Ultra Runners know nothing about Fastpacking.

Aaron, it seems like it would pay to find out why you are having so much trouble with blisters & chaffing. This is something that runners actually do know a lot about. It is well known that these issues are usually linked to poor hydration status. Dehydrated skin is not resilient. Many times I have started to feel some chaffing & taken it as a message that I need to improve hydration, and when I do the chaffing goes away.

I'm not really understanding your main point. You say you don't want to carry 20lbs but you want a hip belt anyway? At what carried weight does a hip belt become desireable, in your view?

Unfortunately, no company is going to make products for the fringe element, even if they are doing super cool stuff. There are lots of products I'd love to see UD make because I want them, but that they never will because they'd sell like 10 units. I suppose those that do really out of the box stuff will have to make do or make their own gear, sadly.

http://www.irunfar.com/2012/08/inov-8-race-elite-15-pack-review.html

It's not ideal but it works, good load transfer to hips and runs pretty well too. The problem with running with a pack with a hipbelt is that it bounces a lot unless you cinch the shoulder straps down tight which takes the weight off your hips. So you end up having to keep adjusting the shoulder straps and hip belt every time you switch from hiking to running or vice versa.

I'd like to see a FP 20 with a hipbelt too. But I haven't tried the FP 20 so I'm not really sure it needs one – maybe it really doesn't. I definitely see the allure of not having a hip belt, – if you can get the weight down low enough that it doesn't kill your shoulders. It makes everything a lot simpler and would encourage more running since you wouldn't have to be adjusting it all the time which gets really old.

"It is well known that these issues are usually linked to poor hydration status. Dehydrated skin is not resilient. Many times I have started to feel some chaffing & taken it as a message that I need to improve hydration, and when I do the chaffing goes away."

Thanks Peter, I didn't know this. Made reading the thread worthwhile.

Peter

Here's what took me out of Barkley.
There was a 2nd one the same size on the ball of that foot.

.

This was not a top layer blister that could just be popped and away we go.
This was under all 3 layers of my skin.

Weird part about it was the fluid build up went away after just a few days.
For the next 3 weeks, I was in such great shape from Barkley that I had the best 3 weeks of my life running.
The hills of Marin didn't stand a chance.

> The problems starts when someone over builds the pack in every aspect that makes it
> resemble a regular backpack.
A problem not restricted to packs. Freeping creaturitis, in a blind attempt to broaden the market.

Cheers

Aaron: Ron Bell came up with something on his facebook page that is some good reading and John’s words on what a fastpack should be is spot on.

Ahhh, thanks Aaron :)

The url to my post is:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/131793047725/permalink/10152788209232726/?comment_id=10152791017157726

One of the issues that a lot of folks have been talking about are “hip belts”, and that is understandable. If you read closely my post in the link above you will see I am using the term “mid belt” and not “hip belt”. This is an important difference that I think a lot of hikers are not able to see the difference of, it took me a fair amount of trail time to have the “ooohhh!!!” moment. The design differences of moving the belt up off the hip is that it allows *massive* reduction in pack bounce, one of, if not ‘the’, biggest issue with a FP. Reference the UD Vests truly amazing wrap-around mid-belt and the Matt Kirk sub60 mid-belt. I do not want to take this post off-topic with this one issue, but I am sure those out there who have had that “oooh, this is nice” understanding of a mid-belt will understand why I want to point out this one fact – I think it really is an issue that sets apart the traditional hiking backpack most of us at BPL understand, with what I feel makes a FP stand apart from the traditional hiker pack. I do not see just this one issue as what sets apart a long distance backpack with a FP, but it is one of the many design differences that I am after in a FP, and the link above really is a detailed list of what I am personally after in a FP.

** after post update:

I do want to follow-up my thought on the mid-belt to say that SMD/Brian Frankle resolved this issue by having massive pectoral coverage, and adding lumbar straps, on the Flight backpacks, yet still having a hip-belt – and it is an incredibly stable design.

I get these too sometimes. Nothing I can do about it. Just really bad luck. I've tried! Doing absolutely everything right. Just happens. Most of the time, I can get a needle in there to drain them and the relief is then superb. Recently though I had one that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't drain it. I was practically poking everywhere right into the muscle underneath. Ouch. That one hurt for a few days pretty bad-I had to cancel a walk I was going on as a trainer for new Scout Leaders (despite it being an easy walk in easy terrain). Usually when I get one I can then over the next few weeks cut the layers of skin away from the top of it and get to the new skin now forming over the blister underneath. This seems to make them good again for a few months.

"It is well known that these issues are usually linked to poor hydration status. Dehydrated skin is not resilient. Many times I have started to feel some chaffing & taken it as a message that I need to improve hydration, and when I do the chaffing goes away."

Best post in this thread that was somewhat doomed for the controversey that was predictable.

I rarely get blisters and when I do, they are small and insigficant. Last year I got a big nasty blister on the ball of both of my feet. I attributed it to sand that got in my shoes, but was somewhat perplexed that I got the blisters. But this was a trip where I ran out of water too soon on a hot desert day. I had to hike about 5 hours with no water and was truly hurting and extremely dehydrated by the time I got to my water source. So now I know.

Thanks, Peter.

> Here's what took me out of Barkley.
Have you checked your foot width recently? That sort of blister can mean the shoes are too narrow.

Cheers

Not to say that there aren't other factors to blisters! Sure, if your shoes don't fit well that's a factor. Or if you get a lot of grit in your shoes. Or if you wear rough fabrics that's a factor in chaffing. If you pre-tape your feet that can help prevent blisters. If you use Body Glide (etc.) that helps prevent chaffing. Just that you are going to be much more prone to blisters & chaffing if you get dehydrated. And, noticing that you are starting to get blisters or chaffing is a good sign that you need to pay attention to hydration.

re: Peter B's blister-chaffing and hydration tip

Let me echo what everyone else said: Excellent advice that makes very logical sense…which is probably why I did not really make the connection. :)

I always think of the usual suspects: sock or shoe fit, grit in the shoe, and so on.

But hydration is not something I really did not think about.

Worth the price of admission to this thread alone*

*Though the geek in me always love some GOT references!

change the thread title to that!