What's In My Rucksack.
On my recent two trip over the Carneddau , I was really struggling carrying my rucksack up the initial steep East ridge of Pen yr Ole Wen. I thought that I had packed carefully and not brought anything I didn't need. When I got back home, I decided to weigh everything and review what I had taken to see what I could cut down on.
There are three lists:
- Tent and rucksack.
- Non food contents of my rucksack.
- Food and water.
Non Food Items.
| Item | Weight (g) |
|---|---|
| Alpkit head torch | 120 |
| Compass | 40 |
| Phone | 134 |
| NeoAir | 396 |
| Rab Storm bivvy bag | 542 |
| Paramo Fuera jacket | 340 |
| Rab Generator smock | 318 |
| Rab Alpine 400 sleeping bag (inc. stuff sac) | 938 |
| Ortlieb map case | 70 |
| Primus Gravity stove | 300 |
| MSR kettle | 280 |
| Mug | 138 |
| Spork | |
| Paramo hat | 82 |
| Proporta battery | 114 |
| Rab Vapour Rise jacket | 530 |
| iPod | 70 |
| Swiss army knife | 100 |
| Fire steel | 28 |
| 4 x AA battery | 100 |
| iPod | 70 |
| Lighter | 40 |
| C500 gas canister | 626 |
| Buff | 44 |
| Exped Small dry bag | 48 |
| Pillow | 56 |
| Towel | 122 |
| Sea to Summit dry bag | 70 |
| Platypus(1 litre) x 2 | 78 |
| Gloves | 102 |
| Garmin eTrex | 150 |
| Map | 84 |
| Total | 5842 |
Food.
| Item | Weight |
|---|---|
| 4 x Cadbury Highlight | 56 |
| Kellogs Bar x 10 | 260 |
| Pack n Go food (x4) | 560 |
| Water (2.5l) | 2500 |
| Total | 2876 |
Rucksack and Tent.
| Item | Weight (g) |
|---|---|
| POD rucksack | 1.78 |
| Vango Spectre 200 | 2.70 |
| Total | 4.48 |
Trying to Make It Lighter!
- Tent: the Vango is a good tent for the price, but quite heavy. I could have easily saved more than 1kg by taking my Terra Nova Laser.
- Mug: it's an insulated one and quite heavy. However, it's good for keeping drinks hot and I hate trying to drink out of metal mugs.
- Towel: for a single night I could easily have left this out.
- Dehydrated food: I only needed two meals, so I shouldn't have taken four.
- Water: I was camping near the summit where there was no water nearby. I tend to drink quite a lot during the day and needed to rehydrate two meals and make a couple of hot drinks. As it turned out 2.5l was exactly the right amount.
- Gas: I took a big one, whereas I should have bought a small 100g canister.
- Bivvy bag: didn't really need this, but thought I might use it as a tent footprint. In the event I didn't use it at all.
- Lighter and fire steel: didn't need to take both.
- Clothing: I could have left the Vapour Rise jacket behind. The Fuera and Generator smock would be enough in summer weather.
- Rucksack: I could buy a lighter one. However, I use the POD for climbing and don't really want/need another sack.