FEB 94 A backbreaking test of the biggest packs on the planet by Dave Getchell Let's say you want to stride off into the serious boondocks for 10 days or more, and you want to go unsupported. You'll tote a bottomless sack of food and a fat tank of fuel and a cavernous bomber tent and a huge soft sleeping bag and clunky boots and a big squishy parka. You'll lug a repair kit and a medical kit and a navigation kit and the umpteen other kits you'd better have handy when there's nothing around but trees, rocks, and sky. Let's say all that just barely fits into (or on top of, or around) your regular pack. But when you pile on other necessities like climbing gear, skis, a canyoneering raft, or what have you, it becomes obvious your regular-sized pack is seriously overmatched. Even if you manage to lash everything on until you look like some kind of backcountry peddler, it's likely that the pack's overburdened suspension will turn your shoulders into colorful epicenters of radiating pain. If you want to carry a monster load, you need a monster pack, something that will swallow 6,000-plus cubic inches and 70 pounds and not punish you. To carry such loads over rough country, you'll need an internal-frame pack built like a brick backhouse. That's what Backpacker looked for when lining up eight load monsters to test. To find testers willing to shoulder truly monstrous loads, we hooked up with the National Outdoor Leadership School of Lander, Wyoming. NOLS instructors typically spend 30 weeks a year on field courses. For much of that time, they're lugging packs stuffed high and wide with group-leader and teaching gear. They often go nine days between resupply drops, so their pack weights can run up to 90 pounds. In all, seven instructor-testers (five men, two women) racked up some 200 user-days and 800 trail miles. Several went on winter courses in Yellowstone, where students learned firsthand about skiing with big packs in "full conditions" (howling snow, -30F). Most testing took place in the Utah Canyonlands, on cross-country hiking courses notorious for their wear and tear on equipment. The Canyonlands packs came back scuffed and muddy and tattered from scraping over abrasive rock and squeezing past spiny plants. These big bags saw more hard use in four weeks than most packs see in four years. Testers completed standardized ratings forms, scoring each of the packs on their ease of loading, suspension adjustment, comfort when heavily loaded, load control both on and off the trail, durability, and an all-things-considered overall rating. See the ratings chart on page 60 for more details on scoring parameters. Since Backpacker's first load-monster test (February '90) many pack makers have adopted more resilient foam padding. Several manufacturers now heat-mold or die-cut suspension parts into smoother, more ergonomic shapes. Flexible plastic framesheets have become almost universal because they help the frame stays transfer vertical loading, flex enough to allow freedom of motion, and keep hastily loaded cargo from poking your back. But our test showed that one thing hasn't changed in four years: There's no substitute for cubic inches. The Gregory Rainier and Osprey Motherload could actually make a ludicrous load feel almost reasonable. Each had enough volume to contain a bulky burden and enough suspension to constrain it. The other packs were basically a full class smaller even though they are the largest packs offered by the manufacturers. Dana Design and Mountainsmith make packs larger than the Terraplane and Frostfire III, but these are the models the companies chose to send us for the test. One tester complained that trying to stuff some of these packs with nine days' worth of food and fuel was "like trying to cram a tuba into a trumpet case." Most fared fine with loads in the 5,000-cubic-inch range, but when fully stuffed, only the Mountainsmith Frostfire III and The North Face Zopkio remained comfortable. The difference boils down to this: To carry a given weight, a big pack bearing a relatively light load for its size is more comfortable than a smaller pack that's stuffed. The testers noted other important distinctions between the champion monsters and the rest of the pack. Since the NOLS crew spends so much time far from outside help, course leaders place a premium on simple, repairable gear. The better packs have fewer parts to fail, and if these parts do break, they can usually be cobbled back together with duct tape or a webbing lash strap. Though most testers started out with the typical guide's preference for top-loading, single-compartment sacks, the easy access to gear offered by some top-loading/panel-loading hybrids converted a couple of diehards. Testers returned mixed reports on the utility of detachable top pocket/fannypack combinations. A great top pocket isn't usually big enough to even be a passable fannypack and vice versa. But enough generalizing. Here are the down-and-dirty details, with packs listed alphabetically. DANA DESIGN Terraplane "I'd always felt that big packs were all more or less the same, each with its own set of aches and pains," wrote 10-year veteran instructor Steve Streufert. Then he admitted that the Terraplane changed his mind. The pack evidently impressed everyone else as well because its ratings were consistently a notch higher than all the others across the scoreboard. The Dana looks outwardly unremarkable, a basic two-compartment top-loader with dual integral pockets running up the back out of arms' way. Terraplanes come in five frame sizes with interchangeable shoulder straps and hipbelts of various sizes, so fit problems weren't an issue. Aileen Brew found the lumbar pad a bit stiff initially and felt "swaybacked" for a few days, but she said it softened up eventually. On trail or off, the Terraplane garnered the highest scores for comfort and load control. Its steady ride stood out as the best for skiing and the boulder-scrambling in canyoneering. The shoulder straps curve sinuously around your neck and arms, distributing the load over a broad area. The waistbelt cups around your hip bones instead of "coning" down over them. Streufert attributed the Dana's poise to "an appropriate balance between narrow profile and overall volume." It's not too high and tippy, and it's not too squat and in your way. A few grumbles noted the pack's smallish size for this monster class, though the cushy suspension handled any overloads. The few backpackers who really need more space should consider the Terraplane's big brother the Astralplane, a full 1,000 cubic inches larger. Brew paid the Dana pack perhaps the ultimate compliment: "With 60 or 70 pounds aboard, it almost felt good!" GREGORY Rainier Compulsive organizers will love the big Gregory. It boasts a dual-compartment top pocket and two vertical back pockets. Raingear, sweater, and lunch easily slip behind the big U-zippered access panel, and a pocketed mesh panel keeps everything else from bulging out. Less obsessive packers won't need to bother with the panel-loading features and can just use the Rainier as a cavernous top-loader. The Gregory's easy loading combined with firm suspension made it the test's highest-mileage pack. Brew lauded the slick molded-foam back panel and suspension: "Simple, easy to adjust, and carries lots of gear, no pain inflicted." But she found that the suspension's brushed surface didn't shed snow, which "just melts all over you." Melissa Crabtree wore the Rainier after bruising her shoulders with another brand: "Compared to that, the Gregory felt like it had shock absorbers." Peter Absolon was more specific: "There's great headroom and elbow clearance. The pack bag and suspension and you work together as one." He also liked the Gregory's clean profile and thought that its minimal use of dangling straps would help it survive airline travel intact. L.L. BEAN North Col The big Bean bag is aggressively priced at half the cost of most in the group. Equipped with side-wing hip pockets and simple Velcro-and-ladder suspension, the North Col is more or less an up-sized clone of The North Face's venerable Snow Leopard. Sheer cargo capacity was something this long, tall pack didn't lack. John Grandt said it was a cinch to pack a ridiculously large load. Absolon countered that the lower compartment was too narrow to accommodate a synthetic winter sleeping bag: "Without a compressor stuffsack, forget it." Comfort, however, wasn't the Bean's strong suit. "It's too tall and skinny for bushwhacking," wrote Grandt, "and there's zero headroom." Crabtree's only printable comment dismissed it as "maybe the world's tallest." The main discomfort culprit on this pack are the thinly padded shoulder straps, which allow the upper stabilizer straps to roll over and dig into your shoulders. All the test packs came back from Canyonlands dirty and scraped, but the North Cols were by far the most battered. Several straps were strained or broken, abrasion holes peppered the bottoms, and a couple of frame stays had poked out below the lumbar pads. LOWE ALPINE SYSTEMS Continuum M We've raved about the Continuum before, (Outfitting, September '92), so its mediocre showing in this test came as a bit of a letdown. The Continuum is a well-built, well-suspended framesheet top-loader, but it was overmatched by these monster burdens. Geoff Butler liked it fine for toting 40-odd pounds while skiing with a sled, but Grandt dubbed it simply "too small for nine days of food, fuel, and gear." The Lowe scored well for freedom of movement and head clearance. Butler said the locking slider that anchors the shoulder harness was "so simple to set up that even I could figure it out." The upper stabilizer straps are sewn directly to the shoulder pads with little reinforcement; under maximum loads, they tended to roll off center, making the pad edges bite a bit. The Continuum sports thoughtful detailing, such as blue tabs marking all suspension-adjustment straps so you don't pull the top pocket down on your head when you intended to tighten a top stabilizer. The pack also suffers inexplicable design flaws, like compressor straps that fasten over the zips on the optional rear pocket/daypack, effectively blocking access. We also noticed such quality-control glitches as popping seams and dangling threads. MADDEN Pinnacle Built triple tough, the Pinnacle is the company's first framesheet equipped large internal. It's a solid effort, if somewhat small for the monster class. Suspension adjustment is dead easy, with convenient pull loops to release the shoulder straps. The hipbelt goes around a bulky parka on a cold morning, yet cinches down when you're stripped to polypro for another powder run. A forest of compressor straps snugs the Pinnacle around day-size loads better than any other pack tested. But the Madden's exaggerated tall-and-narrow profile proved awkward in full load-monster mode. "They've taken this streamlined thing too far," complained Streufert. "Off-trail, it was sort of a tippy tower strapped to my back." He also found the skinny pack bag hard to load, especially since his big winter bag wouldn't fit horizontally despite its compressor stuffsack. MOUNTAINSMITH Frostfire III The Frostfire is the simplest Mountainsmith we've tested in years, a basic top-loader with horizontal bottom-com- partment access and two-stay frame. Though not top-rated for comfort, it carried reasonably well and was beat only by the L.L. Bean bag in the price category---an attractive combination if a monster won't be your primary pack. Frostfires come in four sizes, but only the size III qualifies in the load-monster class; it works best for larger loads and larger people. Mountainsmith typically endows its packs with more straps and buckles and pull-tabs than you can shake an owner's manual at. The Frostfire bucks that trend but still took a fair bit of fiddling. Absolon carped about "numerous straps pulling in all directions," adding that "they adjusted easily on the trail, but were hard to get right initially." Persistence paid off, though, and most testers arrived at a workable fit with plenty of headroom and elbow clearance. The Frostfire was the lightest pack in the group by a couple of pounds, thanks to midweight materials that tread a fine line between shaving ounces and providing acceptable durability. The optional Adventure Briefcase pack pocket ($65) kept the testers organized on the trail ("I was still finding new crannies after 18 days," quipped Quincy Oster) and was hands down the best auxiliary pack of the bunch. THE NORTH FACE Zopkio The Zopkio is basically an oversized Snow Leopard top-loader souped up with panel-loading rear access, a lunker top pocket, and a billowing snow collar/bivy extension that could swallow smaller testers up to their armpits. Oster, who describes himself as "into carrying big and beasty packs," thought the Zopkio's dual-stay/framesheet setup handled 75 pounds just fine. The side-wing pockets held water bottles, snacks, and a compact camera in quick-draw position. He thought the shoulder straps were marginally padded but liked the wide flared hipbelt. Quick-release buckles on the side compressor straps made loading or unloading skis a snap. TNF's biggest pack is built with a lustrous super-duty ripstop fabric that returned from Canyonlands somewhat fuzzed from scraping and scratching on sandpaperlike sandstone. The frame stays were starting to poke through the doubled bottom fabric, and the top pocket's zipper-pull snapped off. OSPREY Motherload If you can't fit what you need into this mother of all load haulers, hire a mule. The Osprey won praise from everyone who used it, and consensus held that it was the most pack for the least money. "It was so huge I could fit everything and then some," Streufert reported, "but if I loaded the side pockets, I'd have to wear a `Wide Load' warning sticker." The Motherload is a broad-bottomed top-loader whose main compartment "sucks up gear like a Hoover in heat," as Grandt put it. Brew reported that the enormous hipbelt was also enormously comfortable. The shoulder harness adjusts for torso size with a single, easily reached strap, which was good because the strap tended to slip slightly during miles of pounding. The die-cut shoulder pads curve around you with no hint of wrinkles underneath---much appreciated by Streufert, who likes to go bareback. The Osprey rode fine on most trails but bounced around a bit off the beaten path. It tended to lurch side to side during canyon-clambering. Streufert and Brew complained that the shoulder straps were set too wide for narrow-shouldered folks, though the wide sternum strap held things in check. PACK TEST RATINGS CHART SEE FEBRUARY, 1994 ISSUE FOR MORE DETAIL. THE FOLLOWING CHART IS A SUMMARY ONLY. Dana Design Terraplane: $379 Overall 4.5 Hi: great fit, super stable Lo: very few negatives Gregory Rainier: $389 Overall 4 Hi: firm and comfy suspension; easy loading Lo: fiddly access flap/pocket arrangement L.L. Bean North Col: $175 Overall 2.5 Hi: decent load control (if it fits) Lo: tall, tippy shape; skinny shoulder straps Lowe Continuum: $350 Overall 3 Hi: good headroom and ease of movement Lo: too small for class Madden Pinnacle: $380 Overall 3 Hi: easy to adjust; durable Lo: tall, tippy shape Mountainsmith Frostfire III: $250 Overall 3.5 Hi: light, nice top pocket and lumbar pack Lo: fiddly fit adjustments The North Face Zopkio: $350 Overall 3.5 Hi: convenient top-load/panel-load design Lo: durability glitches Osprey Motherload: $295 Overall 4 Hi: huge, comfy, and simple; moderate price Lo: a bit wobbly off-trail Rating Scale - 1=Poor, 2=Fair, 3=Good, 4=Very good, 5=Excellent RESOURCES: Dana Design, 1950 N. 19th, Bozeman, MT 59715; (406) 587-4188. Gregory Mountain Products, 100 Calle Cortez, Temecula, CA 92590; (800) 477-3420. L.L. Bean, Casco St., Freeport, ME 04033; (800) 341-4341. Lowe Alpine Systems, P.O. Box 1449, Broomfield, CO 80038; (303) 465-3706. Madden USA, 2400 Central Ave., Boulder, CO 80301; (303) 442-5828. Mountainsmith, 18301 Colfax Ave., Golden, CO 80401; (303) 279-5930. The North Face, 999 Harrison St., Berkeley, CA 94710; (510) 527-9700. Osprey Packs, P.O. Box 539, Dolores, CO 81323; (303) 882-2221.