Hiking carrier ...

[andtellyouofmydreaming]

Hi , I'm buying a back pack carrier for going on long walks with my 8 month old baby. Am going to buy an Osprey one or a Little Life one... Osprey is a lot more expensive so just wondered if anyone has any insight into whether it's worth the extra cost....

Thanks!

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MNHQ

We have Littlelife V5 voyager. Its amazing. I bought it for £189.

DH used to work in an outdoor shop on the Peak District and sold a lot of baby backpacks. The most popular ones (least returns fur bring uncomfortable) were MacPac (Possum) and LittleLife. Osprey didn’t exist (or if they did, didn’t import to the uk) then, but having had a couple of their rucksacks, they are fantastically well made, well designed and adjustable and seem to be utterly bombproof.

I would suggest that you, and anyone else likely to be using it (including the baby) go and try some on, and see what is comfortable for you.

We have a LittleLife one (no idea which, we bought it probably nearly 7 years ago and it's survived in great shape through two dc and lots of regular use). I would recommend trying them on in shop though, ideally with your dc in them. They can be very heavy. Our LittleLife one is quite bulky and heavy. We've definitely carried ours in it until 3, probably nearly 4, on long or treacherous walks - though my 'we' I mean mostly dh. After about 2, they were too heavy for me to carry in it.

I bought a second hand Osprey because I knew I wanted one but they are so expensive. If money is no object, I'd go for the Osprey every time.

If more than one adult is going to use it, make sure it can be adjusted comfortably for all adults who are going to use it. My very tall brother and his very small wife struggled with this.

We have an osprey one and DH loves it, he'd never buy another brand now!

Minimeis are AMAZING

Thanks everyone for your help, really really useful! Ideally would go to a shop and try on as suggested, but with covid and living far from a sizeable outdoor shop it's tricky! Might get a couple mentioned to try at home, or see if there are any osprey ones secondhand on eBay.

Good point @mindutopia about the weight of it, hadn't thought of that....

I have an Osprey poco and a little Life Traveller.

The Osprey was more expensive but so much more comfortable to carry, especially on long walks and now that DS is heavier.

If you can afford the Osprey definitely get it.

We had an osprey carrier but I couldn't physically swing DS onto my back in it and even though DH was keen to buy it and could get him up, we both ended up agreeing the Tula was far more comfortable for all of us and a bum bag to carry the essentials did the job.

I have the Deuter Kid Comfort which both DH and I use regularly. It's amazingly comfortable and DS falls asleep in it all the time!

We tried on a few in Go Outdoors. Beforehand we thought we'd go for the osprey but it was actually the worst for us so def worth trying on. We ended up with deuter and its brilliant.