[at-l] Re: G4 first impressions

[krk@speakeasy.org (Kenneth Knight)]

I think you'll find you prefer the foam pads instead of socks/gloves filling out the straps. Like
Chainsaw I had socks get damp-ish after a while when in the shoulder straps and that isn't good. It
wasn't a big problem, but I'm not enough of an ounce counter to mind the tad extra weight that the
foam pads represent.

A slightly inflated therm-a-rest in a cylindrical form should work fine, but it isn't as good as a
closed cell pad like the Mt. Washington II or RidgeRest (the latter is pushing it). You can also
score a Mt. Washington II pad in such a way that it can be foldd accordian fashion so it can fit in
the pad sleeve on the backpack if you would rather create your frame that way. I'm not sure if you
can do that with a RidgeRest (obviously you can with a z-rest).

I have found that letting the sleeping bag fill the bottom, packed loosely in a trash bag, with the
cylinder frame on top of that works quite well. There have been times when I prefer having the frame
made by the more traditional accordian-style pad in the back of the pack, but I think I've gone the
former route far more than the latter.

  ** Ken **
  

**  Kenneth Knight    Web Design, IT Consultant, Software Engineer  **
**       krk@speakeasy.org        http://www.speakeasy.org/~krk     **