The KS-Ultralight Gear KS-50 is an ultralight backpack that’s good for thru-hiking and multi-day backpacking journeys with a max really useful (snug) load of 20 lbs (9kg). When ordering a KS-50 you might have the choice to customise it in many various methods with a purpose to tailor it on your wants and preferences. I study the materials and options I selected on my customized KS-50 beneath, however KS-Ultralight Gear has a near-infinite vary of choices accessible, so you possibly can customise the KS-50 to your precise wants.
Specs at a Look
- Quantity: 48L
- Weight
- Backpack together with hip belt and aluminum stays- 18 oz
- Further 2.2 oz for optionally available 1L hip belt pockets
- Further 2.3 oz for Gossamer Gear Thinlight 1/8″ closed cell foam pad.
- Supplies:
- 200D Nylon/Spectra
- 330D Cordura
- 3D mesh on shoulder straps and cell foam pad pockets.
- Sizing:
- Torso size: 53 cm (suits 18″-21″)
- Hip belt size: 95 cm (suits 32-38″)
Material Selections
KS-Ultralight Gear presents backpacks in Nylon 200D Spectra, Dyneema DCF, VX07, X21RC, EPX200, and Ecopak Ultragrid 200. They use 330D Cordura by default for shoulder straps, facet pockets, and hip belts. Though KS-Ultralight Gear presents their packs in waterproof materials like X-pac and Ecopak, none of their packs are seam-sealed. A pack liner is really useful.
In my case, I ordered a KS-50 backpack primarily manufactured from Nylon 200D Spectra, together with the primary physique, facet pockets, and hip belt. The underside of my pack is constructed of 330D Cordura. Outfitted with KS-Ultralight Gear’s optionally available hip belt pockets and a 1/8″ Gossamer Gear Thinlight pad, my KS-50 weighs 22.5 oz and offers sufficient flexibility to fulfill the calls for of my weekend backpacking journeys.
Backpack Body and Suspension
I ordered my KS-50 with the exterior body choice, which is comprised of two aluminum stays secured by small pockets and loops alongside the edges of the pack. These aluminum stays assist to raised switch masses to the hips and assist maintain the load extra inflexible. The stays may be eliminated however the weight penalty for the additional help is only some ounces.
I included line-loc load lifters on my KS-50, though KS-Ultralight Gear additionally presents them utilizing webbing. Whereas they do carry the pack’s load nearer to my again, they’re oddly shallow in angle compared to the load lifters on different packs I’ve worn.
The hip belt is sewn to the bottom of the pack and solely calmly padded. KS-Ultralight Gear claims that their packs’ consolation restrict is 20 lbs (9kg), and I’ve discovered that I can comfortably put on my KS-50 all day with none discomfort at that weight or much less. Carrying extra is quite a bit much less snug.
Including a Thermarest Z-pad or different closed-cell foam pad like Gossamer Gear’s Thinlight 1/8″ pad to the again of the KS-50 will increase the pack’s rigidity and help for carrying masses. I might say that utilizing one is sort of an absolute necessity for consolation’s sake, as a closed-cell foam pad additionally prevents objects in your pack, like a small bear canister, from poking you within the again. Even then, you shouldn’t count on the type of luxurious consolation you’ll get from a extra conventional ventilated backpack from Osprey or Gregory. After just a few miles of climbing with the KS-50, I typically discover that my again is soaking wet.
Backpack Storage and Group
Closed Storage
The KS-50 is definitely a 48-liter pack. There are 36 liters of house in the primary compartment, which incorporates the extension collar, 8 liters within the entrance pocket, and a pair of liters in both sides pocket. The principle compartment is a single, giant cylinder. Prospects can order their backpacks with a draw wire or a roll-top closure.
KS-Ultralight claims that the KS-50 and KS-60 can carry a BV 500 bear canister vertically inside the primary compartment. Whereas I can match my equally sized Bearikade Blazer into the KS-50 on this method, there’s not sufficient room for all of my different gear except I safe it to the surface of the pack. I’d get extra quantity if that’s a state of affairs you’re prone to expertise.
KS-Ultralight Gear additionally presents one-liter hip belt pockets for his or her packs, that are hooked up by elastic straps and hooks. I initially determined to order my KS-50 with out hip belt pockets solely to appreciate how a lot I missed having them. They’re simply so darn handy and properly definitely worth the few further ounces they add to my backpack’s general weight.
Open Storage
The KS-50 has an open 8-liter entrance pocket, which I had made with low-stretch Nylon 420D on my KS-50. It offers sufficient room for my toiletries, snacks, sunscreen package, a two-liter Vecto bladder, and a Platypus Quickdraw filter.
The KS-50 additionally presents facet pockets with ample room for 2 1 liter bottles every, or one 2 liter bottle. However retrieving water bottles from these facet pockets whereas carrying the backpack is frustratingly inconceivable. Nevertheless, KS-Ultralight Gear lately enlarged the facet pockets which can assist alleviate this downside.
I ordered a pad pocket to carry a Gossamer Gear Thinlight as a sit pad, but when I needed to do it over once more, I might have ordered my KS-50 with easy bungee cords to the pad in place. I discover placing the froth pad again into its 3D mesh pockets is unnecessarily time-consuming and inefficient.
Exterior Attachments and Compression
Whilst you can order a V or Y strap for carrying a bear canister on prime of your pack, I opted for the KS-Ultralight Gear’s normal 13 mm strap which is secured by a hook and D-ring. Whereas I discover the D-ring and hook a bit fiddly at instances, it’s a easy, mild design that works properly general.
Facet compression is supplied by paracord strung alongside the edges of the pack and is a straightforward approach to safe gadgets like water bottles, tent poles, trekking poles, and the like.
My KS-50 has daisy chain webbing sewn alongside the shoulder straps, permitting for accent pockets or electronics to be hung from them.
Advice
The KS-50 Backpack is properly made and can meet the wants of solo backpackers who can maintain their whole pack weight below 20 lbs (9kg). When you can maintain your whole pack weight together with consumables) that low and also you need a backpack tailor-made to your specs, then the KS-50 or KS-Ultralight Gear’s different backpacks are properly price contemplating. As well as, see Philip’s assessment of the KS Ultralight Gear Alpisack Backpack from just a few years in the past, which is a 56L alpine backpack appropriate for winter use.
Concerning the writer
Vincent Palmieri has been backpacking since 2009. He accomplished his New Hampshire 48 in the summertime of 2022 on Mt. Isolation and has backpacked extensively within the White Mountains in all 4 seasons. For the previous 13 years, he and his spouse, Deborah, have hiked and backpacked throughout North America, together with sections of the Colorado Path, the John Muir Path, the PCT, the Wind River Vary, the Cascades, and the Canadian Rockies. They accomplished the Tour du Mount Blanc in 2017 and the Hundred Mile Wilderness in 2022, they usually have plans to finish the AT in Maine within the close to future. Vincent enjoys spending his free time researching gear.