I've a confession to make.
I've never weighed my pack. I have no idea what my base weight is, either pack-only or From Skin Out.
I do have a couple of spreadsheets listing gear, but I don't even have weights on them. They're packing lists, more than anything else, just to make sure I've not forgotten anything. They have headings like "overnight in deep winter," "day trip in shoulder season," and "multi-night trip in high summer."
I do look at gear weight when I'm replacing an item. I usually need to go back and look up the specs of whatever I'm replacing to rediscover what it weighs, so that I can ask myself, "is the replacement lighter?" But that's about it.
If I need something for safety, or really want something for comfort, or something is needed for my purpose on a trip, I bring it. There's a certain amount of equipment needed for map-making or photography, but sometimes that's why I'm going! Adjust to conditions. I wouldn't bring my saw unless I'm out to clear blowdown, because that'd be stupid. I wouldn't leave my microspikes at home at this time of year, because that'd be suicidal.
I'm kind of slow, and don't like doing big miles, but that more relates to being just about sixty years old and to not being able to get in more than a couple hundred miles on trail a year, than it does to being overburdened. At least I think so. I'm usually pretty comfortable carrying my pack to the places that I want to go, as long as it's at my own pace.
But then again, I'm not what you'd call a long-distance hiker. The longest trail I've thru-hiked is the 138-mile Northville-Placid Trail. I very seldom have a trip that's longer than 3-4 nights. But I've done a lot of those.
All the time, I hear people on the hiking forums (particularly That Other Site) comparing the numbers, and saying things like, "if your base weight is over ## lbs, you're never going to make it," and asking for (or giving, sometimes entirely uninvited) gear shakedowns. But as far as I can tell, the long hikes that people are talking about are really chains of sections that are about the length of ones I already do routinely. I guess if you string a few such sections together, the decimal point of a 15.6-pound (or whatever) base weight must start shaking loose and eventually fall out. Or something.
For what it's worth, I carry a Granite Gear Crown VC60, which seems to be pretty middle-of-the-road in terms of what I see out there. I find it embarrassingly roomy in high summer, and really rather too small for deep winter. And I don't think my gear is particularly denser than anyone else's. I, on the other hand, appear to be denser than they are, or I'd immediately grasp what this fascination with the weight number is all about!
I must be missing something obvious. To be expected from a clueless weekender. Anyway, when someday I die out there, as some of the hiking pundits predict, you'll know what I failed to understand!
I've never weighed my pack. I have no idea what my base weight is, either pack-only or From Skin Out.
I do have a couple of spreadsheets listing gear, but I don't even have weights on them. They're packing lists, more than anything else, just to make sure I've not forgotten anything. They have headings like "overnight in deep winter," "day trip in shoulder season," and "multi-night trip in high summer."
I do look at gear weight when I'm replacing an item. I usually need to go back and look up the specs of whatever I'm replacing to rediscover what it weighs, so that I can ask myself, "is the replacement lighter?" But that's about it.
If I need something for safety, or really want something for comfort, or something is needed for my purpose on a trip, I bring it. There's a certain amount of equipment needed for map-making or photography, but sometimes that's why I'm going! Adjust to conditions. I wouldn't bring my saw unless I'm out to clear blowdown, because that'd be stupid. I wouldn't leave my microspikes at home at this time of year, because that'd be suicidal.
I'm kind of slow, and don't like doing big miles, but that more relates to being just about sixty years old and to not being able to get in more than a couple hundred miles on trail a year, than it does to being overburdened. At least I think so. I'm usually pretty comfortable carrying my pack to the places that I want to go, as long as it's at my own pace.
But then again, I'm not what you'd call a long-distance hiker. The longest trail I've thru-hiked is the 138-mile Northville-Placid Trail. I very seldom have a trip that's longer than 3-4 nights. But I've done a lot of those.
All the time, I hear people on the hiking forums (particularly That Other Site) comparing the numbers, and saying things like, "if your base weight is over ## lbs, you're never going to make it," and asking for (or giving, sometimes entirely uninvited) gear shakedowns. But as far as I can tell, the long hikes that people are talking about are really chains of sections that are about the length of ones I already do routinely. I guess if you string a few such sections together, the decimal point of a 15.6-pound (or whatever) base weight must start shaking loose and eventually fall out. Or something.
For what it's worth, I carry a Granite Gear Crown VC60, which seems to be pretty middle-of-the-road in terms of what I see out there. I find it embarrassingly roomy in high summer, and really rather too small for deep winter. And I don't think my gear is particularly denser than anyone else's. I, on the other hand, appear to be denser than they are, or I'd immediately grasp what this fascination with the weight number is all about!
I must be missing something obvious. To be expected from a clueless weekender. Anyway, when someday I die out there, as some of the hiking pundits predict, you'll know what I failed to understand!
I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.