Guide 4 min
What backpack volume when you hike as a group?
As a pair, the tent and cookpot are shared: your bag stays in the 40 to 50 L wild-camp range. With four, the group kit swells it. How to split the load.
Hiking as a pair doesn't mean twice the bag. The tent, the stove and the cookpot are shared: one set for the group, not one each. So everyone stays in the same range they would on their own, 40 to 50 litres for a wild camp. What doesn't get shared is your sleeping bag, your sleeping mat and your clothes: that's per person, and it doesn't shrink because there are more of you.
The method fits in one sentence: a bag's volume is your personal kit plus a share of the shared kit. With two or three, the sharing holds. With four, the group's kit goes past 70 litres (roughly), and dividing no longer keeps you inside the range of a solo wild camp. Here's how to read that, trip by trip.
Volume is per person plus the shared kit
Two families of kit, not to be mixed up:
- personal kit: your sleeping bag, your sleeping mat, your clothes, your water, your share of the food. Everyone carries their own, and it doesn't move with the number of people.
- shared kit: the tent, the stove, the cookpot, the gas cartridge. One set is enough for the group, and it's split between the carriers.
So a bag's volume is the personal kit (fixed) plus a share of the shared kit (the shared kit divided by the number of carriers). The more of you there are, the smaller each person's share of the shared kit. It's this sharing that explains the rest.
With two, your bag doesn't double
On your own, you already carry a tent, a stove and a cookpot. With two, you don't take two sets: one carries the tent, the other the cookpot. The shared kit is counted once, not twice. As a result, each bag stays inside the range of a single person.
Here are the per-trip ranges WildKit uses. They apply per person, not to the group:
| Trip type | Volume per person |
|---|---|
| Day hike | 15 to 25 L |
| Wild camp, one or two nights | 40 to 50 L |
| Trek, three nights or more | 50 to 65 L |
With two, each person aims for their own line in this table. The trap would be to double up: telling yourself "there are two of us, so I need 90 litres". No. You pack a normal wild-camp bag, and you share the tent between you. The solo volume method is spelled out in What backpack volume.
With four, the shared kit swells every bag
Sharing has a limit. With four, the tent is bigger, the cookpot larger, and the food stacks up: four shares instead of one. The whole group's kit goes past 70 litres (roughly), and no bag in the 40 to 50 L wild-camp range is enough, even when you split the load. That's the threshold covered by the question of whether a 40 L bag is enough.
So, two instincts. Split the shared kit: one carries the tent, another the cookpot and the gas, each a share of the food, and nobody ends up with the whole 70 litres on their back. Size up: with four, each bag leaves the wild-camp range and moves towards the trek range, 50 to 65 litres, even for a single night.
Gas is shared, but still capped at 500 g per person
The gas cartridge is shared kit: you don't take one each, you pool it, and the group often cooks on a single stove. The cap, though, is always counted per person: 500 grams of net gas per person, no more. Beyond that, you don't load up further, you plan to resupply on the way.
With four over several days, that cap comes up fast. It's the sign that a resupply stop beats a gas reserve weighing down a bag that's already full.
What to remember
- Volume is your personal kit plus the shared kit split between the carriers. Your bag doesn't double because there are two of you.
- With two, everyone stays inside their range: 40 to 50 litres for a wild camp. The tent and the cookpot are shared.
- With four, the group's kit goes past 70 litres: split the loads, and plan each bag around 50 to 65 litres.
The number of people changes who carries what, not the logic: everyone keeps their own sleeping bag, the group shares the tent and the gas. Tell us how many of you there are and describe the trip, and the suggested volume adjusts bag by bag, with the shared kit already split.
A guide WildKit keeps up to date. Published .