[pct-l] Base Weight Calculation

[AsABat]

It's really quite simple. Wear your sleeping bag as a cape and your tarp
as a poncho, put everything else but food, water, and fuel in your pack,
and your base weight is exactly equal to your empty pack weight.

The fanatic ultralighters measure FSO (from skin out weight) to
eliminate this problem.

My personal opinion is whatever. But great conversation starter!

AsABat

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vincent Rupp [mailto:vincent.rupp at gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 6:35 PM
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: [pct-l] Base Weight Calculation
> 
> Hi everyone,
> This might be a rather foolish question, but how exactly does one
compute
> his base weight?
> 
> It sounds simple - weight of everything in your pack other than food
and
> water - but the contents of my pack change throughout the day.
> 
> For example, it's a cold rainy morning so I put on my extra shirt and
> waterproofs. The afternoon is sunny and warm. Which clothes do I count
in
> my
> base weight? If I'm planning to wear all my extra clothes for a whole
> hike,
> can I exclude them from base weight for the whole hike?
> 
> Or if I'm walking down a road and stick my trekking poles to my pack.
Did
> my
> base weight just change?
> 
> What if I take off my safari hat and let it dangle behind me? Or swap
out
> my
> contacts for eyeglasses?
> 
> What if I get really hungry and eat my extra socks? Do I reclassify
them
> as
> food and recalculate my base weight for the remainder of the hike?
> 
> I have a water bottle made of crackers. Is that base weight or not?
> 
> If a bear attacks me, I kill it, and I make a necklace of its claws
and
> carry bear meat in a bag made of bear hide, how the heck do I figure
in
> that
> extra stuff? Does it change if the bear meat is actually a trophy and
not
> intended as food? What if I intend to use the bear hide as shelter the
> first
> night and wear it as a loincloth on the second?
> 
> This is a very complicated subject, but I would like to be able to
share
> stats with fellow thru-hikers I may meet along the way. Thank you all
in
> advance for your wise and cogent answers.
> 
> -Vincent
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