I know we have mostly hunters here and hunters carry heavy loads out of the field.
Some of these day hike/scout, over-nighter size packs weigh 9 ounces, sounds pretty good.
https://zpacks.com/collections/backpacks
Never seen this site before. Weights of various items look pretty good. Judging by the prices, they must be real proud of there products. Would be nice to see them in a store somewhere. I don't like buying on line where I can't fondel what I'm buying.
If it doesn't fit or you just don't like it, it can be returned, which is a bit of a hassle.
The 10oz. sounds good as does the 20oz. w/carbon frame.
My lightest "real" backpack weighs 2.25 lbs. It ain't "ultralight" by today's standards but the next one up the ladder is a hunting pack that weighs 3.5. I think if your gonna lighten up the pack don't stop there , do inventory of what goes in it. That's kinda just as important.
Personally, I'd be wary of any pack that weighed 9 oz., if I thought I might have to pack heavy loads.
I'd be looking here:
https://seekoutside.com/lightweight...-m_0YmiABvfTp2X3BWX_QEiwMKhoCWBYQAvD_BwE
I have one of the Zpacks Arc.. somethings. Arc haul i think I have had it for about four years and have a Northville lake placid trail walk and the long trail ( did the Lt in two sections). I like to hike for a week or two as soon as the snow is mostly gone, no people, no bugs. shelters all to my self.
I have been shaving pack weight for years and the Arc, was an upgrade from a Granite Gear vapor trail. My base weight for an end of April/first week of may hike is around 9 lbs and with 4 days of food and a liter of water am at 17lbs or so when I start, this obviously goes down as the week progress. try to resupply every 4-5 days if I can.
The arc is a specialty pack for folks with moderate pack weights who hike on trail. for that it was probably the best pack in the world when I bought it and might still be ( I haven't tracked ultralight packs closely since i bought it) The point of the pack and the concept in general is that you can walk a long way in great comfort if your not carrying much. Its not designed to carry a deer out nor is it quiet or tough enough to be a hunting pack, its not designed to be. Its designed to carry 10-20 pounds in comfort and weigh as little as practical.
Its actually a tougher pack than the previous granite gear was despite being half the weight. it can carry 20 or so pounds very comfortably.
Do you hike the trail just for the hell of it, or do you do a little backcountry fishing. We are practically neighbors. I live in Broadalbin
Mostly exercise and to decompress. a week or two with nobody but me and my dog clears the mind. I do some fishing but I am so bad at fishing for brook trout that its pitiful.
I am actually out of Johnstown now, it was where I grew up and dad lived, I used his place for a base to hunt the northern tier, but he passed last year and we sold his house. I am going to look for a small piece of land to use a base camp going forward.
I prefer my SO packs to any others of the dozens I have used in 66+ years of carrying loads in the BC-Alberta bush. They are outstanding to deal with and make a product I consider superb.
I’ve owned several backpacks in the 10-14 oz range. Generally they’re in the 30-45 liter range which (with ultralight gear) translates into 3-4 days. The one thing they have in common is they all lack any kind of suspension- no internal frame or stays. Because of this they also have in common a weight limit (comfortable weight limit) of approximately 20-ish lbs.
I’ve since ditched all of my uberlight packs in favor of a full framed backpack from Seek Outside (the Flight) for my other than hunting, backpack trips. It’s 2 lbs, but 60+ liters and can (comfortably) handles loads in the 40-ish lb range.
I'll give some of the lightweight 'real' packs a look, z-pack is a bit too much 'save world/green new deal' it appears.
I had an Equinox small frameless pack years ago and remember not liking it. Bought it for predator hunting, foxpro/decoy/water/snack etc. , I'd as soon carried a nylon handbag.
60 ltr @ 2 lbs. is plenty light.
If (big if) keep the weight under 20 lbs, the frameless packs were OK- nothing spectacular at all;
much happier taking a small weight penalty and having the load comfortable
These days you don't have to go frameless to get a pretty light pack. I have given a couple of frameless packs a shot, but really found them pretty unsatisfactory, even for summer hikes where my base weight is 6-7 lbs. I know some folks are very driven by pack weight, but for me 9lbs for april/may in the Adirondacks/Green mountains/white mountains is about right. I can go lighter in the summer, but honestly I would rather do something other than hike in the bug season.
The Arc haul 40L is 1lb 2oz for a framed pack. its big enough to carry kit for temps down into the 20's and food for 5 days. I did look at some other competitors, but the Arc Haul is used by a lot of thru hikers and there was a lot of feedback on it, so I wasn't buying it totally blind. Thats one of the issues with lots of the smaller cottage manufactures is that your not going to see their products in a store and they don't sell enough to where you really will see lots of reviews.
In the summer I live in western mass and I walk my dog up the AT many days. In August you meet a lot of northbound Thru hikers and by the time they get to Massachusetts they have their gear pretty tuned and if nothing else thru hikers love to talk about gear. and the arc packs have been some of the most common packs the last few years.
Saw a couple Ytube's, Arc-packs, the guy was opening the pack , this & that, very noisy material. Opening the top sounded like wadding up a newpaper, just touching it made a lot of noise.
Guy said it was noisy when walking/hiking, might not be the best hunting pack.
If (big if) keep the weight under 20 lbs, the frameless packs were OK- nothing spectacular at all;
much happier taking a small weight penalty and having the load comfortable
This!! My Eberlystock is the heaviest pack I have. I'm willing to take the 1 1/2 pound penalty for a pack that is 5 times as comfortable! Not to mention, many of us will be packing out our meat. The Zpack is good for about 20lbs IMO. The Eberlystock will easily carry 100 lbs. I used to think my Eberlystock was just too darn heavy! After experimenting with a few lighter packs I've come to realize the Eberlystock is by far my favorite
With that said I do carry a small light day pack in my eberlystock called the "ASCEND DASH 720". It's hundreds less than a Zpack and really the weight you save is because you have far less you carry in a day pack. I use the ASCEND when traveling from my main camp. It cost $30
Never seen this site before. Weights of various items look pretty good. Judging by the prices, they must be real proud of there products. Would be nice to see them in a store somewhere. I don't like buying on line where I can't fondel what I'm buying.
Seriously? Never seen zpacks before? No kidding?
It's cuben fiber. Ultra lightweight. If you ever run into thru hikers, they'll probably either have a cube fiber shelter or pack or both.
In my 20s it seems like I could sleep in a muddy ditch in the rain. Now in my 60s, I have to have comforts……chair, TWO pillows, thick mattress, etc. I own a Zpack backpack and every time I go out for a night in the woods with it, I feel like I’ve compromised my comfort and dont sleep well. I like my Kifaru packs, and the Kutthroat is my current go to. I get it packed to about 35lbs most times, and take off for one to two nights. I am mostly not hunting in this scenario, just decompressing and getting the dog out (who carries her own pack). Every thing in the pack has been optimized for lightweight concerns, and titanium and cuben fiber features prominently in my gear as I’m currently using a MLD Duomid as my tent, but the support and space in my K pack keeps me coming back
docdb, good to see you here.
Is anyone making lightweight packs with Dyneema fabric (the winch rope stuff)? It's incredibly strong and light but also incredibly expensive.
Is anyone making lightweight packs with Dyneema fabric (the winch rope stuff)? It's incredibly strong and light but also incredibly expensive.
lots of folks using dyneema in their packs (in addition to Zpacks- MLD, Superior Designs, HMG and many others), but most are designed to haul 20-25 lbs- if that's what you're carrying- they'll do fine and be about as light as you can get
if you're hauling more than 25 lbs, probably best to look elsewhere
with it's high price, Dyneema is only in the high priced ultra-light packs, likely without stays to cut weight. If you're going to carry meat, you need the stays to take the weight off your shoulders. A pair of stays can easily be heavier than the total weight of some of these super light packs.