Packs

The Vaude 60 + 10L, weighed down with snowshoes and all kinds of other unnecessary gear accompanied me to the Southern Terminus of the PCT. The incongruity of being in the desert with snowshoes made me abandon those before the hiking even began. At the first opportunity I ditched another 5 or 10 pounds of gear. Finally, at Lone Pine, more than 700 miles into the trail, with straps fraying and holes in the fabric getting bigger, I upgraded to the Osprey Aether Pro 70, thanks to the friendly and helpful staff at Elevation Sierra Adventure.

The Aether is a sturdy pack that survived the remaining 2000ish miles of the PCT with flying colors. But with a lighter base weight, the Aether is overkill.

The Hyperlite Windrider is a badass pack that’s incredibly light and boasts considerable load-carrying capacity. The ULA Catalyst has the biggest cargo hold, but is heavier and doesn’t increase your load range. The Osprey Levity has the best weight-to-volume ratio, but even with all that space, it can only handle the lightest load of any of the ultralight packs.

My gut feeling, confirmed by numerous satisfied PCT hikers, was to go with the Hyperlite Windrider. The scoring matrix below, however, also takes price into consideration.
Other factors considered in the matrix are:

Pack Volume

Pack Weight

Max Pack Load Capability

The resulting highest factored score (highlighted in green below) indicates that the ULA Ohm 2.0 is the best option.

Like other scoring matrices I’ve posted, brands and models are listed down the left-hand columns, categories are listed across the top row, with factors above each category that can be adjusted to give more importance to a certain category. In this matrix, all categories had the same factor of 1. The final score for each pack is listed in the right-hand column. Best scores in each category are yellow, and the overall best factored score is in green.

If you’re hiking somewhere that requires carrying a bear canister, or if you’re carrying one out of respect for the bears, you may want a higher priority on pack volume.

After consulting other hikers who had used the Ohm 2.0, I decided to trust the matrix. So far, I’ve only taken the Ohm on a couple overnighters, but loaded up with enough supplies for about four days. It is fantastic. It is well-balanced, well-supported, lightweight, and large enough for multiple days on the trail.

Because I plan to ski through the San Juan’s and will have at least an additional 16 lbs of gear, including crampons, ice-axe, and two sets of climbing skins, I’ll switch back to my Osprey Aether for that section. When I get up to I-70 I’ll switch back to the ULA Ohm 2.0 and finish the hike with that pack.