Food Weight?

[Tony Fischer]

Trying to estimate total gear weight for Philmont. What would you all estimate is the average weight each person carries per day of food?

[Ken K]

Averages about two pounds per person per day. Eat the heavy stuff first.

Most treks have added food pickups so that you'll rarely have more than three days of food to pick up at a time.

[Daniel Lee]

Tony-
Our crew usually had about 2.5 pounds of food per day and another 2.5 pounds of crew gear…

[Tony Fischer]

Thanks guys, so it sounds like I should expect to carry up to 7.5 lbs of food (2.5 lbs x 3 days).

Working on the troop with lightening the group gear. Some of it is pretty heavy and I think we could lighten up but as you all know changing the way its always been done is sometimes hard!

So far I have my personal gear down to 17 lbs. Going to try to make it to 15 but going with a solo tent doesn't help (I'll miss my hammock!)

So far I see myself with a max weight of:

Personal Gear 17.0
Troop Gear 2.5
Food 7.5
Water (3L) 6.6

Total (MAX) 33.6

Last time I was there I am sure I was at least 50 lbs so that is some progress. Not sure I can get too much lighter than this without spending a lot of money for just a couple of lbs.

[Ken K]

You'll know your trek a few months before hitting the trail, but if you're doing worst-case planning, include 5 days of food. As mentioned, MOST of the your food pickups are set three or less days apart, but there are a few treks that include a one 4-day pickup and a couple that even go to five days for one pickup. Of the three crews I've got on the trail now, two of them have one 4-day pickup, none have 5 days.

[david richardson]

I dumped my solo tent at 3 lbs for a z-packs solo plus hexamid tent and ground sheet at 17 ozs and never regretted it for a moment this summer at Philmont. dave

[Daniel Lee]

Tony-
Just my two cents and perspectives but I entered a bunch of our lessons learned on gear, itineraries, food, etc. on this site dated July 10 under "PHILMONT LESSONS"… Hope this helps your crew…
-Dan

[bill berklich]

Be sure to look closely at your Trek. We stepped off on Trek 20 with 5 days of food at about a Kilo per person per day (2.25lbs). That pushed my pack to 32lbs – my planning weight was 28lbs (3 days @ 2lbs/day)

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