When every ounce that you carry into the wilderness matters, Dyneema composite ultralight backpacks are the right choice for your hiking adventures.
The latest Dyneema woven composite is changing the ultralight backpacking game, promising serious weight savings without sacrificing durability. For thru-hikers counting every ounce on long-distance trails, this new fabric technology could be a game-changer. But like all gear innovations, it comes with trade-offs. We break down what this advanced material brings to the table, where it excels, and which hiking conditions might expose its limitations.
You are the packhorse
The pioneer days meant putting horses and mules to work to bring everything you needed to survive in the wilderness. While these pack animals are still sometimes utilized for this purpose, everything you need to survive in the wilderness for a week or more can be placed in a pack on your back. This makes you the packhorse, but it also means you can go places that a horse or mule cannot, giving you access to locations that can be extremely adventurous and fun.
Going ultralight matters
The ultralight backpacking technology of today allows materials to be much lighter and more durable than ever before. This means you can add more to your pack when you have one of the Dyneema composite ultralight backpacks. Using advanced hiking fabrics, these backpacks make it easier to enjoy your time on the trails. If you talk to any professional trail guide, you’ll learn that some items are just not required for backpacking, but with one of these new backpacks made of ultralight fabrics in 2025, you can add more to your pack and bring along some of those comfort items.
What are these backpacks made of?
Dyneema Composite Fabric (DCF) is a woven composite fabric that consists of crisscrossing strands of material between polyester films. This specially made fabric is used in tents and lightweight backpack materials, allowing the packs to be much lighter and stronger than ever before. To make the material applicable to pack construction, the face fabric has to be laminated to it, which allows for the expected level of abrasion on the trails.
Is Dyneema the best material for hiking packs?
The Dyneema composite ultralight backpacks are great as thru-hiking gear and bring innovation to the trails where innovation is rarely found. When compared to X-Pac CX21 fabric, the DCF construction of a backpack falls a little short. The X-Pac material is heavier, but also thicker, which means it’s more likely to stand up to trail abrasions and other challenges that take place when out on the trails during hiking and backpacking treks. Still, the DCF fabric is extremely durable, especially for hikers who might only take these wilderness treks once a month or fewer.
Better than traditional fabrics
The outer layer of a Dyneema backpack has ten times the abrasion resistance and five times the tear resistance of older fabrics. This is excellent news when you want to utilize one of these backpacks for your outdoor experiences on the trails. There’s a better than good chance you will brush your backpack up against rocks, trees, branches, and other wilderness items that could cause a rip, tear, or simply wear down the fabrics of your backpack.
Improved from older Dyneema packs
The new Dyneema composite ultralight backpacks are much better than older versions. One of the drawbacks to older Dyneema packs is the “crinkling” noise caused by the material. This new Woven Composite material is much quieter with less crinkly sound than older versions. This new material is stronger and more durable than the older material, it is also 34 percent lighter than before.
User feedback helped create these packs
The Hyperlight line of lightweight backpacks not only utilize the new Dyneema material, they have also been created using feedback from users who take them into the wilderness. This means the addition of adding a new sewn back panel and improving the shoulder strap design. Pockets have also been redesigned to be more accessible. These new packs are more luxurious and more durable than ever before.
Serious packs for serious hikers
These new Dyneema composite ultralight backpacks have been tested by Hyperlite’s network of trail guides, athletes, sherpas, and thru-hikers who spend many days at a time in wilderness areas. It took the company two years to come up with the new combination of fabrics and durable features to make these packs tougher, lighter, and more rugged than ever.
If you’re considering many days in the backcountry and several hiking trips in your future, especially those where you will spend several days in the wilderness, a backpack made with this new Dyneema material could be the right choice for you.