Pack a Backpack So the Weight Disappears

The most common complaint on a first backpacking trip is shoulder pain, and the cause is almost never the total weight. It is that the load is sitting behind the body instead of above the hips. Fixing the load position and the belt costs nothing and changes more than a thousand dollars of lighter gear would.

How to do it

1. Put the heavy items high and against your spine

   Food bag, water and bear canister go close to your back, between the shoulder blades and the top of the hipbelt. Weight held away from your back levers you backwards and your shoulders fight it all day.

2. Sleeping bag and soft goods to the bottom

   The bottom of the pack is for light bulky things: sleeping bag, spare insulation. It creates the base and it takes no load.

3. Medium weight to the outside and top

   Tent, stove, cook kit. Keep the density near the spine and let the light stuff sit outward.

4. Load the belt, not the shoulders

   Loosen everything, put the pack on, set the hipbelt so it wraps the top of the iliac crest, that hard shelf of bone, not the soft waist above it. Tighten the belt firmly. Then snug the shoulder straps just enough to contact, then set the load lifters at roughly forty five degrees. Roughly eighty percent of the weight should be on your hips.

5. Get rid of the sway

   Anything that swings costs energy. Compression straps snug, nothing dangling off the outside, water bottles secured. A quiet pack is an efficient pack.

6. Do the driveway test

   Walk up and down the street loaded. Anything that annoys you in five minutes will be unbearable in five hours.

Where people go wrong

• Belt on the waist instead of the hip bones. The whole system depends on the belt sitting on bone.
• Heavy items low and far from the back. This is the classic cause of shoulder pain.
• Strapping gear all over the outside. Sway, snags and lost items.
• Adjusting the pack for the first time at the trailhead. Do it at home, loaded, with the food in it.