Is 13 pounds a good base weight?

Your backpack fully loaded (including food and water) should not weigh more than 20% of your body weight. However, to protect your joints and improve comfort, it's better to carry 10-15% of your body weight. Excluding food and water, that means a good backpacking base weight is between 10 to 20 lbs for most people.



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Base Weight The majority of hikers' base weights at the start of their hikes fell between 15 and 30 pounds, with the median at 20 pounds. The averages between section hikers and thru-hikers were almost the same at around 20 pounds.

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A Service Member's ruck sack weighs about 45 pounds without water!!!! If you're joining us in person or virtually, and want to get some tips on how to pack your ruck properly, and/or what typically goes into a ruck sack, here's a tutorial to help you out!

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A loaded backpacking pack should not weigh more than about 20 percent of your body weight. (If you weigh 150 pounds, your pack should not exceed 30 pounds for backpacking.) A loaded day hiking pack should not weigh more than about 10 percent of your body weight.

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Wouldn't Base Weight also include gear on your body – clothes, poles, watch, sunglasses, etc? Thus, the hat, clothes and shoes on you, things in your pockets, watch, glasses, and trekking poles are conventionally viewed as components of FSO — and excluded from pack weight / base weight.

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Backpack enables you to easily carry water, food, additional clothing and other necessities. Hiking backpacks vary greatly in design, capacity, fit and features. Therefore it can be hard to decide which backpack to buy.

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Savings can be achieved both by reducing the size of your pack and also by choosing a pack with lightweight construction (lighter materials, fewer pockets and zippers, etc.). If you're carrying less than 15-20 pounds, consider a frameless backpack, and you'll be able to drop your backpack weight to under two pounds.

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