Anyone have any long term experience with using the golite pursuit frameless? The alluminum stays and plastic sheeting are removable, but I can't find anyone else who posted about using it that way for a long period of time.

My base weight is like 9.5 pounds, and probably won't ever carry more than 25. With the frame in place, it's supposed to carry up to 35lbs.

It feels fine when walking around my house packed at 22 pounds with my pad as the frame, but I would like to know if anyone has any first hand experience.

In my opinion the advantage of a frameless pack is that its simpler and lighter. The Pursuit has already been built up as an internal frame pack. It has the nicer hipbelt, the sleave for the frame etc. If you take the frame out you'll have a heavy frameless pack that may or may not carry as well as a pack thats designed from the ground up as a frameless pack. I'd leave it in place personaly.

I have used the larger GoLite Quest as a packraft hauling pack. I ran it first with the stays and plastic framesheet in place but eventually removed the stays and found the pack to be way more comfortable while still resulting in support that resists the folding or buckling of the pack body that happens when loading the frameless Pinnacle.

Simple answer would be to try it on an overnighter closer to home in the different configurations and see what works best for you.