[Gocamino] "pack weight" — a rant

[Richard Ferguson]

I have some sympathy for your view that "pack weight" is very  
ambiguous.  I have done the spreadsheet thing in the past, but not for  
the camino.  I spent a lot of time on a spreadsheet of climbing gear  
weight when I got an article published in a national magazine.  It was  
an interesting exercise, and identified the two or three key items  
that represented most of the weight.  I would be interested in seeing  
a spreadsheet of weights of a camino pack.

For those who want to report a "pack weight", please report what is  
included and excluded from that weight, especially clothing. I think  
that omitting food and water makes sense as well.

The other problem with "pack weight" is that it should vary with the  
season.  If you are
going in the summer, your clothing weight should go down, but water  
should go up.  Spring
and fall should have more clothing, in case it snows or otherwise gets  
nasty.  Winter
should have a lot more clothing, etc.

But the biggest factor may be just what one person thinks is an  
essential vs. what
somebody else regards as an essential.  One guidebook might be less  
than half a pound,
while others could be heavier.  I met one Spaniard who had a small  
card that listed the
cities along the camino, and no guidebook at all!

Clothing is another variable, where one person might carry more  
clothing, just to be
safe.  But who can say whether a sweater is excess or essential?  I  
spent years with
mountain rescue, saving people who were unprepared, so I tend to bring  
more that many
other folks, but it is based on experience.  I think that I only had  
one article of
clothing that I did not wear, and in hindsight I should have worn it  
at one of the colder
refugios.

I will be closely considering the weight for my next camino, and am  
buying light pants
and a lighter pack.

Richard

Quoting "Robert Spenger" <rspenger at earthlink.net>:

> Trip #5 is less than 2 weeks off now, so I am going through my list to
> get everything together for packing. In doing so, I am reminded of
> that ambiguous term “pack weight.” What is it? To me it is much more
> meaningful to count everything that I am carrying or wearing. Some
> pilgrims (an wilderness hikers as well) seem to like to play
> oneupsmanship games with pack weight — at both ends. At the go light
> end, the competitors wear their jackets and stuff their pockets (or
> even fanny pack) with all the small, but heavy items, carry their food
> and water in separate containers, and then brag about keeping the
> weight of their back packs down to 8 to 10 pounds. At other the
> extreme, the macho heavy packer loads it up with everything but shorts
> and sandals. If you give the whole weight, Including not only the back
> pack an its contents, but everything that you wear and carry, in or
> out of the back pack, then there is no ambiguity. After all, your feet
> and knees have to support the total weight, except for shoes and
> socks. The foot gear brings up the other point, that more work is done
> lifting whatever weight is on your feet than if that weight were in
> your pack.
>
> Some time ago on these forums, I brought up the subject of the
> desirability of including clothing in the weight that you are
> carrying. One member responded that he felt that it was unnecessary,
> since he always wore exactly the same thing. If he is able to manage
> that, fine. For myself, I had a jacket that started out in the pack,
> but was worn in the normal fashion on cold mornings, tied around my
> waist when it warmed up, and often just draped over the top of the
> pack, where it would be handy. So is it part of the pack weight or
> not? The same can be said for rain gear. Food and water are another
> question. These are hard to pin down, since the weight of each goes up
> and down as you consume or replenish them. Because of this
> variability, it is probably best to not count those in.  (That’s for
> the camino. For wilderness packing, where one might start the trip
> with two weeks supply of food, it makes more sense to count up the
> total weight at the start of the trip.) I try to have 1.5 liters of
> water on hand at the start of each day on the camino. That’s 3.3
> pounds and the weight of the plastic bottles brings it up to 3.5
> pounds. My food weight on the camino was occasionally as high as 5
> pounds and I tried to have on hand an emergency supply of at least 1
> pound. The water bottles were in side pockets of the pack, but this
> time, for convenience, I intend to have some or most of it in a net
> bottle carrier hung by a strap from my shoulder. For food, some was in
> my pack, but stuff like banana, tomatoes, and yogurt cups would get
> smashed, so I kept that sort of thing in a plastic sack tied to my
> waistband.  I plan to have a second net bag to use for food of this
> sort. Since the water and food will not be in the back pack, does this
> mean that they are not part of pack weight? I also kept books, like
> dictionaries, phrase books, and guides in patch pockets in my pants.
> Again, does this mean that they are not part of pack weight? My feet
> and knees think that they are. There were a few other pocket items,
> but these illustrate the point. Does “pack weight” mean the weight of
> the pack that you wear on your back — or the weight that you are
> packing. There is no way to know, unless the person reporting the
> weight gives some details. To me, the only meaningful report of pack
> weight is a spread sheet, listing all the items that a pilgrim brings,
> with the weight of each item.
>
> Bob S.
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