Gregory Goes There

In response to some of the posts we’ve been doing on pack fit and repair, we got the following question from Denise, in relation to going backpacking with her son.

What about kids? How heavy should their backpack be for a weekend camp-out? My son is 11 years and big for his age … 5′3″ and weighs about 137. Is there a certain percentage of weight he should have in his pack?

We thought we’d have company founder Wayne Gregory answer this question, since he’s got almost 40 years of experience building backpacks and also has been very involved with Boy Scout outings and events over the years. Here’s what he had to say:

The general rule of thumb for anyone is that you don’t want to exceed a quarter of your body weight in your pack. Weights beyond that are really a bear to carry. So for your son, that’s about 34 pounds. But remember, that’s also the upper end of the weight you’d want anyone to carry. So probably 20 percent of body weight is a more realistic number for kids. In this case, that’s about 27 pounds.

There’s also a lot of other criteria to consider in terms of kids going backpacking. How far will you be hiking in a day? How physically fit is the individual child? How interested are they in going in the first place? Do they want to go or is your goal to get them interested in backpacking? You can err down or up from that 20 percent number based on all those criteria.

The bottom line for kids is that the activity should be fun first and foremost, so it’s always good to err on the lighter side in terms of ensuring they’ll have a good time, and also not push them too far in terms of distances. Once you’ve been backpacking a couple of times, if they’re enthusiastic, you can add more weight and distance, again staying within the general guidelines of 20 to 25 percent of body weight as upper-end ranges.

For younger kids, maybe around the range 4 to 8, I’d recommend not having them carry much weight at all. In situations like that, the idea is just getting them interested in the first place. So keep the distance short and keep their pack light. A good option is having them carry only their sleeping bag and some treats to eat in their pack.

One final thought on kids and backpacking: Gregory as a company has always emphasized the importance of people being in the correct backpack frame size to match their torso length (you can find more on fitting a frame size to torso length here). No single other factor will make as much difference in terms of comfort when you’re carrying weight on your back. The thing about children is that they are obviously growing, so for them to have optimal comfort, you’ll need to take into account that the frame size that works for them now may not work in a year or two. Most kids grow into their adult frame size when boys are roughly age 14 and girls are roughly age 11. Consider finding inexpensive ways to buy or even borrow a pack until your kids have grown into their adult frame size.