We found it! We found the perfect pack!! I'm 95 pounds and you are only supposed to carry 1/3 of your body weight in gear. That allows me roughly 30-35 pounds...and that includes the backpack. External frame packs weigh, on average, 4-6 pounds unpacked and internal frame packs weigh 5-7 pounds. Knowing this, I decided I wanted to go with something unique...something designed with ultralight camping in mind.
After my mom did all the research online, we discovered the Mariposa Plus by Gossamer Gear. http://www.gossamergear.com/ Believe it or not, it weighs an amazing 22.3 ounces!! It is made of 70 denier urethane-coated ripstop nylon much like the material used to make parasails and parachutes. Gossamer Gear was started by Glen Van Peski with the Boy Scout in mind. He had backpacked growing up, but when he became involved with his son's boy scout troop, he created a revolutionary lightweight backpack for his son to use. This marked the beginning of GVP Gear while his son had lots of opportunities to test different packs during the creation process. Gossamer Gear is still a family-owned, customer-focused company now based out of Texas. They were very helpful when picking the appropriate sized pack. When I emailed the company to ask some questions, the President Grant Sible personally responded, answered all of my questions and even offered me a $30 discount on the Mariposa Plus because I was a boy scout. Gossamer Gear was great to work with and my new pack is totally awesome!
