Golite Pinnacle still relevant?

Can you really haul 18kgs comfortably with the Pinnacle? I own both the Jam and Pinnacle but have not used the latter yet but I'd be surprised if the few extra features would increase the comfort-weight (that I estimate at around 12kgs with the Jam) by such a significant amount.

I’ve hauled 16 kg in a Pinnacle (desert trip; lots of water). You can do it, but comfortable it is not. I’m going to say 13 kg is about as much as you want to carry (for comfort) in a Pinnacle.

Now, that said, it can be done. I just didn’t find that it carried very well. If you had relatively short distances to travel and didn’t mind the occasional “take off the pack and sit a minute” rest stop, then it would work reasonably well.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving
Hikin’ Jim’s Blog

Someone should come up with a "comfort weight" rating to go along with "extreme weight" for packs.
If you put a string around a 20kg bag of potatoes you will be able to carry it, now here is where comfort weight vs extreme comes in…

As a tip, if you see someone commenting they sleep on bare ground (or on a 1/8" mat…) don't take any notice about how their pack feels.

FWIW, I am more interested in hearing about any comparable sub 1kg packs of similar VOLUME capacity. Whether the Pinnacle can carry 18kg comfortably or not is not really germane to my request.

The Pinnacle is more of a volume holder than a load hawler. As such, it's still an interesting pack for winter if you can keep your weight rather low. Try hard to build a good virtual frame. 18 kg may be not comfortable but it's certainly doable with a stiff virtual frame. I use a foam mat in the cylinder fashion. This and the winter sleeping bag take a lot of room but the Pinnacle can handle that.

I'd only miss all webbing straps to be wider and more robustly sewn to the pack but I have not blown any yet. It's still my winter pack after the years, i.e. I haven't found any other that looks significantly better for what I do.

It's easy to think of packs which are lighter, tougher, carry weight better, and have a better feature set, but I can't think of any that balance all of those as well as the Pinnacle/Jam did at such a low price. The 2010 models were particularly good.

It might not suit your needs any more, but it's still a good pack. Put a reasonable frame in the 201 Pinnacle and make the torso length longer in each size and you'd still have a very competitive all-around pack.

I had a Pinnacle and put a light frame in it (someone here was selling light aluminum frames, can't recall who), took just a wee bit of sewing, but it definitely helped in the load carry category- there is a thread documenting this w/ a Jam- it's basically the same for the Pinnacle

I purchased it as a winter pack, but found that I couldn't make good use of the volume, w/o some additional support- the frame helped; but then I bought an Exped Lightning 60 which was just a few ounces more (albeit less volume) and promptly sold the Pinnacle

If (big if) you can use the 75 liters of volume AND keep it in the 20 lb range, then it is relevant

Yes, my Winter kit can fit comfortably in 50L too. Of course, one of the least discussed Pinnacle features is their ComPACKtor compression system that reduces the volume at the bottom of the pack while also pushing the smaller load up for an improved center of gravity.

Not to mention the (in my opinion) brilliant design that the compressions straps have opposing buckles which mean they can be joined all the way across the back of the pack. Perfect for snow shoes (or what have you).

HJ
Adventures In Stoving
Hikin’ Jim’s Blog

So are any to of the cottage guys making a <1kg pack even close to a ~76L or larger capacity, preferably not made with cuben fabrics?

not that I'm aware of, but I'm sure Zimmerbuilt could whip up exactly what you spec out

The biggest MLD pack (Arc?) is pretty close to 70 liters, totally frameless, and I'm sure darn light (~600 grams?).

Thanks Dave. Too much wide mesh for my tastes. Still surprised there still doesn't seem to be many contenders in this niche 5yrs on. Looks like my Pinnacle will live to fight another day and stay on the gear list.