Weight(y) matters II

[Robert Spenger]

There are a lot of references to pack weight in messages to the group,
but rarely does any one mention the weight of the clothes that were
worn. Some have even said that the clothes don’t count. This is
ridiculous. On warm days I could have worn a minimum of 890 grams:

Teva sandals, 630 g.
undershorts, 70 g.
hiking shorts, 190 g.

In cold rainy weather, I could be wearing as much as 6230 grams,
exactly seven times as much. The major items are:

shoes, 1215 g.
jacket, 730 g.
pants, 580 g.
poncho, 465 g.
long sleeve shirt, 380 g.
down vest, 300 g.
belt, 160 g.
t-shirt, 120 g.
rain chaps, 100 g.

The jacket had many pockets that I used for items that I didn’t want to
have to dig out of the pack and there were also a number of things that
I usually carried in the pockets of my shirt and pants. These included:

phrase book and dictionaries for 2 different languages. 450 g.
maps and guides, 250 g.
camera, 240 g.
multipurpose knife, 150 g.
GPS, 100 g.

The rest of the weight includes numerous items weighing less than 100
g. – diary, socks, wallet, glasses, watch, undershorts, etc.

To sum it up there was over 5 1/3 kg that could either be worn or in
the pocket of something I was wearing or it could have been in the
pack. Incidentally, I rarely had to wear the jacket, so it was usually
draped over the pack with the sleeves tied through the shoulder straps.
This way the items in the pockets were available without having to take
anything off. My walking sticks (about 1.5 kg on the first trip) were
not something that could be put in the pack. Does this mean that they
didn’t count as weight carried?

To be meaningful, the total weight should be listed – both the pack and
anything worn on the body together with pocket contents plus anything
carried in the hands. After all the only things that you are not
carrying at any particular instant are the shoe and sock(s) on the foot
that happens to be on the ground at that time and you will be lifting
those up again in the next fraction of a second.