UKC

I am off to Svalbard for 2 weeks in August and I am wondering what litre of rucksack to take?
I have weighed my kit and its come to about 23 kg.

Help greatly appreciated
Thanks

In reply to Zoe Langford: What will have to go into the sack ?

Clothing, tent, sleeping kit, cooker, food and fuel for 3 weeks ?

In reply to Zoe Langford:
Yea all the above kit is shared between myself and 4 others so around 23kg

In reply to Zoe Langford: Its a bit difficult to give you a definative answer. It rather depends on how small your gear pack down.

Do you know anyone with a 60 or 80 litre sack you could borrow to do a trial packing session ? That would give you a much better idea.

In reply to IPPurewater:
Thanks, I will have a look around

In reply to Zoe Langford: I would say you'd be pushing it with a 65 but I doubt you'd need above an 85. I have a Lowe Alpine pack that is a 65L but has a floating lid and can expand to take 85L. I find this combination great for longer trips as you can take a big load up to establish a basecamp then if need be shrink the pack down for subsequent smaller trips/ trips when back in blighty.

However fit and comfort is really important especially with heavy loads. If you cant physically carry or it is uncomfortable to carry a heavy load then it makes little sense to get a giant pack. Far better to get a smaller more comfortable pack, im sure your team would rather you took a smaller pack that you could manage than take a monster an either injure yourself or end up moaning a lot. Osprey do smaller packs (as in 65L)that seem to fit this philosophy quite well.

23kg seems quite a lot for 2 weeks- even for sval. If you post a kit list we might be able to both judge the size of rucksack needed better and possibly help lighten your load.

In reply to Zoe Langford: How big are you? And are you going to have to carry all that stuff around? 23 kgs is quite a lot for anyone to carry. When I was 18, fit, young and stupid, I went to Greenland on expedition - occasionally we carried loads up to 25 kgs but it was hard going for a 5 10 guy like myself - you might want to see if you can go lighter.

But you'll probably be looking at a pack around 65 ltrs in size. But If you are small try and take a smaller one!

In reply to Zoe Langford: Further to myn and others' comments about weight and relative size the general rule of thumb is to never to carry more than 30 percent of your weight.

In reply to Zoe Langford:

How much of that weight is food?

In reply to Zoe Langford: Take all of your kit to a good store and pack it into some packs. Try them for size, see how they feel loaded, get one that fits well. Any half decent shop would understand and allow you to do this. I've done it before, and was glad that I did.