Any preferred or ideal packs for bad backs?

I herniated my L5-S1 disc a few years ago.  My go-to pack is now a LuxuryLite external frame pack, which transfers the load almost exclusively onto my hips.  The shoulder straps are almost superfluous most of the time.  It’s not comfortable for everyone, we have a couple of shorter, only slightly wider friends that the frame hit in odd places on their back, but my s.o. and I both have found them exceedingly comfy.  He uses it with the cylinder packs as designed, I found a single bag and adapted it to the frame, which I prefer.

If you live in the SF Bay area, you’re welcome to come try them.

Since posting found another thread discussion from 2011 re same topic… https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/42603/

One fascinating suggested back-saver over there is the bodypack at… https://www.aarnpacks.com/

Thank you DK, will go check out LuxuryLite external frame pack.

Seek Outside Divide or Gilla?

They should keep all the weight off your shoulders.

I have had 2 disk herniations in my lower back and I’ve had success with several different packs.  For me, what helps the most is the way I wear shoulder straps…I have them snug across the front of my chest, but I leave a gap between the straps and the top of my shoulder..I can easily fit a finger or two in there.  As long as I do that and have a good weight bearing hip belt, I have no back pain.  If too much weight is on my shoulders, my back will start to hurt.  So, experiment with pack fit.

I do agree with Brad Rogers, the Seek Outside Packs do a nice job with putting the weight on the hips.  I have a Divide, FYI.  I added the optional lumbar pad to my hip belt, and the fit is even better now.

I used a Divide on the PCT.  Then after the PCT I royally F’ed up my lumbar.  Sadly, the SO Divide doesn’t work for me anymore — it just seems to concentrate pressure on my lumbar right where I don’t want it.  I’ve been meaning to pick up a lumbar pad to see if that fixes it (I really like the pack and would like to keep it), but haven’t yet.  I’d had better luck with a Hanchor Marl so far.  I think the big thing is that I can shape the stays to my back so it evenly distributes the load. (This probably true for any pack with shapeable stays.)  Having said that, having a heavier pack still hurts after a few hours and so I’ve not done any ambitious backpacking trip since injuring my back — I’ve just focused on long dayhikes where I can keep pack weight down.  Hopefully another year of PT will change that…  Good luck with your recovery/adaptation!

I have a long history of LBP but luckily no disc issues yet. I really like the Exped Lightning 45 design. The main external stay runs down the middle of the pack, terminates at the hip belt, and is shapeable. The top of the stay supports a lateral piece that accommodates the shoulder strap so the whole setup matches up with the shoulder girdle and spine and transfers the weight close to and down the spine then to the hip joints  efficiently.

I think SMD Fusion pack has a similar design as well.

I would also keep the pack under 50cc. This will force you to minimize/scrutinize everything that goes into the pack and that hopefully translates to a lighter load as well.

In theory they should all keep weight off your shoulders, so I’d think the main thing is finding one that fits you right.

That said, I think some designs inherently do the job better than others, for me anyway.  I like packs that hug my back all over.  The ones with sculpted backplanes, trampolines, and other misguided/futile attempts to keep your back cool also reduce the pack’s ability to hug your back and use friction to help the hipbelt keep the pack from sliding down.  A slippery back means you’ll have to cinch the hipbelt that much tighter to hold things up.  Also, wearing a less-slippery shirt (woven, not knitted, minimal stretch) can help.

I also have a stable herniation. Getting as much load as possible onto the pelvis and off the shoulders is priority #1. This is mainly an issue of getting a well-fitting pack and well-fitting hipbelt.

Aarn bodypacks or even getting some mass in front with a little frontpack or carrying water bottles on the front of your shoulder straps can also be helpful. Conventional backpacks force compensations all the way through the skeleton; none of them are particularly healthy, although the healthy don’t complain of them. Balancing the back load with some kind of front pack eliminates some of those compensations, notably extra shear at L5/L1.

But not all of them. A conventional suspension that transfers most of the load to the pelvis is necessarily stiff enough to constrain normal triplanar movements of the pelvis during walking. Again, most people don’t notice these constraints, but a back with existing derangement might, because constraining pelvis rotations forces the lower back and hip joints to move more than normal, unless step length is shortened. So I would also look at designs that feature articulations at the hipbelt/packbag interface. Rotational freedom there allows for greater freedom of motion at the pelvis, and therefore more normal motion of the spine and hip joints. The Arcteryx Bora, Black Diamond’s Mercury and a couple other models and the forthcoming Mammut Trion Spine all feature articulation at the hipbelt/bag junction and some of them also at the shoulders. Unfortunately, none of these are ultralight. But my experience is that these types of designs are very promising and worth a look. You may find that carrying 2 extra pounds of backpack is worth it.

I also use the Luxurylite frame with a Gossamer Gear frameless bag strapped to it the way DK describes. This is a really comfortable pack! Almost best of all, it carries a bear canister perfectly on the lower ‘lip’ of the frame. I put the canister on the bottom of my pack and it snugs right onto the lip.

Oh and it’s pretty darn light– about two pounds if I remember right, and I may not.

How much are you willing to spend?  As I have gotten older and a career as a chef has taken a toll on my lower back, my pack weight has went up, but my comfort level is so much better.  I bought a McHale pack about 3 years ago and wish I had done long ago. Is it super light?  No, but it is light enough (I have the LBP).  The thing is that it carries a total of 30-35# and feels about comparable to when I used to carry a total pack weight of 18-25# in my UL days.  As I have gotten a bit older (now 46), I have added creature comforts back into my gear list, things like a pillow, and I use a hammock set up to help with lower back issues as well.  Best of luck, fyi, a McHale pack is going to run in the $900-$1500 range.

For those of you interested in the LuxuryLite pack… they sold the name and the patent for their cot to Thermarest but still sell the pack system under the neoTrekk trademark.

Thanks everyone for input and suggestions.

One thing I came across, maybe worth filing away, is how some military contractors have addressed shifting heavy loads off shoulders (like heavy front & back hard armor) down onto hips/waist, as seen here…

https://www.cryeprecision.com/ProductDetail/avsx2800000_avs-extendable-stkss

I have “Moderately large herniated L-4 & L-5 discs. I’m 5′ 10”.

My packs, for many years, have all been one size taller than normal so my shoulder straps rest only on the front of my shoulders and not on top of them.

Currently I use an Osprey EXOS 58, size large. It is the most comfortable UL pack I’ve ever used and will keep it ’til it goes totally tits up.

BTW, it’s great to see Crey Precision using a frame to support body armor vests. With front and back ceramic Level IV plates and side protection they can get heavy, and that’s before adding a pack for  water, food, ammo and weapon(s).

1.  “My packs, for many years, have all been one size taller than normal so my shoulder straps rest only on the front of my shoulders and not on top of them.”

2. “getting some mass in front with a little frontpack or carrying water bottles on the front of your shoulder straps can also be helpful.”

Modifying almost any fully waist belted frame pack with suggestions 1 and 2 does the trick for me.

Backpacking with a pack modified in this way feels better than hiking with no pack at all.

I’ve had  herniated lumbar disc(s) for about 20 years and am currently 73.

The kickstarter for this starts Tuesday, might be worth exploring…
The Ergonomic Backpack eliminates the accelerative forces that cause injuries and reduce mobility. Using a patented pulley system, the pack reduces the metabolic energy requirement by 40-80 watts, allowing a wearer to carry 8-12 extra pounds “for free.”
http://lightningpacks.com/lightningpacks.com/Ergonomic_Backpack_%7C_Lightning_Packs,_LLC.html

I think like for any other pack issue it depends a lot on other aspects of individual fit.  My husband, age 62,  has 3 fused joints (4 adjacent vertebrae) from two surgeries in his lumbar area, and 2 fused joints (3 adjacent vertebrae) in his cervical area.  His discs don’t rupture they just disappear.  He has been stable for a few years now.  Over the last 15 years he’s gone from a REI Mars 80, then Osprey Atmos 65 (an older model), Exos 58 (2010), and now carries a GG Mariposa (2014).  He says the Mariposa, rather than impinging on his back, seems to stabilize it when the hip belt is snugged in.  He also has trouble with his prominent collarbones chafing under shoulder straps, and the Mariposa seems to do this less than the other models he’s carried.  I’ve worked with him to redistribute his load within the pack too.  Spatial arrangement isn’t his strong suit, and without my intervention he has trouble getting everything close enough to his spine to avoid the pull-back which can leave his neck and shoulders sore.  Because of the back trouble he has to avoid heavy lifting (the non-backpack kind like carrying furniture) and he has to avoid running.  But he says backpacking actually feels beneficial.  We talked to Mr. McHale on the phone once, back when the pack was the Exos 58, about whether we should consider one of his packs, and he was able to offer useful suggestions for making the Exos more comfortable for the neck and collarbones, including using strap padding (in our case, old wool socks) with a gap cut out for the collarbone on each side.

The main thing would be, to find a light pack model that has a good solid wrap around the hips and lower back, and that otherwise fits well through the torso–ie long enough–and shoulders, to get a good load transfer, and then be careful not to pack it with too much weight towards the outboard direction, and instead bring everything in as close to your spine as you can get it.

I am not a pack maker or a medical professional but I do pack fitting and adjusting at work at REI and also lots of pack adjusting for the Camp Fire teens on my volunteer job.

I’ve posted many times about MYOG sidearm packs as a solution, but only want to agree here that any approach that removes all downward weight from the straps on the tops of the shoulders is a must. After many years of comfortably using MYOG sidearm packs that put all the weight on the hips (Iliac crests to be precise), and none on the back (except against the chest to keep the pack snug against the back), I made the mistake of switching to a MYOG bag with Osprey hip belt that felt great, but am now paying for it. If there is downward weight on the shoulders, there will be downward weight on the back. You may not feel any pain, but over time damage is being done to the spine.

I have had back issues for years resulting in a degenerative L4-L5 (a half gone flat tire the last time I got an MRI).  Then 6 years ago I had a sequestered herniation of L3-L4 (basically ruptured, with a piece of the disc separated from the rest and displacing a nerve) and a herniation of L5-S1.  I imagine that L3-L4 is now probably degenerative as well.  I had foot drop initially but that eventually cleared up, but I still have some impaired nerve function in my right leg.

I second all of the recommendations that the shoulder strap (or load lifter if present) tie off above the shoulders.  I think beyond that pack fit, light weight, and getting that weight close to your body vs pulling back on your shoulders.  I have had good luck with the newer versions of the Gossamer Gear Gorilla (version without the brain) and the Mariposa (the ones where the frame terminates in the hip-belt). Both packs – especially the Gorilla – place the load close to my back. I think the Gorilla is 6.5 inches deep and the Mariposa 7.5 inches.  I used to have a Six Moon Designs Starlite, but that was a deep pack (10 inches I think) that tended to pull back on my shoulders.

If I measure my Torso I would be a medium, but the large in both fits me well and keeps the load off my shoulders.  And the frame can be adjusted to fit the curve of your back.

Packs are so personal though – I think the key principals are – 1) a frame that transfers the load to your hips, 2) shoulder strap (or load lifter) termination above your shoulders, 3) fit, 4) keep the weight close to your back, 5) keep the weight down.