ULA Catalyst hip belt issues

I had mine filled up to 43lbs and it felt no different than my Aether 70. That is to say, you can definitely feel you are carrying some weight, but it never hurts.

I originally had a single stay version of the Catalyst and it was comfy, but then I bought the dual stay frame sheet to maximize stability of the pack. The stays on the dual frame sheet were curved slightly different and I had a spend a good hour or so bending them to match the stay I already had. I guess I was lucky the first one was a perfect fit or else I would have been blindly guessing how to bend them. Maybe give that a try?

I have the dual stay version. I've been searching online to figure of how exactly the pack is supposed to fit. My Osprey was snug near the lumbar region and then had a nice open space upward in the thorax until near my shoulders, where it bends back to touch the middle of my shoulder blades. In contrast, the Catalyst doesn't really touch my shoulder blades and hangs back away from my body. Perhaps that is the problem. A side photo of a well-fitted Catalyst would be incredibly helpful.

I guess what I was getting at is that each pack probably has a slightly different stay contour. My first one fit, but the second had to be modified a bit for a good fit.

Just a guess, but if you have the hipbelt positioned correctly and the pack doesn't contact your shoulders, it might be a little too large in the torso length. Or the shoulder straps are too loose.

I'll see if I can dig up a photo of mine.

We are all shaped differently, so sharing experiences is not too helpful.
REI has some in-house hipbelts with considerable padding. I found one that fit me very well and worked better than an Osprey Iso in terms of both comfort and slippage.
It can seem almost as difficult as finding the best fitting boots.

NOTE TO CHRIS: Yes, I found the Aarn hipbelt much too lacking in the padding dept.
Like the REI Crestrail 70 much better. The break in the padding behind the small of the back is also narrower than the Osprey's, so on my MYOG pack, there is more support back there, but still not on the lower spine.

Have you called ULA? Might be more successful way to get an informed answer.

I've not had that problem with my Catalyst but I have had smaller loads to date.

I think the problem is that you must pack differently all the time. When I read the following I want to think the problem is user error.

"It's definitely worse if I have heavy weights near the bottom (which sometimes accidentally happens with load shifting). It's also worse if I carry heavier stuff (e.g. my tent) in the big bag pocket. It gets better if I aggressively compact my loads to the middle of the pack. It seems to do this intermittently. Sometimes it feels great."

Load shifting? Never. How?

I have a water bladder inside the pack with 3 L of volume in it. When it's empty, the pack has 3 L less of stuff and items can shift. A full bladder adds a good 3 inches of compression onto the other items in the pack. The main culprit for shifting was my food bag which during the last trip was full of 15+ lbs of food. It was by far the heaviest item in my pack and of course was always changing weight and shape based on what I ate during the day.

Your experience sounds similar to mine. I transitioned from an osprey aether to the catalyst a couple years ago. I too never found it comfortable at all especially above 30 pounds. The stays terminate into a small lumbar area at the base that is relatively stiff and narrow. The hipbelt doesn't really integrate well as it less thick than this padded area and doesn't contour with the lumbar pad, there is a gap between the belt and the lumbar pad. I found the net result was that the hipbelt would slip and the lumbar pad just "dug" into my lower bag uncomfortably. I'm relatively skinny too. At the weights closer to capacity it was just uncomfortable and I could never really stop it from pinching a nerve causing my leg to go to sleep. I decided in the end to get rid of it and go back to my aether as that was a more comfortable pack with heavier loads. I still don't understand all the ULA love. I was just unimpressed with the hipbelt/suspension as the integration of the hipbelt/lumbar area just seemed ill thought out to me.
In the last six months I've started using the seekoutside unaweep and finally found a lightweight pack that can take both light and heavier loads without causing me all discomfort issues I've had with conventional lumbar packs.

It is a different shape to be sure. The pack is quite shallow at the bottom and then gets larger toward the top so heavy items must be placed a bit higher than midpoint, at lease that is what I had to do with the Circuit.

When looking at claimed ability to carry a load, I always drop about 5 lbs from that claim to be reasonable. Good chance that many packs should have that claim reduced further as a general rule.

Comfort is king with pack fit and if you are packing heavy over 30 lbs, a couple of extra pounds for comfort is certainly worth it over long days. Maybe go back to the Osprey and get your blade out, cutting off parts that are unnecessary.

I can agree completely with Benjamins impressions.
I could never get the Catalyst to carry comfortably above 30 lbs and likewise
the Ohm 1.0 above 18-20 lbs. I never use the Ohm any longer and only rarely use the Catalyst.
Good to hear that Benjamin is having success with the Unaweep as I most likely will be purchasing one in the near future.
I do want to give a thumbs up to the SMD Fusion 65. It carries well at a 22 lb load. I haven't tried heavier loads with it.

A few suggestions, in the order I'd suggest investigating them:

1) "…the Catalyst doesn't really touch my shoulder blades and hangs back away from my body." Definitely fix this. Pull the stays and bend them so the pack hugs your back in every spot. Will probably require some trial and error. A helper or full length mirror is useful.

2) Pack heavy stuff high and tight. Bottom of shoulder blades to top of shoulders.

3) Anecdotal experience seems to suggest that skinny guys with minimal butt/hip shape don't do so well with lumbar pad systems, as said systems rely on the pad gaining traction in/on a curve/pocket which doesn't exist. I'm certainly in this camp. The Aether, with it's perimeter wire being the main suspension component, weights the hip complex more like a full wrap belt.

Thanks everyone. I spent some time bending the stays so now it hugs my back pretty well the entire way. Before it was pulling pretty far back off my shoulders, which I think was causing the hipbelt to dig backwards into my hips. It feels better loading it up with 38 lbs just wandering around the house. I'll have to take it out for a spin to see how it performs in the backcountry.

"The stays on the dual frame sheet were curved slightly different and I had a spend a good hour or so bending them to match the stay I already had."

Do the stays in a dual-stay system not have to have a different shape then the one stay in a single-stay system since they touch a different location on your back ?

+1 on contacting ULA. Chris is very nice and may have additional suggestions/solutions.

How attached are you to using the large bladder w/in the pack? DId the Aether handle that inherent hydration bladder volume-fluctuation problem any better?

Thought I'd post an update. I contacted ULA and they had me send a photo of myself wearing the pack. They thought that despite my waist side of 31-32 inches which firmly puts me in the small belt category, the belt was too small. They sent me a medium belt for free. I swapped it out, and I just took the pack for a little 10 mile spin loaded up with 35 lbs, and it feels 90% better.

There were some other issues I've discovered as well. I was putting 2 L bottles filled with water in the side pockets, but these really shift the center of mass downward causing the hipbelt to slide. The pack carries much better with them in the main compartment near the top. I also was pulling the load lifters pretty far forward to pull the pack in towards my shoulders. By letting it have a bit of slack, it transfers the load to my hips much, much better. I'm still playing around with the adjustments for the load lifters and shoulder straps to get optimal weight transfer, but I'm very impressed with the customer service at ULA.

Two liters of water weighs 4 pounds
If you put a full bottle on each side,thats 8 pounds low and outboard on tbe pack. JUST where you do NOT want it for proper load distribution.

Get that freakin 8 pounds of water up between your shoulder blades where it belongs in that pack and then tell us how it carries..;)

BTW,good on you for updating everyone and giving props to ULA for sorting out the fit issue. Lots of folks just use the 'net to report problems and never follow up with the good news:)

So it’s been over a year since I posted this and I’ve been trying to use the Catalyst. There are so many things I love about the pack except that the comfort level is very variable. Sometimes it feels wonderful. Sometimes it feels good at first but eventually, the hip-belt digs into my hips or my leg.

I’ve tried most of the suggestions made above including contacting ULA. It’s not entirely obvious why it does this, but I have a theory. It seems to carry better when the pack is full. I think this moves the heavy loads up to the top. When the pack is not full (which is usually the case), there are no bottom compression straps and all the load falls to the bottom which twists the belt. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas on how to fix it? I feel that if the hipbelt was just a bit more integrated into the suspension, this problem would go away.

Despite a lot of research, I can’t find an alternative pack of similar weight, similar carrying capacity (if not a little bit less), and similar durability. I’m looking for carrying up to 35 – 40 lbs total for long food and water carries.

“Despite a lot of research, I can’t find an alternative pack of similar weight, similar carrying capacity (if not a little bit less), and similar durability. I’m looking for carrying up to 35 – 40 lbs total for long food and water carries.”

Take a look at Seek Outside’s Divide Pack.  Other than the hefty price tag, it appears to be the perfect solution to your issues…