Packing a bag that carries well

Weight is what people obsess over. Placement is what they feel. A well-packed heavy bag carries better than a badly packed light one, and the difference over eight hours is substantial.

Heavy things go close to your spine and near shoulder height

This is the single most important principle. Mass held away from your back creates a lever that pulls you backwards, and your body compensates by leaning forward, which loads the lower back and shortens your stride.

So: the heaviest items — water, food, rope, hardware — go against the back panel, roughly between the shoulder blades and the middle of the back. Not at the bottom, not in the lid, not in the outer pockets.

The exception is technical activity. If you are going to be climbing, scrambling or skiing, lower the centre of mass slightly. A high load is efficient for walking and destabilising when you move dynamically or lean back.

The rough zones

Bottom: bulky, light, not needed until camp. Sleeping bag, spare insulation, sleep clothes. This zone also provides a bit of cushioning above the lumbar area.

Middle, against the back: the dense stuff. Food, stove, fuel, water bladder, hardware.

Middle, away from the back: medium-weight bulky items. Tent body, spare clothing, cooking kit.

Top and lid: things you need during the day. Waterproofs, warm layer, first aid, headtorch, gloves, hat, food for the next few hours.

Hip belt and shoulder pockets: snacks, phone, sunglasses, lip balm, small camera. Anything you would otherwise stop for.

Fill the voids

A pack with air gaps lets the load shift as you walk, and a shifting load is far more tiring than a static one. Push soft items into the spaces around hard ones. Stuff socks into cooking pots. A well-packed bag should be firm and hold its shape when you squeeze it.

Compression straps are for finishing the job, not doing it. Cinch them once the pack is properly filled.

Waterproofing that works

Pack covers are partial at best — water runs down your back and into the space between the cover and the pack, and they blow around in wind.

The reliable method is a liner: a single large dry bag or heavy-duty liner inside the main compartment, with everything critical inside it. Then, separately, individual dry bags for the things that absolutely must stay dry — sleeping bag, insulation, spare base layer, electronics.

Redundant, cheap, and the only approach that survives an actual day of rain.

Outside the pack

Attach as little as possible. Things strapped to the outside snag on branches, swing on scrambling ground, and get lost. The classic sight of a pack festooned with dangling mugs and mats is a sign of a pack that is too small or too badly organised.

Exceptions worth making: ice axe and poles in dedicated attachments, a wet tent fly on the outside so it does not soak everything, and a helmet in a carrier.

Whatever goes outside must be secured with a proper attachment, not a loop of cord that will work loose over four hours.

Fit the pack, then load it

A pack that is the wrong torso length cannot be fixed by packing. Measure your back length and get a pack that matches, or one with an adjustable harness.

Then load it and adjust in the right order, with weight in it:

Loosen everything. Put it on. Set the hip belt so it sits on top of the iliac crest — the bony ridge of the hip — not on the waist. Tighten it firmly; this is where most of the weight should go. Then snug the shoulder straps until they contour without carrying much load. Then the load lifters, which should run at roughly forty-five degrees from the top of the shoulder strap to the pack body, pulling the top of the pack in toward you. Then the sternum strap, lightly, to stop the shoulder straps sliding outward.

Most people carry far too much on the shoulders. If your shoulders hurt after two hours, the hip belt is too loose or in the wrong place.

Adjust as you go

Shift the load between hips and shoulders every hour or so by loosening one and tightening the other. It redistributes pressure and delays fatigue in both areas. On steep ground, loosening the hip belt slightly gives more freedom to move.

The last principle

Pack the same way every time. Then, in the dark, in the rain, you know where the headtorch is without unpacking the bag onto wet ground. Consistency is worth more than any single organisational trick.