Aarn Natural Balance Bodypack – $449 I have a nickname for this pack – I call it my Magic Pack. From the moment I first tried it on I’ve been amazed at how weight seems to magically disappear once I’m wearing it. Whether I need to carry ten days of food over a long section or seven kilos of water for a desert stretch, it turns a sizeable load into something very manageable. In fact, my pack has felt so suspiciously light at times that I’ve actually taken it off mid-walk to check I haven’t inadvertently left something behind at the last break. I carried the Natural Balance for over 3000 kilometres hiking the Te Araroa Trail from one end of New Zealand to the other, and its absolute comfort gave me one less challenge to deal with. Gone were the aching shoulders and hot knots of pain in my back that I used to suffer with a traditional backpack. So what’s the secret to this ‘magic’? It’s the way you carry your load that makes all the difference. Aarn Tate has spent 30 years perfecting and testing the Flow Bodypack system in the tough terrain of his homeland, New Zealand.

The key to its design is a set of pockets on the front in which you carry all your compact, heavy gear and thereby counterbalancing the load on your back. The result is an energy-efficient system that maintains the natural curve of the spine and leaves you standing upright and perfectly balanced. A backpack magnifies the forces acting on your body. Without going into the detailed physics of it, a 16 kilogram load plonked on your back with a traditional backpack could end up exerting a force on your body that feels more like 20-24 kilograms. The Bodypack system however removes all leverages on your back from your pack and brings your posture as close to upright as possible. In doing so most of the load is shifted off your shoulders and spine and transferred evenly around the pelvis. I get a lot of comments from hikers I pass on the trail, dubious of the design of this newfangled pack. Here are a few examples: Yeah, but can you see your feet? – The Natural Balance has two separate front pockets so you can see your feet in the gap between them if you want to.

Having said that, I discovered that I didn’t actually watch my feet hit the ground, I looked ahead at the ground where I intended to put my feet and then my feet simply followed. What about tricky terrain? – The pack has a fantastic hip belt and shoulder harness that allows the load to shift as you move so you stay centred and balanced always. The front pockets do not hinder manoeuvrability when scrambling over rocks on all but the very tightest of ledges. Isn’t it hot to wear? bape backpack replicaThe front pockets hang away from your body allowing air to flow, plus ventilation mesh is used in the back panel.my backpack wc3 You’re carrying all THAT? backpack bwca– Having a large load is not a pre-requisite to wearing this pack – Aarn make smaller volume models that an ultra-light hiker probably wouldn’t even notice they’re wearing – but if you like to take enough gear to stay warm and safe, if you need to carry lots of water, or if like me you’re partial to a bit of fresh fruit and veg on your hikez55 backpack review

, then this pack will allow you to carry your load in comfort. Another significant bonus is having camera, sunscreen, maps, snacks, PLB, etc. readily available in the front pockets. Pockets are interchangeable too so I swapped one standard pocket for photography specific one, padded for my equipment. The pack has a removable dry bag lining and the tough nylon exterior sheds water well so you won’t need a pack cover. And the whole pack is fully adjustable for a precise fit.gs70 backpack If I could change anything it would be the plastic clips and buckles. incase city compact backpack saleThey are lightweight but not the strongest. backpack kopen marktplaatsI’ve broken two over 3500 kilometres of hiking and while spares are provided I’d like to see a tougher material used here.

Also after 1000 kilometres the dry bag lining was, perhaps unsurprisingly, no longer completely watertight though a few bin bag liners inside the pack avoids any dampness in a downpour (note: the dry bag liners are replaceable). The Natural Balance has won a string of awards, most recently Germany’s Outdoor Industry Awards in 2015 where it earned the Gold Winner title for best backpack. It may look odd and a tad on the bulky side, but to wear it is to experience its magic. Capacity: 63-litre capacity plus 15 litres in the front pockets (short version) Weight: 2 kilograms including pockets and linersBack in February 2008 I got an Aarn Peak Aspiration bodypack and a pair of Aarn Expedition balance pockets to test. I have already described in another page the main characteristics of the Peak Aspiration. Here are a few more information after more than one year of usage of this pack. I’ve not brought the Peak on very long treks yet. I’ve used it in a variety of hikes from one to four days in the central Apennines, from 0 to 2000 meters above sea level, from spring to fall.

In almost all occasions, I’ve loaded both the pack and the pockets to full capacity, with loads up to 25 kilograms. This happened either because I was hiking solo, carrying with me tent, sleeping bag, pad, stove and full stocks of food, alcohol and water for the whole trip; or because, for whatever reason, I was carrying food, water and jackets for more people. The two most challenging hikes, four days each, were two sections of the Great Apenninic Excursion (GEA), on the border between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. GEA is one long trek running mostly on the ridge between those two regions. The two sections I chose (very) roughly correspond to the area described in stages 19 to 24 of the page linked above, but I chose an alternative rout which was most of the time between 1600 to 2000 meters. GEA is a great trek which I intend to describe on Strider sometime because, after great popularity in the 80’s, it was basically forgotten, but that’s another story. After walking a lot with this bodypack, I can confirm what I already wrote last year.

The bodypack concept as proposed by Aarn is in general a great way to hike long distances with heavy (or less heavy) loads, and the Peak is a great implementation of the idea. During the two GEA hikes I walked up to 13/14 hours a day with 20/25 Kg loads, on anything from flat,soft meadows to thick bush and very steep, narrow and rocky trails. During all those days, the weight of the pack or, more exactly, its impact on my back and my neck has never been an issue. It looks like, thanks to the bodypack, I have come to a point where if I stop it’s because either I am very, very, very tired in general, or I have walked so much that my feet hurt enough to not let me continue. In both cases, no back or neck pains worth reporting. There is also another thing which adds to the general confort: you can lay your hands or forearms over the pockets while you walk. Besides greatly increasing comfort by balancing the load, the Expedition pockets are big. I was able to store in them five liters of water, a mini Trangia stove, a 600 ml alcohol bottle, compass, Swiss Army pocket knife, a small digital camera, lamp, assorted piadine and other snacks, plus a few other things I’ve forgotten.

The maps found place in the small external, elastic pockets. The water was contained into a one liter Petzl bottle and three Platipus bags (1 x 2 Lt + 2 x 1 Lt). I have always felt very stable while wearing the Peak and the two pockets fully loaded. “Always” includes a few very, very steep trails and even two or three places where there was no trail whatsoever but the terrain was so steep and rough that I had to use my hands to keep going. Breathing and being able to see my feet on difficult tracks with two big, heavy bags was another big concern of mine before getting a bodypack. Unluckily, I haven’t had any possibility yet to do cross-country ski with the pack. However, after one year, I can testify that those two problems don’t exist, as far as walking with a bodypack is concerned. After quite some kilometers, I do recommend the Aarn bodypack and want even more to use as long and often as possible. Of course, after one year, there also are several small things that could have gone slightly better, and other ones that you will like to know before adopting a bodypack like this.

My bodypack and pockets still work perfectly, but are starting to show a few little signs of wear. One of the top seams of my left Expedition pocket is getting loose. One of the two sternum straps simply fell away from the shoulder strap somewhere in Emilia Romagna, while loading and unloading the pack from one public bus to another. Those straps don’t do much when the pockets are mounted, because they have another strap which does more or less the same thing, but I’m still disappointed I lost one. The waist belt buckle still holds, but doesn’t close perfectly now as it did during the first hikes. The pockets aren’t waterproof by any means (and this is made clear on the Aarn website). However, or maybe just for this reason, they can collect enough water inside their bottom (or in the fabric itself, I don’t really know) to be the very last parts of the pack to dry after enduring a violent summer storm on the trail. During the same storm, of course, everything in the main pack remained perfectly dry thanks to the internal waterproof liner.

I had another little problem with the pockets. They have a metal stick which shifts the weight of the pockets down to the waist belt. For some unknown reason, the upper end of the stick of my left pocket started to slide out of its seat every hour or so during my last GEA trekking. Maybe the velcro strap that should keep it in place is starting to lose grip, or maybe the stick itself was slightly deformed over time, I don’t know. In any case, nothing bad, just the necessity to quickly push it back in place every time it happened. Finally, with these packs you can’t be careful enough when you adjust them to your body. As I say above, they can keep you safe from back pains, but only if you really take the time to fit them in the best possible way. You have to be equally careful when moving the pack in and out of buses and trains, or in overhead luggage bins. All the straps and the pockets can get tangled with other luggage or in some hook much more likely than with normal packs.