Big, Heavy Packs

1. Why do you consider yourself serious?

Getting out into the mountains and away from the cities/people/mechanization is central to me maintaining my equilibrium. Since backpacking is about the only way to do that, I am seriously focussed on backpacking. It is a major part of who I am.

2. What pack do you use for serious backpacking?

The primary consideration for a pack for me, given my back and its painful history, is that the pack does a great job at transferring weight to my pelvic girdle, and is generally comfortable elsewhere. While I use light to ultralight gear for everything else, I use a Gregory Baltoro for my pack, as it has done the best job for me at carrying 20 lbs in comfort. It weighs about 6 lbs, which is about 4 lbs more than I want, and obviously adds significant weight to my load, but it is still more comfortable and less painful than any of the light to ultralight packs I've tried.

3. Do you still use something like this, or would you be in the market for one again?

See above, and I'm not currently in the market for any new packs. I like what I have.

My wife and I are each 64. Similar to what quite a few others like us have posted on these forums, we lately had been thinking that our backpacking days were over. Back in the mid to late 90s, we each got a Gregory Reality pack at a little over 5 lbs. each. At that time, that was just about the most comfortable internal frame pack we could find. For me, a typical 4 night load was 40 lbs. plus. On a Guadalupe Mountains Natl. Park hike, I hauled about 55 lbs. up a tough trail, with quite a bit of water. The Horror! The Horror!

Well those days are over. But, to my delight, with forums such as these, we are back in business!

After getting a postal scale, we first inventoried our camping stuff. Then we have been acquiring things here and there to approach what I would call, not UL, but "lighter-than-we-used-to-be." As an example, my base weight will run 11 – 12 lbs. As I said, not exactly UL, but a whole lot lighter than we used to be.

FYI, since our hikes are mostly 1 to 4 day overnight affairs, we chose the ULA Conduit packs for us. Because I have been down with the flu lately, I have only done a test 2 mile outdoor hike with about 13 lbs. I hardly can tell the pack is there. Yea!

In summary, we are not going to have to haul a whole lot of gear, nor would we even be able to. (I suppose, since I am blessed to be in pretty good shape for my age, I still could. But, sportsfans, I do not want to.) Hence, a lighter than we used to be approach is going to extend our hiking life.

Blessings,

Steve

1. What is "serious?" According to my Merriam-Webster iPhone app:
-adjective

1: thoughtful or subdued in appearance of manner

2a: requiring much thought or work
b: of or relating to a matter of importance

3a: not joking or trifling: being in earnest
b: deeply interested

4a: not easily answered or solved
b: having important or dangerous possible consequences

5: excessive or impressive in quality, quantity, extent, or degree

In regards to backpacking, I can most relate to definitions 1, 2a, 2b, 3b, and 4b. Out of all those possible definitions, number 5 sticks out as a trait most unlike my view on backpacking. So, according to Monsieur Merriam-Webster, I am a serious backpacker. I don't need to log hundreds of miles or carry 50+lbs to be considered "serious." It's something I enjoy, care to be educated about, and take small details with large importance. Pissing-fests detract from any claim of "seriousness" regarding a topic, especially when definition #1 is considered.

2. Pack? Right now I'm using an Osprey Talon 44.

3. Never had anything like that, nor will I personally ever need one.

nm, with apologies to all.

Ryan,

I suppose I would consider myself a serious backpacker in the sense that it is what I do for recreation. When I go on vacation, I go backpacking.

As for what pack I use, well that depends on the trip. I do enjoy the advantage of lightweight packs and the associated lightweight loads for short to medium trips in fair weather. My OHM is a trustworthy companion for those types of trips.

That being said though, for longer expeditions where I'm hauling around five or more days food, maybe colder weather gear, climbing gear, five pounds of camera gear, or anything else I may want or need, I do enjoy having a more robust pack to carry all that stuff around in. People joke about 85 liters but that can fill up fast if you want to be truly self sufficient for long stretches IMO. Especially if you want all of the contents IN the pack and not hanging off it.

Now to answer the question about the Mystery Ranch pack. Yes, I'd love to have one but my Osprey Aether 70 will have to suffice for now.

Me, I just love my monster pack. It's somewhere between 85 and 95 litres and weighs over 6lb. Would I use it for a solo trip under a week? No way, but for my trip last week, it was great.

We went out with the family for eight days to the Walls of Jerusalem in Tasmania. Anyone who knows Tassie will know that there is the potential for snow anytime, even midsummer (which it is here) There's also the GUARANTEE of rain on at least some of those days. We had 250mm (Yep 10 inches) in one day on this trip.

Before we left my wife was unsure if she could walk with a pack at all, due to an inflamed TFL insertion. She tried a 25lb pack for 12km of flat walking, and was okay, but I didn't want to push her to carry any more. She also suffers from Reynards, so needs to pack extra dry/warm clothing. The kids (9 and 11) both had all their own gear, but no food, cooking gear or shelter.

This left me with a four person shelter (Old school BD Megamid, not Megalite, with nest against leeches and mossies), four person cooking setup, water treatment and diversions for tentbound days, plus a sat phone for emergency contact and pickup at the other end (The road ended up being washed away, but our friends were able to 4wd past this to meet us for pickup). I also carried a family first aid kit (Two of the snakes prevalent down there are deadly;Tiger and Brown, but the White Lipped will only make an adult really sick. We only saw a White Lipped.) I also had food for 28 person/days at about 1.75lb pppd. The two kids will consistently out eat many adults. (We walked out with 4 muesli bars, a bag of gorp, and three serves of dehy baked beans left over)

In all honesty, the only time I felt any discomfort from the PACK was on the last day when we packed up wet, and I was carrying some of the kids gear for eight km of offtrack walking, followed by eight km on a rocky 4WD track. My left shoulder was aching, but I'm not sure that wasn't from lifting something, since it continued to hurt at home. The pack carried great. Could I feel the weight on the first few days….absolutely. Knees and achilles copped a pounding, but I knew that before I started, and prepared adequately. By the end, 35lb was riding like a cloud. I never heard a single complaint from the kids or my wife about their loads.

My monster pack allowed us to take my dream trip, and turn it into a reality, and help show my kids and wife what they're capable of. My nine year old daughter is demanding a repeat trip in winter!

Middle of summer hiking in Tasmania!

Rod,

Very.
Fricking.
Cool.

Thanks for sharing!

"Me, I just love my monster pack. It's somewhere between 85 and 95 litres and weighs over …."

Hi Rod

A lovely but tough part of the world. Can't imagine getting my kids or wife out there at the moment, but then I have a 10 year old and a 2 year old, with one in-between so the age gaps are quite large.

The pack looks like a Macpac Cascade or Torres – they are very comfortable but I used to think that you could have exactly the same pack with the same comfort and support, but a bit lighter – like the Dana alpine, which was just as large, just as comfortable and about 2.00 kg lighter. I ended up with a 110 litre Lowe Kangal (because it was cheap and available in Australia), and I used it until with a total pack weight of under 12 kg I realised that the pack was more than a third of what I was carrying. Enter the search for a lighter pack ….

> The pack looks like a Macpac Cascade or Torres
Rather heavy, but still a Gold Standard for comfort.
(Actually same pack, just different details.)

cheers

Thanks Douglas,

It was a heap of fun. I love being out there with the family. In some ways it's much easier, since everyone can pitch in to get stuff done. The biggest challenge for me is to keep it within sight of everyone else's comfort levels. ie push a bit, then back off. Some of this includes letting my wife rewarm her icy bare feet on my bare belly!!

Araps/Rog,

Actually, it's a Wilderness Equipment Alpine Expedition. Quite a bit simpler than the Macpacs, but still bomber construction, and super comfy if fitted properly. No mesh on the harness, so it doesn't collect the needle sharp Scoporia leaves as you force your way through on the off-track sections.

One thing to note is that the 90L allows you to pack EVERYTHING inside. The only thing I had outside the pack were a one litre water bottle, my map and compass, and a Leatherman Juice in a pouch. This helped keep things much drier, and prevented them getting shredded on the off-track sections.