The right pack for the job

Greyson, If you will be carrying up to 7 liters of water and/or a bear canister, do you really want a frameless sack with thin shoulder straps? If 2lbs isn't too heavy, consider the Granite Gear Vapor Trail. I have about 10 packs, but my Granite Gear is the most comfortable, due to the suspension system/back pad, which distributes the pack weight over a huge surface area, and down to the hips, using foam with no pressure points. When I'm hiking with it, I can really 'forget' it there, like wearing a comfortable wristwatch.

If had to do it again, Id buy the VT instead of my Nimbus Ozone, 3600in3 is more than big enough, and shortening both compression straps on the same side makes a tall, narrow pack with a closer cg for small loads. Same trick as using a 3L platupus filled to 2L and flattened..

But, you are probably looking for a pack measured in grams, not pounds.. let us know what you decide?

If it comes down to it, I will go for something a little more heavy duty, but I'd like to see if I can get away with something lighter, since I won't be carrying that weight most of the time.
I'm considering ways of carrying water weight on the hip belt, so the extra weight doesn't all end up in the pack when in the desert.

If you like the design and general fit of the Vapor Trail, but feel it's too heavy, look at Granite Gear's Virga. It's the frameless sibling of the Vapor Trail, and weighs only a pound. The pack bag is identical (but slightly smaller), with the same compression system as the Vapor Trail. The suspension has the same shoulder straps and load lifters, but no backpad or framesheet, and only a webbing hipbelt instead of a padded belt. It's designed for loads that never go over 20 pounds. I've used it quite comfortably with a total load of 20 pounds, and it was OK with 25. I found that, if I left my pad, very lightly inflated, inside a chair kit, rolling the edges toward the center, I could slip it down the back of the pack to make a very serviceable "virtual" frame with stays. It had plenty of room. Although I now use a Vapor Trail (mostly because its cushy backpad lets me use the empty pack as a pad extender, meaning I can use a 3/4 length pad), I still occasionally pull out my trusty Virga for a light summer weekend. I've also tried the Mariposa, and far prefer the Virga for comfort.

Greyson-
ULA has fixed the strap problem on the Catalyst. I had an early model where the straps would roll and cut into your arms. Swapped it out for one with the "old" straps from the P-2 era. No problemo. Can't speak for the Circuit, but I would imagine the change has also been made to that pack. Happy Hiking!

I started the PCT with the Essence pack. It worked well enough in the desert – there aren't very many times you'll be carrying 7 liters of water. In fact, I never carried more than 5, and I carried 5 maybe twice.

I switched to the Vapor Trail at Kennedy Meadows, just as I got my heavier gear: the ice ax and bear can and the 6-7 days of food to get me to Mammoth. The pack's pretty comfortable, and I used it from there to Canada.

A word on water and ice axes and snow on the PCT: Weigh the advice you read on the PCT-L and elsewhere carefully. Many of the things said on that list were misleading, and, in my opinion, amounted to scare-mongering. (Once on the trail I discovered that some regular and vocal contributors to the PCT-L have NEVER hiked the JMT in June or at all, let alone the entire PCT.) For example, in '06, allegedly a high snow year, I found that an ice ax was NOT necessary. The common wisdom said I needed one, but I never pulled mine out. It was dead weight. There was plenty of snow, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle with my Lekis and trail runners and little bit of caution.

Greyson, I'm very pleased with my Catalyst and have encountered none of the reported problems with the shoulder straps. (I believe delivery of mine was delayed until Brian fixed the problem.) With your height (similar to mine) you'll probably want a large or XL frame, and for your gear the double frame stays. These will take your capacity above 5000 ci and weight to about three pounds. Enjoy your hikes!

I've been using the SMD Starlite for 3 seasons now, and love it. If you're willing to go to 2-pounds or so for the pack, I've found that it carries better than a frameless ruck. I do use the stays, since I carry a self-inflator. I don't know how much difference there will be in the new version (it pushes the pad sleeve more inside the pack). I like the way the pack handles my gear, with one big main compartment and three outside mesh pockets. It's my year-round pack here in the Southeast, with plenty of room for my winter kit, too.

–Ken

It sounds like most of your trips you will be able to do with a frameless pack (10-20oz).

Yet there are other trips that I think the an internal frame would be preferred (portions of the PCT and it would weigh 30-50oz)

I've got a discountinued Mountainsmith Phantom (60L and 51oz) that will handle loads of up to 35lbs comfortably for when I hike the PCT this summer.

My plan is to get a ULA conduit (20oz) when I get back this fall. But I hope to sample some the other good frameless packs this summer hopefully.

I'm not sure what packs would fit your extremely lean figure well(I consider myself lean at 5'11" and 165lbs), but I think you're looking for 2 very different packs from the description. Just my opinion.

One other thing is that I think a bear canister is considerably more comfortable stowed horizontally in the pack (so that the curve of the canister is in the curve of back). I doubt many of the frameless packs will fit a canister horizontally.

2 packs would be nice, but I can't really afford that right now.
Right now the Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus is in the lead for weight, price, flexibility of options, and capacity, which BPL pushed up to 40 lbs, which goes beyond my needs.

Any specific comments on the Mariposa?

In spending way too much time thinking about the PCT, I thought the stove could be left out in the desert section, and the Golite Den 2 could be bounce-boxed ahead until the bugs get to be too much for the TiGoat bivy.

There are a lot of reviews on the Reader Review section of this website. (The overall score of the Virga is a fraction of a point higher than the Mariposa, for whatever it's worth.)

There are also some in-depth tests of both the Mariposa and the Virga on Backpackgeartest.org.

One last comment: we're all really lucky nowadays. We have so much really good gear availabe that it's hard to go too far wrong (if you stay with reputable manufacturers.) So, mostly we get to agonize on the small differences between high quality products when we make our choices. Given the packs you're considering, you can't make a truly, horribly, bad choice.

I've read all the reviews I've found,I was just curious if anybody had input about the Gossamer Gear pack in terms of thru-hiking or my body/needs/gear.
Thank's for the perspective on the wonderful world of gear; it's easy to get wrapped up in the details and lose sight of the fact that its all good stuff.

Greyson,

I hope I am not posting too late. When I was choosing my pack, I narrowed it down to the GG Mariposa and the SMD Starlite. So I purchased both and loaded them up with my gear, using both a GG torsolite and a BA Aire Core pad for testing. I can tell you the difference was night and day — the SMD was much more comfortable.

I have a lot of respect for GG and own several of their products. But the internal pad pocket and curved stays on the Starlite make all the difference in the world. The exterior pad pocket on the GG placed the pack further from my pack, making it feel less stable and causing the shoulder straps to pull harder on my shoulders. But the biggest problem for me was that, since the carbon fiber stays are straight, and one's lower back curves in such a way as to point the tips of the stays away from the shoulders, I found that the carbon fiber stays caused the shoulder straps to be pulled several inches away from my shoulders. This made for uncomfortable pulling on my shoulders. The contoured aluminum stays on the Starlite, on the other hand, keep the upper part of the pack nearer my shoulders.

Yes, on paper the Mariposa is a good deal lighter than the Starlite. But the Starlite FEELS much lighter as a result of increased comfort due to it's condtoured stays and recessed pad pocket. This was a valuable lesson to me in the importance of 'perceived' vs. 'actual' weight. The Mariposa was lighter, but more weight was on my shoulders. The Starlite is heavier, but it is carried much more on my hips and is closer to my body, thus felt lighter. Really, the difference was night and day for me. One felt awkward, the other fit like a glove.

My highly opinionated reply: Ultralighters are vulnerable to counting ounces and believing that less ounces means better hiking performance on their part. This IS NOT necessarily true. If your pack is not a good fit or is uncomfortable, then 20 pounds inside a 1 pound frameless pack is not nearly so good an idea as 20 pounds inside a more comfortable 3 pound pack (which might leave the 20 pound load "feeling" like it is only 14 pounds).

My own bias (from experience) is that an internal frame pack is still the best choice even if it is a little heavier. The super light packs make nice summit packs, but your regular pack (with unnecessary items left behind in the tent) is a fine summit pack…

I had the same problems with the pad and stays in my GG Mariposa Plus (M/L with L belt 18.6oz + 1.2oz pads), with a pack weight of 24 pounds. I replaced the GG NightLight Torso pad (3.4 oz) that I had in the pad pocket with a GG SitLight pad (1.5 oz); my main pad was a BMW TorsoLite, so a short knee pad was all I really needed. I didn’t use the carbon fiber stays (0.8 oz/pair), and found that the pack conformed to my back without collapsing, and the weight sat nicely on my hips with almost no weight on my shoulders. It carried like a lightweight internal-frame pack. If I run across some aluminum tubes that I can bend to fit then I might get them, but at this point I don’t see the need. The GG Mariposa Plus is working great for me now, and I saved some weight :)

I used the Mariposa Plus for about 200 miles last fall (including the wet Wonderland Trail) and it shows no sign of wear.

I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with an SMD pack–the Starlite made my short list. I did end up buying two packs: the Mariposa Plus, and a LuxuryLite for heavy loads and more volume.

It's actually looking like I will be going for the Comet, same supsension, better compression, and volume wise should still be good for me.
Yes, I could get the Jam2 with my REI rebate and not spend money (if they ever get the larges in), but I think the Comet is the most versitile for my needs.
Did any of you with Starlites consider the Comet?