With "the harness thing" do you mean the rucksack with the snowshoes? It is my rucksack, it isn't big (37 l) is light (1. 47 kg) and is extremly comfortable (but there are too many long straps)
The snowshoes are also very light
I am 58 years old and...yes my back is in a bad condition, but it is not due to the rucksack (this or other).
Ciao vecchio Rob
Some days are worse than others, which, by definition, almost indicates that some might be good! The sight of a grey beard in the mirror, very first thing every morning, makes me feel vecchio beyond my actual years, which are quite daunting at the best of times. The only thing worse would be a white one (beard).
My first experience of bad backs came when I was about twenty: I leaped up into the air and attempted to do one of those silly heel-clicking things that folks did on tv; it didn’t work. Another time, I was using a tall drill that required one to reach upwards to pull down on a lever that brought the drill down to the work. I felt a hell of a pain in the small of my back… on both occasions the doctor’s advice was to sleep on the floor. Some sympathetic doctor!
However, I am also developing the walk of a question mark. I put that down to too many years of carrying camera cases and tripods as well as the habit, derived from the fashion experience, of shooting from rather low levels, which means you are constantly stooped down over a low tripod or bending/squatting when hand-holding the damned machines, neither option being comfortable nor natural.
Photography really can be bad for one.
Ciao –
Rob C