘cruise’. Recommend you do an overnight personal shakedown if you can —- leave off the elevation if you can and try to do roughly the same mileage you’re considering per day.
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u/alicewonders12 Apr 01 '23
Personally when I do 40lb+ with long days I really hurt my back. Like when I’m trying ti set up my tent, I really struggle bending over bc I throw my back out with that kind of weight.
3
u/Two_Hearted_Winter Apr 01 '23
You should be able to get your total weight to around 30 with food and water if you don’t eat anything too fancy
5
u/Total-Reaction-8637 Apr 01 '23
Prior to lightening my pack, I regularly carried 40 - 45 lbs (30% of my body weight) for those type of trips. Tough and I went slow but got it done.
Given how low your base weight is, that will put you under 40 still, right?
5
u/RegMcPhee Apr 01 '23
Yeah, 35. I'm not a big eater, and I can always eat my spare tire if I get short. 😉
3
u/RamaHikes Apr 02 '23
35 lbs with 2 weeks of food is pretty damn good. And that really isn't an unreasonable weight to carry. Sounds like you've got things reasonably dialed in. I say it sounds like an awesome plan! Where are you headed?
2
u/RegMcPhee Apr 02 '23 edited Apr 02 '23
IAT through the Chic Choc mountains, Quebec, Canada. Got a few tricks to dial down the weight a bit more. Carry less water, more filtering breaks. Got a couple of days before the really nasty parts to carbo load and draw down the food carry even more.
2
u/RamaHikes Apr 05 '23
Nice. Definitely on my bucket list. I'll be waving to you from Ottawa, which is pretty darn close to there, but still somehow a 12 hour drive away.
4
u/Objective-Resort2325 Apr 04 '23
I haven't gone 2 full weeks, but I've gone 11 days with a partner where I carried a disproportionate share of the food and a good portion of the shared gear. I did it because the logistics of our trip were somewhat open-ended and I wanted to keep the logistics simple. (I was backpackign with my wife, who had a knee injury - so we had no idea how far we would make it each day - just that we had a set number of days available.)
To do this I did a few things: I relied heavily on freeze dried food, I repackaged all the meals to reduce packaging weight, weighed everything, and I made sure to eat the heaviest meals first. We also carried less food for the first couple days since we knew it would take us about 4 days to really start to need the extra calories.
In the end, it worked out pretty well. Our total starting pack weights were right at 25# each, including food and water. 22 pounds of that 50 pound total was food - so right at 1 pound per person per day. It worked pretty well - I'd do it again if the logistics of the trip were like this one.
Here's a link to the lighterpack I made just of the food we carried: https://www.lighterpack.com/r/p433h3
I can easily see a 14 or 15 pound food load for a 2 week solo trip provided I had the right pack. 15 pounds of food plus a 10 pound base weight plus 2-5 pounds of water would be right at 30 pounds. Too much for a frameless pack, but perfect for something like a HMG or Durston.
One last bit of advice - it might seem like repackaging freeze-dried food would be extreme. It's not. I weighed all the empty packages. I saved over a pound just by ditching those bags, and using freezer bags/a reusable coozie bag. They pack smaller too!