I'm coming late to this party (thread), but some random comments ...


FWIW, I think that for most people the distinction between pack weight and chest pack weight isn't meaningful, but would all lump together as weight carried. Since you're including food and water in that, however --- who knows what it means --- too many unknown variables (# days of food, pounds of food that you eat per day, amount of water typically carried ...). The nice thing about talking in terms of base weight (or skin-out) is that if people are careful about what they're measuring, it's a more apples-to-apples comparison. Heck, after a month on trail I eat more than double what I do on a shorter trip, so even "days of food" can vary not only between individuals but even for the same individual. Best IMO to separate out the consumables.

One thing I suggest to anyone that has derived what their base weight is supposed to be (via spreadsheet or other list) is to pack up your pack with everything but food + water + fuel and stand on the bathroom scale with and without pack --- hopefully to verify, else to point out omissions from the list/spreadsheet. Ideal time to do this is minutes before leaving on a multi-day backpacking trip, so that every little thing gets counted. Most gear lists I've read through don't look complete to me, leaving off various things.

One thing that confused me a bit about this thread has been lots of discussion about base weight without talking much about the particular place and season of the trip. For me, at least, it's not too meaningful to talk about base weight without establishing how cold or hot it can get, and how much if any (and what types of) snow walking is involved, plus perhaps other factors such as typical amount of rainfall anticipated, bugs, wind, etc. The experience/background of the hiker factors in here too somewhat; Andrew Skurka goes lighter than I do in part because he's hiked so many miles in varies conditions that he can more safely cut things to a lower minimum.

Base weight for me varies from low teens up to mid-20's (and I'm talking true base weight), very much depending on the particular trip. I started the AT in February this year with about a 17 pound base weight, dropped to about 14.5 pounds once out of the snow. I'll likely have on the order of 22 pounds of base weight starting on my next significant trip this coming year (never carried bear spray before, for example ...). Going through areas that require a bear cannister adds over 2 pounds for that item alone, and has the potential to change which pack a person takes on the trip.

Given that this stuff can vary a whole lot by the particular trip, what would be more meaningful to me would be something along the line of (for example) "X pound base weight goal for a summer trip where no snow is anticipated, estimated low temps around 40F, some rain expected". Or perhaps "Y pound base weight goal for a Springtime trip that includes significant time walking on mostly old snow, where an ice axe and at least minimal crampons are carried, low temps estimated in the upper teens".

I'm at a bit of a loss of what to say to a more generic "12 pound base weight goal", short of making assumptions that might well be incorrect. For example, I live in the NorthWest, and it's easy for us to forget that there are places one can hike where it rarely rains (!).

Maybe I'm just too much of an engineer at heart. :-)