 After a few different long distance walk ideas, I'm finally off to walk the Lleyn Peninsula, in Wales. My planned walk is around 100 miles, and I'm estimating I'll take around 10 days max...I'm taking my time. I packed my backpack today with all my kit and food...and I think it's too heavy at 13kgs  I'm going to go through everything again tomorrow and cut some weight, but i'd like to hear how much your packs would weigh for a similar journey, camping all the way.
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 13kg isn't heavy if it includes all your food for 10 days. 1kg a day?
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 13kg for ten days camping including food - I wouldn't be repacking looking to lose any more weight - I'd be repacking looking for the hole in the bottom of my pack that had let half of my gear fall out. I'm no lightweight obsessive but I'd be overjoyed with the prospect of only carrying 13kg for a ten day trek and wouldn't be trying to get anything further out. If you can get it smaller and still have enough gear and food to be comfortable to a level that you can actually enjoy the walk rather than re-enact some incredible feat of survival then allow me to sit back and be quietly jealous.
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Oh I forgot to mention I probably have enough food for half the trip...I plan to buy more as i travel. Although there is a fair amount there...  I guess it's just as this is my first trip, and I didn't know what kind of weight to expect. I feel better about it after hearing your comments though, so cheers 
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| Edited: 03/07/08 01:28 |
PART 1 Donny
One of the delights of backpacking is that you never stop learning! This is your first trip so you have no experience of what you need (which could be quite different from the requirements of others). When you get home, divide the contents of your pack into three groups. Those items that were essential, those that you could do without, and those items that you did not use.
The itinerary you have set yourself is very sensible unlike most novice backpackers who often set themselves an unrealistic schedule. Assuming reasonable fitness, 10 miles a day is a reasonable mileage which should make every day enjoyable; you won't exhaust yourself.
I'm not familiar with the Lleyn Peninsula but the map indicates that there are several campsites and small villages so obtaining water and buying food en route should not be a problem. I suspect that you don't need to carry so much food although if you are young you are likely to become ravenously hungry.
I'm knocking on a bit and still enjoy backpacking but I could not possibly handle a pack weighing 13 kg. Just out of interest, and to demonstrate just how light a pack can be, this would be my list of kit and equipment for the trip you are undertaking. It is half the weight of your pack but I'm not recommending it to anyone - this is mine and it suits me (see PART 2).
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PART 2 Weight in grams GoLite Breeze backpack with hip-belt 670 Terra Nova Laser Competition tent 1000 One-metre long cut down closed cell sleeping mat 120 Rab Quantum sleeping bag 690 Optimus cooking pot & lid (30 years old!) 80 Pot holder 20 Tin opener 10 Half a nylon scouring pad 10 J-cloth used as tea towel 10 Pocket rocket stove 85 Fuel 380 Pot cosy 24 Windahield 40
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PART 3
Disposable cigarette lighter 20
Disposable plastic cutlery 15
Titanium mug 55
1.5-litre supermarket coke bottle
modified as home-made hydration system 90
LED torch 20
<><>FOOD 12 breakfast bars 480 Chorizo 200 12 Ryvita Multigrain rice cakes 75 6 dehydrated meals (home-made in dehydrator) 350 Tea/powdered milk/Hermasetas 100 500 mils of water 500 TOILETRIES ETC Comprising comb, toothbrush, toothpaste in tiny tube, multi-purpose concentrated soap in contact lens sample bottle, roll of sticking plaster, Wet Ones to serve as more efficient toilet tissue, 2 J-cloths for flannel and towel 150 CLOTHES & WATERPROOFS CARRIED IN PACK GoLite waterproof jacket 270 Berghaus PacLite o/trousers 220 Nylon tights for sleepwear 40 1 pair of Capilene liner socks 25 1 pair of Capilene briefs 45 1 long-sleeved Capilene top 150 3 Explorer maps (covers removed) 630 Sony radio 45 TOTAL WEIGHT CARRIED 6.684 KILOS (14.75 lbs)
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PART 4 CLOTHES WORN DURING THE DAY
Patagonia Capilene long-sleeved top 150
Patagonia Capilene briefs 45
Shorts & belt 320
Smartwool sweater 200
SeelSkinz Merino waterproof socks 95
Capilene liner socks 25
Lightweight boots 1000
Trekking poles 580
Silva Type 26 compass (doubles as a mirror) 40
Plastic wallet, credit cards & paper money 22
Coins 60
Multifunction watch 55 <>
<>Apologies for the way tis thread is split - apparently OM does not like lists. Good luck, Donny - and let us know how you get on!
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| Edited: 03/07/08 09:24 |
 I see you're still wearing the nylon tights Hugh?!
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Thanks Hugh. Very helpful post/s there. I will go through my items again, and then I'll make a list of my weights, and see what i come up with.
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Hugh I do admire a man who weighs his money
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hello Hugh, You have 1200 gram of food. If I assume 4 Calories per gram you have 4800 Calories. That would last me only 3 days (without the first breakfast and last evening meal.) It looks like you were estimating 6 days. Do you just eat much less than me and if so do you expect to loose weight, or have I got someting wrong.
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Derek I am now worried cause 4800 calories would only last me 1 day when walking. Am I greedy? Seriously, what is the daily calorie count for a backpacker carrying a 13kg pack? I do a 8-10 mile days walk and reckon including breakfast, lunch, snacks, evening meal and evening munchies I would eat about 5000 calories. Seriously, I need to know as I am doing a slightly longer walk around the Lakes for a similar length of time, staying high for most of the time. Thinking of hitting some pubs on the way to eat and save weight. Will need to take breakfast, lunch and snack food for at most 5 days at a time, with at least 2 or 3 evening meals (consisting of a double pack of dehydrated food or similar quantities of suppermarket dried food). Donny I did a two day Lairig Ghru and found my pack was 15kg before food and water!! An earlier 2 dayer over easter in the snowy weather found in the Lakes was about 14kg with food but no water. I did an overnighter with just breakfast and enough water for a few brews and it was 9kg. this was just a late evening walk up the hill out of sight of the road after having dinner in Keswick. Kind of a very cheap b&b in the hills as I was passsing through in order to get an early start to where I was meeting people. 9kg is the lightest I have ever got my gear and that was due to very little in the way of food. With my trip I will be doing a halfway food parcel and eating in pubs before heading back to camp high. Enjoy yourself!
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 Perhaps the plan is to supplement the rations carried, with foods obtained along the way from locally available sources; and not to just pack in everything one needs for sustenance complete for the whole trip there. 
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| Edited: 03/07/08 12:27 |
Ok here goes... Part 1 (in grams)
1100 - Backpack
1900 - Vango Banshee 200 Tent.
500 - Alpkit Wee Airic sleeping mat
1200 - Karrimor Sleeping bag
75 - tent & sleeping bag repair kits
875 - Waterproof jacket & trousers
160 - Billy Can
75 - Small pan
175 - Bleuet Micro Stove
375 - Gas bottle
35 - small scissors/plastic mirror/mini led torch/whistle
50 - Foam sitting mat
350 - Towel
140 - Hydration pack
190 - Camera
110 - LED head lamp + batteries
75 - Gadget - knife/fork/spoon/can opener/bottle opener
300 - 2 Handkerchiefs/showergel/detergent/plasters/parecetamol/antiseptic wipes/spare batteries for headlamp & camera
300 - Tea/coffee/whitener/sugar
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| Edited: 03/07/08 12:52 |
Part 2 300 - 2 pairs underwear+2 pairs socks
300 - 2 T-shirts
120 - Swimshorts
100 - sun glasses
550 - fleece (also my pillow)
80 - wooly hat
200 - 4 mini breakfast cereal boxes
200 - instant mash
50 - 2 soups
275 - 4 packs flavoured noodles
225 - 2 packs flavoured cous cous
400 - trail mix
200 - biscuits
100 - 1ltr water 11085g / 11.09kg wearing
130 - underwear & socks
320 - 3 in 1 - trousers/3 quarter lengths/shorts
160 - T-shirt
1100 - Karrimor Hiking trainers
75 - baseball style cap
I might well me wearing the fleece & sunglasses, that i've counted as packed. I could lose some of the food, but i'm 13 stone and eat like crazy & I think that more time spent outside and less time in the shops the better. Oh I forgot toothbrush & toothpaste..40-50g?
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| Edited: 03/07/08 13:26 |
Derek I am now worried cause 4800 calories would only last me 1 day when walking. Am I greedy? Seriously, what is the daily calorie count for a backpacker carrying a 13kg pack? I do a 8-10 mile days walk and reckon including breakfast, lunch, snacks, evening meal and evening munchies I would eat about 5000 calories. Seriously, I need to know as I am doing a slightly longer walk around the Lakes for a similar length of time, staying high for most of the time. Thinking of hitting some pubs on the way to eat and save weight. Will need to take breakfast, lunch and snack food for at most 5 days at a time, with at least 2 or 3 evening meals (consisting of a double pack of dehydrated food or similar quantities of suppermarket dried food).
Paul, I dont know about you. I am 10.5 stone. I went for 4 days without resupply across Scotland, Torridon to Beauly along a ridge, camping . Some long days one of 13 hours, backpack about 13kg at the start. I carried 2400 calories per day in dry food. Then Fish and chips in Beauly, when I got home I had put on weight.
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 hi donny, not sure if you made a typo, but a litre of water will weight 1000g, not 100g... might change your totals a bit... SORRY!
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hi donny, not sure if you made a typo, but a litre of water will weight 1000g, not 100g... might change your totals a bit... SORRY!
oops yeah typo. So the total is about 12 kilos then, maybe 13 after i've added suncream, and other junk. 
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