Zpack Arc Scout

For the Wife. Any one sport one.

I ordered one for my 10 year old son 2 weeks ago….hasn’t shown up yet but I imagine will be showing up soon. I have a short torso arc haul for my wife and a medium torso for me. I’ll be sure to take a pic of all 3 of us wearing arc hauls on the next trip!

I am excited about them! Not for me, but for my wife. She was able to try on the Arc Scout prototype back in April when we stopped in at Zpacks and she liked it. She currently has a Granite Gear Nimbus Meridian Ki, which is a good pack, but is also around 3 lbs. This would be a great pack for her, so one day I would like to get her one.

I recently bought an Arc Haul (used and Arc Blast since 2013). I am likely going to get another Haul for my son, who is currently using an OHM 2.0. The OHM is a little tight with a Weekender, which we will have to carry for our JMT hike next year. I love this line of backpacks though! :)

Thanks for the info..If the wife don’t like it the 2 kiddo’s have first dibs.

OK, so I got my arc scout in and I am impressed! My son used it on a trip a few days ago and it was dang light. I mean….a deuter fox 30 is 43oz (new version are 39). This is a 50 liter at 22oz. Sure…the deuter is $99…and this is $300…but at 21oz difference that is only $9.50 an oz. And….for a child….that 21oz is a lot to take off them.

My son is 4’5″….and an arc scout is supposed to be for 4’2″ to 5’2″, though it is still a bit tall for him (next year should be fine). He probably just has a short torso for his height. Which…I still which zpacks would put torso height measurements for the arc scout….I mean, they do that for the normal arc haul.

I also got the new XS hipbelt, which was great on him.

Now…compare this to a short torso arc haul.

The back horizontal top bar is actually about in the same position in the short torso arc haul vs the scout…but the issue was that the vertical bars come up several inches, and with his torso height if he looks to the side he really hits those and of course it hurts.

Anyway….I also had my wife try on the arc scout…and it fits her like a glove. She is actually 5’4″, so technically above specs..but …looks great.

In fact….I ordered a second arc scout…this time in green and with a small torso belt just for her! Can’t wait to get a trail pic with all 3 of us in arc hauls.

I was also happy to see all of the small improvements that they have made…I have a first generation arc haul…so all of the incremental improvements were nice to see. Like the new round vertical stays, the switch to grosgrain for the mesh panel, adding zpacks logos on shoulder straps (nice small ones), etc.

out of curiosity what is your wife’s torso length?

My sons is about 14″, my wife’s 17.5″, and I’m about 20″. I use a Medium torso arc haul and its great. My wife can also do a short torso arc haul, but she doesn’t need 62L, so I chose the smaller size 50L scout for her. With the scout, she has complete head movement, and she could wear any hat she wants…as big a brim all around as she wants, and not hit the back of the backpack.

Just a thought but, although it is hard to assess from photographs, it seems to me that both your son and your wife have the hip belt positioned as a waist belt rather than hugging the hip bone (the top and bottom straps of the Zpacks belt being designed to cinch around and over the top of the iliac crest respectively).

For me this is not only more comfortable around my belly but it makes the hips take any weight more efficiently too.

If I am right, readjusting the hipbelt as I described would make the pack sit lower for your son and the top of the arc and top cross bar bar would then sit better for him too. Whether the same would work well for your wife is another matter – it might make the pack sit too low for the load lifters to remain functional. Having said all of which: I have women friends who seem to prefer wearing their packs cinched around the waist anyway!

Perhaps worth some experimentation anyhow!

Thanks for that….yeah, the pictures do make it look like the belts are riding high….I’ll verify with them though. I always make sure that all of the weight is on the hips (I can easily slide fingers under shoulder straps), but do need to make sure the belts wrap their iliac crests.

DGoggins- sharp looking pack! That’s great that he’ll be able to grow into the pack for a few years. The one thing I love about the Zpacks suspension system is the ability to dial in an exact fit.