Why I'm Going Back to an External Frame Backpack
I began backpacking when I was a scout, lugging around a bargain, classic external frame pack that my parent's found on a closeout deal at a local gear shop. It wasn't pretty, or terribly comfortable, but it held my stuff, and what it didn't - easily lashed on the outside.
For two years, I hoisted that thing around and when I was 16, and was working my first job, I saved and scrapped all of my money until I had enough to buy an internal frame pack. Back then, outdoor gear was beefy, made from 1000 denier, kevlar; my new backpack was made to last a lifetime! It even came with a lifetime warranty. And the weight... well, lets just say that pack alone was more than half the weight people are bragging about these days as their BASE WEIGHT.
At first it was hard to justify a replacement backpack. I mean... it worked, albeit a bit heavy, and it was near bulletproof. But as my gear got smaller, and lighter... and after packing a full size pillow for a year or so, to fill the extra space...
Dec 3, 2019
I know most folks/hikers here on Massdrop are not sub-2268 hikers, so just consider this some inspiration (or insanity on my part, your choice lol) but either way, I thought I would share a sub 4 pound setup I used on a recent hike.
The complete gear list is available at:
https://lighterpack.com/r/gbzu21
BPW: 1705 g / 3.76 lb
FSO: 4054 g / 8.94 lb (minus food/water)
I welcome any questions you might have.
Here is an ~11 minute video that shows my gear setup for the hike.
(fyi: i have five+ years experience of hiking with sub 5 pounds of gears, in nearly every type of weather condition, and have written about it for the entire time at hikelighter.com - it is not something I think the average hiker should do, and firmly believe that the 'sweet spot' is around the 6.5 pound mark. and please, keep the sub 2268 criticism to a minimum, that is not what things are about here at massdrop/talk... let us not have this place turn into how things pretty much everywhere else have)