The official BSA age requirement for Philmont is "At least age 14 by January 1 of the participation year or have completed the eight grade (and be at least 13 years of age) prior to attendance"

So discussion of 12 year olds may be appropriate for lightweight scout related backpacking, but 12 year olds are too young to attend Philmont.

This forum does an excellent job of discussing lightweight backpacking. If the OP or others are interested in the details of Philmont, which is a bit off the subject for this forum, you might join the Philmont list. Go to http://usscouts.org/ ,go to Discussion lists and forums, ussp e-mail lists, and subscribe to the Philmont list. They will send you a return message to which you must reply, and then you are signed up. Watch out- gmail placed this return message to me in my spam folder- so it took me awhile to find it and complete the subscription. As with many lists they have both newbies and old timers. The list is a bit slow at this time of year, but as summer approaches it is very busy and very useful for those going to Philmont.

I will leave it at this.