Rolling my pack instead of stuffing changed how I hike the Sierra

I used to just cram everything into my Osprey for years. Then a ranger at the Rae Lakes trailhead said I was wasting space and showed me how to roll each item tight. Switched to that method and gained at least 5 liters of room for my gear. Anybody else get a piece of advice that completely changed their packing system?

4 comments

4 Comments

avery2191mo ago

Toss your sleeping bag in a dry bag and compress it with your body weight before rolling. That one trick freed up way more space than just rolling clothes tight ever did for me. It takes a little extra time but totally worth it when you can fit everything in a smaller pack.

knight.dylan1mo ago

Yeah so I get the body weight compression thing but here's something nobody's talking about - what you put your dry bag inside of. If you use one of those thin silnylon dry bags and then throw it in a stuff sack that's slightly too big, you lose all that compression work. I started putting my compressed sleeping bag straight into the pack liner with everything else, no separate stuff sack. The pack itself does the compressing after that. Might mean your other gear gets a little squished but honestly that's fine for clothes and food bags. Saves way more space than any rolling trick ever did for me.

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paul_taylor211mo ago

Just roll everything tight including your sleeping bag... works way better than stuffing it all loose. That ranger knew what they were talking about. I swear I got an extra day's worth of food space after I started doing it.

ninaowens1mo ago

Swapped to a compression sack for my sleeping bag. Made a huge difference. Can shove it down to the size of a football.