Camping and hiking

Packing and load

Weight, volume and what gets left behind.

1 guides

Insulated camping pot on a canister stove outdoors, its finned heat exchanger and gas cylinder visible — The ring of fins under the pot is a heat exchanger, and it is what makes integrated stoves boil so fast.Photo: Original photo: Michael Pereckas on Flickr Modified by Gazebo on February 3, 2015 with the addition of comment and XMP-cc:License metadata and the removal of JPEG IFD1 (thumbnail) metadata. · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Open source page

Adult with a large loaded backpack and a small child in a day pack walking a trail across open tundra

Packing and load

Pack weight: what to carry, and what each item costs you

Water is a quarter of the pack before any gear goes in it. Here is where the rest of the weight sits, and which items earn their mass on an Australian walk.

Updated 3/11/2026 · 8 min

Photo: Olympic National Park · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons