DofE expedition - small teen

[QuixoticQuokka]

My 13 year old is not unusually small, but he is only 155cm and 43kg, so about the size of a 12 year old. He will be doing his DofE practice expedition in March. He has plenty of experience of hiking and camping with Scouts, and did his Scouts expedition challenge (similar to DofE expedition but only carrying day packs) when he was 11.

I'm worried about him carrying a full size trekking rucksack though. Is there a maximum percentage of his weight he should be carrying? He already has a 65 litre DofE recommended rucksack but has only used it for Scout camps where he hasn't had to carry it far. Would this be too big?

Does anyone else have a small teen who has done the DofE?

I’m a short female and have been carrying a 65l pack since I started DofE at your son’s age.
Don’t buy another bag, just get him to weigh it before he leaves and hook out anything unnecessary. I run girls’ expeds now (12+) and our rule is 25% of body weight. He’ll be fine.
If you have spare cash, buy him lighter weight versions of his other gear, not more bags. I’m 49 and I still use my 65l from D of E. it makes my fellow hikers laugh. Ityvintage but it’s mine, and all the rest of my gear is newer, light, and shiny

I did mine when I was 13 and I was absolutely tiny (under 150cm). With the right packing, right bag (don’t recommend mountain warehouse they are crap) it DOABLE but not necessarily easy. Get in as many practices as possible before the expedition, esp with bag carrying helped me a lot

I probably shouldn’t mention that as a very slight teen my kneecap dislocated with the weight of the rucksack in combination with a downhill and I was ambulanced out of the Peaks
26 years on with many more dislocations it’s left a rather lasting impression!!

But this was in the days of heavy canvas tents, no mobile phones and a rather lax approach by the school.

I only did it for my UCAS and because I couldn’t finish the expedition I never finished DoE

When I did my walking training, we were told you should only carry about 1/3 of your bodyweight.
My dh does a huge amount of walking / mountaineering, including training and assessing others, and he gets quite cross with the DofE as participants are told they HAVE TO take {insert list} and they tend to have kit checks and some assessors do not use any common sense, or adjustment for predicted weather, etc etc. So some participant do end up taking far more than they need to carry, but are also told the HAVE to.

That said, as pp have noted, previous experience of camping and of walking tends to put those dc a long way ahead of other dc who have never done either, so that will probably far outweigh 'being smaller'.
My middle dc in particular is tiny, but she never struggled. They don't actually have to walk that far.

Take competed plasters and don't wear new walking boots.

@Megan2018

I probably shouldn’t mention that as a very slight teen my kneecap dislocated with the weight of the rucksack in combination with a downhill and I was ambulanced out of the Peaks 26 years on with many more dislocations it’s left a rather lasting impression!!

But this was in the days of heavy canvas tents, no mobile phones and a rather lax approach by the school.

I only did it for my UCAS and because I couldn’t finish the expedition I never finished DoE

Sounds similar to what happened to my friend! Finished climbing the peaks equivalent of Everest and we’re making our way down when my friend twisted her ankle going down a hill it was only day two so had to faff around calling minibus! Turns out one year one it was a hairline fracture no one discovered

Tbh I think my bronze practice was 100% my worst expedition (and first time proper camping in a while, although we did sleep on the trampoline a few times). Bag was too bloody big (65L). Couldn’t carry it for the last half hour or so of the expedition (although we were fucking stranded and lost for 5 hours. Middle of summer and it was beginning to get dark! They did introduce trackers on our next expedition ) Learnt my lesson that time and silver was excellent. Although I did have to have a lightened load on the silver practice (too many fucking hills) between the practice and assessed we headed up to the peaks a lot (massive bag in tow) so it was easier to practice. Silver assessed was by far the best