Light adjustable torso pack

price range?

Less expensive is best. Maybe $80 might be the comfort level for about 2/3 of the families, and $130 for the other 1/3.

Often the families of the youth / scouts aren't sure backpacking is something their child will end up doing more than 6-10 times (ie: they could drop out of scouts in 1-3 years), and as a result don't want to spend a lot. An adjustable torso length seems to be a requirement for "good value" for these families – especially considering the yearly growth rates of the 13-16 year olds.

Other than those 2 concerns, I think the parents are would rather pay for comfort & quality rather than bells and whistles. Light is important, since the weight target is 15% of their childs body weight. This is very difficult with some of the 60-70 pound kids that can only afford synthetic bags and fleece jackets.

Must it be roll top? Most roll tops that come to mind belong in the UL category — meaning less durable (esp. for kids) and relatively more expensive.

Another option is to buy a used UL pack either on the various forums or Ebay.

Wouldn't there be a risk that some of the kids would not pack their frameless packs properly and suffer as a result? I imagine that's one of the benefits of the classic external frame scout packs.

No way you're going to hit 15% of body mass for the little guys in scouting, especially when 1) parents are buying cheap sleeping bags and 2) will send little Johnny off with a complete second set of clothing to wear the second day of an overnight, plus 5 lbs of snacks so he won't be hungry. I was an ASM in charge of backpacking, and put together a lightweight recommended equipment sheet and packing list, but dealing with the parents was very frustrating. Even if we did pack inspections and weigh-ins the week before the hike moms would find a way to make their kids "more comfortable" in camp that would make them miserable on the trail.

Even if you start them out tarping a more reasonable goal is to get them out there carrying under 20 lbs, which for the small guys is 25-30% of their body weight. Something like a youth-sized external or internal frame will give the small guys a way to handle that kind of weight ratio and cost less than $100, though they weigh around 4 lbs. If the kid is still interested in backpacking when they hit 16 or so they'll have an opinion of what they like in a pack, and the parents will be more willing to invest a bit more on a hobby the kid might keep up for the rest of his life.

Here's the load most of them will be carrying:

Personal gear:
32-40 degree bag
1/2-3/4" foam pad (Walmart), cut to height of scout
200 wt fleece jacket or longsleeve baselayer or nothing (depending on temps)
Nylon windbreaker jacket
1 pair nylon (track) pants or nylon shorts (depending on temps)
1 poly longsleeve (baselayer) or t-shirt (depending on temps)
1 liter gatorade or 2 1/2 lier aquafina bottles
1 plastic bowl, cup, spoon, hand sanitizer (smallest)
headlamp, small knife, 4 bandaids, 6 blister patches toothbrush, toothpaste (travel)
poncho or dryducks rainsuit
2 pr underwear (wicking), 2 pr socks (thorlo, etc)
liner gloves, knit hat, booney hat, sunglasses (depending on temps & location (booney hat and sunglasses not needed in woods))
Small piece of painter's plastic to sit on during lunch etc when the ground is wet (frequently)
The scouts will need to double the water volume carried in the summer, but less warm clothes will be needed.

Shared gear:
1/2 of 8×10 tarp and net tent (similar to Ray-way)
Share of dried food (instant oats, lipton sides, granola bars, etc)
1/2 of pocketrocket, 1.5 liter pot, fuel cannister, matches
1/4 of compass, maps, aquamira

Shared gear gets divided up as a percentage of the scout's body weight, so smaller scouts carry less, but everyone gets penalize "fairly" if they overpack.

Currently the best choice for packs appears to be the REI flash 50 since they can try it on for fit locally and it's advertized as 2 lbs without the lid or framesheet. I've tried it in the store with 30 lbs and a foam burritto frame, and it seemed to work OK. It's $149 though, and I was thinking there might be some better options. And it's NOT adjustable.

Also, I've never found any of the external frame packs to be comfortable, so I'm extremely hesitant to recommend them.

Nice list; looks a lot like my old list, other than we were going with 15-30F bags, as the mountains are a bit higher and potentially colder in CA. I still think you're talking about a 20 lb load for the little guys once you consider water, bag and food, though you're saving a few lbs over our guys carrying backpacking tents. Never saw the point of that in CA, but it was one of the arguments I lost with the leaders in my unit. Given that the scouts at the bottom end of your scale weigh probably 80-100 lbs, that means they are carrying 25% of their body weight, which IMHO is too high of a percentage for a frameless pack.

Getting an external to be comfortable is sort of like getting a mainstream internal framed pack set up optimally, in that you have to tweak this and that to get it to get it to carry right. Looking at the campmor site there are also some youth internal framed packs available, though I don't know much about them.

Main thing with kids that age is NOT to get a pack designed for your average adult male, even if their torso might be long enough to get in the adult range. Until 15 or so most kids don't have a wide enough physique, so packs designed for adults are too wide, the hipbelts are too long, and hence carry sloppy. Somewhere around 15 or 16 they start looking more like adults, and a regular pack will work. You might get away with a small size or woman's pack for the younger guys, but that gets away from your point of trying to make the pack a bit more adjustable.

They are not adjustable, but Sierra Trading Post has women's small GoLite Jam2 packs (probably 2008-2009 model) for $79.95.

Thyme (Green) and Black both could easily work for boys.