alpine vs traminping pack

Despite all the packs on the market, everyone in our club seems to have Macpac. Having seen many of the imports, I suspect few packs will be as strong as a MacPac. Now that descision is made I would go BIG. 80L at least. You can always compress a big pack down but not vise versa. The MacPac Torre is designed as a big alpine pack so that is probably first choice. Some of the ultralight weight trampers are going to strongly disagree with me here and fair enough. A good strong tramping pack is not light.

Firstly, you have to ask yourself how often your going to do either tramping or climbing i.e. will you climb every second weekend or will you be climbing once a year? Next, how much stuff do you usually take? How often do you do the big 10 day tramps or are you just looking for a multi day pack? Then, you have to ask yourself what is your most likely use for it? If you're a mostly trail kind of person- then you could survive with a synthetic pack, however a bush-basher needs the strength of a canvas bag to survive the leatherwood and Bush Lawyer or if you're a regular climber, the strains of material vs. age old rock; then, once you've identified the above, you'll be either for looking for a long, narrow pack as you will be wanting a pack that doesn't affect body movement, you may also want 2 remove the waist belt while climbing so this too could be a factor. Or you may not mind loss of mobility if you earn comfort, it's a hard compromise. Weight as mentioned above could also be an issue, as no one likes climbing with a 20kg pack on however feeling like the world's on your shoulders because of the lack of padding in your pack ain't fun. Your most likely going to need a good harness to keep the pack lose to your back, to keep your centre of gravity in check, yet another factor to take into account. Hope this provides some guidance however I feel that I may have asked more questions than answered, my apologies for being long winded. Scott P.S. In regard to the above comment, I have to agree as lightweight nylon most likely won't take abrasion againest rough objects very well (ducks for cover from ultralighters).

Travel light, travel hard Macpac Pursuit. Buy a big pack your tempted to fill it with usless stuff even though you have the best intentions. For me the pursuit carries the wieght up and down the back inside my shoulder line. Dosnt pull back or get caught on things which makes rough travel and climbing easier. Dosnt have much in the way of a hip belt which suits me fine.

Cactus deep winter, its the benchmark alpine pack, NZ MADE!!!, 50L (all you need for a 2 wk trip..), and weighs sweet FA (1100gms compare that to ALL other brands 50L packs, I did..)