Philmont Personal Gear List with Weights (14 lbs)

You can thank Cleve Gilmore for his gentle prodding to get me to write this down for others' use. This is the COMPLETE list of personal gear I carried at Philmont on our north country trek in summer of 98. It grew out of trial and error over a number of prep hikes that our crew made, and inspiration from Ray Jardine's book (see below) and elsewhere.

For each item, ask yourself if you really need/want it, and whether there is a lighter solution or another item that can do double duty. The greatest weight savings for me were a lighter pack, lighter sleeping bag, lighter rain gear, and much lighter camp shoes. I saved at least 6 pounds of weight with the choices I made for these four items alone, compared to almost anyone else I saw on the trail; in some cases I was probably 12 or more pounds lighter for these items.

Once I got started, it became a game to see how many ounces I could shave. I'm particularly proud of my 1.8 oz camp shoes, 1 oz headlamp, and 2 oz game package (complete Monopoly, Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Cribbage, and any other card game you can play with one deck). Got the idea for hanging bike water bottles by their narrow waist from shoulder straps of pack by watching the Eco-Internet team on the Discovery Channel (Eco Challenge Race). A postal scale that was accurate to 0.2 oz and could weigh items up to 10 lbs was very helpful in making comparisons. I am 5' 10", 220 lbs, so all clothes weights are men's L or XL. Most purchased gear was from Campmor, with exception of bike water bottles, sleeping bag, boots, and trekking poles.

What would I do differently? Probably not a lot. For my next trip, assuming the same mileage/conditions (86 miles including Baldy ascent, temperatures from 40 degrees with hail and wind on Baldy descent to 105 on valley floor at Indian Writings), I would definitely not bring a paperback book or trail mix. Keeping a journal and other activities kept me busy enough; I also found there was plenty of food at mealtimes and dried fruit that no one else wanted for the trail. Would still bring the games, since they added only 2 oz and I did use them. The book and trailmix, if left behind, would bring the total weight down by 22 oz to 12 1/4 lbs. I might (but might not) add one more layer for upper body in case of weather below 40 degrees (eg. either medium weight long underwear top or fleece vest, each of which would weigh 10-11 oz, or substituting 200 weight fleece pullover for 100 weight pullover). My commercially available daypack was still 32 oz compared to Jardine's 13 oz homemade pack; since returning from Philmont have constructed a homemade pack myself that's 4000-5000 cc and weighs 19 oz, based roughly on Jardine's design, using Cordura and ripstop nylon from Campmor - have not yet tested the pack in the field. The Thermarest chair was a nice comfort item (and used every day), but added 10 oz - you could easily get by without it. Drop the chair, the games, my beesting kit that you don't need, and the camera (use a crew camera instead) and you could easily get under 11 pounds; under 10 pounds if you make a 16 oz homemade pack.

Hope this is helpful to others who want to go low; feel free to pass on to other Scouters. For additional inspiration, read Ray Jardine's "Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook" (available through Amazon.com) in which he describes a philosophy of backpacking long distances that includes 9.5 and 7.5 lb packweights that he and his wife used on thru hikes of Appalachian Trail and PCT. These weights include stove, fuel, and shelter (they use a tarp rather than a tent, use customized umbrellas instead of raingear, use a lot of home-sewn items including sleeping bag, shell pants & jacket and packs). If I learned anything from our great Philmont trip, it was that physical preparation (exercise and prep hikes) and the lightest possible pack weight were instrumental to my enjoyment of the experience. My final tip for the over-40-but-not-yet-over-the-hill-crowd is to use two trekking poles -- great on downhill sections to spare the knees, for balance crossing streams and boulders, and to take some weight onto upper body muscles going up hills (push off like cross-country skiing).

- Robert Kelly, Scoutmaster, Troop 620, University Heights Ohio
rkelly@metrohealth.org

Rob's Philmont List, annotated:

Pack - 32 oz

• Selden's Philmont,
• High Adventure and
• Scouting Web Pages

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The content of this page was provided by Robert Kelly. Please contact Robert at <rkelly@metrohealth.org> for more information.

This Web page is maintained by Selden Ball at Wilson Lab.
Please send any comments or corrections to seb@lns62.lns.cornell.edu