combining a hippack with a frameless pack?

While it is true that your hips can take the load of a heavy backpack, having the shoulder straps there to "anchor" the pack helps. In contrast, wearing a heavy hip pack (aka lumbar pack or fanny pack) can be uncomfortable.

For me, when the total load of my frameless silnylon pack is around 20 pounds or so, I hardly even feel the pack at all! While one should take care to pack properly, I don't think there's any concern about splitting up some of that weight and putting it into a lumbar pack. And reading your posts, you are obviously aiming for a very light weight pack load as well.

Also, with a UL silnylon pack, there's really no need for a separate day pack or hip pack at all. For day hikes, the main pack is more than light enough.

Ben, I want a hippack when my pack weight is above 20lbs. sorry, forgot to mention that.

I think if I plan to do some hikes with unsupported sections then I will have have to carry 6-8litres of water and food. May be more.

In that situation a light hippack can be useful for sharing water and food.

I am sure some ideas can be developed for anchoring the hip pack. Eg. connecting hip pack to shoulder stap with a strap.

You can certainly give it a try, but for heavier weights, I would just get a more appropriate pack. A combination backpack and lumbar pack can get in each other's way.

Hi Huzefa,
on day trips walking and jogging I use the front pockets of my Aarn pack strapped together one in front one behind as a double hip pack/bum bag. As they are just bags when they are heavy I can imagine that any heavier and they would be uncomfortable. I think some sort of shaped hip belt would be needed to carry serious dense weight but carrying front and back works. Such a hip bag would combine with an independant shoulder mounted light pack of fluff in my opinion

I used a size medium Golite Breeze riding on top of a pretty sturdy 700ci lumbar pack for a couple years. I liked the setup but have since switched to GG Virga which weighs about half what the two packs weighed and handles the same weight and volume well.

I have got two idea.

#1 A 360 circular neoprene hydration hip pack. Just imagine a tyre wrapped around your hip. No zips.. no pockets.. no hydration bag.. just a neoprene tube structure and a buckle.

#2 Two packs carried by a padded hipbelt strapped to thighs for stability.

Not that you asked, but methinks it's time to get out there and hike! You may be cerebralizing too much about gear. And yes, the old saying is correct — it takes one to know one. I can be like that too. :)

Ben, my excuse is the temp here is touching 95f -just outside my comfort level. I am waiting for monsoon to cool down things a bit. (you cant stop me from thinking about gear :)

I am begining to think full neoprene is not a good idea -water will slosh around when half empty. I came across Inov8 2L Horizontal Bladder. Looks pretty cool! I am also intrigued by their Race Pro 4 and Race Pro 30 Pack.

I've used a hip pack (front pack technically) to boost volume for winter hikes using my pack based off the 5 yard to Ultralight. Makes handy access for snacks, camera and such. I also ran it through the shoulder straps to help anchor the pack since it doesn't have a waist belt. Overall well worth trying for convenience but I don't think I'd actually put anything of real weight there, it just doesn't ride that well.