Ultralight Vs Traditional Packs - What's the Best for you?

hey guys it's Darwin and today I wanted to talk about packs traditional versus ultralight framed versus frameless ripstop versus cuben fiber let's talk about the pros and cons of each and what is the best pack for your next through hike [Music] all right so I get questions all the time whether it's in my Q&A every week whether it's in a comment on Facebook I get emails about it people asking me what is the best backpack for me if I'm thinking about doing a long distance hike and I can't blame them there's so many options from cuben fiber packs to traditional ripstop packs frameless framed internal-external and with so many choices it can be a really hard decision to figure out what the best pack is for you so today I figured I would just break down some of the most common packs out on the market let's talk about what's good about them and what's bad about them and help you decide what the perfect pack is for your needs all right so the pack that I carried in 2015 in 2016 on the Appalachian Trail was the Osprey at most 65 and I guess you could sum it up as a traditional pack it was an internal frame made of a thicker denier nylon it has a brain 65 litres has a bunch of different pockets and compression straps the load capacity was between 30 and 50 pounds and at the time it was a perfect pack for me fast-forward to now and I'm carrying the Z packs arc blast 55 liter pack now not only is this my favorite pack to use on weekend trips and smaller section hikes but it's also the pack that I'll be using on my through hike of the PCT next year so if the Osprey 65 was such a great pack for the 80 why would I make the switch on this through hike to a different pack well there's a handful of reasons but first let's talk about the different types of packs out on the market so first off you have the traditional pack which would be like my Osprey Atmos 65 now since I gifted that pack to a friend of mine not too long ago we're gonna use snuggles pack which is the Osprey aura 50 it's the women's version of the Atmos 65 so this will do like most traditional packs it's made of a heavy-duty ripstop nylon it has a brain top lid a separate sleeping bag compartment that you can open up to get your sleeping bag out without touching anything else it has a bunch of different mesh pockets on the outside on the front and on the side to put water bottles and whatever else you need to put in a ton of different compression straps to make sure that you really get your load good and cinch down it has nice big thick shoulder straps and a hip belt strap and this really cool anti-gravity suspension system which kind of lets the pack float off of your back now the aura itself can carry a load up to 40 pounds and I believe that my Atmos could carry a load up to 50 pounds now between the oar and the Atmos they're probably two of the most popular traditional thru-hiking packs that I saw on the Appalachian Trail in both 2015 and 2016 so what are some of the reasons you would want to carry a pack like this well like I said for one it's a really comfortable pack it has that anti-gravity suspension system on the back it can carry up to 40 pounds nice big thick padded shoulder straps and hip belts so it's a very comfortable pack when under load it also has a ton of storage room so not only do you have the big main compartment but you had those mesh pockets on the side you have that sleeping bag compartment on the bottom you have a brain that has multiple zippers and multiple pouches so the pack can hold a lot of gear especially if you're a hiker that likes your comforts on the trail you can carry pretty much all your stuff like I said before it's made out of a thicker tougher ripstop nylon so you could pretty much buy this pack do multiple through hikes and you know it's gonna last forever and then if it does have any problems if you wear it out if something breaks companies like Osprey or Gregory or maybe the North Face or any of those other traditional pack companies most of them have a lifetime warranty where they'll either fix the pack or replace it for you so those are some pretty good reasons to why you would want to carry a traditional pack but what are some of the cons well for starters traditional packs are heavy the or a 50 that I'm holding right here weighs just over 4 pounds and my old at most 65 was just under 4 pounds so it is quite a heavy piece of gear even though the material is thicker and heavier duty it's not waterproof so because it's not waterproof you have to use extra things like a pack cover or a pack liner to make sure that your stuff inside doesn't get wet and in my experience material like this once it does get wet it takes a really long time to dry out another downfall of a traditional pack is it has a lot of bells and whistles and if you don't need all of those bells and whistles and you have more of a minimalist back packing kit you're pretty much carrying all that extra weight of stuff that you don't really need in a pack which was the case with my Atmos 65 and one of the reasons that I switched away from that pack it just kind of had too many things that I never used all right so now that we have talked about traditional packs let's talk about some of the ultralight packs on the market so like I said earlier the pack that I switched to from my traditional Osprey Atmos 65 is the Z packs arc blast it's made of a much lighter weight 2.92 Dyneema composite material also known as Cuban fiber it's super simple only having one big main compartment with no zippers and a roll-top closure it has a big mesh storage pocket on the outside of the front and then it has water bottle pockets on its side decently padded shoulder straps and the hip belt and it can carry a load up to 35 pounds so what are some of the reasons that you would carry a pack like the ark blast or any of the other packs that are considered ultralight backpacks well for a full framed pack it only weighs 21 ounces which is crazy light for a pack that has a frame it's super simplistic so if you're rocking a very minimalist through hiking gear setup it doesn't have a bunch of bells and whistles that you don't really need because it's made of that Dyneema composite material it's highly water resistant and all of the seams are taped from the inside which means it pretty much makes it waterproof you don't have to use an extra rain cover or a pack liner and if it does get wet it just sheds water and you don't have to worry about it taking so long to dry out and one of the reasons that I like is it's made by a smaller cottage company so whenever you buy gear like this you're helping support the community that you're a part of now as much as I do love this pack and these types of packs there are some cons to the ultralight pack number one is one that stops most people at the door and that is price Cuban fiber or nema composite is an expensive material the arc blast itself cost three hundred and twenty-five dollars and that's bare-bones that's without any type of hip belt pouches or shoulder strap pouches or any of those extra bells and whistles that you get on a traditional pack so if those are some of the things that you want on an ultra light pack by the time you get done customizing it and putting all the things that you want to put on it it gets to be a pretty damn expensive pack because it's made of a lighter weight material like most ultra light packs on the market it's not gonna last as long as a traditional pack you can probably get only one maybe two long-distance hikes out of one of these before they just start breaking down now obviously that all depends on the user and how rough you are on your gear but something like Dyneema composite is not gonna last as long as some really thick nylon fabric another con of the ultra light packs that are out on the market is availability you can't just go down the street to your local REI and pick one up and try it on most of these guys are made to order and not just Z packs that's also mountain laurel designs that's hyper light mountain gear because there are smaller cottage companies they are made to order and to your specific fit and then the fourth con would be warranty now Z packs has only a one-year warranty on their packs versus something like Osprey that has that lifetime warranty all right so now we've talked about traditional packs and ultralight packs but that's not all that's out there not only do you have ultra Lite packs but you also have the super ultra Lite packs like the Z packs Nero the pelant a simple pack and the gossamer gear kuhmo all these packs are what's called a frameless pet which means it has no suspension system and no frame it's essentially a big stuff sack with straps on it most of them weighing in just under are over a pound they're made for the most ultralight of hikers with ridiculously low base weights with the pros being that they're super simplistic they weigh basically nothing and cons being that they can't handle much weight and they may be too bare-bones for some hikers super functional if you're crazy ultralight but it's not gonna be the pack for everybody and then the last type of pack that I want to talk about is what I call the middle-of-the-road pack or I guess you could call it an ultralight traditional pack and that would be something like the granite gear crown 260 now this is a pack that I've seen a ton of on the Appalachian Trail in 2015 it actually hiked with two other hikers that absolutely loved it and like I said it's what I call a middle-of-the-road pack so it is made of that heavier rip stop material it does have thicker shoulder straps and a thicker hip belt strap but it is very simple in the fact that it's a one compartment pack now even though it does have a brain the brain does come off and it essentially turns into a simple roll top pack like my Ark blast it has that big mesh stretchy pocket in the front and it has the water bottle pockets on the side and you kind of get the best of both worlds so it's made of that thicker material so it's gonna last longer but because it is very bare-bones and doesn't have all those crazy bells and whistles it only weighs a little over two pounds so it's on the lighter side Osprey makes a pack called the exos that's a really popular middle-of-the-road pack and I think pretty much all the other pack companies have that type of pack so that was only four packs that are out there on the market but there are tons of them from tons of different companies made out of tons of different materials and that was a ton of pack information but we never really came to the conclusion and the answer of what is the best pack for you well like I said in the past there's no one perfect piece of gear just like there's no one perfect pack for a thru-hike all of those packs would do a phenomenal job at a thru-hike because their packs that's what they were designed to do what it comes down to is figuring out what type of hiker you are do you need the extra comfort are you a super minimalist do you plan on carrying extra gear for a family member or a partner are you trying to go ultralight and as fast as possible on the trail it's all up to you and there's a pack out there for everyone so what pack are you currently using on the trail is there another one that you've been thinking about switching to leave me something in the comment box below and let me know your thoughts you haven't had a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I've been a lot of new photos lately of some of the things that snuggles and I have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from some past hikes if you found any value in this video go ahead and hit that like button subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Darwin onthetrail

Views: 648,722

Rating: 4.9189377 out of 5

Keywords: Appalachian Trail, AT, AT Thru Hike, Ultralight Backpacks, Zpacks, Osprey, Atmos 65, Arc Blast, Zpacks Nero, UL Hiking, UL Backpacking, UL Gear, PCT, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT Thru Hike, AZT, Arizona Trail, CDT, Hiking, Hiker Trash, Backpacking, Adventure, Camping, LOng Distance Hiking

Id: dZs5P9Z1PlA

Length: 12min 5sec (725 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 30 2017