Mountain Project Logo

New Pack-Weight Calculator is available for testing

Original Post
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0

Hey All,

We just released a new online gear/pack-weight calculator app. The app is connected to a fairly large database (> 6000 items) of outdoor gear weights, and its interface is in a simple checklist format. Click on the gear fields to open the gear lists in their respective categories. Then, just click on an item to add it to your virtual pack (or haul bag). These 6000 items are just a starting point -- we know it's just scratching the surface. We're expanding our database daily. The database is also user-contributed.

If you don't see your gear listed, no problem. You can enter your own gear and have it saved.

This app is totally free to use, and you don't need to register to use the basic calculator. However, if you do choose to register (still 100% free), you do get a few extra features.

As you'll see, we tried to have this app apply to a variety of activities, including mountaineering, backpacking, backcountry skiing, as well as both rock and ice climbing.

This app was just released for testing a few days ago, so we're looking for anyone willing to help us expose any bugs, as well as offer constructive criticism (i.e. suggestions for improvement). We're still adding dozens of pieces of gear each day. So, who's a Gear Head enough to try it out??

weighmygear.com

Many thanks in advance!

Pete Spri · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 347

Nice work on that. I was looking to add my Cold Cold World pack, but it isn't on the list.

Suggestion: add a box that is "Misc" that you can enter your own weight into.

Looks good!

WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
Spri wrote:Nice work on that. I was looking to add my Cold Cold World pack, but it isn't on the list. Suggestion: add a box that is "Misc" that you can enter your own weight into. Looks good!
Hi, Spri. Thanks for taking the time to offer your feedback. Actually, already, you can enter your own weight info for gear already in our database, or enter your own gear altogether.

If you want to enter a custom/modified weight for gear already listed, first, select it by clicking on it. At this point, you should see it added to your gear list on the right, with its factory weight. Now, go back to the left side and simply type your own weight value over the factory value, and then click the black arrow button to submit that custom weight. You should see that get updated in your list in the right.

Now, if it's an issue of your gear not being in the database at all, again, just type in its name and weight into their respective fields, and click the black arrow button to place the item in your gear list. User-submitted items will pass through a couple different manual filters to determine if they should be added to the community database.

At the very bottom of each activity checklist, there are also true Misc. fields to put in anything you want.

Again, many thanks for your feedback!
Woodchuck ATC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 3,280

Sounds like fun...I bet I can top a 40 lb load within minutes...as I tend to carry way too much crap.
Wooohoo!! 30 min.later I got 76 pounds for a winter mountaineering expedition for 4 days. A bit too much!

Kevin · · California · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 0
Woodchuck ATC wrote:Sounds like fun...I bet I can top a 40 lb load within minutes...as I tend to carry way too much crap. Wooohoo!! 30 min.later I got 76 pounds for a winter mountaineering expedition for 4 days. A bit too much!
Yowza! That must really slow you down, no?
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
Woodchuck ATC wrote:Sounds like fun...I bet I can top a 40 lb load within minutes...as I tend to carry way too much crap. Wooohoo!! 30 min.later I got 76 pounds for a winter mountaineering expedition for 4 days. A bit too much!
Woodchuck,

Yep, it's amazing how fast things can add up, huh? I'd like to think that's one of the useful services of this app -- that is, its service of being a general packing-strategy tool. I mean, after your initial "virtual packing" session, you now know, in general, you're planning on taking too much stuff. So, I feel this app provides a decent platform to get an overview of the situation so you can begin to manage it.

Thanks for your participation in our testing!
Woodchuck ATC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 3,280

I gotta admit I often just got tired of scrolling down looking for my own gear(often not there due to it's age)..so insead of weighing my stuff and entering it, I just grabbed the weitht of similar items that I recognized from your pull down list. Maybe an extra few pounds gained that way. Food and the climbing gear were the biggest weight gains to the load.

A Smith · · Bozeman, MT · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 95

Not sure if this is currently the case or not. Might be beneficial for the custom items/weights to be added to your database. That way if someone adds an item, another user might then see the same item in the drop down menu when using it later.

B.S. Luther · · Yorba Linda, CA · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 65

Cool app, interface is self-explanatory and effective. I haven't fiddled a ton but thanks for sharing, just wanted to give a couple suggestions.

1. Your Black Diamond Camalot C4s only cover sizes 1- 6, so you're missing the .3, .4, .5, and .75.

2. I agree that it would be really user-friendly to include popular gear sets, in particular for nuts, such as the BD Stoppers 4-13. Or maybe just allow someone to put in a whole set in one click and then take off what they don't use.

3. On a related note, this might be technically unfeasible, but for climbing gear in particular, as a user it seemed like it'd be nice to be able to just add gear by brand. So, let's say I'm adding my cams, instead of going "camming device #1... camming device #2... etc.", I could just select "Black Diamond Camalot C4" and then add my sizes "3, 2, 1, 1, .75, .75, .5, .4" or some such, maybe just by checking a box for each size. I can see why this would be technically difficult, but just thought I'd throw it out there.

Crag Dweller · · New York, NY · Joined Jul 2006 · Points: 125

This is a pretty cool toy to play around with. I just stand on my scale w/ and w/o my pack of gear to weigh it, though.

DrApnea · · Wenatchee, WA · Joined May 2011 · Points: 265

nice app. I really liked messing with the rack simulator on spadout.com which also shows you rack weights, but unfortunately their database is extremely limited. I'll give this a go after I gear whore it up at the BD swap. Thanks.

Crag Dweller · · New York, NY · Joined Jul 2006 · Points: 125
muttonface wrote: I do that too. But if this thing were fine tuned a little bit, you could really trim down to exactly what you needed and nothing you didn't without laying all your stuff out and packing it. This tool isn't a necessity to be sure, but it is a tool, and I have fun geeking out with it.
I totally agree with that last statement.

I take a different approach with gear selection, though. Weight doesn't define what I need. Safety and risk management/tolerance define what I need. The gear I need weighs what it weighs. And, if I feel that I need it, it's going in the pack. If I don't, it's not going in the pack regardless of what it weighs.
Woodchuck ATC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 3,280

I remember the old 70's backpacking guidelines, where you cut off the extra length of your toothbrush handle to save 2 grams. Those were the days.

Brad W · · San Diego · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 75

Cool, will definitely play with it. Have tried GearGrams before.

Is there any way to link to a "pack" without sending an email?

WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
Woodchuck ATC wrote:I gotta admit I often just got tired of scrolling down looking for my own gear(often not there due to it's age)..so insead of weighing my stuff and entering it, I just grabbed the weitht of similar items that I recognized from your pull down list. Maybe an extra few pounds gained that way. Food and the climbing gear were the biggest weight gains to the load.
Hey Woodchuck, sorry for this delayed reply. I'm a new user, and this forum platform limits the number of posts a new user can make for the first several days.

Anyway, yes, I understand how not being able to find your gear can be frustrating. Please remember, though, we're still in the very early stages of its development, so, eventually, we'll be getting much more gear listed.

In the meantime, though, what you did was a perfect, quick "ballpark" solution. I think users will find that the accuracy one gets out of this app is only as good as the amount of time one puts into it, but if you're happy to be within, say, 5 lbs of your actual pack weight, then you can throw a full gear list together in a few minutes. I think most climbers/mountaineers would be happy with that. On the other hand, the extreme lightweight backpackers would be appalled by such a margin of error, so they would need to put a lot more time into this.

By the way, when you do search for your gear among the lists, you don't necessarily need to scroll down the list to search. The "Gear Name" fields do have an auto-search feature, so you can just start typing in any portion of the name of your gear (including brand name), and the list will automatically narrow down to your item as you type.
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
muttonface wrote:Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I didn't see an option to add sets of gear. What I'm saying is that adding each cam one by one, or each stopper, etc. one by one is tedious. Maybe you could get the weight of common sets; e.g. BD Stopper 4-13, BD C4 .75-3. Then if people have additional singles or doubles of only certain sizes, they could add them via the existing list accordingly. Just a thought. Good job though. Interesting tool.
Hey muttonface, sorry for this delayed reply. I'm a new user, and this forum platform limits the number of posts a new user can make for the first several days.

We've begun to group pro in sets. Great idea -- thanks! BD Stoppers, Micro Stoppers and Hexes are already done, but we'll eventually get to all pro across all brands.

By the way, when you do search for gear among the lists, you don't necessarily need to scroll down the list to search. The "Gear Name" fields do have an auto-search feature, so you can just start typing in any portion of the name of your gear (including brand name), and the list will automatically narrow down to your item as you type. For example, to quickly get to the BD Hexes in the pro lists, just type "hex" into the Gear Name field, and the list will jump right to the hexes. Just a little hint to save some time.
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
Brad W wrote:Cool, will definitely play with it. Have tried GearGrams before. Is there any way to link to a "pack" without sending an email?
Hi Brad W, sorry for this delayed reply. I'm a new user, and this forum platform limits the number of posts a new user can make for the first several days.

I've certainly heard of GearGrams, but honestly, I've never used it. Frankly, it turned me off when I learned that registration is required to even enter the basic tool part of the site. (As you know, our basic app can be used without registration.) Can you tell me, is GearGrams connected to a database, or does a user need to always enter his/her own gear?

Regarding your question about linking to a pack, what did you have in mind? I can tell you that we've discussed adding a member-only feature, which would allow members to not only save their packs as pure data, but also save them as HTML files, which would create/allow a URL link to those files. Would that be a solution to what your asking about?
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
muttonface wrote: I do that too. But if this thing were fine tuned a little bit, you could really trim down to exactly what you needed and nothing you didn't without laying all your stuff out and packing it. This tool isn't a necessity to be sure, but it is a tool, and I have fun geeking out with it.
Yep, stepping on the scale before you leave the house is always a good, definitive way to weigh your pack. But like muttonface mentioned, with this app, you can crack open a beer, sit at your desk, and "geek out" packing your virtual pack when you have a few free minutes here and there, without pulling out all your gear. If you're going on a big trip, you can start your planning and list-making months in advance, maybe before you even acquire the gear to actually shove in your real pack.
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
Crag Dweller wrote: I totally agree with that last statement. I take a different approach with gear selection, though. Weight doesn't define what I need. Safety and risk management/tolerance define what I need. The gear I need weighs what it weighs. And, if I feel that I need it, it's going in the pack. If I don't, it's not going in the pack regardless of what it weighs.
Definitely, Crag Dweller, I'm exactly the same, in that my comfort and safety define what I pack on every trip. But I, for one anyway, still have the weird curiosity to know what all of that gear weighs. Thanks for your input!
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
Alex M. Smith wrote:Not sure if this is currently the case or not. Might be beneficial for the custom items/weights to be added to your database. That way if someone adds an item, another user might then see the same item in the drop down menu when using it later.
Hey Alex, sorry for this delayed reply. I'm a new user, and this forum platform limits the number of posts a new user can make for the first several days.

Thanks for your input, but what you're suggesting is already a main feature of the system. I should mention, though, a user must be registered for his/her item to be saved to the community database. We need to have some accountability of who's entering the data, just in case we get malicious entries.

Once a member does enter a unique item not already in the list, or even an existing item with a custom weight, it will be saved and sent to our staff for approval. Our approval process is 2 steps: 1. We look for obvious inaccuracies and malicious entries, such as 100 lb sleeping bags, profanity, etc. Upon passing this filter, the item is added to the community database, but it will be listed in yellow at the very bottom of each list. This will indicate it is an unverified member-entry. Then, Step 2, in the case of unmodified, factory-made gear, our staff will actually verify the user-entered weight with the manufacturer. At this stage, we'll add the item to the main list of gear in its category.

I hope that addresses your comment. Thanks again!
WeighMyGear.com · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0
B.S. Luther wrote:Cool app, interface is self-explanatory and effective. I haven't fiddled a ton but thanks for sharing, just wanted to give a couple suggestions. 1. Your Black Diamond Camalot C4s only cover sizes 1- 6, so you're missing the .3, .4, .5, and .75. 2. I agree that it would be really user-friendly to include popular gear sets, in particular for nuts, such as the BD Stoppers 4-13. Or maybe just allow someone to put in a whole set in one click and then take off what they don't use. 3. On a related note, this might be technically unfeasible, but for climbing gear in particular, as a user it seemed like it'd be nice to be able to just add gear by brand. So, let's say I'm adding my cams, instead of going "camming device #1... camming device #2... etc.", I could just select "Black Diamond Camalot C4" and then add my sizes "3, 2, 1, 1, .75, .75, .5, .4" or some such, maybe just by checking a box for each size. I can see why this would be technically difficult, but just thought I'd throw it out there.
Hey B.S., many thanks for such positive and detailed feedback. Here are your answers:

1. Since you posted this, it appears that one of our members has entered the missing C4 sizes. Maybe it was you? In any case, you should now see them listed among the cams list. However, it appears they have not yet been manufacturer-verified, so they still appear listed in yellow at the very bottom of the list.

2. We've already begun to group all pro in sets. At the moment, we've only grouped the BD Stoppers, Micro Stoppers and Hexes, but we'll eventually get all brands... cams too.

3. Great suggestion about adding gear by brand, but as you guessed, realistically, it may not be a added feature any time soon. However, in the meantime, I'll give you a little time-saving hint for adding gear by brand (or model) more quickly. The "Gear Name" fields within the checklists have a pretty cool auto-search feature. For example, if you're adding BD C4s, you can simply type in "c4" and it will narrow the list down to only the BD C4s. This will prevent the repeated need to scroll through the lists.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer your feedback!
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Climbing Gear Discussion
Post a Reply to "New Pack-Weight Calculator is available for tes…"

Log In to Reply

Join the Community

Create your FREE account today!
Already have an account? Login to close this notice.

Get Started.