Tottering Under The Pack

Sunday, June 17, 2007 saw Glen and I traipsing off to our second travel gear shopping expedition. As neither my husband nor I are especially enthusiastic shoppers, we have already decided to take our time with buying gear. Items will be researched, tried on multiple times, and reviewed with an eye not just for reasonability of price but also for suitability, serviceability, and projected usefulness.

The current focus of our shopping expeditions is the hunt for The Pack. The Pack is that almighty piece of necessary luggage, the shell in which backpackers turtle their precious few belongings from one destination to another. While I did not expect to find an idea Pack on the first shopping expedition, I didn’t think that there would be so much variation and so much aggravation involved in trying to find one.

There are men’s backpacks and women’s backpacks, day packs and expedition packs and alpine packs and travel packs and hydration packs and book packs. There are cheap packs and expensive packs. There are internal frame packs, external frame packs, soft frame packs, hard frame packs, and frameless packs. Presumably, there is a pack out there that will fit me, and one to fit Glen. Finding them, however, is proving to be something of an experience.

We have been focussing our initial searches around Mountain Equipment Co-Op, a Canadian travel and sports gear shop that is more commonly and fondly known as MEC. Glen and I like the store, their product, and their business policies, so we have been looking forward to getting the majority of our gear there. We also like the fact that there are travel-wise store people wandering around in there who are able to give you advice on topics such as pack fitting.

The first time we went in, bright eyed and bushy-tailed, we centered our search entirely around the expedition pack section, anticipating being won over by the robust suspension systems and dense strap padding. Glen tried on many men’s and unisex packs, while I tried on packs exclusively on the ‘Women’s’ wall. I’m not thrilled to report that there was not a great deal of selection, but to be perfectly fair, there are not a great number of packs manufactured specifically for women.
Let me tell you, ladies, that the make of the shoulder straps on the women’s packs is sheer genius. They come in far enough to give you a snug fit, accommodate shoulders that are usually not as broad as our masculine brethren, and manage to swoop away cleverly at the boob area, giving our girls some space instead of mashing them into uncomfortable new forms. I shall admit, however, that I was not entirely thrilled with the price tag attached to them. It appears that wedding merchandise and women’s pack manufacturers share the same belief that it is acceptable to jack the price up considerably merely because of the specialness of the product. Be that as it may, I am certainly keeping women’s packs in mind on our hunt; I’m just hoping that I can find something that more approaches the cost-effectiveness of the men’s packs.

Alas, there was nary a women’s pack that seemed to fit. Glen was having better luck in the men’s and unisex packs, and I tried on a few of his as well, but the shoulder straps were invariably quite uncomfortable, even with unloaded bags. Eventually one of the shop people found their way over to us – we had been trying packs on for some time – and offered some assistance. He didn’t seem particularly interested or knowledgeable, though, and while some of the advice was good, his suggested packs weren’t exactly what we were looking for.

We decided to load up the two packs he eventually recommended for us with weight sacks and lugged them around the store for a while. This was fun enough on it’s own: MEC has a big bin with bags of varying poundage available for loading packs with, as it is much more realistic to fit a weight-bearing pack than an empty one. Of course, once the pack is loaded up, one’s centre of gravity seems to shift dramatically. Glen took immediate advantage of this and started spinning me around by the pack itself. As I am a naturally clumsy person, I nearly spun right into a rack of packs, but managed to recover. We then spend a few minutes tussling with each other’s packs and trying to use our newly enhanced weight to shove the other off balance.

By the time we stopped our in-store wrestling match and meandered, packs still on backs, over to the shoe section to find Glen a good pair of light hiking shoes, I noticed that it felt as though I had to duck my butt out a considerable degree to support my pack. As I have no intention of wandering around New Zealand sway-backed for twelve months, I groused to Glen about this newfound discomfort. The staff woman manning the shoe section happened to be an avid backpacker, and after showing Glen her shoe recommendations, took us over to a mirror and gave a much more thorough type of pack fitting than her colleague had. After pronouncing Glen’s pack to be well fitted, she looked at mine and tutted reproachfully, then stuck her entire arm in the gap between the pack and the small of my back.

“See this?” she demanded, withdrawing and then re-inserting her arm into the pack-gap several more times. “This is bad! This bag does not fit!” I bit down the urge to reply “Bad! Bad Pack!”

Needless to say, I was quite pleased at having my complaints confirmed by someone who knew what they were talking about. Glen and I finished our pack hunt there for the evening, as I was rapidly getting frustrated at not finding a women’s pack that fit and at having been told that I fit a pack that was so clearly not at all suitable for me. We got several pack recommendations from the shoe lady, got her name for future reference and consultation, and went home.

When we returned again on June 17th, the lady who helped us on our previous trip wasn’t there, but a fellow that Glen’s father recommended as the almighty pack guru was. As our actual intent for this particular trip was getting the shoes that Glen had found on his last visit, we got the shoes first before returning to the Pack Hunt. This time, we looked at the travel packs, while the Guru helped out another couple fit some packs. Again, we went through the loading and toting process.

If I was a more self-conscious person, I would undoubtedly be rather embarrassed by my inability to put on a loaded backpack without some kind of full production. I mentioned earlier that I’m quite uncoordinated, and it is here that it comes through in public demonstration. My attempts to struggle to put a loaded pack onto my back looks something like this:

-Load 35 pounds into the bag (this is the most weight I think I should carry at any point on my trip)
-Attempt to heave pack one-handed onto left shoulder. Drop pack.
-Attempt to heave pack two-handed onto left shoulder. Drop pack.
-Squat down, attempt to put pack onto back in a kneeling position. Drop pack, fall over.
-Rotate squatting position slightly, try again. Lose balance, fall over.
-Pick up pack and place onto the weight back bin, attempt to put left arm through while swinging pack onto back.
-Get arm trapped in the shoulder strap in a chicken-wing position, wedged firmly between the pack and my own body. Squawk in alarm while attempting to heave the pack off my shoulder and back onto the floor.
-Get Glen to hold up the back while I stick both arms through at once. Success!

It isn’t that I’m incapable of lifting 35 pounds. I am actually quite strong and can comfortably toss around a good bit of weight fairly easily. It is that lifting the pack and putting it on in one motion requires a degree of co-ordination that I simply do not possess. It is this inherent clumsiness that once caused me to noose myself in a seatbelt while exiting the back of a car, and it is why it is so much easier just to get Glen to hold up the back while I put the pack on. The Pack Guru did give his customers a demonstration on how to properly put a pack on, and I watched intently. It involves hoisting the pack by the shoulder straps with both hands onto your knee, and then using the knee to support the pack while you sling it onto one shoulder, then putting the free arm through the other strap. I will definitely give it a try, although I suspect that I might chicken-wing myself on the attempt.

After much waiting, the Pack Guru was still occupied with his current customers, and we decided to call it a day. I may have found a pack that fits, the MEC Pangea 60 Travel Pack, which comes complete with zip-away daypack, a feature I really like. Glen found a couple other travel packs that he rather liked. Hopefully, the next time we go back, we can grab hold of the Pack Guru and acquire his pack-fitting wisdom.

For the curious, here is MEC’s advice on Choosing A Backpack, as well as Fitting Your Backpack and for my fellow females, Fitting Packs for Women.