Graham Thompson
Some rucksacks are heavy and cumbersome, while others are a joy to wear. Trail’s testing team headed for the hills with a bunch of 30-40 litre rucksacks to find the very best ones for you.
heads into the Lakeland fells to find out which is the best mountain walking rucksack for you
Ihave a love-hate relationship with gravity. On the positive side, gravity pulls our feet firmly to the ground, keeping us glued to the hill under our feet. On the negative side, gravity can cause us to fall off the mountain if we trip or lose grip of a handhold.
Gravity also drags down every item we wear and carry, including, of course, the all-important rucksacks on our backs. So finding the right pack for your walk, the one that strikes the perfect balance between function and comfort, is hugely important. Get the balance right and the rucksack almost floats with our bodies and is much more of a help than a hindrance. Get it wrong and the rucksack is a burden, dragging our bodies to the ground, so that discomfort overwhelms us as we struggle to beat the pull of gravity and reach new heights on the mountain.
So hillwalkers clearly need the right rucksack! Trail headed to the Lakes to find out which packs you should be spending your money on this year.
Where kit for the hills is concerned, rucksacks are in a unique position, as their requirement is measured primarily by what other equipment we need (waterproofs, food, water and spare warm clothing etc) rather than their own particular style, features or benefits.
It is perhaps no surprise, then, to find that choosing just the right rucksack for a hillwalker who heads to the summits in a wide range of situations and conditions is no easy task. What may be right for one situation may well be found wanting in another...
So before choosing a rucksack, we first need to have a good idea of the destinations we are heading for, the gear we want to carry and the features of a rucksack that are going to be important when managing all these demands.
EssEntial fEaturEs
Rucksacks in the 30-40 litre range are ideal for hillwalking in most conditions, as they have enough capacity for summer but more importantly they also have enough capacity to carry all you’d need for a winter trip to the mountain tops in pretty foul conditions.
They’re also great for any time when you need a little more capacity. Like when tackling more demanding trips that may require extra equipment to remain safe, such as in summer or winter when scrambling or mountaineering, or when you need extra water or provisions for longer trips. You can even bivvy overnight with a 40-litre rucksack. So this capacity really does have a broad range of abilities, so for many people it will be the only rucksack they need to explore the hills of the UK throughout the year.
fit & comfort
A rucksack is only going to be a joy to use if it’s comfortable, and that means it has to fit well. So we used three testers of different sizes and shapes (myself, fell top assessor Jon Bennett, and outdoor instructor Anna Humphries), and a bevy of adjustable and non-adjustable rucksacks to assess their fit and comfort for a range of user preferences.
Some rucksacks have more airflow across the back to reduce the build-up of sweat in warm weather, while others sit closer to the back so they have less airflow but offer the closer and more stable fit necessary when scrambling.
Packing in thE gEar
In order to assess how well each ’sack will carry your gear, we had each tester pack the rucksacks with their normal gear but also consider how others would use the facilities of the rucksack, such as its pockets for their varied gear choices.
It is relatively easy to build a rucksack that provides all we need on the hills, but that’s no good if we can’t operate its zips and buckles when it really matters. So our testers also used gloved hands when they dipped in and out of the rucksacks to fetch gear such as food, water and waterproofs.
But importantly we also used the rucksacks for some scrambling and sitting as well as basic walking, as it is on these occasions when things need to perform well too. For example, how easily can a pair of trekking poles be stowed to the side when not in use during a scramble? Can food items be readily accessed? Where can wet waterproofs be stored so the main gear stays dry but the waterproofs are easily accessible when needed? It’s only by taking the rucksacks out in a range of conditions with a range of user needs that these details of the design can be fully explored.
thE tEst
For this feature, testers Jon and Anna joined me on the Coniston Fells during a typically misty, cloudy wet and windy Lakeland day. The conditions proved perfect for testing how these rucksacks would perform. The team had to access gear such as waterproofs throughout the day, as the weather changed regularly. As it was wet, windy and cloudy, gloves were also worn, and there was a need to check the map along the way to assess progress and the best routes as the mist swirled around the tops.
There is perhaps no finer place to test how well a rucksack can perform when its contents need to be dry and well protected, while its carrier defies gravity and reaches the high tops to enjoy the views – sadly hidden by mist on this occasion!