Durston Wapta 30

I love my Kakwa 55. My base weight is 12.5 pounds but a long water and food carry may boost that to 22-26 pounds. I can get my gear in a Kakwa 40 but for the few ounce penalty went with the 55. Just love the thinking in this WAPTA. For those who have gone frameless (I have never) what’s the biggest adjustment I will have to make to thru-hike with this pack? Can I count on the Hip belt to take much (any) weight? Can my packing strategy help much? Should I just wait for a WAPTA-like Kakwa? Love to hear from someone who has made the change tp frameless. Thanks, GREG

“Can I count on the Hip belt to take much (any) weight?”

that’s an excellent question. I’m one of those who need weight off my shoulders and onto my hips. For that to happen, some sort of frame is required, in my experience. But I’ll stipulate that my experience with frameless packs is limited. I could never get one to work! Moreover, if taking weight off shoulders and onto the hips is important for you, then a well padded hip belt, or anyway a very functional and comfortable hip belt, is also important. You can still get pretty light packs that meet all of these criteria. I’d rather leave behind a couple of candy bars to compensate for the extra weight of a framed pack, if it comes to that.

Dan,  I appreciate the time it took to reply. My base weight is 12.5 lbs. For the PCT there will be days with a very heavy water carry but not more than a handful. First day out of town, maybe 4-7 pounds of food. So for the majority of time~ that’s under 21 lbs. I’ll brush up on packing strategies, although I normally pack tightly already. Two more questions: BearVault will fit vertically? or outside? I am assuming outside given the overall pack volume. Finally, a thought question: I am imagining a properly packed WAPTA30 with the belt properly tightened around my hips. As I loosen the shoulder straps, doesn’t that force more weight transfer to the hips? Or does the bag just keep dropping lower than the belt, maintaining the weight on my shoulders? I appreciate that you personally answered my questions; speaks volumes about your commitment. GREG

So my load out with 2.5 liters and 5 days of food (8.5 lbs) is 22.5 lbs. With a frameless pack, there are 3 options:

a) carry entire 22.5 lbs on your shoulders

b) carry 2.5 lbs in a fanny pack and 20 lbs on shoulders

c) carry 4.5 lbs in hip + fanny packs and 18 lbs on shoulders – you can go higher than 4.5 lbs I feel and I will experiment more on this. You will run of small volume things to keep in these hip/fanny packs soon. I keep electronics, tent stakes, water filtration, spoon, first aid kit, rain gear, day’s food/snacks etc distributed amongst the 3 hip+fanny packs.

I have done all 3 and of course love “c” a lot. I don’t have specific hip packs per se…but, I just have 3 fanny packs where 2 of them act like hip packs and the third one as a traditional fanny pack.

It seems like there is a point at which you will feel like you have lot less fatigue and are able to travel faster with lower heart rate etc as you keep reducing load on shoulders. Increasing load around your waist doesn’t seem to impede speed or discomfort etc. 4.6 lbs on hips/waist etc is a very small amount. Of course, the limit around discomfort etc will vary from person to person. You will have to experiment to see what that limit works for you.

I don’t use waist belt or sternum strap or any virtual frame etc. I actually like the load to be loosely packed so that it can mould to my back better. My current favourite pack is GG Murmur. I used to think I needed a burly pack all the time – but, after using Murmur for training for 300+ miles – I have changed my mind and am happy with this pack. I actually love the thin shoulder straps with no foam..it seems like it moves with my shoulders rather than thick shoulder straps that restrict some movement compared to these thin straps. I still have my trusty MLD Prophet for bear can carries (Bearikade Blazer) etc. I need to figure out how to carry a bear canister in GG Murmur. Most likely get a BV450 or something like that or keep the Blazer empty outside the Murmur.

Anyways my 2 cents for using a frameless pack. I guess experiment and see what you can move off of your shoulders.

Yes – 3 fanny packs with 3 different belts. I started with one fanny pack on the hip. It started moving towards the center tummy area. I had to keep moving it back to the side. When I had 2 fanny packs as hip packs, one fanny pack which is first fanny pack stopped moving while the second one kept moving. So, the center fanny pack keeps the two hip packs from moving towards the center. Also the center fanny pack is the last one and this one stays a little higher – so no interference with crotch etc so it actually is good while climbing steps etc.

I also keep my phone in one cargo pocket of pants while Inreach mini is another cargo pant pocket. I also keep NUUN tablets with some candy etc in a smelly proof pack in my pant pockets for easy access. Another pant pocket will have my wind jacket – Zpacks one which folds down nicely.

I have realized divide and conquer concept is a great way to distribute weight all over the body. If your frameless pack rides high, then you could even have a fanny pack with two water bottles on your lumbar area. Mine is not that short…so, I cannot do that. But, I have thought about that. Sierra Designs makes a flex pack with water bottle holders on the side for lumbar carry or front fanny pack carry.

I dunno. Three fanny packs to enable you to carry a frameless pack seems…fiddly.

Having to carry a bear canister is one reason I could never get a frameless pack to work. One of several.

I do use a fanny pack turned around onto my stomach below my framed pack hip belt. I use it to carry lunch, map, and a Steripen for easy access. It’s more for easy access than getting weight out of my pack. I have all my food in a canister, except the cold lunch I carry in the fanny pack. I don’t want to have to dig out the canister to get lunch. Or necessarily take off my pack to reach my steripen, although I usually do.

Running vest straps would be cool. Maybe one day but we just started shipping out the regular version a few days ago. You can add multiple sternum straps to the regular version, but not dual attachments for the shoulder straps (although I wouldn’t be surprised if someone can rig something up with those unique side daisy chains). The shoulder strap pocket are larger on the Wapta and might fit a slim 750 ml (e.g. Smartwater) but 500ml is probably better suited. The primary purpose of those pockets is a phone.

Here’s the pack with the hipbelt removed, and then for the second strap you could tie something (perhaps using shockcord) to the nearby laser cut daisy chain (orange line). That would work, but would pull the flap the wrong way, so it would be a bit unsightly. Better would be to connect to the far daisy chain (red line).

One other wild idea would be to connect to the cord lock at the back cord of the side pocket. You could disconnect the side pocket elastic (tie it to a fixed length) and then run the extra strap through this cordlock. The cordlock is sewn to the pack with a loop. That may work but might slip at higher loads.

Lastly, you could use that built in webbing adjuster on the sides. Tie the end of the skinny webbing to the tip of the shoulder strap (pink line), and then use that adjuster to cinch it.

The lightest current weight is 52 g/m2 whereas a typical silpoly is about 45 g/m2, so it’s not way off but it’s also unnecessarily strong and would be better to have a lighter option. We don’t have something like that now but I hope they will consider developing it, as they do have some neat technology.

My Walt’s showed up today. Feels pretty amazing so far. Going to take it out next week for an early season overnight in the Sierras.