Backpacks

GearScore blends published specs into a single 0 to 100 number: a capacity check so a pack can actually hold a multi-day load, then weight, rated load, fabric denier, and price. A pack first has to clear a sensible capacity target so it cannot win by being tiny and light, then it competes on the numbers you carry and rely on. Nothing is opinion or sponsorship, and you can re-weight any factor to match your trip.

Capacity is the pack's labeled volume in liters, the room you have to carry your kit. It is treated as good-enough: clear a volume that fits your trip and the pack is set, because past that point extra liters just add weight and bulk. That gate keeps a small, light summit pack from topping a multi-day list purely because it weighs nothing.

For most multi-day backpacking a 50 to 65 liter pack fits a three-season kit, food, and layers. Weekenders can drop to 40 to 50 liters, and winter or long-resupply trips push to 65 to 75. Use the presets or sort by capacity to find packs that hold what you carry, then compare their weight and suspension.

It shows as "n/s" and the pack is scored only on the specs it does publish. A blank field is never treated as a zero and never counted as a strength, so missing data can only lower a score, never inflate it. Rated load and denier are the specs most often unpublished, especially for non-denier fabrics like Dyneema, which are shown "n/s" on the denier axis rather than guessed.

It depends on your load. Ultralight and lightweight packs carry less pack for the same job once your base weight is moderate, which is why they lead the default and ultralight rankings. Traditional internal-frame packs earn their weight when loads are heavy or bulky, and rise on the heavy-loads preset. Re-weight the algorithm toward load and durability to see the traditional haulers climb.