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I'm looking to do some hiking and wild camping before the end of the British summer, I'm happy with the contents of my kit and the items I'm taking but I'm not sure how realistic it is to be carrying 14 kilos (33 lbs) for an extended period of time each day.

Item Name                   qty weight  unit
Under blanket               1   950     gram
Sleeping Bag                1   1250    gram
Tarpaulin                   1   789     gram
Tree straps                 1   680     gram
Mosquito net                1   550     gram
Hammock                     1   490     gram
Groundsheet                 1   431     gram
Insulation patch            1   10      gram
tent pegs                   6   25      gram
Rucksack (35-45l)           1   1080    gram
Trip Clothes                1   750     gram
Towel                       1   200     gram
Daily Clothes               2   150     gram
Ranger Swiss Army Knife     1   118     gram
First aid kit               1   100     gram
Headtorch                   1   75      gram
Notebook                    1   59      gram
Para cord                   1   50      gram
matches                     1   25      gram
Steel & magnesium           1   ?       gram
Toilet roll                 1   ?       gram
compass                     1   ?       gram
map                         1   ?       gram
Flask                       1   522     gram
Mess tins                   1   380     gram
Dinner                      7   200     gram
Lunch                       7   95      gram
Flapjacks                   7   65      gram
cutlery                     1   50      gram
Porridge                    7   30      gram
Camping chair               1   898     gram
Trekking poles              1   522     gram
Phone                       1   179     gram
Saw                         1   175     gram
Knife                       1   150     gram
Insect repellent            1   150     gram

This is not including any cooking gear that I may need to bring along, am I being overly optimistic with this weight? How does it compare to others?

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    Have you tried walking around for a few hours carrying a 14 kg kit? No one else can tell you if that's a manageable weight for you. There's information about what others carry at outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/9485/….
    – Karen
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 17:20
  • 1
    To be a good stackexchange question, this would really need to include the spreadsheet in the question. The google docs spreadsheet will go away eventually, and then there is no hope that this will be of any use to anyone else. Even if the data were included in the question, it would still be a very specific, personal question. Stackexchange is not for getting answers that will only be of interest to the OP. A better place to ask this would be on backpackinglight.com. In general I'm happy with a base weight (weight without food or water) of about 5.5 kg.
    – user2169
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 19:01
  • I do a lot of mountanering and last time we had an extended trip, it was a 10 day trip from the day we walked in to the day we walked out. I had a 25kg pack but I was self suficient for food, shelter and emergency stuff.
    – Desorder
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 21:08
  • My sleeping setup is 1.59kg, it consists of a matt, a sleeping bag, a bivi bag and a foil blanket as a groundsheet. It could easily be lighter if it will be warm and dry. I'd start looking at your set up and deciding what can do two jobs, you don't need a groundsheet for when there are no tree's as you have a tarp that you wont be able to string up. Half a sleeping bag for your legs and a down jacket, etc. Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 2:18
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    I voted to leave this question closed. I cannot see how it expands on the other question apart from adapting it to this special case - which I would consider as "too localized". Please correct me or explain me, why this isn´t a duplicate. Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 10:46

1 Answer 1

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A few points on your kit:

  • you can get rid of the folding chair.
  • what is the use of the brewberry flask?
  • the underblanket seems overkill compared to the sleeping bag.
  • your towel is huge
  • your backpack is both heavy and very small, especially if you have to carry food for several days.
  • There is no stove in your kit, I suppose you forgot to add it?
  • Your tree straps look heavy, so does your backup groundsheet, consider a survival blanket instead for ~90g.
  • You probably don't need a saw, or a heavy knife

(That's a minimum of 2kg that you can shave with no effort or extra stuff)

Now, 14kg is perfectly reasonable, but:

  • There is water. UK is wet, so you probably don't need to carry much, although you'll have to treat or filter it. Still, count 1-2 kg of it at all times
  • Food is in the region of 700-1000g per day (varies, obviously, but that's what I observe often), so depending on how many days you hike without re-supply, that can add up.
  • Add stove and fuel to that. Tin can alcohol stove + fuel is the lightest option if you need a stove at all.

Before going for a full week, try this: walk with your full kit for a full day, may be an overnight, see how you feel. Then, consider what you don't need and can leave at home, and what you can easily replace with lighter stuff.

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  • An underquilt/underblanket is quite important for hammock camping if you aren't using a sleeping pad, as the sleeping bag's fill will compress between you and the hammock, and the convective cooling of air flowing beneath you can chill you significantly. The ideal is to pair an underquilt with a top quilt which has some of the unnecessary under material removed which would've been uselessly compressed anyway. Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:11
  • @JonathanPatt sure, but 950g when the sleeping bag itself is only 900, the proportion does not sound right.
    – njzk2
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:52
  • I'd rather go underquilt and no sleeping bag TBH Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 2:21

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