Hiking Pack with Child Carrier - Large Size

[Olbert000]

Hi all - first post.

My partner and I are avid rock climbers and occasional hikers. Although we both wear a pack, my pack is the larger and heavier of the two. I would load up my pack with the majority of gear for whatever activity we were undertaking and my partner would have the lighter load. This would balance our speed and confidence whilst hiking - and especially scrambling. (And hopefully limit the complaints whilst hiking up steep hills to cliffs!) I have a 70L pack and the weight often exceeds 20kg.

We have recently become parents, and would love to continue our activities with little Seamus. I've been looking at hiking packs/child carriers and have found that they all have a rather small capacity. I would really like a child carrier which is about the size of my current pack - maybe 50L capacity with space for Seamus on top. I would of-course offload some of the weight onto my partner but probably keep the majority of the stuff.

The range of child carrier packs I've found on line seem to max out at 20L capacity and have a total load of 22kg including child! This is much smaller than my current pack. Does the product I'm searching for exist? How do people take their little ones on overnight hiking/camping trips? Or is that not a thing...

Cheers,
Ollie

[TML MHz]

The reason that the capacity is not big is that kids rapidly become much heavier than you think. The carrier packs are heavy as they have a largish frame, because they need to cope with a squirmy child, and they feel heavier than nice, predictable, stationary and stable gear, IMHO. And the little buggers get heavy, quickly.

Sorry if I sound negative, but my eldest was 10kg at six months and 12 kg at 12 months. He was a heavy bugger to carry, and I would not have been up for an extra pack load on top of that!

[Moondog55]

Very short walks and possible even shorter when they start walking on their own but I have carried much more than 22 kilos when my own kids were babies. All we had was a Karrimor Papoose with a day pack stashed under the frame and a sleeping bag in a stuff sack above it.
Motivation is a big factor.
Kids are an awkward load when they squirm but if I was buying today I would probably buy something like this
https://www.wildernessequipment.com.au/ ... wildchild/
Capable of carrying heaps of gear, even if only for short distances

[Olbert000]

Thanks Moondog55!!

That was exactly what I was looking for and could not find on my own! I love that the weight limit of the child is described as "Suitable for children up to any weight you can carry."

[emma_melbourne]

The Wilderness Equipment 'Wildchild' does also have compatible very long side pockets which attach on either side to enlarge the carrying capacity, which give you additional 18 Litres, and they are here: https://www.wildernessequipment.com.au/ ... cket-pair/

There's also a rain and sun cover set here: https://www.wildernessequipment.com.au/ ... cover-set/

Hope this helps.

Best, Emma

[Olbert000]

Cheers Emma - they look really handy.