Wait till next year's pack out! Better train on the steep and nastyI packed my bull and a buddies bull this year so this is just for a quick reference.
Both were 5x5's. Mine was a 1/2 mile to the truck, half up hill and the rest relatively flat on a ridge top. His bull was a little bigger and it was all downhill about a mile to the truck.
We did mine in two trips (2 guys). With my buddies it was a really bad/steep uphill climb for half so we ended up doing 2 trips to get the bull to an easier spot, then went back for 2 trips to get it to the truck, also 2 guys.
We usually each take a hind quarter and neck meat/trimmings in one round, then go back and take the front quarter, straps, head, etc. on the second round. We try and evenly distribute the loads, but the guy whose carrying the head on the last round usually has to carry more for that round obviously. General rule of thumb is the one who kills it carries the head!
I truly have no idea how much the packs weigh. I can tell you my buddy took his bull to a butcher and the total weight of the meat and bones came in around 230-240 lbs IIRC. We do the gutless method and cut off the legs at the knuckle. Anything further than 1 mile and I would seriously consider boning the meat out.
So, in the case of my buddies bull, we each packed around 60-70 lbs of meat/bone on each trip, not including the round with the head since that was not weighed at the butchers obviously. Also keep in mind we had gear in the packs so easily factor in some added with there, weight of the packs, etc.....so let's just say for estimates we had around 90 pounds on our backs each trip. It was not fun, but easily doable. We started packing at around 10am and we hit camp at 4pm. Total distance between all the trips came out to 3 miles, even though we were only 1 mile from the truck. 2 miles with heavy packs, 1 mile empty going back for staged meat.
That was one of the more difficult packs out in recent memory, not for total miles but just the very steep terrain, although the heaviest portions were downhill thankfully! If I had to do it again, I would estimate that if we were double the distance (2 miles) from the truck I wouldn't have issues, the suck factor would just be added. Now if that pack was mostly uphill with heavy packs, I would cry like a baby! I'd still do it because I'm dumb that way, but I'd be a hurting fool.
I don't know how I would be able to do more than 100 lbs on my back in anything but relatively flat terrain. 80-90 is tough enough as it is.
That's just my observations. I'm no Hercules, but I'm a big guy (6'1 and 210 lbs) that trains year round. I do some training with weighted packs in the summer, but all the gym time and running I do year round can never equal a real pack out. That's just me. Maybe I just need to ditch all of my training regimen and just do steep/heavy packs all year!
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