Packing the Outro 40 Liter and 55 Liter Backpacking Packs
Listen to co-founder CJ Whittaker explain his approach to packing our Outro backpacking pack. Our Outro pack comes in two sizes: the Pingora Outro 40L and the Pingora Outro 55L. It's unique internal divider gives the user a greater degree of organization and weight distribution. If the divider isn't your thing, it easily zips away so you can access the entire volume of the pack at once.
In this video CJ explains how and what to pack for a backpacking trip and the uses for these various areas of the pack.
Before you begin packing, gather the items you will need for your backpacking adventure:
- sleeping bag
- hydration reservoir (bladder)
- tent
- tent poles
- air mattress
- water filter
- food to last for the length of the trip
- cooking
- cooking kit
- coffee kit
- extra clothing
- puffy coat
- rain jacket
- knife
- compass and map
- headlamp for night hiking
- your car keys
- trekking poles
Now, let's dive into packing our Outro Backpacking packs. You will notice three areas of the pack:
- the large back panel, that opens like luggage, for your camp gear
- the roll top area on the backpack for packing items needed during your hike
- the backpack's harness and waist belt pockets for quick access to items you need while on your hike
First, pack your hydration system and the things you need when you are at camp during your trip in the large area of the pack:
- your sleeping bag, place this the Outro Backpacking pack first; this stuffs out the bottom and gives you a good foundation for the rest of your camping items
- place your hydration reservoir (bladder) in the top
- add your tent
- place your tent poles in the pack
- add your air mattress
- include a water filter
- add the food you will eat eat when you are at camp
- include cooking stove if you plan to heat up water or other food
- add your cooking kit
- includes your coffee kit for your morning brew
- place your midweight items in the middle of the backpacking pack
- place dense items to the top of the pack
To secure your Outro Backpacking pack, do the following:
- zip up the back panel on the pack
- attach the backpack load lifters
- route your reservoir hose through the harness
Next, pack the items you will need, during your day hike, in the roll top area of your Outro Backpacking pack:
- extra clothing
- a puffy coat for warmth
- a rain jacket for those unexpected cloud bursts
- your lunch for easy access when you stop for a rest, this way you won't have to stop and unpack everything at lunchtime
There is a convenient pocket, in the Outro's roll top area, to hold small items that you may need to during the day:
- your knife
- your compass and map for navigation
- a headlamp for night hiking
- your car keys
Next, roll the top portion of your Outro backpacking pack down, and then pull on the load lifters to shift the weight to your back. This will increase your stability and reduce fatigue while you are backpacking on the trail. Adjust the compression strap until the weight of the backpacking pack is centered above your shoulder blades.
Lastly, pack your harness and waist belt pockets for quick access to items that you want to use while hiking. Add your:
- electrolyte packets to keep you hydrated on the trail
- mobile phone so you don't miss out on the great photo opportunity
- nutrition packet in case you need some quick energy
- sunscreen so you can quickly re-apply during the day
Lastly, place your trekking poles on the pack, and you are ready to go. Welcome to the Outro!
For even easier backpacking organization, check out our stuff sacks to store and compress items in your Outro Backpacking pack.
For your convenience, here is the transcription of the above video:
hey I'm CJ from Pingora and I'm here to show you how to pack the Outro.
We designed a really unique organizational system on the Outro meant to keep your gear better organized and to distribute the weight of your pack.
To get started, you'll see we have a big back panel that opens like luggage and gives you really nice access to all of your at camp gear.
Then we have this roll top which is great for packing all the stuff you use during the day on the trail .
Then there are harness pockets and waist belt pockets for stuff that you use on the go.
To pack my bag, start by throwing my sleeping bag in the bottom compartment which gives you a nice base to stuff out the bottom of the bag and this gives you a good platform for everything else. I keep all this mid-weight stuff here and then work up to more dense heavy stuff at the top.
A great feature of Outro is this divider panel that separates the bag. This essentially puts your most dense and heavy object which is your reservoir right here in the center of the bag which is really great for load transfer and balance. So rather than putting the hydration on the back panel ours drops into the roll top into this slot behind this pocket so all we do is drop it in and we shove the QR buckle through the top of the reservoir and then we push the reservoir hose out through the back panel. For now I'm just going to leave this hose here.
Back to the zip compartment, here I'm going to throw my tent in, my tent poles here in the side, the air mattress goes here. Next is the water filter system. Food is usually pretty dense and so is my stove cook kit and coffee kit so I'm going to put those right here.
If you want you can fill the space around here if needed. I'm just going to zip this up so now I'm good to go for the back panel compartment . Whenever you zip this up make sure and reattach your load lifters. Then you can take the reservoir hose and route it through the harness.
The back panel area is now ready to go and then we turn the pack on the on the bottom here and now we can pack the giant roll top.
This is great for stuff on the trail it's compressible which means you can expand it if you need to or contract it if you need to. This is usually where I put my clothing, my lunch, my puffy coat and especially my rain jacket.
In this pocket I pack a knife, compass, headlamp and other items. Also don't forget your car keys. I've got plenty of room.
Now, I have packed for an overnight trip and I'm going to compress this down as much as I can to keep the weight centered. I'm going to do up my compression pull that tight pulling the load towards my back to increase my stability on the trail and reduce fatigue.
The top strap allows you to attach a rope but most importantly it's meant to compress the bag keep all that weight centered in the right spot above your shoulder blades.
Now moving on to the harness and waist belt pockets. I pack an on-the-go soft flask, usually I have some electrolytes in there, and then I put my mobile phone in a pocket as well.
You can also throw some nutrition here or in the waist belt pockets with some sunscreen and I'm ready to hike. I've got my trekking poles here on the side. If I'm not ready for trekking poles, then I loosen the bottom compression where there is a pocket and a gusset for the poles to fit in nicely. You can attach the top of the poles with our trekking pole system here so now these are just ready for transport and I'm ready to hike. Welcome to the outro!
