[pct-l] finalized total pack weight (hopefully)

[John Abela]

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 7:17 PM, Eric <johner27 at evergreen.edu> wrote:
> Ah, I see now. Any ideas as to how many liters though? Where will you carry
> them on the blast? It seems pretty minimal....?

Hey Eric,

The very very awesome thing about the ZPacks backpacks is you can
pretty much have as much, or as little, features as you want. Don't
want hip pockets, don't add it. Want a shoulder pocket, add it. I
cannot emphasizes how very very sweet is to be able to custom build
exactly the features you want on your backpack - rather than *every*
other company out there that forces you into set-features. Anyway... I
ordered mine with two side pouches and a shoulder pouch and even the
internal water pouch for a bag - even though I loath water bags
because I wanted to be sure I would have enough room for water. In the
end, I seriously over-killed I think. If you look at my gear list  (
http://bit.ly/h728GN ) you will see I do not have a whole lot of gear
and what I do have is pretty small. I will probably never fill up my
Blast 26 internal area, even with a Bearikade inside of it. So for me,
I do not see any issues with 'where to put water bottles at'. I have
never been on a hike with my Blast 26 where I had gear in my side
pouches, because everything I have fits inside of it. I do have one
shoulder pouch that holds the bottle of water I am drinking from.
(btw, what an amazing change to go from having water in side pouches
to on your front shoulder strap - an amazing change that I should have
made a couple years ago.) Joe wrote the following on his website and I
think he really nailed it with this statement, "This {blast 26} is the
size that I used on all three of my thru-hikes. I was generally able
to carry 4-5 days of food in addition to 5-6 lbs of gear and 1-4
liters of water. I've managed to carry up to 11 days of food with this
size pack by lashing lighter items to the outside of the pack. Note
that frameless packs can be uncomfortable with loads over 20lbs, but
once in a while is usually fine"

But as many others have said, this is not the pack for you unless you
have been able to get your gear list down into the sub-12 pound range,
preferably under 10 pounds. Can it hold more, yeah, sure, but this
pack was designed for UL use. I am actually really considering buying
the Blast 20 *without* side pockets and *without* the mesh center
pocket (instead I will have elastic straps on the back to hang cloths
on) which would put me at 1,500 cubic inches. I would also add two
shoulder pouches for water and the Carbon Fiber Stays (for those week
long hauls). I honestly do think this would be more than enough room
for the gear that I have. But again, a lot of my gear is really small
in size so that would allow me to get away with it. My present Blast
26 is not even half full with every single thing I carry inside of it
- with the exception of a bear canister.

So is it minimal? Hmm... yes and no. At 2600 cu in it has more room
than my HMG Windrider (probably my favorite all time backpack) which
bugs me. But with the gear I was using in 2009, it would have been
away to small to get all of my gear inside of it.

Anyway I do think there are some serious issues with were to carry
water for most folks with most gear lists and most packs. If you have
an already stuffed backpack than your going to face a really big
problem when you need those 4-5 liters of water. I do not want to make
it sound like I am some ultra hard core person - I am far from it. I
hike because I enjoy it and I am not out there to suffer or abuse
myself. If something is not good enough, or big enough, I am just not
going to use it. When hiking no longer is fun, seriously, what the
hell are we doing all of this for. So please understand Eric, the only
reason I am able to go with the light gear that I am able to go with
is because I have spent a fair amount of time screwing around with a
whole lot of gear (and spent one hell of a lot of money) in order to
find what makes me happy and what works. Sometimes I find myself being
pushed to the extreme when I should be comfortable - these are the
times when I get back to my home and go "hmm, I just *gotta* rethink
this". Usually that means I cut corners too soon in my learning
process and need to backup. There is no way I could hit the PCT trail
next week with the gear I have in my pack right now, if I had not
spent the last two years using gear, learning about new gear, new
techniques, and all of that stuff. I just do not get these guys out
there who decide two weeks before the KO that they are going to all of
a sudden go hike the PCT. Can they do it, sure. But that is just not
me. When my dad raised me around guns he taught me a lesson that I
have applied to the world of hiking... "never depend upon an untested
gun to save your life". To me, I believe the same thing in the world
of hiking gear... if I cannot use a piece of gear on a local trip for
50, sometimes a 100+ miles, there is just no way I am going to depend
upon that same piece of gear when I hit a long hike where I am far
away from home and really do need to depend on the gear in my
backpack.

I guess what I am saying here is, don't just go out and buy the ZPacks
Blast 26 because you think it might be able to save you a pound or two
of weight. When you know that you are at a point in your experience (I
have no idea what your experience is, so I am not questioning you
here, just a blanket statement).. but when you *know* your at a level
where you are reading to take on a pack designed for what this is...
well, go buy this bad boy because it freaking rocks!!

As for "how many liters"...

(1) If you are asking me how many liters I plan to carry... that is
not a question I can answer. If the Mojave is 115, well, as much as I
can. If I get lucky and the Mojave is 60 and raining, well, as little
as I have too ;)

(2) If you are asking me how many liters can I get inside of my Blast
26... I would say I could carry 7 total liters with the way I
configured mine. Two liters in a bag inside and five liters in
external pockets. (plus more if I were to throw full bags on the top
of my gear inside of the bag... but by than I would be wanting to kill
myself from having to carry 15+ pounds of water...)

Hope this email sort of answers your questions!

John Abela
www.RedwoodOutdoors.Com