Best Guiding pack

Seek Outside or Stone Glacier would be my choices.

If you can afford it a McHale would be the way to go.

+1 w/Seek Outside,  Divide perhaps

+3 on Seek Outside or Stone Glacier

Seek Outside Unaeep 4800 or 6300.

Seek Outside Divide

McHale

Mystery Ranch

+5 Seek Outside Unaweep and these are the reasons why:

1.  Extremely comfortable event when you have to go pretty heavy, yet the pack itself is not heavy and it easily compresses when you don’t have to carry much stuff (I even use it for gear intensive day hikes)
2. You can easily strap on other people’s gear in case they are injured or out of shape with the talon and its attached straps.

Additionally, I would go with the Unaweep over the Divide because I think that the Talons are more “natural”  to the design of the Unaweep.  Even if you go with the Divide, I’d get a Talon for guiding to facilitate strapping on group gear and/or stuff that must be latched on in “emergency”/impromptu situations.

Hi Eric,

Congrats on the job I’ve been doing it for 5 years now and love every second of it.  even the really challenging parts.

I use and highly recommend the unaweep 4800 for all of the reasons stated above,  I have the standard hydro talon but I would recommend the day talon or maybe the multi lid just for organizing first-aid and meds a little bit better.

If you go the Unaweep route be sure to check out the following webpage (that might be missed if you aren’t careful on the SO website)

https://seekoutside.com/backpack-technical-details/BackpackDetails

I use the X21RC and it is perfect for minimal weight, but for guiding I would go with X42 or X51 for superior durability.

Seek Outside Revolution and the Precipice 7000 bag in X51. The Unaweep 6300 would be reasonable too.

If you want to spend less money and can find an older Dana Designs Arcflex pack or a Gregory Baltoro those are sturdy and hold up to abuse well. I used a late 90s Arcflex Alpine during my wilderness therapy days, but for me the Seek Outside packs carry much, much better.