I was doing some tweaking with my gear lists. Just to set the scene... I live in Bend yes as most of you already know, in the cascades in Oregon. It can go from 90 to 32 in the same day at 6,000 feet here, and hail too.

I do have a 14 ounce Golite Rayway pack. If I pack as light as I am willing to for 2 day hike over night, I come up with 16 pounds With 2.5 pounds of food and 24 oz water. Granted I have a 27 ounce down air mattress/boat, a water filter and a compressed gas stove.

The reason I posted this is just to demonstrate something. I know this area, I have a huge amount of gear to choose from, and still my realistic trailhead weight of my pack would be 16 pounds for an extended overnight with two days worth of food, into the mountains here.

Ok, I have another pack which is pretty special but the point is, my big pack weighs 15 ounces more than the Golite and holds maybe 3+ times as much stuff. If I take the bigger pack I don't have to stuff my down bag of down coat, and I can take down pants too and it all goes into the big pack saving the weight of the stuff sacks. Its nice to just be able to pull out a down jacket when you're cold, and not have to unstuff it and reloft it before putting it on. I am a fan of large light weight packs. If my wife goes BPing with me, its easy to carry all of our combined gear in a 6500 cubic inch pack.

You should plan appropriately.
Jim