How Much Camping & Hiking Equipment Should You Carry? A Research-Based Guide
You've probably heard the standard advice: keep your pack weight under 20% of your body weight. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you shouldn't carry more than 30 pounds of camping & hiking equipment . Sounds simple, right? Except this rule ignores your fitness level, age, the terrain you're hiking, and how long you'll be out there. A 150-pound marathon runner and a 150-pound office worker who hasn't exercised in months are not the same. Using the same weight limit for both can lead to injuries. Where Did This 20% Rule Even Come From? The 20% guideline comes from old military research. The U.S. Army did studies in the 1940s and 1950s looking at how much weight soldiers could carry without breaking down. They settled on roughly 20-25% of body weight as a baseline for trained individuals. But here's the problem: those soldiers were in peak physical condition. They trained for months specifically to carry heavy loads. They were mostly young men in their twenties. The...