Hyperlite Mountain Gear Porter Pack 5400 85L

Extend the hiking season beyond your previous cut-off temperature. Blow through all of your paid time-off hours at once. Ramp up the complexity of your undertaking. The HMG Porter pack 5400 is designed for all this and more with added capacity for bulkier cold weather clothing or dry suits, additional days’ worth of food, or supplementary equipment needed when throwing packrafting, climbing, or bikepacking into the mix. Just like the standard Porter, the 5400 uses our mayhem-tested 150-Denier Poly-Dyneema®Composite Fabric Hybrid for the main body of the pack but adds more protection to the base of the bag with a 375-Denier layer.

Like our other packs, this one pairs exceptionally well with our Stuff Sacks. Add a Porter Stuff Pocket for extra storage.

• 3.06 lbs | 48.96 oz | 1387g
• Up to 65 lbs / 30 kilos
• 5400 cu. in. (85L)
• Top Circumference: 48.5” (114.3cm)
  Bottom Circumference: 40.5” (95.3)
  Height (fully unrolled): 40.8” (97.8cm)
  Back Width: 10.5” (26.7cm)

• Made in Maine
• Four external, vertical daisy chains for attaching Porter Stuff Pocket, Porter Water Bottle Holders, or extra gear for trip-specific customization
• Removable, contoured aluminum stays
• Dyneema® Hardline shoulder straps with 3/8” closed cell foam and spacer mesh
• Internal plastic frame sheet for added back panel support
• 1/4” foam back panel pad
• Compression System
• Roll-Top closure system with side compression straps for vertical compression
• Six side compression straps for horizontal compression
• Top Y-strap compression — Designed to secure gear
• Internal zippered pocket
• Dyneema® Hardline dual-density hip belt with 1/8” closed cell rigid foam, 1/4” closed cell foam, plastic stiffener, and spacer mesh
• Dyneema® Hardline zippered pockets on hip belt with #5 YKK zipper
• Adjustable sternum strap with self-tensioning elastic
• Ability to stow two ice axes on daisy chains
• Proprietary seam sealing on all side seams and behind all sewn-on pack features

On my trip through Sarek it rained constantly for about 2 days as well as waist high wading daily – I don’t use rain covers or anything like that so I have to trust my backpack that it will do it’s just in keeping things dry. I pack everything in watertight stuff sacks, I prefer the Pack pods from HMG and the Stuff sack pillow, and I use a giant trash bag as a pack liner on the inside to keep as much water as possible out. I find this combination of watertight-ish backpack with only one entry point (the roll top), a giant trash bag liner, and everything packed in watertight stuff sacks, keeps everything perfectly dry no matter the rain or wading, and this proved the case even in Sarek on the wettest of terrain, my gear was kept perfectly dry. The Windrider, Southwest and Porter packs are exactly the same pack with only the pockets on the outside being different.

I also find that for my longer trips the HMG windrider holds up without any problems, at most I have had around 17 kilos in my pack and while the pack can certainly handle the weight, my body can’t. The Pack itself is rated at around 27 kilos – I would say 20 kilos is enough.

Some people have reservations about mesh pockets on the outside of a pack – they can “tip the balance”, they can easily tear in forestry and so on. Personally I don’t really have this problem. The mesh pockets I use mainly for my tenkara fishing rod, a water bottle and trash. Balance is not an issue. As far as the mesh pockets tearing, this as it were, has not shown itself to be an issue either, and I have certainly trounced through a lot of unkept forestry. The Southwest has cleaner pockets as they are fully enclosed instead of the open mesh pockets found on the Windrider. This might be a better choice for those worried about the mesh getting snagged in trees and so on.

There are a lot of backpacks on the market – But there is a reason the Hyperlite mountain gear packs have grown in notoriety: There are no backpacks anywhere near the quality or robustness of the HMG backpacks. If you need one backpack for most everything, you can’t go wrong with a Hyperlite mountain gear Windrider 4400, or any of the 4400 packs.

• Big 70 Liter pack
• Simple, effective design.
• Lightweight
• Great carrying capabilities
• 95% watertight
• Robust, durable fabric and mesh
• Compressible – From 70 liters to 40 liters
• Removable stays
• Excellent construction and quality
• No zippers or do-dads. Just what is needed
• Small, Medium, Large and Tall. That’s what you get to choose from. Perfect. I hate too many choices as I’m always afraid of getting it wrong.

• Hydration pocket not easily removed – razor blade needed
• Not the lightest 70 liter pack on the market
• Ventilation for some can limited creating a sweaty back