Originally Posted By BrianLe
Quote:
My pack weight including the pack itself is 23 pounds. This is minus food and water which I'm not including. If I included food and water I'd still be under 30 pounds. Does this seem like an unreasonable weight for backpacking?

"Does this sound unreasonable" is a really (really) hard, or rather, subjective question.
Some will prefer a lower base weight than 23 pounds, but they may well be willing to spend more time and money tuning their gear, and/or have a very different set of backpacking "style", experience level, and/or expectations than you do.

I think better is just to have some awareness of what's possible, some idea of what different weight points might cost you (for various meanings of the term), and find your own personal happy spot.

Exactly. My first trip I think my base weight was around 19 pounds because I found out about lightweight backpacking before purchasing most of my stuff. I whittled it down to under 12. Now I'm likely over 13. This is for above treeline in western US mtns. You will likely shed several pounds over the next year or two as you replace certain items.