eBay find: Mystery Ranch Tall NICE frame

A truly unique specimen, I can only assume this predates the current load lifter kit. The shortcoming of the Nice frame has always been its short height, this solution (simply extending the frame) presents backward compatibility issues since it would move every MR pack up too high on the frame.

I find it particularly interesting that they chose to change the basic geometry of the frame for the increased height, the center frame stay splits into a "Y" to the upper corners, rather then staying parallel like other MR frames.

A more studied MR aficionado could probably date this pack more accurately by the optifade colorway which I know was only offered for a short period.

While the new Guidelite and SPEAR frames solve the height issue handily with no backward compatibility issues, it is always fun to think of what might have been, if MR had went with this frame height from the beginning they probably would lost millions in government contracts, but perhaps had more market share in the hunting world.