Do you spend time planning trips covering a variety of conditions and terrains. If so then you will want to tailor your pack contents to minimise risks, optimise your (dis)comfort and achieve your backpacking goals.
There are many significant benefits to be gained by reducing your pack weight, so the ‘Back in Pack’ app can help you assess all of the gear you are planning to carry and its weight vs. the objecives of your trip.
The app is available as a mobile application or as a web app, supporting most form factors of devices and screen sizes, including windows and mac desktops through a browser.
Get Started Now….
Get started today by: downloading for your phone or tablet (apply for beta programme) or start the web/browser-based version: (live).
The app provides
Gear locker where you store all of your gear and manage its categorisation and other attributes (weights, quantities, gear type, …). This enbles gear to be categorised and analysed consistently across packs and reduces time to maintain information.
Gear lifecycle: maintain a wishlist for planned purchases, to assess impact on weight of packs, and maintain a gear archive for disused or broken gear for historical record of packs.
Gear Type to classify each item as something carried all the time (BASE) e.g. backpack, something worn most of the time (WORN) e.g. Shorts, shirt, socks or something consumed during your hike e.g. stove gas (CONSUMED). There is much debate as to base vs. worn so beware the forums and go down the rabbit-hole at your own risk 🙂 In reducing your pack weight, you focus on reducing your base weight, knowing that you have less impact on the consumables and items worn/carried. Just be sensible: every gram matters and quickly adds up, but also that carrying an extra litre of water is an additional 1kg, so make decisions in relation to cost and benefit.
Categories to group together types of gear to assess the collective weight. E.g. Shelter, may cover your tent, stakes, groundsheet, poles or Sleep (system) may cover your quilt, sleeping pad, pillow, duvet, teddy bear, bed sheets, … Many people use a category called Big 3 to add together Shelter, Pack (Carry) and Sleep items with an aim to be as light as possible, as these tend to be the heavier items that you carry.
Packs Most people have more than one pack set-up for different hikes. For a long distance (thru) hike you are likely to change-up your gear based on the ‘section’ or terrain you are hiking. The app allows you to create as many packs as you like to be able to track these differing set-ups.
Systems for some people, who have dialled-in their gear set-ups, then systems can be created as (static) re-useable groups of gear that can be added to one or more packs. My examples are First Aid Kit, Summer cook kit, Summer sleep system, Safety/Fix kit. These rarely change but they are something that I add to many of my packs/trip set-ups.
Sharing Being able to share a link to your pack, can be useful for a virtual shakedown where people can review your gear and provide helpful (or not) suggestions. They may provide gear alternatives or where you can leave stuff at home, or perhaps may need a piece of safety equipment for a specific section. Most of the time it is used to show just how much DCF and Titanium made gear you have bought!
Offline Support: With the mobile versions of the app, your data is stored on your device as well as in the cloud, allowing you to access offline, make changes and resync when you are next connected. (There are some minor constraints around offline image manipulation).
Enjoy the app, please provide constructive feedback and keep a look out for new version as there is much more to come.
Mark.