Ive been using a REI Flash50 lately and its a great backpack, I really like it alot. Problem is that after wearing it for a while it slides past my "hips" and ends up riding way too low on my torso transferring majority of the weight to my shoulders. I end up constantly hitching it back up higher on my body and repeating the process over and over.

Can I get a different belt for this backpack that would be more suitable for my body frame or am I looking at a different bag altogether? I am a pretty thin guy with a 30-31 inch waist and no hips!

Still pushing down my baseweight as I get newer gear, riding around 19LB right now. Hoping to get down to around 15Lb soon

I have the opposite type body and Im too fat where my belt should rideand so I have to wear it lower than it should be. Are you sure that the pack is high enough to start with and that you are centering the belt over the top crest of the hip bone? Have you been to a really good packfitter? Maybe the torso length is to long on your pack and you start to low to begin with

Best bet is to get weight down and go frameless -- I'm 140 lbs with a 30 inch waist and love the fit of the medium MLD packs. Just about perfect.

Really three choices as I see it. First is to wear a pack that allows adjustable torso sizing and / or has a tall enough frame where the shoulder straps are attached to the frame slightly higher than level with your shoulders (i.e. very little 'wrap') This way, after long hours and the belt slips down, there is not excessive weight on the shoulders. My Mchale LBP34 is like this and I get no shoulder fatigue whatsoever.

Second is to wear a pack with decent load lifters. This will raise the weight up off your shoulders after the belt slips down.

Third is to use a pack that has a more pronounces lunbar pad to create 'more hips' synthetically. The belt will fit better then - more snugly and will resist sliding down.

A frameless pack will feel worse for you at weights over 15lbs or so. At weights over that, a light weight internal frame or stays with a nice tall belt will feel better than any frameless pack.

Unless you were born without a pelvis, you do have hips.

Put the heel of you hand on top of you hip. Push down.
That is where the mid-point of a hip belt should be.

Some hip belts will fit you better than others.
Try a bunch of different packs, with Granite Gear being one of them.

Edited by greg23 on 06/13/2011 11:19:08 MDT.

"Put the heel of you hand on top of you hip. Push down.
That is where the mid-point of a hip belt should be."

Actually, for some the top of the hipbelt will hit the illiac crest, not the middle.