I'm going on an overnight Wednesday with bigfoot. We're going to about 5,000' elevation in the Cascades. BF says it'll be 50 at night, so I have a WM Iroquois sleeping bag and a down jacket. I'm sure it'll be closer to freezing so I'm also taking long underwear and a poncho and gloves. I have a miniature 1 pound tent and a 6 ounce screen house, a miniature titanium alcohol stove and two small titanium pans, one is used as a cup and bowl and for heating food, the other is kept just for heating water. I was able to cram it all into my Golite Rayway pack. Only there wasn't room for my camera and I had only a tiny space left for food.

The pack weighs exactly 13 pounds and has everything but food and water, for an overnight. It has no waist belt and it is as overstuffed as a sausage and it is definitely uncomfortable on my back (the pack against my back is rounded, not flat, because its stuffed too tightly)and I have some concern about gear falling out.


So I dumped the same gear into my Kelty Cloud pack. This now weighs 14.5 pounds, (1.5 pounds more) has a real waist band, is soft and comfortable on my pack, and the gear is inside the pack, protected, where it belongs. There is room for my camera and food in a separate top pocket. Should I have to carry something else out, I have room for it. This pack is collapsed, if I filled it up it would be a foot taller.

The reason for this post is to demonstrate that super tiny packs are not cool (The bees knees), or even very useful unless you carry really small gear thats highly compressed. The weight of all those stuff sacks adds up quickly. And oh yes, that waist band on the Kelty weighs 10 of the extra 24 ounces, and it comes off if I want because its modular. If I removed it, the total would be13 pounds 14 oz, 14 oz more than the Golite.
Jim