Any ideas? After a tough rucksack in a bright colour

[Garnett]

Deuter and Osprey look really comfortable and packed with decent technical features but, like North Face, I'm not certain how robust their materials are...

Alice and Molle are a bit too military-looking for my liking.

 

[R.Lewis]

Our deuter is over ten years old, so no worries on toughness there!

 

[Garnett]

Just as an update - I'm currenlty waiting to hear back from Aiguille with some questions.

At the moment I'm focusing on Aiguille, Crux (why can't the AK37 come in orange?) and Pod (they look good - the Black Ice looks ideal but too big - looking for a 35l-ish size equivalent - all their others seem to have gone lightweight).

Those three seem to be still making tough rucksacks without sacrificing too much to the lightweight posse.

 

[789987]

35l and pretty damn bright!

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Just get a tough as old boots pack, and a day glo cover for it. Problem solved, and a bit of extra protection for foul weather

 

[Squidders]

Just get a tough as old boots pack, and a day glo cover for it. Problem solved, and a bit of extra protection for foul weather

I agree 100% - get the pack with the exact functionality you want and apply a bright cover.

 

[Garnett]

Just to give an update: I went for the Haglofs Roc Hard. Really impressed - it seems very tough, with few features, but what it does have seem well thought out.

 

[suburban bushwacker]

For robustness at any cost Kifaru will make you up any of their packs in pretty much any material you provide - at a premium.
Me I make do with a S/H one on foliage green

SBW

 

[treefrog]

If you can live without side pockets, score an old purple Karrimor Alpiniste on Ebay. They live forever and are the last world in rucksack cool. I've got three of the old purplies !

NS

I've had mine since 1983 for my first Alps trip

 

[bikething]

Technically you could wear bright orange or yellow and you'd still have the same affect on most creatures,

but not on people... I like walking across the moors, and nothing winds me up more than seeing a far reaching view spoiled by a group of ramblers in dayglo orange and blue anoraks on a hill 5 miles away.. they just draw your eye to them... I don't want to be a blot on someone elses landscape...

Coyote brown seems to be a good neutral colour - doesn't look too military at a distance and doesn't grab your eyes...

as an aside, if green is such a good camoflage colour, then why are most mammals in the UK brown?

 

[santaman2000]

You might try collecting civilian expedition patches; the sort sold at National parks and some of the specific hiking trails. Sew them on your olive or khaki pack to civilianize it. That might be easier than finding a pack you like in a color you like. I don't know how available such patches are in the UK but if they aren't readily available You might try trading with others in the ultralight community; they tend to hike along the longer trails that would offer them. I have a couple from Tennessee. Also does BCUK offer a membership patch? The idea is rather like the way travelors in the 1st half of the 20th century used to put stickers on their luggage from places they had visited.