Have A Fit

Have A Fit

Choosing By Size And Fit.

– Sizing: Tape your way to the truth. –

To use a pack you've got to fit a pack. To fit a pack you need to know where you fit in the scheme of things. Where you fit is where the tape measure says.

You may be big and tall, or short and small. You may be circumferentially imposing, or willowy yet pleasantly wiry. You might have a heavily muscled butt and thighs but pipe-cleaner arms, or arms like the Third Army but toothpick legs.

None of this gives us any clues. Too vague, like indecipherable thoughts from an undisciplined mind dreaming of improbable worlds.

Those seven league boots you once heard of - they might fit you, but the pack that goes with them? Maybe not. Granny's herb-gathering bag, on the other hand, might be just the right one for you, whether you like it or not. No way to tell, for sure, without getting out the tape and generating data. You might even get excited and work up a sweat.

So do it already.

Wayne Gregory (Ever hear of Gregory packs?) was supposedly the first to figure out a standard way to fit packs. Eventually people caught on. Now everyone uses one method, his, and here it is, complete with measuring tape...

First, get a flexible measuring tape, the kind used by tailors and anyone else who sews. This is made of cloth or flexible plastic so you can wrap it around waists and shoulders and thighs and drape it over whatever hills and valleys turn up, and generally allow it to go with the flow. This is option one.

Option two is for cheapskates, bachelors, and engineering types who don't see the value in buying something to use only once. Option two is a long piece of string. It works. Elderly bachelors and late bloomers sometimes know what they're talking about. You can even press used dental floss into service. Just when it's almost too frayed to use again, right before it whoofs out into a hopeless puff of fuzz.

Rinse it clean, let it dry, and boogie on.

– Like a voyage of discovery, but closer to your butt. –

The first step in finding out what size pack you need is to compute the length of your torso. In case you are wondering what the heck that might be, it's the part of you between your tail and your head, excluding your neck, any feelers or pincers, and your carapace, if you have one. (You shouldn't, if you're human, but it's OK if you're not. No biggie. You are also welcome. Just keep your nippers under control.)

Other definitions of torso have it extending lower, but those body parts aren't used in backpacking, and, hence, they do not count, here.

Torso? Done.

So then, measure already.

Start at the top (assuming that you are standing and your head is not up your butt). Tilt your head forward and use one hand to find the big bony lump where your neck meets your shoulders. This is the business end of the seventh cervical vertebra, which is technical medical language for the bony lump at the base of your neck. (But inside your skin. Keep that in mind. All bony parts should be on your inside and remain there at all times.)

So far, so good.

Continue.

Once you've found this lumpy spot, begin measuring. Whether you have a nice, smooth, professional looking tailor's tape made of high quality PVC-coated polyester fiber or a piece of string, the procedure is the same - start at the lump and work down.

It helps to have a partner for this, but it's probably not worth a long courtship, the agony of wedlock, and having Uncle Fred hanging around leering at you for reasons that never become clear. No need to get married for this.

A friend will do.

No friends? Rent one.

Or you can handle it yourself.

If you're a tough guy (women aren't likely to try this) you can anchor the top of the tape (or string if you really are that cheap) to the back of your spine with an ordinary thumb tack. Pushpins work too. If you are actually dumb enough to do this, though, you are on your own as far as infection and nasty complications that do or do not result in death.

Just to be clear about it.

So you have the top end covered. Now go long.

Run the tape down along your back as though you are putting masking tape on a window frame before painting it. You want to measure the whole length of what is actually there (you) without taking shortcuts, so run the tape over all the bumps and down into all the dips, keeping that tape in contact with your skin as you unroll it downward.

Your next question, and we can see this one approaching fast, is where to stop. Great question.

Stop when done.

Here is where planning helps. You plan so you know when you've measured enough. You plan so you don't go on and on and keep measuring down your whole backside, across the room, and out into the street.

You are done when: you are near but not on (or in) your butt.

– Anatomy counts, even yours. –

And how do you tell that?

Well...

It helps to know some of your own anatomy before getting involved in this, but don't fret. You can pick it up along the way. How? Put your hands on your hips. The soft stuff you feel is called love handles and we want you to keep them in reserve for later. Some time later. Probably very much later. Possibly decades from now. Also, your hands are too high. Go lower.

(Remember to wash your hands after this procedure.)

We are looking for a something, a place, a position, an essence, an underlying framework.

The fundamental you.

Imagine yourself a noble warrior of ancient Greece, all iron and bronze, muscle and bone. Skip the muscle and iron and bronze and so on. We want the bone. Go for bone. So then, Achilles, find the bony part on the top side of each hip. This is the part of you where your belt rests when your pants aren't falling down. This pants-up state is good for many reasons, all of which are irrelevant at the moment, so proceed to the next paragraph.

Hi.

Continue, please.

Having reached the bony parts of your hips you have found your iliac crest. Which is actually the top of your pelvis. OK, now, if you keep your hands there on your hips and point your two thumbs toward each other, horizontally, across the small of your back, the imaginary line connecting the tips of your thumbs will cross your spine.

The point where that imaginary horizontal line crosses your vertically-oriented lower spine is where you stop your downward measuring. If you are doing all this alone you can mark the spot with a piece of sticky tape, or a dab of all organic, non-toxic, pesticide-free, washable ink, or if you are tough but dumb, push in another thumb tack right there. (Or go get a tattoo).

So you now have a marked route, descending from the base of your neck and extending the full length of your back.

That distance, the one you want to measure, is between your seventh cervical vertebra and the top of your iliac crest. The measurement is a magic number that all pack makers use to size packs. If you were to become a pack maker you would have to know how to make packs based on this number (so your packs could come in various sizes to match actual people, who also come in various sizes), and of course you'd have to learn the secret handshake and the secret whistle, and how to make the secret-recipe french toast, but we can't cover those things here.

Despite all the measuring, each pack maker sizes packs a tad differently, which is why custom packs were invented. And cosmetic surgery. And God has a big hand to play in how your body turns out, and if not God, then The Giant Lizard Thing, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or someone else, like your parents. But here's roughly how it works most of the time:

Pack Size	Torso length (in.)	Torso length (cm)
Extra small	14 to 15.5	35.5 to 39
Small	16 to 17.5	41 to 44.5
Medium	18 to 20	46 to 51
Large	20 to 23	51 to 58
Scary big	above 23	Yikes!

Congratulations. You now have a torso length. Please continue to the next step.

– Put the lead in. –

For this next step, pack manufacturers recommend that the pack you try on has some weight in it. This makes sense. How much sense is up to you, depending on the size and use of the pack. Kelty says you should have 25 pounds in there, minimum, with 35 pounds being ideal. Those 11 to 16 kilograms of ballast are maybe not much if you are planning to use your pack to carry hardware for remodeling back country huts. Or something like that there.

But if you are a lightweight or ultralight backpacker these "minimal" to "ideal" weights might be overloads that a whip-wielding overlord would want you to haul, but that you wouldn't, given a choice. Something to keep in mind.

The suggested test weights for fitting a pack do vary by manufacturer, starting at 10 pounds and going up, with most manufacturers suggesting between 10 and 25 pounds (4.5 to 11.5 kg). Again, this is for traditional packs advertised for their magical properties which allow you to carry everything at once and not feel anything at all. For small, light packs, the bottom end of this range seems about right. Say around 10 pounds or 5 kg.

It's best if this weight acts something like the weight in a real pack. For example, if you want to fit a pack in a store, you can bring along a 10-pound bag of sugar but that is not very good. Neither is a 10-pound bag of salt, or a 10-pound bag of flour. Or any-sized sack of monkey chow. All of them will only sit in the bottom of the pack, in one hard lump, and give you an evil, unblinking stare with those tiny beady eyes of theirs. And even worse than that, each and every one of them will be a lump.

Better to at least roll up your monkey chow (if you insist on it) in a jacket or two, and stand this wad up vertically in the pack. Some outdoor shops have something like not-too-heavy weighted pillows so you can stuff a pack and more realistically spread the weight throughout it. Much better. Try something like that. Anything to avoid those beady eyes, right?

Right.

– Better packing through strapping. –

So there you are, freshly scrubbed and all shiny, having removed the washable ink spots or the thumb tacks or tattoo and having survived the massive infections, blood loss, hospitalization and so on. Now you know your torso length, have an actual pack on, are weighted down, and you want to complete the fitting process. Good for you.

Put your clothes on and loosen the pack's straps.

Do both. This is important.

Then put the pack back on. (Because it's easier to get out of those hospital clothes and into your own if you take the pack off first, so do that. But then you have to put the pack back on, so do that too, OK? And then loosen the straps.)

Shoulder straps adjust at their bottom ends. On about 98% of packs. Tighten them using whatever kind of adjusters they come with. If these straps are not padded along their full length then for comfort the padding should extend down at least one and a half hand widths (roughly five inches or 13 cm) below your armpits. The straps should be snug but comfortable, wrapping over your shoulders and around your torso. They should hold the pack bag snugly against your back.

Want more details? OK then. There are two ways the shoulder strap tops attach to pack bags.

Way the first: If this is an ultralight pack with relatively simple shoulder straps and no load lifters or anything, the straps are sewn directly into the pack bag near its top. The point where the straps attach to the pack should end up at or only a little above your shoulder level when the pack is fully loaded. That is, the straps go pretty much straight back from your shoulders and are sewn right into the pack right at that level.

Way the second: This is for fancier packs. If the shoulder straps attach to the pack bag behind you, down between your shoulder blades, then by definition the straps must attach to the pack below shoulder level. Two to three finger widths below shoulder level ought to be close. A bit more, maybe. Don't worry exactly where, just see if the pack feels right. This kind of pack will likely not be ultralight, but one made for heavier loads, and its shoulder straps will probably have load lifters, which we'll get to in a minute.

If the pack has no other straps then you are done, except for deciding if it feels right.

– Hafta test it! –

Here's how to check.

First, decide if it feels right. If so, you are done.

If it doesn't feel right, then try another pack. This works, eventually.

On the other hand, if the pack you're looking at has more straps to fiddle with, shoot for the hip belt next and leave the rest for later. If the hip belt is plain webbing (a waist belt), all you have to worry about is whether it is long enough to go around you and if there's enough extra hanging out each side to pull on when adjustment time comes around.

But things are hardly ever this simple, so let's see what we can work out.

In case your potential pack has a padded hip belt, you first need to know your size. Measure your waist right above the top of your pelvis (that darn ol' iliac crest again) and go with that. As a rough idea, try these size ranges:

Hip Belt Size	Your Waist Size
	(in.)	(cm)
Small	22 to 28	56 to 71
Medium	28 to 34	71 to 86
Large	34 and up	86 and up

If your pack does have a belt of some kind (either a hip belt or a waist belt), then put on the pack, click the buckle, snug up the belt, and see how it feels. The buckle ought to be at belly button height, and it ought to work smoothly and easily, and you should be able to center it.

If this is a true hip belt with padding and all, its bottom edge should be roughly one to one and a half finger widths above the top of your hip bones. You might need a friend to help you figure this out. Then evaluate how well the belt gets along with your body, which is the point.

Get that sorted out and then...raise one leg. (No, seriously.)

Raise one leg.

Make your thigh horizontal. Either hind leg works.

The top of your thigh should now be pretty well level with the bottom edge of the hip belt on that side. See how the hip belt feels. Raise the hip belt if you need to. Just see how it feels when you have that all sorted out.

While backpacking (and carrying real weight) the hip belt needs to just fit over the top of the pelvis and will press down over it. On fancier packs, the hip belt's top will sort of "lean in" or narrow a tiny bit too, like an inverted funnel. This helps generate comfy snuggliness. The weight in the pack will push the belt down and help to press it into place. The belt should not sit low. If it does sit too low, you will have to tighten it like crazy, trying to make it work, and that won't help much - the tightening will only put the muscles in your hips in a nasty vise-like grip, which does not work well at all. No, no, no.

It does not work well at all, so pay attention now.

If the hip belt fits properly it should straddle your iliac crest, with about equal overlap above and below that top-of-the-hip-bone level when the pack is fully loaded. Then, when you really tighten down the hip belt it will put most of the pressure onto your pelvic bones (not the muscles lower down).

And when you do that tightening, you should still have some free space on the front side of the hip belt, in the buckle area.

This means that the two padded halves of the belt do not quite bump up against each other. Measure the gap at the buckle and look for a minimum of three or four finger widths of slack. If the buckle is off center, you can fiddle with it to center it, and now is the time to work that out. Better now than three weeks from now when you're out on the trail somewhere and you discover that something is horribly wrong.

OK, slack.

If you have the loaded pack on, and have the hip belt cinched up and snug, and can still cinch the belt even tighter, then you are in good shape. There will be some days when you will do anything you can to get the hip belt tighter. It is much better to have a belt that looks somewhat too small for you (but actually isn't), and has lots of tightening leeway left in it.

Because.

What you can't do is tighten a belt that is too big. If the belt is too big, it is too big, and you will never get it tight no matter how hard you pull on it. But if the belt is just right, or even a little bit too small, and has leeway for adjustment, then you can both tighten it and loosen it as much as you need and still be in fine shape.

Be sure to check this.

And then, you know what?

Check it again.

In case the above wording is not clear, here's another way of saying it. Ready?

A hip belt has two sections.

• Fixed
• Adjustable

The fixed part (the part with the padding and with the pockets and so on) should look too short. It should actually be too short to go around your waist, because if that fixed-length part goes all the way around your waist, then you have no way of getting it tight, because you can't adjust that part of the hip belt. Which is where the second, adjustable part comes in.

The adjustable part is what? Adjustable. Right, and this part makes up the rest of the hip belt, allowing you to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze by pulling it tighter and tighter and tighter. But you can't make a hip belt tighter if the adjustable part has nothing to do - if the fixed-length part is too long to start with.

Better? Clearer? OK with that? Eh?

– Getting stern with your sternum. –

And now we go to step three. (Bet you thought this was going to be easy.)

You are now strapped in, ready for takeoff. The shoulder straps are snug, and the hip belt is too. There is enough weight in the pack to give you an opinion.

It is sternum strap time.

The sternum strap is for keeping shoulder straps from getting all wild and crazy and doing things you don't want them to. The sternum strap also helps to lessen pressure on your shoulders and make the weighted pack pull on your chest rather than just hanging from your shoulders. Sure, you say, the hip belt does that job, but no, not all of it. Don't be a dummy. Check out the sternum strap. It helps a bunch too.

Pull the sternum strap snug enough for it to feel comfortable without restricting your breathing. Its top is probably around three finger widths below your collarbone. Too high and it chokes. Too low and it gets into the breast area, and it really has no business messing around there.

Be sure you can get it too tight.

Yes. Too tight.

If you can get it too tight then you can have it less tight, which is what you want, but if you can't get it too tight then you probably can't get it tight enough either. Same as with the hip belt. See?

Time for our next sanity check.

Once again, depending on which pack you're stalking, this just may be it. This just may be the right pack. Or not. So decide how you feel about the pack now. If you have run out of straps then you are done. This pack is either acceptable or it isn't.

– Tug it and snug it. –

But in case there are more straps we'll move to the load lifters on top of your shoulders. (Remember? These are also called load levelers or load balancers).

Tighten or loosen these guys until the pack bag conforms to the shape of your back. When done (and you should do this with the pack full, even if it's mostly fuzz) you have the top part of the pack pulled up tight against or kind of over your shoulders.

Got that? The top of the pack might be pulled a bit over the top of your shoulders like it's giving you a hug.

The load lifters ideally form a 45-degree angle from a point near your collar bone up toward the top of the pack. Assuming that the pack is fully loaded and tight as a drum. If you notice that the tops of the shoulder straps have crinkled and humped up and lifted off your shoulders, then the load lifters are too tight, or they weren't designed properly. When this happens, the stress is no longer going through the shoulder straps all the way across the tops of your shoulders, but runs through the load lifters for part of that trip, and things shouldn't be that way. They are for pulling the pack closer to your body, not for supporting its weight.

But when you have the load lifters just right they not only hug the pack closer to you but also shift stress from your shoulders to your chest because they tug on the shoulder straps, but without taking over from them. The load lifters plus the sternum strap spread that stress (the weight not carried by the hip belt) across your rib cage while moving if off the tops of your shoulders.

This is a Very Good Thing. Really!

Next, if your pack is in the very fancy range you also have stabilizer straps on the hip belt. Most packs don't.

These work like the higher-up load lifters we just talked about, but they pull the bottom of the pack closer to your lower back, and operate between attachment points on the hip belt and points low down on the pack bag. Using these straps keeps the center of mass closer to your body, improving balance, and also helps to stabilize the pack.

The load lifters work on the top of the pack and the stabilizer straps work on the bottom of the pack. If your target pack lacks them, don't fret. They are way optional.

– Mmmm. Creamy smooth. –

Up top, the weight gets spread over the largest possible area, so you don't have any hot spots where weight is concentrated. Some weight is on top of the shoulders but much of it is spread over your chest and back as the pack, the various straps, and your body work together in this enterprise.

Below, where the hip belt is, the weight transfers through the padding into your pelvic bones, which can take it, provided that the padding is adequate.

– Final instrument check. Almost done. –

Take a short cruise. Bend over. Twist. Reach up. Raise and lower your legs. See how the pack feels. Go up and down stairs.

If the pack feels like it belongs with you, then maybe it does.

You can also try some fine tuning, loosening these straps and tightening those. Raising this and lowering that. If the pack has enough straps you can shift the balance from side to side, shift it forward or back, or move weight onto or off your shoulders as needed. This gives you flexibility for different loads and different environments. You might not need much flexibility, but it's nice to have options.

Now you are a pro. If you are in a store that is bright and clean and warm and dry, you can have loads of fun doing this. Take your time. Find the perfect pack. Play with it. Praise it. Rejoice.

Then set the pack down and leave. They will remember you. Don't doubt that. Especially if a staffer has just spent two hours helping you to locate and adjust the perfect pack. Yes.

They will remember you.

Walk away.

This is a good move. Go away and come back a week later, preferably after trying on other packs elsewhere, or using your old pack, if you have one. Especially after using your old pack. The old pack will remind you of what's wrong with it. And of what's right.

Then when you return to the store where you got what seemed to be a perfect fit from what seemed like the perfect pack you get your own second opinion. Once you have it all worked out, buy the pack where you got the help. You owe it to them. Don't be a dick.

OK, fine, so Mr Smarty Pants Writer Boy here hasn't thought about mail order.

Ah, but he has, wise, gentle, and good Reader.

Ultralight packs (real ones) are generally mail order only, made by small companies without retail stores you can walk into. How about that then?

Well, pretty much the same deal.

Try on a few packs close to what you think will work. Don't waste anyone's time, or lead them on, but see if you can get a feel for small and light packs one way or another. Maybe you'll even find one that works. Hey - buy it already!

Try a friend. Wheedle. If you are on a hike with people you don't even know, so what? Ask. Ask anyone if you can just try their packs. Ask anyone anything. Look at packs. Read reviews online.

Then re-measure yourself carefully, re-check reviews, revisit online catalogs and read between the lines.

Keep a couple of things in mind.

First, you can always sew on straps or buckles later, if you know what you want and know what you're doing. Some pack makers provide custom options, or you can find someone to do the sewing for you.

Then, once you are totally dialed in to your needs you can design your own ultralight pack and have someone make it for you, or you can make it yourself.

Most importantly, small light packs are small and light. They stress you less. While no ultralight pack will have an adjustable frame, and won't have the full complement of straps, buckles, pulls, snaps, zippers, bun warmers and pot holders, they don't need most of them either, so you'll be fine.

– But wait. There's more! –

Really. One more thing. Again.

If you spend a lot of time in a store, checking out this and that, and get good help, and find the right pack, buy it there.

Support the store and the people who help you.

Do not learn about packs and how to fit them, and decide which one is right for you, and then buy that pack via mail order to save $20. At least show your gratitude. Make sure that the people who help you get paid for that help. Ultralight packs are really not available in major stores, but maybe you'll find a light enough pack that you really like anyway, and that's OK.

Just remember to support decent people who support you. You will need them later, so help them stay in business until then. We're all in this together.