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Ditched my big framed pack for a frameless one and it's way better
Used to think you needed a frame for any load over 15 pounds, but after a buddy let me borrow his 35 liter pack for a weeklong trip, I realized the frame was just adding weight. My back actually feels better without it since I'm not fighting the rigid structure. Has anyone else gone frameless and regretted it?
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eric_murphy3614h agoMost Upvoted
...so my buddy Mike had the same problem you're talking about. He's a tough guy, runs marathons, but a frameless pack wrecked him on a trip in the Sierra. We were doing seven days with a bear canister and he had to carry like four liters of water through a dry stretch. By day three he was stopping every hour to shift the load on his shoulders, bright red marks where the straps dug in. He ended up tying his puffy jacket under the shoulder straps for extra padding, which helped a little but looked ridiculous. He went straight back to his Osprey with a frame the next trip and hasn't touched the frameless one since. I think it just depends on what kind of pain you're willing to put up with.
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Man, I gotta push back on the "way better" thing. I tried frameless for a year and went back to a framed pack because my shoulders were killing me on anything over 12-15 pounds. That rigid structure you mentioned actually helps transfer weight to my hips where it belongs, not my shoulders. On a weeklong trip with food and water, my frameless pack rode like a sack of bricks, and I was wincing by day three. How do you handle the load distribution when you're carrying a bear canister or extra water through rough terrain?
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