I currently carry a 90 liter monster backpack with lots of room to spare. I want to go lighter/smaller probably in the 50 to 60 liter range. When looking at the lightest packs I see they are all top loading only. I understand removing zippers and pockets make the pack lighter. My question is more about the packing. I assume you still pack your bag and pad in the bottom. So does that mean at bedtime you dump your entire pack to get your bag out? I am spoiled with the bottom access to the sleeping bag compartment and the side zipper as well. I was just curious how you lightweight backpackers pack/unpack and organize your gear in the pack.

Pad against my back in a pocket made for it (means no stuff sack necessary to protect inflatable pad). Sleeping bag at bottom. Food in its bag (usually an Ursack) vertically against my back. Other stuff (most of it small) tucked in around it, with heavier items lower down and close to my back. Insulating clothing in dry bag at top of pack. Shelter either in top of pack or, more likely, in one of the outside side pockets.

When I arrive at camp, the first thing I want is the shelter. If it's raining, I want to get at the tent without opening my pack, which is why it's carried in that outside pocket. Once my shelter is up, the entire pack goes inside where I unload it. I will be using everything in the pack during the evening anyway, so unpacking everything is no big deal. (I hope I won't need the first aid kit, but I want it accessible just in case). Once I'm down to the bottom of the pack, I lay out my pad (I usually don't inflate it until later) and spread out my sleeping bag on top of it so it has plenty of time to fluff up. As I unpack, I organize the pack contents close to the door so I can grab what I need without going back inside the tent. That includes my cooking pot (which contains all my cooking items) and fuel canister, the dry bag with my insulating clothing, my toilet articles, my water containers and filter . I then leave the tent with my Ursack (I don't want to leave my food lying around when leaving the camp). I then grab my water containers and head for water. I then prepare dinner, rehang the Ursack, perhaps wander off to admire the sunset, then grab the tiny stuff sack with my hygiene items and brush my teeth. Then it's bedtime. I inflate my pad, get into my base layer and crawl in for the night.

In the morning it's the reverse process, with everything packed inside the tent, starting with sleeping pad and sleeping bag, then the food, then the smaller items with the insulating clothing bag on top. Only then does the pack leave the tent. I take the tent down, stash it in the outside pocket and I'm on my way.

If you are carrying a lot of stuff you don't use every day, your first step towards lightening up should be to eliminate those items not used. That will make the packing/unpacking/organization process a lot easier. One way to do this is put a little piece of masking tape on each and every item before your trip and remove it when you use that item. Any items that go home with the tape still attached are targets for elimination. Use some sense, of course--just because it doesn't rain on one trip doesn't mean you leave the rain gear behind next time! You can save a lot of weight and bulk this way. All of us start out taking too many changes of clothing and too many "just in case" items we have less than a 1% chance of ever using.

During the "lightening up" process, the pack should be the last thing replaced. Get the rest of your gear lightened up first. While you can carry lightweight, more compact gear in a big bomber pack, it's downright uncomfortable if not painful to carry heavy gear in a lightweight pack, which is what will happen if you replace the pack first. (Just resist the temptation to fill up all those pockets!) Ideally, you should have all your other lighter gear ready to go and all unnecessary items eliminated before you replace the pack.

Have you read the articles on the home page of this site, left-hand column? They helped me to get my total pack weight for a 9-day trip from 50 lbs. (which I could no longer carry) down to 25 lbs.

BTW, my current pack is about 40 liters and I've never had it completely full. That's another reason for waiting to replace the pack until you have comleted the rest of the lightening-up process: You may find you can get by with an even smaller pack!

Short answer: yes.

Don't see that as a big deal; I want access to much/most of what I'm carrying in camp anyway.

I agree with BrianLe about it being no big deal. Other than the food I will not be eating until later, almost everything else in there I will want to use in camp.

I don't want to get my insulating items out until the shelter is set up to put them in. So yes, it is no big deal to get it out last. I don't dump my pack - I get out things to use them or put them away. The shelter rides in the front pocket or on top. The rain gear rides up there too, along with lunch and anything I might be layering on or off while hiking. The rest of the stuff is packed under it and doesn't need to be accessed until the rest is out of the pack.

Bingo! I agree completely, Mouse.

My 50 liter pack has no bottom compartment or zipper; just one large top-loading compartment. My shelter rides on top of the load; in camp, it goes up first, then I work toward the bottom. Stove and food go on the ground in or near the vestibule. Rain suit and spare socks (the sum total of the clothing in my pack in the summer) goes in the tent, up in the head area. That brings me to my pad, which I then inflate and place in the tent. The only thing left in the pack is the sleeping bag, which goes on top of the pad. The stuff in the outside pockets and lid gets unloaded last (headlamp, water filter, first aid kit, toilet paper, and water bottles go in the tent or beside the kitchen, as needed.) Then the empty pack goes in the vestibule.

If I brought additional clothes, they consist of insulating garments, which ride near the top of the pack and get put on as I take them out.

However, there are still plenty of packs with sleeping bag compartments: Gregory, Deuter, and Osprey all make them, and I'm sure other makers with whom I'm not familiar also offer them. They aren't the true ultralight packs, but they are probably several pounds lighter than the load monster you're carrying now.

Another way to look at this is that it is hard for me to imagine when I would want my sleeping bag...and NOT want the tent and food. We stop at the end of the day, set up the tent, and cook the food. At that point, the only thing left in the pack is the sleeping bag.

(and it comes out once we have the tent set up, so that it can loft up nicely before dark.)

I'm pretty much the same as everyone else. I load my from top to bottom in the following order: food, clothes, shelter, pad, and sleep bag. I have miscellaneous items like my filter, light, etc., in a pocket on the outside. I keep food at the top for when I take short snack breaks, I will not have to dig through the pack.

I don't have any issues or inconvenience with a top loading pack just like everyone else mentioned above.

I use an Osprey Aether 60L. As mentioned, this is not an ultralight, yet lighter by a wide margin than some monster packs.

This was step 1 for me in lightening up. Usually, one would buy the pack last; I constrained my greedy lazy and luxury-minded self to this size max, and found that I love it. I shed from 50 lbs to 35 on my average multi-day treks, so stage 1 is complete. I'll probably stop here because I'm satisfied; I have tried true ultralight packs, but my back hurt....the Osprey hip belt and frame feels like orthopedic supports - takes less energy for me to use...

There is a sleeping bag zip on the bottom but I use it for varying purposes depending on weather and my intent. rain gear is at the top of pack or on outside with my water filter. Tent is on outside bottom or middle, usually, thought I can fit it in the pack. As with the others, I want my tent accessible without having to unpack anything.

Truth is, I rarely use the bottom zipper; I seem to keep things better organized by going in through the top. The top compartment keeps things I use on the trail, like lunch, small hygiene items, map and compass, leatherman. I use the hydration compartment for water. I have my fuel bottle in a side pocket, and there's one use for the bottom compartment, a cook pot with stove and tea bags. I can stop trail-side and heat up some beverage or soup without unpacking the pack except for the compartment at the bottom. Still, I find I don't do that often because I focus on walking and prefer just water and trailmix snacks during the day; don't like being too fussy.

I've used an Osprey 44 for quite a few of 1-3 nighters now, it's a top loader but it's got a bottom zipper too, so I pack my tent/tarp in the bottom so I can get them out fast in case of rain.

I like the bottom zipper. It's nice to be able to get my tent or tarp out first when I'm setting up camp, even when it's not raining. Without it, I might consider putting my tarp or tent on top if there were a good chance of rain.

I'll get into my pack several times a day before setting up camp, so I try to keep the things I need most near the top, but it seems I always end up digging for something I buried in the pack. I haven't found any way around it so I just don't fret about it anymore.

as others have pointed out, having top loading isn't a big deal. Like OregonMouse everything comes out of my pack at night. Things I will need during the day are in the external pockets. What's at the bottom of the pack (sleeping mat and bag) are the last things I need in the evening.

That said, there are some ultralight packs that are panel loaders. Six Moon Designs sells a couple and I think there are a few other companies, but I can't remember who off the top of my head.

--Mark

+1 to all the others. You need everything in camp anyway (since you're not carrying a bunch of superfluous stuff). About the only time I wouldn't put my bag in the bottom is if I knew I'd be trying to dry it some during the day, but I haven't had to do that yet.