Get Outdoors - Women: Backpacks

The three most important considerations when buying a backpack are the type of frame, the size and the fit. After that come the features. Generally it is a mistake to get too wound up over the features of a pack until the main issues are taken care of.

Internal or External Frame

The first issue is whether to buy an internal or external frame pack. External frame packs have been woefully out of favor for many years, but unfairly so, and are staging a little comeback. A well-built, good fitting external frame pack is an excellent choice if you are a backpacker who sticks mostly to well-maintained trails on reasonably flat terrain and usually gets to them in the car. External frame packs are durable, organize your gear well, are easy to tie massive amounts of gear onto, carry heavy loads, and are cooler to carry than internal frame packs. They also have lousy clearance, poor balance, limited flexibility and do not fly worth a damn. If an external frame pack suits your needs, buy it, and do not pay any attention to what the geeks say. (Just smile sweetly as you cruise past, with your wading shoes, tent fly, rain jacket and whatever else that was wet this morning drying nicely on your pack, while his stuff is molding in that trash bag in his internal frame pack.)

If you are a mountaineer or climber, hike in steep, difficult, brushy or closed in terrain or fly to your destinations, an internal frame pack is a better choice. There are scads of choices from the major manufacturers, all of them well-built and durable. Choose based on size, fit, and finally, features.

Size and Weight

Most reasonably fit women can carry about 45 lbs. comfortably, more or less depending on size and strength, of course. An old guideline for backpackers is to carry 1/4 to 1/3 your weight. Mountaineers typically hump ridiculous loads, but it is a strong woman who can carry 60 lbs. (not an atypical expedition load) comfortably, especially on steep terrain. So buy the lightest gear you can, and be very wary of buying a pack that will tempt you into Sherpadom. Apart from the weight of the gear, think about the weight of the pack. Packs can vary in weight from under 4 to over 7 lbs. The weight of the pack starts to matter if you are carrying heavy loads on steep terrain.

A pack in the range of 3,000-4,000 cubic inches is a good overnighter or weekender if it is warm and you are not a gear and food hog. 4,000-5,000 is about right for trips up to a week. 5,000 to 6,000 cubic inches is for long trips and expeditions and will get real heavy real fast if you are not careful. Moreover, a pack with that much volume can simply overwhelm a woman with a slight build. Unless you are a guide, a masochist, or going to Denali or the Himalaya, do not even consider a pack larger than 6,000 cubic inches. You can not carry that much and have any fun. Bottom line is buy as small a pack as you can get away with, and if you are a mountaineer consider the weight of the pack in addition to the weight of your gear.

Fit

There is no mystique to fitting a pack. Start with your torso size, which will determine whether you want a small, medium or large pack. You can measure this by using a flexible tape measure run from an imaginary line around your hips at the level of the widest part of the hipbone (sort of the top of your butt) up to the first noticeable bump at your neck. Generally, 16 to 18 inches is small, 18 to 20 is medium, and 20 to 22 is large. But if you try on a bunch of packs, you will get a sense for the size, which is all you need because that is just the starting point. Most major manufacturers make Small or even Extra Small packs that either come with, or can be equipped with, women's hip belts (curvier) and shoulder harnesses (narrower). These "women" components work well for many women but not all. In fact, the pronounced curve of some hipbelts for women is too much for many women and a male belt works better. So do not be afraid to try the man's hipbelt if the woman one is not working. Packs especially made for women tend to have a narrower bag with a lower center of gravity. These often wear very well for petite women.

Always fit the pack with weight in it, preferably the weight you will typically carry. Put on the hip belt so that it goes right over your hipbones, not above or below. Cinch the belt tight. Pull the straps that control the shoulder harness so that the pack is hugging your back and you can feel the pack on your shoulders, but the shoulder straps are not bearing the weight. Fasten the sternum strap an inch or two below your collarbone. Then pull in all the load tightening straps, typically running from the top of the pack to the shoulder straps and from the back of the pack to the hip belt.

Now check the fit. If the padding on the belt comes close to hitting in the front, the belt is too big. (You will lose weight on long trips.) If it does not cover your hipbones, it is too small. If the shoulder straps do not feel right as they curve around your neck and armpit, they do not fit. Look carefully at the back of the pack. The shoulder straps should curve smoothly from where they are attached to the back of the pack all the way over your shoulders, without any gaps. The pack should feel right. If it does not, it is not.

If you are in the right basic pack size, most of the high quality packs have a range of fine tuning adjustments, from adjusting the place that the hip belt velcros onto the pack to adjusting where the shoulder harness sits on the back of the pack. Hip belts and shoulder harnesses can also be purchased in different sizes. Sometimes it takes some trial and error. Patience wins. If you are mail ordering a pack, leave yourself time to return it or order different replacement components. This is not an "overnight delivery because I am leaving tomorrow" item unless you love risk or know exactly what will fit.

Features

Most packs are loaded with gizmos and features, some of which actually make a difference. For example, there are top loaders, panel loaders, and combinations. Top loaders stuff from the top. These are great for just cramming things in and give you the most "stuffability". If you have a top loader, the thing you want is invariably on the bottom. You learn to pack smart if you have a top loading pack. Panel loaders load from the side or open up like a suitcase. These are convenient and make great travel packs, but are difficult to cram a lot of gear into because you can not get the zipper closed. Some packs combine top loading with a panel access zipper. This allows you to stuff your gear in from the top, but then access what is at the bottom using the panel zipper. The zipper is one more thing to break, but they rarely do unless you mistreat them. More importantly, every zipper adds weight to the pack.

Some packs have big outer pockets for organizing gear; others are clean and spare on the outside. Generally a mountaineering pack will have fewer outside pockets, but will have gear loops and daisy chains for rock and ice pro. For camping, it is nice to have an outer mesh pocket on the side to stick the bottoms of your tent poles in, but for mountaineering you may not want to risk the poles on the outside of the pack since the consequences of losing them could be ugly. Ski mountaineers need shovel and ski pockets. Shovel pockets also work well for ropes and wet tent flies. Manufacturers tend to make a big deal about pockets for hydration systems or built-in systems. Most packs will carry a hydration system in the top pocket in any event.

One consideration that often gets overlooked is how the pack will travel. If you fly, and especially if you fly on foreign airlines, it is important to be able to protect your pack from evil baggage handling forces that it was never designed to withstand. Many women put the pack in a duffle bag to protect it, although a pack with the shoulder straps and hip belt off flies just fine on most major U.S. airlines if you tuck in all the straps and cords. If you put your pack in a duffle, sometimes it is easier to partially load the pack, put it in the duffle, and then finish loading inside and around the pack. Many hip belts velcro out easily. A few of the highly constructed, padded hip belts are harder to remove and require a screwdriver, which means that when you get to your destination you will have to reattach the belt. Practice this at home, it is trickier than it looks sometimes, especially in poor light.