[pct-l] Ultralight as a must?

[Yoshihiro Murakami]

Dear Steeleye

Yes, there is a discrepancy between theory and practice. I forgot to
describe one assumption.

Assuming:

No energy should be needed when you are carrying backpack and standing
still. Your body and backpack should be integrated into one object. In
other word, all the weight of backpack should be hang on the bones,
not on the muscles.  To this purpose, ultralight and light weight
backpack is not adequate. Most of the light weight backpack were
designed for 10 or 15 kg load. If the total backpack weight exceed 15
kg, we should carry  it by on the shoulder muscles. Then, we need some
energy, even when we are standing still.

In my opinion, Aether 70 and Ariel 65 are not a bad selection.  If
Stefans are satisfying those backpacks, they need not change those
backpack to lighter ones. But, I do not like Osprey backpack, because
their frame structure are weak, and some of the weight hang on the
shoulders.

In my case, I must frequently carry heavy load, so recently, I bought
Altra 75 because of the bargain sale for the labor day. I  tested this
in neighborhood mountains ( Japanese Northern Alps ), and confirmed
that most of the weight hanged on my hip bone.  Altra 75 is too huge
to hike several days, so I recommend Altra 65. But, I think I will use
Altra 75 for several years, because I found that when I put the
sleeping bag into 20L stuff pack, the backpack balance became good.
Next summer, I will hike some sections of PCT with Altra 75.



-- 
Sincerely
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Hiro    ( Yoshihiro Murakami  村上宣寛 )
facebook  http://www.facebook.com/completewalker
Blogs  http://completewalker.blogspot.jp/
Photo  https://picasaweb.google.com/104620544810418955412/
Backpacking since about 1980 in Japan
JMT, 2009, 2010, 2011(half), 2012
Handbook of Hiking will be published in 2013
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