Family gear in one pack

[klaashartmann]

I've started hiking with my 5 & 3 year old daughters, so I carry all the gear. On our first overnight walk to High Camp Hut (on Mt Anne/Eliza track) this meant carrying around 25kg, quite a load especially as I sometimes end up carrying my 16kg 3 year old. So this ultralight hiking business got my attention and thanks to all the good information out there, with a bit of thought and money later I'm now getting around the 12kg mark including food & water or just under 9kg base weight (so we even sneak into the official light backpacking category!) It's pretty neat that all the gear for the three of us weighs less than many other folks carry for themselves. It was also very eye opening to realise that it was even possible to start going on these trips with them!

The key changes are better packing of food and clothes and the following gear:

Pack
Was: 3Kg One planet 85L
Now: 0.95kg Granite Gear Crown VC 60L

Tent
Was: 4Kg Kathmandu 4 season
Now: 1.5Kg Big Agnes Angel Springs UL3

Sleeping bags
Were: Assorted ~4Kg for three
Now: Brooks Range Alpini 30 - 0.65Kg each / 1.95Kg for all three of us

Sleeping mats
Were: Assorted ~2Kg for three
Now: Therm-a-rest NeoAir XLite 0.35Kg each / 1.05Kg for all three of us

Stove
Was: Trangia 1.2Kg plus 100g fuel bottle
Now: Trail designs Caldera ~0.3Kg including pot & pan

Our clothing is still on the heavy and bulky side, but with kids growing out of things so quickly I don't think they will get fancy UL gear for some time yet! If it wasn't for the necessity of having to carry gear for the kids I don't know if I would have invested the time & money to lighten my load, but I think this will change my enjoyment of hiking immensely even when the kids can start carrying some of their own gear.

Oh, and I was absolutely amazed at the US/Oz price difference. I would have preferred ordering from Australia, but with a US website half price or less for most of the items, and then offering an extra 20% discount and free shipping it was simply not an option.

[Ellobuddha]

Free shipping? Which site?

Well done on the weight loss though. Your knees must be loving you.

[klaashartmann]

campsaver. They often have 20% off the order total and orders over $400 get free shipping to Australia.

[klaashartmann]

Also, when I used it the 20% off seemed to apply to everything including already discounted stuff and brands listed as excluded from the offer... The only problem is they don't ship quite a few brands O/S so the range is a little restrictive.

[icefest]

The only real weight loss you can still achieve at this point is in the tent, and even then not much.
The new tent won't be for tassie storms (but neither was the old one).

Nice job with the setup.

[klaashartmann]

We finally got around to giving the new gear a go a couple of weekends ago. My pack was 16kg including food, or in the lingo a base weight of about 14kg. The kids didn't carry anything. So all the gear for the three of us was in one 16kg pack, including lots of kid friendly extras like a soccer ball, cards, torches and soft toys.

Pretty neat to be able to carry all the gear for me and my two eldest daughters _and_ have a pack that's lighter than what I used to go hiking with. If I divide our base weight by the three of us it comes to 4.6kg / person, so we're almost in the ultralight category.

[forest]

Well done, can't wait to start doing similar things.
I'm just starting to think along the same lines for getting out with my 2yr old daughter, well more than day walks anyway.
I've plenty of UL gear, just have to con my wife that she needs a break for 36hrs from the pair of us.

I just wonder how well I could fit overnight gear for 2 into a macpac baby carrier and still fit the 12kg kid.......mmmm, Something for me to ponder.

[klaashartmann]

Forest: My 70L pack is chockers with the current setup. I have a kathmandu baby carrier and would struggle to fit much in there.

On the upside, it's not too long until your daughter will be able to do short walks on her own. My 3.5 year old can do 5km each direction comfortably (i.e. 10km round trip). She also managed to get up to a hut involving 700m vertical gain, that took almost 6 hours and whilst she enjoyed it it was a bit much.

[sim1oz]

klaashartmann, sounds like you have things really well sorted. That light pack for 3 is impressive. The only advice I would add is to get your daughters some backpacks of their own that they can carry empty (or nearly so, eg. snack, teddy bear) for a while so that they get used to the feeling of carrying something. That will make the transition to carrying some of their own gear a little bit easier.