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HI all
I am always trying to shed weight on my pack so i was wondering what is the average weight other people are carrying into the berg for a three night stay with a tent?Mine is around 17kg with 2litres of water.

That's pretty good going! I used to resort to pasta and sugar for dinner to keep my pack weight that low but have since seen the light (no pun intented). I'm a 20-25kg gourmet dinners hiker now

I think you guys are going in a bit heavey.

For summer I go at about 10kg + 1kg water
For Winter about 14kg + 1kg water

This is when i go with a a friend.
We split tent verse food.

If you interested I will give you a detailed break down.

One of the best things I ever did was lighten my bag in the Berg. This came about through necessity when climbing in winter. The additional weight of climbing gear + water meant that you couldn't have more than 12kg of other (non climbing) gear and still enjoy things - climbing gear came in around 10kg with climbing boots, harness, rack, ropes etc.

The essential change to mountain gear in the last 10 years has been a significant reduction in weight. I find that climbers with heavy bags tend to take too much clothing. I just take 2 long sleeve shirts (one of which I wear), two pairs of running shorts (one of which I wear) and a pair of lightweight running longs. A single fleece and lightweight raincoat are good for summer. Its never really too cold when you're hiking and if you're cold when you stop, then the sleeping bag should do the trick. The Berg is blessed with caves in 2 types of rock which is hugely unusual in the world. So I very, very seldom pack a tent. Bivvy bag yes.

After this, the most critical factor is fitness - so that if things go wrong, all or one can get out quickly. Anyone find any of this stuff on sale anywhere - give me a shout!

There are a few tricks with food as well. One I use regularly now is to take a minimal load of sugar and use those awful tasting diet sugar pills. These add the sweet taste and just a little sugar disguises the taste of the pills.

If you think you carry too much stuff, check out what is in your bag when you've finished a trip that you either didn't use or didn't really need. Not all of this can be left behind next time - but at least some can.

I guess this is all relative to body weight. I'm no Ox (only 57 kg body weight), but I still think I'm packing a bit too heavy (at least for shorter summer trips). Although, I cannot think of a way to reduce this weight without buying some new lighter weight gear. I've been carrying about 16-17 kg per trip, but my husband helps me by keeping my weight down. I carry about 2 kg of water, since I treat it with a Mioxx (it's a bit too risky for my little Canadian body to attempt untreated water).

Slightly off topic I know, I've never treated the water on Berg hikes and have never, never had a problem - even with pretty green looking pools on the escarpment before the rains in Spring.

I've had frequent problems elsewhere - including the water in the tourist camps in the Berg like Injesuthi and all of the rest of the continent to the north.....