Light Packs for Heavy Loads: State of the Market Report

I've used the Pinnacle on the last two TGO Challenges and I really like it. 30lbs really is the upper limit for comfort though. I have a medium Pinnacle and a medium Odyssey and they fit me fine. I measured the back length of various packs when I reviewed them in TGO last year and the Pinnacle measured 61cms. The medium Catalyst was 60cms, the medium Odyssey 65cms, the Medium/Large Osprey Talus 44 58cms and the medium Gregory Z55 55cms.

I haven't tried the new version of the Pinnacle yet. I don't think any are actually available. I did see it at Friedrichshafen. The changes might make it handle heavier loads a little better but probably not by much.

I haven't tried the Alpine Vapor either. The Vapor Trail certainly has a much more supportive hipbelt than the Pinnacle.

I'm still waiting to try the Osprey Exos too. Again, I saw it at Friedrichshafen and it looks excellent.

Just a thought, there is a longer back length version of the OMM Mountain Mover available. It was made as an exclusive for the Tiso chain of stores in the UK. It's also 10 liters bigger in capacity though.

Chris is right, the hipbelt is geat load carrier. I haven't managed to fill it with enough stuff to make it uncomfortable yet.
It's a great winter camping pack becasue of its mountaineering flavour.

Worth a shufty.

As I recently discovered, my ULA Circuit was not large enough for a 7-1/2 day trip. Lucky, I had just purchased a Granite Gear Nimbus Ozone.
I was carrying 40-42lbs which was just about max. for this pack. Whats nice with the Ozone series is the ability to adjust the torso length from 18"-22"(reg.size pack) and the availability of 3 different hip-belt sizes and the choice of 4 shoulder straps, trim and wide, sized regular and large.
You also have the option of the light hip-belt over the ultralight hip-belt, which has a plastic stiffener in the hip-belt, for even greater load bearing support.
The optional hip-belt pockets are very nice as are the pack pockets and shoulder strap pockets too.
I added both RH & LH hip-belt pockets, a small pack pocket and (1) shoulder strap pocket for my camera.
I had been considering the Lowe Alpine pack for week-long trips as well, but don't like the fact that they don't have or offer hip-belt pockets, which, once you've had or tried, they are hard to do without.
Of course the Contour has the top pocket, which is handy for your small incidentals, but you still need to remove the pack to get at them.

Chris, thanks-

I go pretty light when I can, but many people I speak with these days think that 50-60 pound loads are completely unreasonable… even after I explain that the load includes two weeks worth of food (30-35 pounds for me)and gear for temps around 20-40 degrees F and rain, not to mention photo gear. Quite a relief to find your article here. On longer trips, we're still packing light and using all the principles espoused in the forums–just have all that durned food!