Why Packing Order Matters on a Long Day Out

A 25-litre day pack looks forgiving. You can stuff it, zip it and set off, and for the first hour or two it will feel fine. The trouble starts on the third climb, when the weight has shifted, the straps have settled and everything you need is somewhere under everything else. Most walkers blame their fitness. More often it is the packing.

The principle is simple. Keep the heavy things close to your spine and roughly in the middle of your back, keep the frequently used things within reach without taking the pack off, and keep the light, bulky things at the bottom and outer edges. Get that order right and a five-kilogram load feels like four. Get it wrong and the same load will nag at your shoulders and lower back all day.

Build the Load Around Your Spine

Start with the heaviest items, because they dictate where everything else goes. In a day pack that means water, a flask, dense food and any stove or cooking kit you have chosen to carry. These belong flat against your back, roughly between your shoulder blades and your hips.

• Heaviest: water bottles, flask, sandwiches, dense snacks. Pack them vertically against your spine, not as a lump at the base.
• Medium weight: spare layers, waterproofs, first aid kit. Sit these around the core load.
• Light and bulky: spare fleece, sit mat, spare gloves, hat. These go at the bottom and along the outer walls of the pack.

Resist the temptation to shove the heavy stuff high up near the lid. A top-heavy sack pulls you backwards on steep ground and shifts about on rough descents. Equally, do not bury it right at the bottom, where it drags on your shoulders and makes the pack sag. The middle, snug against your back, is the sweet spot.

Keep What You'll Reach For on the Outside

Think about the things you will want while still moving, or at least while wearing gloves. Map and compass, hat, gloves, snacks, sun cream, midge repellent, lip balm. These belong in the lid, the hipbelt pockets or the mesh side pockets.

• Lid pocket: map, compass, headtorch, small snack, phone in a dry bag.
• Hipbelt pockets: the snacks you will actually eat, a small cloth, lip balm.
• Side pockets: water bottle or flask, so you can drink without stopping to unpack.

If your map lives in a case, keep it in the lid or a dedicated front pocket rather than folded into the main compartment. You will look at it far more often than you think, and a map that takes two minutes to extract is a map you will not check.

Waterproofs and Emergency Kit: Never Right at the Bottom

British hill weather does not consult your plans. You will stop to put waterproofs on more than once on many days out, so rolled waterproofs should sit near the top of the main compartment or in a front pocket, ready to grab. The same goes for a spare warm layer.

Your emergency kit is small but should never be buried. A headtorch, whistle, basic first aid, a foil emergency shelter and a charged phone in a dry bag take up little room and can sit in the lid or a side pocket. The headtorch matters especially, because the day you need it is almost always the day you did not plan to be out late. Check the batteries before you leave the house, not at the point you need them.

Weigh It, Then Trim It

For a summer day walk in the hills, aim for around five to seven kilograms including water. Winter conditions, with extra layers, spikes and a bigger flask, will push that higher, and that is fine. The point is to know what you are carrying. Stand on the kitchen scales with and without the pack before you go.

• Decant food into bags rather than carrying bulky packaging.
• Carry one litre of water and refill at streams where it is safe, rather than carrying two litres all day.
• Leave the spare trousers, the second book and the "just in case" third layer at home.
• Use compression straps to stop the load shifting, but never so tight that the pack is a rigid box.

Nothing should dangle. A swinging jacket catches on rock and heather, and a loose strap flapping against your arm for six hours is a small misery you can easily avoid.

Adjust the Pack Before You Set Off

Packing is only half the job. Put the pack on in this order: loosen everything, settle the hipbelt on the crest of your hips, cinch it snugly, then tighten the shoulder straps, then the sternum strap, then the load lifters at the top of the shoulders. The hips should take most of the weight. The shoulders should steady the pack, not carry it.

Recheck the fit after twenty minutes and again at the top of the first proper climb, because the load will settle. Then run a quick mental check: map, waterproofs, water, food, headtorch, first aid, phone. Zip every pocket. A well-packed rucksack is quiet, comfortable and lets you think about the birdsong, the ridgeline ahead and the view behind, which is the whole point of being out there.