Adventure bags or backpacks are as personal and accessory as a pair of shoes or trekking pants. Basic rule for choosing your backpack: it must suit YOU, adapt to your morphology, your habits and your desires. Buy the best backpacks from Needtounplug or Amazon at affordable prices. It then remains to find the right settings that will allow you to wear … light!
Table of Contents
Straps
Placed on the top of the shoulder straps, the load return straps will allow you to modify the distance between your pack and your back. By playing on them regularly, they will relieve your shoulders or lower back by shifting the center of gravity of your bag. The chest strap relieves your back, especially as your bag is heavy. It will be appreciated in particular on the descent where you must become one with your bag. Equipping the vast majority of daypacks, compression straps allow the load to be compacted to make it more uniform. Note that many manufacturers opt, for their small volume bags, for rapid front compression systems consisting of an elastic cord with self-locking. In the end, the gesture is only simpler.
The back
Typically, the two main factors to be considered for the comfort of wearing a bag are the length of the back and that of the shoulder straps. We can tie knots in the brain and make endless marketing distinctions between bags for women, men, teenagers, salon geek and velociraptor, but in concrete terms it is above all a question of size. The taller you are, the longer the back of the bag must be … what a scoop! In fact, it’s the distance from the top of your iliac crests to the tips of your collarbones that matters. Some bags are adjustable. Others come in several sizes. To choose well or to regulate according to the case.
The belt
To be able to be properly adjusted, a bag must be adapted to the morphology of the wearer. A well-adjusted and well-adjustable bag will be able either to rest 90% on the hips through the belt, or to be stuck very closely to the wearer to form one body with him, to avoid “tossing” and unbalancing him in more passages. techniques. In this case, it will rest more or less evenly all over the body, 50% on the hips, 50% on the shoulders, being well glued to the back.
Foam, frame and net
Foam back: fairly comfortable and light, this system is generally reserved for small-volume bags since it shows great flexibility, but is almost ineffective in terms of ventilation at the back.
The foam and frame back: the foam provides comfort while the frame stiffens the bag, which keeps it at a certain distance from the back. The air circulation corridors thus created are more or less wide and allow excellent ventilation, necessary in trekking.
The suspended mesh back: always mounted on a frame, this is certainly the solution offering the highest level of ventilation. The comfort is also appreciable.
Thermo-molded back: a back plate with grooves and perforations wicks away perspiration.
Straps
The stronger you are, the longer the straps should be. Indeed, the thickness of the shoulders makes some straps too short for large sizes, or too long and impossible to adjust properly for the thinner. Be careful to have room for warm clothes, or for the day when your bag will be archiplein … this affects the occupation of space inside the harness.
Volume
A very telling saying of “MUL” (ultralight walkers) is “we carry our fear”. Many people have bags full of items that serve to reassure them. Others have dangerously small and light bags, proud of their hyper-confidence. In all cases, you will choose your bag according to the material chosen for a trip or a trekking project, and not the other way around.
Pockets
Fifty years ago, a mountain bag was a big, sturdy “tube” with, possibly, a pocket flap. The bags have gradually evolved to increase the number of compartments and sometimes obscure accessories. Let’s keep it simple and prefer robust sobriety to gadgets and multiple compartments. Especially since it is possible to subdivide more freely your material when it is organized in independent pockets; which allows quick access to a specific object: a “food” pocket, a “coffee” pocket, a hygiene kit , a first aid kit, etc. These various pouches will then be stored in the bag in the reverse order of use. A few pockets making it easier to access the more frequently used content are still useful. Typically:
6 tips for adjusting your backpack:
- Loosen all the settings of the bag.
- Identify its iliac crests (see diagram).
- Fasten and tighten the belt above the iliac crest: the bag must fit without the shoulder straps!
- Adjust the length of the straps until they touch the shoulders without crushing them: you should be able to pass a hand under them.
- Maintain the charge reminders to properly stick the bag to the back.
- Adjust the length of the back correctly (sometimes requires a few tries).
