Backpack Suggestions?

Hi,

I am going to be backpacking around South America later this year and am trying to decide on what backpack to buy. I am female and of a slight build, 5ft 5 and 47kg in weight, small shoulders, waist and back. I have also had a few small back problems in the past so need something that will give me the best support possible.

Any suggestions?

Thankyou.

There are many threads on here devoted to newcomers asking for pack advice. The answer is consistent. The first thing you need to do is get together everything you intend to carry and determine how much volume you need and how much weight will be in it. Without that information, you're bound to wind up with too much or too little pack.

That said, I would point you to ULA (Ultra Light Adventures) once you know what you need. Luxury Lite might be another good option for you, you can customize it for your needs. Not sure how well it will do on an airplane or a train, though.

Paddy is right. There are many threads here that answer the same or similar qiestion. Use the searh function to find them.

Some manufacturers make packs specifically for women. Granite Gear is one of them.

One caveat-if by backpacking, you mean traveling with a backpack, as opposed to hiking, I would stay away from ultralight packs-they are not made to take the abuse of being tossed around by baggage handlers, shoved into trunks or luggage compartments on buses and trains or run through airline carousels. Packs made out of Cordura will last a lot longer than silnylon.

For airline travel, get yourself a cheap, lightweight duffle bag to hold the pack-this will protect the straps from being ripped off or damages. Consider this bag to be expendable.

LL has its fans, but external frame packs are likely to get damaged in transit because the frame can easily get caught on something.

Yes, second on that. When I take silnylon stuff on an airplane I either carry it on or put it inside a hockey bag to get it there.

OTOH, I'm taking a trip to Japan in a month, and my better half is going with me, knowing we'll be walking and taking trains everywhere, I know I was gonna take a backpack and she decided she would. My wife doesn't backpack at all. However, we went into MEC and I went to the "travel packs" - the cordura types, some with wheels and some without. Attempting to put these on her with 7 kg of weight in them produced nothing but complaints about how uncomfortable they were, and she hated them. Similarly with many of the men's packs.
Finally I put a Gregory Jade 50 on her, and this she actually doesn't mind. So, while not an UL pack, the Jade 50 is acutally on the lighter end of things for mass market packs. and she doesn't mind carrying a (small) load in it. She also massively objected to the heavy "travel"
packs and wanted something lighter, and as it turns out, cut for women (duh).

The moral of the story is, figure out how much you're gonna carry, and try them on. everyone is different. There is no "best pack" - just because one pack works for me doesn't mean it will work for you.