America’s Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures
By Michael Lanza
Backpacks come in many sizes and designs for a reason: so do backpackers. Some of us need a pack for moderate loads, some for heavy loads, and others, increasingly, for lightweight or ultralight backpacking. Some prefer a minimalist pack, others a range of features and access. Everyone wants the best possible fit and comfort, and almost everyone has a budget. But no matter which type of backpacker you are, this review covers the best packs in each of those categories.
By Michael Lanza
So you’re planning to thru-hike the John Muir Trail and making all of the necessary preparations, and now you’re wondering: What’s the best gear for a JMT hike? Having thru-hiked the JMT as well as taken numerous other backpacking trips all over the High Sierra—mostly between late August and late September, which I consider that the best time to walk the Sierra, to avoid snow and the voracious mosquitoes and blazing hot afternoons of mid-summer—I offer the following picks for the best lightweight backpacking gear and apparel for a JMT thru-hike.
Ultralight Backpack
Osprey Exos 58 and Eja 58
$260, 58L/3,539 c.i., 2 lbs. 14 oz./1.3kg (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S/M and L/XL, women’s XS/X and M/L
Exos: backcountry.com
Eja: backcountry.com
Osprey’s men’s Exos and women’s Eja packs would seem like shining examples of gear proven to perform so well for so long that redesigning them risks customer backlash. As a longtime fan of the packs, I was eager to take the Exos 58 on a long cruise—nine days and nearly 130 miles through the High Sierra in August, mostly on the John Muir Trail with some on- and off-trail detours. I came away from that walk convinced that, with what they changed and what they kept in the Exos/Eja, Osprey done made these packs even better.
Ultralight Backpack
Osprey Exos 58 and Eja 58
$240, 58L/3,539 c.i., 2 lbs. 11 oz. (men’s medium Exos)
Sizes: men’s Exos S-L, women’s Eja XS-M
backcountry.com
It’s difficult and sometimes dangerous to improve on a piece of gear that’s nearly perfect in its simplicity and functionality. So when Osprey rolled out the redesigned Exos for 2018, along with a women’s version, the Eja, with some changes to this popular model—which became an ultralight pack archetype when it was introduced in 2008—I immediately wanted to see whether the changes represent an improvement. Taking it on a six-day, 94-mile hike on the Continental Divide Trail through Glacier National Park, I found definite improvements—including that it carries better than the previous iteration—and I think some backpackers may miss one convenient feature that’s absent from the updated pack.
NOTE: Click here to read my review of the 2018 version of the Osprey Exos 58 and Osprey Eja 58 backpacks.
Ultralight Backpack
Osprey Exos 58
$220, 55L/3,356 c.i., 2 lbs. 8 oz. (small, fits torsos 16-19 ins.)
Sizes: unisex S-L (M 58L/3,539 c.i., fits torsos 18-21 ins., L 61L/3,722 c.i., fits torsos 21-23 ins.)
moosejaw.com
When Osprey introduced the Exos pack series in 2008, it immediately became a leader—and helped redefine how we think about backpacking. It showed us that a backpack weighing under three pounds can serve the needs of everyone from weekenders to longer-distance backpackers and thru-hikers, and it gave ultralighters an option to the minimalist rucksacks that fill that category (which are “minimalist” both in weight and comfort). As a fan of the original Exos packs, I took the new Exos 58 out on recent four-day, 86-mile backpacking trip in northern Yosemite National Park, and a seven-day, hut-to-hut trek on the Alta Via 2 through Italy’s Dolomites in July, and concluded that Osprey has taken something that was very good and made it lighter and better.