Following up on one of my previous posts, 4 Principles to Packing Smart, I'm including a summary of my pack and other tidbits. Altogether, everything so far weighs less than 20 pounds.  There were a couple moments when I considered adding a sleeping bag to the mix so I don't have to rent / buy one down in LatAm for the various treks.  But, desire to carry a lighter load won over.  Anyway, heads up that this post is a little disjointed so bear with me here...

First, the backpack.  It's a Deuter pack with a 70 liter capacity.  It features adjustable aluminium stays, a breathable hollow chamber foam in the back, contoured shoulder and sternum straps, a pivoting VariFlex hip belt that helps to make sure the weight of the pack is distributed optimally across the hips, stabilizer straps to adjust ventilation and control, and compression straps that reduce the size of the pack if the load gets reduced.

When I started consulting I found having to pack my suitcase every week to be a chore.  It was a boring process that required  packing my shirts and ties so they stayed wrinkle free while being jammed like sardines in a can.  When I started going to the gym on a more regular basis, it also required additional finesse to fit in my running shoes and gym clothes.  Eventually, if my projects were long enough, I ended up leaving my clothes at the hotel for the weekend, and picking them up on Monday evenings.  Consequently, I ended up basically carrying around an empty suitcase.  

With this mindset, I started thinking about how to lighten the load I would have to carry during my circle around Latin America.  After digging through the wisdom of other fellow backpackers and adventurers alike, I came to four key packing principles.  Whenever the question "Should I bring X?" came up, I asked if X met at least two of the four principles.  If yes, then it went into my backpack.  If not, the idea got discarded immediately.  The result?  For a trip spanning 60 plus days, I'll be carrying around less than 20 pounds.  My back sang "Hallelujah."

Here are the four PACE principles to save your back...Read more after the jump >>