Light Pack for Women

My wife would demand (request sweetly) hipbelt pockets for sure, sized for light glooves,chap stick…! Preferably these would be standard and fixed not an add on option. She says when can she order?

Personally, I would want a longer torso length so I can wear the pack firmly around my hips instead of waist, so I wouldn't really want a smaller "hipbelt". The hipbelt is critical, and the design should minimise weight on the shoulders…hipbelt pockets or balance front pockets are a nice selling point ;)

Colour has GOT to be pink…(NOT)!

Good volume since I tend to feel the cold more…I carry loftier sleeping bag, mat and extra clothing compared to most men I know, but youreally do need to do a good survey as every women is different!

Red would be a deal killer for my wife, no matter how perfect it fit. Dark green, dark blue, tan, gray … Something that would disappear at 50'.

For what it is worth, my two favorite packs are currently my GoLite Quest and my Osprey Talon 22. Both are comfortable, practical, and serve my needs well.
However, that doesn't mean that I'm not ALWAYS looking for something NEW!………………….

Hi Ron

Something which gets ignored only too often by male pack designers is the fact that women have the gluteal muscle exterior to the pelvic cradle, while men have it interior.

Translation: women have bigger bums.

Sorry, but it is a fact. The big bum muscle on women does go outside the pelvic bone, probably to make room for the womb.

This means that the average hip belt which fits the average male bum does not fit the average female bum very well. You need to tailor the foam padding at the back, in the dorsal region. Some Australian pack makers actually offer exchangeable male and female hip belts, and they are shaped differently.

Oh yes – and females have weaker shoulders, so you need to consider that as well.

Cheers

Oh yeah, I forgot about that Roger. It's not enough to just have most of the weight off the shoulders and onto the "hips", but the weight needs to distribute the load around the hips. There's nothing more uncomfortable than having all the weight of the pack pushing down into the lower back/gluteals. The best load transfering hipbelt I've tried so far is the one on the Osprey Aether to give you an idea. This lack of distribution is why just beefing up, eg a GoLite Gust with extra rods to transfer the weight, just doesn't work as it focuses all the weight into the lower spine/glutes. We found the same problem with the GoLite Quest.

My wife complains about the distance of the straps on unisex packs being too wide at the shoulder and rubbing her upper arms / arm pits raw.

Matt

My girlfriend and I were discussing this last night. She has a medium Jam 2,an Osprey Talon 24 and a Warp 70. Her issues are also with the hip belt. With the first two packs, the hip belt works its way up and squeezes off of her hips to her waist, and that makes the weight rest in the small of her back. After she gets the belt tightened she does all that she can to not twist her torso or lift her knees to keep the belt down. Her favorite fit is the old Warp 70 with a wide belt that has enough padding and surface area to grip her hips. She's willing to wear the 4lb 10oz pack, just to get something that works with her body.

The two most comfortable hipbelts we've tried were the very well padded Aether and, oddly enough, the LuxuryLite hipbelt.I say 'oddly' because the LuxuryLite has very little padding, but has a very large surface area and is anatomically cut to distribute the load over the whole hipbelt. The LuxuryLite also has an almost infinitely adjustable torso length, so we can wear it as low or high on our hips as we choose, with virtually no weight on the shoulders. So I'm guessing there's two ways to skin this cat!

BTW, I agree that neutral colours are more appealing to me and my female hiking friends. Women are just notoriously fussy about colour!

My wife would value the following in a Woman's pack:

1. Hipbelt doesn't cause the bones at the front edge of the pelvic to become sore. Maybe by using a waist belt with tensioners high & low, but not in the middle ???

2. Hipbelt is adjustable for slope since the typical womans hipbelt is either too conical or too upright.

3. Hipbelt is shaped so it doesn't press in on the lower back below the beltline.

4. Shoulder strap are wide on top, but narrow quickly for less bulk under the armpit and less pressure on the bosom.

5. Shoulder straps are adjustable for slope, since her trapezious muscle is much less flat than most men's and most straps typically press in with 80% of the weight on just one edge.

6. Any color is fine as long as it's not noticeably girly – and especially not pink, or light purple.

Well put, John G.
Thank you.
I might add that I like red packs because of the bright color. In my area, there is some sort of hunting season going on pretty much every day of the year so I like to make myself as apparent as possible.

Well, let's see; Shoulder straps that are wide enough to be comfortable and distribute weight but do not rub my neck (maybe curved/cut out slightly near the neck area). Shoulder straps that curve as they go under my arms, so as not too rub. I have owned 2 packs with "lumber pads' and practically gave them away. The lumbar pads caused much pain in lower back. I like packs without them. A belt that has padding that wraps around my hips far enough. Love small hip belt pockets for snacks, camera, etc. Pack should be sized so that it does not tower over the head, since we women have a lower center of gravity and weight too high can cause balance problems.

I agree with adding just a little bit of padding to the hipbelt. Kelty has too much, GoLite not enough. I like SMD's Starlite or Mountainsmith's old Mountainlite line. It would be nice if the "wings" tilted outward a little to cup the hipbones. I dunno about others, but I'm pretty bony and I get bruises there pretty easily.

The bottom of the pack should be level with the bottom of the hipbelt when fully loaded. Lots of packs seem to sit on my rear if the hipbelt is in the right spot.

I don't like packs that tower over my head, but I prefer a slim, tall pack to a short, fat one. I don't like it when my pack is wider than I am.

Curved shoulder straps are great. The ideal pack strap would avoid pinching at the neck but be narrow enough to sit in the middle of the shoulder, then curve outward to avoid smashing the mammaries (apparently "bre@sts" is considered profanity and filtered out…).

If there's a sternum strap, please make it adjustable in height. There are places where one just shouldn't be…

I like load-lifter straps, even on an ultralite pack.

Color: Earth tones please!! I'm so sick of women's outdoor gear and clothing either being pink or some garish shade of green or blue that could never be found in nature. Sage green, light brown, or gray would be wonderful. Even dark blue isn't bad.

Thanks for asking!

I really don't like thick waist belts.

Something with a torso length of at least 15" maybe even 14"

I do like packs that you can change the size shoulder strap and waist belt.

Some shoulder straps are too big and I have to pull the strap all the way to the end, which is difficult when you are small, and don't have the arm strength. I like Gregory's wrapter way of adjusting the straps and Osprey's way of pulling the waist belt inward. Less awkward motion.

Please..NO PINK OR PURPLE!

Ron,

Glad to see one of the ultralight gear manufacturers addressing this! My wife uses a ULA Conduit and after carrying it for a few hundred miles she did have some fit issues with a pack which is essentially made for a man. These were due primarily to the two most obvious anatomical torso differences between men and women- wider hips and narrower shoulders.

The Conduit's waist belt has generous enough padded wings to compensate for her wider hips (they 'wrapped well') but her comparatively narrower shoulders did make the pack straps' wide spacing and contour somewhat uncomfortable. A few other posters have already touched on this. It's been our observation that shoulder straps on a woman's pack need to be closer together at the top (without rubbing the sides of the neck) and have a very definite contour to wrap comfortably under the arms to avoid both rubbing on the insides of a woman's arms or underarms and pressure against the bre@sts. My wife did get some chafing on the insides of her arms from her Conduit pack. Brian Frankle was generous enough to sew the strap attachment points a half inch closer together at the top. This, in conjunction with his new way of attaching the straps to the top of the pack at a slight angle, seems to have alleviated this.

We did some comparisons between the Conduit and other 'female specific' pack models made by various manufacturers. These included Mountainsmith, REI, Gregory, and Osprey. All of the packs we looked at were the models designated as 'light and fast' by the various manufacturers. What we found was that the hip belts tended to be fairly similar but set wider in the back. The biggest difference seemed to be the way the pack straps were contoured. Most of the straps on the women's models seemed to be set narrower where they joined the top of the pack (though not by much) and contour much closer together near the collar bone and sternum, then flair out wide and shallow under the arms to fit closely against the rib cage. They seemed to form more of a definite 'C' shape, as opposed to the 'L' shape predominant in most men's models. My wife thought Gregory did the best job of the, specifically the Gregory Jade pack.

Hip belt pockets are a must on any pack, in our estimation. As for cosmetic decisions like color, I'll leave that to others to decide. Personally, we both prefer muted color schemes.

I'd definitely recommend checking out the strap and hip belt designs of these other manufacturers. Shoulder strap shape seems to be a key factor. Figuring out how you can cut weight based on their designs shouldn't be hard to do as most of the packs we looked at were really overbuilt and had way too many extras, bits, and baubles for supposedly lightweight packs.

Hallelujah and thank you, Ron, for asking!

I need a pack that doesn’t put pressure on my tailbone. I’ve discussed this with other women and they have mentioned the same problem. Like Diana mentioned above, “The bottom of the pack should be level with the bottom of the hipbelt when fully loaded. Lots of packs seem to sit on my rear if the hipbelt is in the right spot.” I totally agree.

Second, need hipbelt that is made for a woman.

I need a sternum strap.

For packs that carry 25 pounds, I like top loader straps. Guys may not find these important at this weight but I do.

Shoulder straps that don’t rub my neck or cut under the arms.

Agree with statement that shoulder straps are often too long on guy packs.

I want earth tones. No pinks or purple. I hike alone don’t want to advertise it by color of my pack, please. Safety issue.

i mostly agree with all of John G's suggestions.

apparently i am not allowed to use the common vernacular for mammary glands. they can be a problem – straps should not cut into them. but then, wider straps on the top of the shoulders would be awesome, so as to distribute the weight across more of the shoulder.

a hipbelt that can be adjusted to be more or less conical – i have an hourglass figure and straight belts are misery for me. the best belt i ever used was on the Gregory Electra, which is a mondo heavy pack but did carry heavy loads like a dream.

i really don't care about color, i'll wear a pink pack, but green would be very sweet.

Good suggestions from everyone on fit. Choosing hipbelt sizes and even shoulder widths would be good, since not all of us ladies who backpack are slim.

As far as color, put me down for earth tones or muted colors. No red, pink, orange, or garish bright blue please.

Thanks, all you gals; this is very interesting.

Frito, my radically female significant other needed an AT pack and had not been able to find anything she liked, so I made this pack for her:
* Frameless, straight-through bag padded by the sleeping pad, and made short to stop at the small of the back, not on the butt, and contoured to fit back;
* No hip belt at all;
* Wide, cobra-style shoulder straps (wide on shoulder tops, narrow in front, countoured radically to keep them off the mammaries;
* Load-lifters on top of the straps at 45 degree angle.

It is good to about 30 pounds (and has gone, less well, to 35), but she very rarely carries more than 26 total.

I agree with the comments that a pack that bangs your butt is at least obnoxious if not actually painful – for men as well as women. I have failed to design an adequate hip-suspended system without adding a lot of hardware (and weight). However, eliminating the belt entirely and stopping the pack before the sacral promontory starts works very well. Carrying it all on her shoulders seems to work ok for Frito despite a lot of rotator cuff surgery.

And Ron,
There is another reason to put the shoulder strap top anchors closer together for women: It changes the angle at which the straps ride on the shoulders and gives more uniform pressure across the width of the strap for most women. However, this causes the strap to turn toward the (can't refer to them puppies here), so a radical contour is needed to turn it to the outside. Doing both and widening the strap on top of the shoulders seems to work fine for Frito. Combined with properly angled lifters, properly designed shoulder straps do not need sternum straps at all. In fact, IMHO, sternum straps are evidence of poor design. But maybe that's just me. Personal prejudice: done right, a pack should be stable for nearly horizontal climbing without a hip belt, much less a sternum strap.

Spock

I too prefer subdued, outdoorsy tones in re clothing, tents, packs and re.

But I prefer that others use brightly colored gear so that I can see them from far off and avoid them. [semi tic] But seriously now, the other day I was saved a long walk to a campsite because I was able to see three brightly colored tents (occupying a small site) from a long way off.

Peace,

Richard.

Richard Allen said: "I too prefer subdued, outdoorsy tones in re clothing, tents, packs and re."

-Are you a woman? Lets keep it OT here "buddy" :P