Most pack discomfort isn't the pack — it's the fit. People drop $400 on a quality hiking pack, then carry it like a school bag with the straps loose, the hip belt halfway up their stomach, and wonder why their shoulders are screaming after 5km.

A properly fitted hiking pack puts the load on your hips (where you can carry it all day) instead of your shoulders (where you can't). Get the fit right and a heavy pack feels noticeably lighter. Get it wrong and a light pack feels like a cinder block. Here's the seven-step fitting routine, the way Deuter (one of the world's oldest pack makers, founded 1898) recommends it.

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Don't try to fit an empty pack. Empty packs feel comfortable until you put 15kg in them. Load yours with similar weight to what you'll carry on your trip — a few water bottles, some gear, anything to make up the load.

Quick weight benchmark: Deuter's CEO Bernd Kullmann's rule of thumb — "a fit person should not carry more than 20-25% of their body weight over a long period of time." So an 80kg adult shouldn't be loading much more than 16-20kg for multi-day walking. Lighter is always better; this is the upper limit, not the target.

Before you put the pack on, fully loosen all four strap systems: shoulder straps, hip belt, sternum strap, load lifters. Now sling it on. The pack should sit on your shoulders without anything pulling tight.

This sounds backwards but it's the trick — you fit the hip belt FIRST, then everything else falls into place around it.

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Bring the hip belt up so the centre of the padded section sits across the top of your hip bones — not above (across your stomach) and not below (across your bum). This is where 70-80% of the pack weight should ride.

Tighten the hip belt firmly. Not chokingly — but enough that the pack is locked to your hips and won't slide down. If you feel chafing or restriction in your stomach, the belt is too high; if you feel pressure on your thighs, it's too low.

Critical: at this point, almost all the pack's weight should be on your hips. Your shoulders should feel almost nothing.

Now tighten the shoulder straps slowly. The goal: the straps make contact with your shoulders and prevent the pack from tilting backwards, but they should NOT be carrying meaningful weight.

If you feel the weight transfer to your shoulders, you've gone too tight. Loosen them again until the hip belt is taking the load. The shoulder straps are stabilisers, not load-bearers.

This is the bit you need a friend or mirror for. The shoulder strap anchor points (where the straps attach to the back of the pack) should sit between your shoulder blades — not above them, not below them.

If the anchor points are too high: the pack rubs your neck and pulls back. The pack is too short for you OR you've adjusted the back-length wrong (most quality packs have an adjustable back length system).

If they're too low: the pack tilts back, the load lifters won't work, and the weight pulls away from your back. Either the pack is too tall for you, or the back length needs shortening.

If you can't get the anchor points right with adjustment, the pack isn't your size — return it.

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The sternum strap clips across your chest and stops the shoulder straps spreading apart. Position it just below your collarbones (most packs let you slide it up and down on rails) and tighten it firmly but not so tight you can't take a deep breath.

This is the strap most beginners over-tighten. If you can feel it constricting your breathing on a flat walk, imagine what it'll feel like climbing.

Two sets of stabiliser straps to know about — these are what you'll adjust most often during a walk:

• Hip belt stabilisers — small straps on either side of the hip belt, pulling the bottom of the pack tight to your back. Tighter = more controlled on rough terrain. Looser = more freedom of movement on flat track
• Shoulder stabilisers / load lifters — straps from the top of the shoulder strap going up to the top of the pack frame. Pulling them tighter shifts weight forward onto your shoulders (better load control on descents); loosening them shifts weight back to the hips (better for long flat stretches)

Rule of thumb: stabiliser straps should sit at a 30-45° angle relative to your back. Steeper than that and they're not doing the job. On a long day, deliberately loosen and tighten them every hour or so to redistribute pressure — it dramatically reduces fatigue.

Even with a perfectly fitted pack, the wrong loading wrecks the carry. Three rules:

• Heavy items close to your back, in the middle vertically. Sleeping bag at the bottom (it's bulky but light), heavy gear (food, stove, water) against your back at mid-height, jacket and other light items on top
• Even left-right balance. Don't load one side much heavier — the pack will pull you to that side all day
• Minimise external attachments. Things hanging off the outside swing in wind, snag on branches, and make the pack handle worse. Keep the trekking poles, helmet, anything bulky as compactly attached as possible

The fit-hip-belt-first method is the single biggest fix for sore shoulders on the trail. Most packs, properly loaded and fitted, should sit on your hips with shoulder straps doing almost nothing — that's the test. If your shoulders are taking the load after 30 minutes of walking, your hip belt is wrong, your back length is wrong, or the pack itself is wrong for you.

Practice this routine in the backyard with a loaded pack before your first big trip. Walk around the house for 15 minutes, then re-adjust. The first time you do it properly you'll feel the difference immediately — and you won't go back to carrying a hiking pack any other way.