Please help me fit my pack

I'll echo pretty much everything Steven Komae said in his earlier post. That's all good advice.

Michael, I think your ideal torso setting for that pack is between a medium and a large. I feel silly for even asking, but you do know that you can set the torso wherever you want within its range right? It doesn't need to be on the "large" or the "medium" indication, those are just arbitrary. I'm sure you already know this though.

Anyway, I have that Osprey 60 pack as well, and I find it to be very comfortable and easy to get a custom fit, so I'm sorry to hear you're having a harder time.

A few things to consider…

Make sure the load lifter straps travel under the small keeper straps on top of each shoulder strap. This will ensure that the angle with which the load lifters are pulling on the shoulder straps is always ideal. If it's not currently in this configuration, you might give that a try.

When I initially fitted my own pack to my body, I first set the hip belt to where it was perfectly hugging my iliac crest, then I went to town on the torso length. I would move the torso up and down by fractions of an inch until it was just perfect for me. I find that even being 1/4" off can lead to a much less comfortable carry, so I'd advise really playing around with the sizing until you get it tweaked just perfectly.

From where I have it currently set, my shoulder straps come over the top of my shoulders, then travel down maybe an inch or so before meeting the pack. This setting allows the load to feel very secure laterally, while also allowing me to place about 80% of the load on my hips (this is how I like it). Imagine setting the torso to where it's slightly too small, and you can't get the weight on your hips, then raise that up just a bit to where your hip belt can bear the weight but where the shoulder straps are still hugging you.

Again, my best advice is to just keep playing with this torso length adjustment until it feels perfect. It might take many tries. If you just can't get it to feel comfortable, then it may just be that this is not the pack for you. Most packs that I try on I do not consider comfortable, and I assume it's as hit or miss with everyone else as well.

Good luck!

Derek,

Great to hear from someone who has this pack. I did know the torso adjustment was a sliding scale, and I have all winter to play around with it. Your comment about the load lifter straps reminded me that, on a trip this past spring, we re routed them to bypass those little holes on the shoulder straps. The engineer on our trip said they were lifting the shoulder straps even more off my shoulders with it routed thought there. I will reroute them to the original way they were and keep trying. I had forgotten all about that.

Also wondering, with my strange shoulder shape, whether a frameless pack might hug and conform to my back better. I have never even tried a pack on without a frame, other than a small daypack with hardly any weight in it.

"This will ensure that the angle with which the load lifters are pulling on the shoulder straps is always ideal."

Therein lies the problem with the way that most load lifters are designed – they pull on the shoulder straps. The only available load lifter system that does not do that whilst still lifting the load is the bypass system used my Mchale Packs. It is patented for a reason and quite remarkable in use.

I bet you would like a frameless pack. The work good if you have the back neck and shoulder strength for them.

That pack doesn't look like it is fitting very well, Does it bind in the armpits? It look like your chest is too big in girth for the harness.

Go try on all the packs you can, I bet you can find one that is way more comfortable.

I was thinking of asking about that…if a frameless pack might work better for me given my thick shoulders. One I was looking at just last night was the Granite Gear VC Crown 60, which is not frameless technically, but you can take out the little frame piece to make it frameless. Seems like it might hug to my upper back better without a frame. Too bad there are so few lightweight packs sold at the REI's of the world for me to try out.

Also wondering, given my thick shoulders and chest, does my torso being 18.5" become meaningless when buying a pack…in other words should I look towards large torso packs of 19"+ even though my back measurement says otherwise?

I have a 47" chest measurement and what I found works for me is a longer frame than what 'should' fit including longer shoulder padded straps (about 19" long). With a large chest / back measurement, you end up creating a 'synthetically' longer torso.

My Mchale is set up this way and works very well.

Went to REI to spend my gift card today. Found a Granite Gear Crown vc 60, an osprey exos 46, and an Osprey Talon 44 to try on. Loaded each one up, and the Talon fit perfect. The other two, despite being the correct torso size, were ill fitting at best. The Talon, a M/L torso, fit perfect without adjusting the torso at all ( it was set at its shortest setting). It sits perfectly on my shoulders and doesn't pull tight on the front at all.

Not the lightest choice, but very comfortable, and at 2 lbs, 7 oz, I am still a 1 lb 6 oz improvement improvement over my Volt. Thanks again for all the tips. I will still use the Volt on longer trips, but plan to use the Talon as much as possible. Best of all, I picked this pack up for $99.83!!!