Aarn Pack Users: What do you think of your pack?

[Onemorehill]

I really appreciate all of you posting very detailed and reasoned opinions and reviews. This is tremendously helpful to me. Thank you.

[Tipi Walter]

Tipi, What are those staffs. Is your friend preparing for some spear hunting?

He had a strange attachment to those long poles.

[rocketsocks]

Pool cue's make great hikin' sticks, the balance is damn near perfect imo, doubles as a good thumper too.

[Wyoming]

Depends on what you mean by "lots". Look at all the manufacturers (big and small) and you'll see its a minority. (You even said you had to have them installed on your Zpacks pack - apparently it wasn't designed as one of the lots of packs you referred to.) Furthermore, a couple of water bottle pockets are hardly the same as those ridiculous bags on the front of the Aarn - a water bottle is an accessory while the Aarn design calls for the heaviest items (not accessories) to be carried on the front straps - hence the stays. That design just looks overengineered to solve a non-problem. No wonder Aarn didn't make it even as a niche product in the US market. Sort of like driving a Peugeot when they were still in the US market - you'll be one of the few, but the car basically sucks.

Yup it does depend on what I mean by 'lots'.

For grins I looked up Zpacks, Granite Gear, ULA, Gregory, Gossamer Gear and HMG packs and all of them have optional front pockets which can serve the purpose of weight balancing. Plus I looked up trail running packs and all the brands I looked at had models with front pockets. Aarn surely has taken this idea to a level of engineering beyond what others have so far. Those who have tried the Aarn packs seem pretty positive on how well they work. If one looks at pack options over the last 20 years there has been a lot of innovation and this ability to load balance is just one of them.

With the Aarn pack I sometimes had 4 liters of water in the front pockets as we were doing very long water hauls of up to 30 miles. Moving as much as 9-10 lbs of food and water to the front of the pack makes a huge difference in how the pack carries. While the optional pockets of the Zpack are not all that large I can get 2 700 ml smart bottles in them as well as about 6 energy bars. It makes difference. And due to the design of the Zpack's load lifters I can get all the weight of the pack off my shoulders and thus the weight in the front pockets is truly counterbalancing. I am thinking of asking Zpacks to make me a front pocket which will hold a full liter bottle. One very nice feature of this arrangement is that one can go much longer between stops as one has lots of food and water accessible while walking.

[rocketsocks]

I've never seen a pack like the one shone in Colin Fletcher's book "the complete walker" where it has packs on you front and back hooked to what looks like a boat ladder frame...always wondered how tha'd carry, I'd imagine it works great, kinda supprised it never caught on.

[Cheyou]

He may use the long poles to cast spells. His name is medicine man ;0)

[Joanie]

Hi onemorehill,

I use an aarn pack and I love it. I have problems with my knees and back and this (plus zero rise shoes) have solved the problems. I previously used an osprey, which I liked, but after about a week of hiking I would have to get off the trail. Once my knees were so swollen, I was laid up for weeks and it was about a month before the swelling went down. I have hiked 300 miles at a time with the aarn, and could have kept going, if time had permitted. The concept works perfect for me. As previously noted, they are a little more complicated to take on and off, but the fact is I don't need to or even want to as much because it is so balanced I hardly notice it. With my other packs, I couldn't wait to rest and remove the pack at regular intervals. Not the case with the aarn. I have over 1200 on mine and it is holding up well. I hiked a few weeks in March and it was cold, so I was carrying much more weight than usual, about 44 pounds. (I usually carry about 35). I could never carry that much weight with a traditional pack. (And I don't recommend it). But it was tolerable with the aarn. Hope this helps.

[scooterdogma]

Another consideration about the AARN packs is whithin this notice I sent to Dana(the guy who used to sell AARN packs;

Hey Dana, just thought ya might like to know about the last pack you sent me, the Featherlight Freedom. I took it out on the Sheltowee Trace in KY for a weekend backpacking trip. The heavens opened up the first night and made all the creeks very fast and wide. We came to one such crossing and the pack was easy to ford the water with, my balance was perfect. The trail followed the rain swollen creek for about a mile. At one point, we came to a landslide over the trail. Picture the cliff wall sliding into the fast moving water of the creek. The slide was enormous and fresh, I think the heavy rains from the previous night caused the cliff to give way. I'm talking boulders the size of mini-coopers. Sharp shale and everything else mother nature could cough up. We had to take our packs off and throw them ahead of us as the passage between the big boulders was to much of a squeeze to make it through with the packs on our persons. At one point I made a bad throw and my AARN pack didn't land on the small ledge I was aiming at, the pack hit the shale and rolled into the raging river and floated into a curve of fallen trees from the landslide. It remaining floating and bobbing until I could reach it and pull it out of the river. We, finally, came to the end of the scramble and I checked myself and the AARN Pack. I had a bloody scrape from my thigh to my shin. The AARN didn't have a scrape on it AND all my stuff was as dry as when I packed it. Amazing pack!

I don't have a pic of the pack or landslide, because of after 45 minutes of sliding, scrambling and chasing packs, I could only think of cleaning up my leg

Attached Thumbnails

[Onemorehill]

Another consideration about the AARN packs is whithin this notice I sent to Dana(the guy who used to sell AARN packs;

Hey Dana, just thought ya might like to know about the last pack you sent me, the Featherlight Freedom. I took it out on the Sheltowee Trace in KY for a weekend backpacking trip. The heavens opened up the first night and made all the creeks very fast and wide. We came to one such crossing and the pack was easy to ford the water with, my balance was perfect. The trail followed the rain swollen creek for about a mile. At one point, we came to a landslide over the trail. Picture the cliff wall sliding into the fast moving water of the creek. The slide was enormous and fresh, I think the heavy rains from the previous night caused the cliff to give way. I'm talking boulders the size of mini-coopers. Sharp shale and everything else mother nature could cough up. We had to take our packs off and throw them ahead of us as the passage between the big boulders was to much of a squeeze to make it through with the packs on our persons. At one point I made a bad throw and my AARN pack didn't land on the small ledge I was aiming at, the pack hit the shale and rolled into the raging river and floated into a curve of fallen trees from the landslide. It remaining floating and bobbing until I could reach it and pull it out of the river. We, finally, came to the end of the scramble and I checked myself and the AARN Pack. I had a bloody scrape from my thigh to my shin. The AARN didn't have a scrape on it AND all my stuff was as dry as when I packed it. Amazing pack!

I don't have a pic of the pack or landslide, because of after 45 minutes of sliding, scrambling and chasing packs, I could only think of cleaning up my leg

Scooterdogma, you had quite a day that day! I admire your fortitude. Thank you for your Aarn story.