How Pa’lante Packs Outfits Design-Obsessed Thru-hikers

In 2014 I thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, and within the first couple hundred miles, I found myself cutting straps and removing sections of my Z Lite to save a few ounces. I carried less toilet paper than was comfortable, and I ran out of food on more than one occasion because I had skimped my resupplies in hopes of going lighter and lighter. Foolish, yes, but this was common practice (strap-cutting, at least) a decade ago when ultralight backpacking occupied a fairly small slice of the thru-hiking cosmos.

This same year Joe “Stringbean” McCoughnay set a new fastest known time (FKT) on the Pacific Crest Trail, and when he went on to do the same for the Appalachian Trail in 2017, I found myself digging through his gear list in hopes of picking up some more refined weight-saving tactics. That’s when I first came across Pa’lante Packs, and in my head, the brand has always been the go-to for ultralight fastpacking endurance athletes. Earlier this year I was in the market for a new pack, so to Pa’lante I went.

I immediately thought I had landed on the wrong company when I came across a website bedazzled in lowercase red font with crystals dancing in the background. While they certainly still produce technical bags for covering big miles, you can also pick up Portuguese-made cork massage balls, titanium pipes, and technical fleece frocks to style yourself out on trail. Needless to say, Pa’lante is a breath of fresh air and offers a unique take on what we’ve come to expect from the now-crowded thru-hiking scene.

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/palante-packs-profile