[pct-l] Pack Weights.

[themtgoat at yahoo.com (The Mountain Goat)]

I don't know who invented the 1/3 body weight formula, but
I  made my own (before I wanted to thru-hike). It went
like: If I were organizing a group backpack, and it was 3-4
day trip, you should be able to carry 1/4+ of your body
weight, If it was a 7-10 day backpack, then count on 1/3+
of your body weight.

However, now as  thru-hiker, and the last couple of years
of preparing, I noticed that I carried a 34LB pack (4
quarts water)on a section hike for 7 days, yes including
food. This is less than my original 1/4 and 1/3 body
weight, how things have changed!

With the current technology I figure you could go about 15
days with a 50LB pack (food, fuel, and water), things I
could have only dreamed about a decade ago...

-Mountain Goat-
www.geocities.com/pct_2005


Brett blisterfree at isp01.net
Wed Jan 5 18:37:29 CST 2005
.....

Who invented the 1/3 body weight formula? I don't know, but

I'm sure the makers of expensive packs designed to "carry 
heavy loads in absolute comfort" love the way it makes
their 
products available to the overweight and out-of-shape 
majority of American consumers. By focusing the packweight 
discussion on an upper theshold, rather than on means of 
reducing packweight, the formulas (and in turn the gear 
companies) tend to encourage carrying the maximum
packweight 
allowable.

- blisterfree


		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250