OK, I needed (wanted?) a lightweight rucksack for short 2 3 day long backpacking trips, 45 to 50L capacity with plenty of features, for the £100 I had lying in my not so sticky fist from Christmas. My current large daysack is a Berghaus freeflow 35 +8, which is a weird curved shape, and getting things to fit is a bit of a mission. Also it's 10 years old now, and things MUST have moved on a bit now,mustn't they?
During a family trip into the big smoke (Aberdeen) to watch a film, I took my chances and dove into Cotswold for 5 mins.
They had a few offerings in there, a nice looking slimline offering from RAB, a couple of Ospreys, as well as the usual Berghaus / Lowe Alpine /Vango offerings.
I was looking for a weight of about 1KG, so the Rab was out at 1300g, also its' 45L didn't look to be expandable, and whilst it would make a lovely alpine / climbing bag, I wasn't looking for that. The other bags were all size S/M, when those that know will me will agree that i'm in the M/L category.
Cotswold handily have a selection of weighted stuffsacks by their rucksack display, so I filled an Osprey Talon 44 with about 10KG worth and hoisted it onto my back.
I was pleasantly surprised. I expected 10KG to feel 'too heavy' in a bag as light as this, but it didn't. It fitted me well over the shoulders, and the waistbelt sat in about the right place. The chest strap was initially very high, but I slid it down as low as it would go, and it was OK,avoiding the dreaded 'Mooby wonderbra' effect. If I decide it needs to go lower, I'm not averse to a bit of needlework. Plus it was bang on budget.
On getting home, I loaded the bag with my tent (Laser comp 1) my ME 2 season down bag, a full length Thermarest prolite mat (Hea vee) and an MSR titan kettle, small gas stove, and a 250G canister. I was impressed. Where the Berghaus would be unrelenting and provide me with too many odd shaped nooks and crannies due to the banana esque back system (I'll give it this though, I never had a sweaty back. Well, I never had MUCH of a sweaty back) I'd be looking at a 3/4 full bag, and the side pockets on the Berghaus were feckless for anything more than a map,or a hat and a pair of gloves, capacity being influenced by the stuff in the main compartment.
In the Osprey there's heaps of space, plenty for clothes, and a couple of days or more of food. The side pockets will happily take a 1L nalgene bottle apiece, if that's your kind of thing, they're nice and stretchy, so arent bothered by what you have in the main compartment. The back pocket will take my waterproof jacket and trousers easily, and the top pocket is huge, it's probably 5 or 6 L by itself, and there's a handy under lid valuables pocket too, and it'll float upwards by about 10cm easily, and that'll give what I suspect will turn out to be a main pack capacity of about 50L. The main bag is about the same size as an old Lowe Alpine snow peak 50 I used to have, which held enough, but didn't have any stiffening in the back system, so it was a nightmare to pack, I sweated like a pig, and if you gave it more than about 10KGs, it was all over the place. This bag looks to be a substantial improvement.
The hipbelt wings have a pocket each on them, and they'll take a phone, or a small camera, your car keys, a torch, a couple of mars bars etc between them so your trouser and jacket pockets can be left empty, which is how I like to be when out and about.
I haven't put a water bladder in the pocket inside the back yet, I'll save that for when I test it properly, outside, away from the internet, but I'll report back though.
The bag isn't waterproof , so a couple of drybags will be invaluable for keeping spare clothes and your sleeping bag dry, and the fabrics and hardware are necessarily light, so I'm going to have to be a bit careful with it in forests and around rocks.
I look forward to getting it dirty, maybe, just maybe I won't need to worry about the 'mooby wonderbra' effect for much longer.
During a family trip into the big smoke (Aberdeen) to watch a film, I took my chances and dove into Cotswold for 5 mins.
They had a few offerings in there, a nice looking slimline offering from RAB, a couple of Ospreys, as well as the usual Berghaus / Lowe Alpine /Vango offerings.
I was looking for a weight of about 1KG, so the Rab was out at 1300g, also its' 45L didn't look to be expandable, and whilst it would make a lovely alpine / climbing bag, I wasn't looking for that. The other bags were all size S/M, when those that know will me will agree that i'm in the M/L category.
Cotswold handily have a selection of weighted stuffsacks by their rucksack display, so I filled an Osprey Talon 44 with about 10KG worth and hoisted it onto my back.
I was pleasantly surprised. I expected 10KG to feel 'too heavy' in a bag as light as this, but it didn't. It fitted me well over the shoulders, and the waistbelt sat in about the right place. The chest strap was initially very high, but I slid it down as low as it would go, and it was OK,avoiding the dreaded 'Mooby wonderbra' effect. If I decide it needs to go lower, I'm not averse to a bit of needlework. Plus it was bang on budget.
On getting home, I loaded the bag with my tent (Laser comp 1) my ME 2 season down bag, a full length Thermarest prolite mat (Hea vee) and an MSR titan kettle, small gas stove, and a 250G canister. I was impressed. Where the Berghaus would be unrelenting and provide me with too many odd shaped nooks and crannies due to the banana esque back system (I'll give it this though, I never had a sweaty back. Well, I never had MUCH of a sweaty back) I'd be looking at a 3/4 full bag, and the side pockets on the Berghaus were feckless for anything more than a map,or a hat and a pair of gloves, capacity being influenced by the stuff in the main compartment.
In the Osprey there's heaps of space, plenty for clothes, and a couple of days or more of food. The side pockets will happily take a 1L nalgene bottle apiece, if that's your kind of thing, they're nice and stretchy, so arent bothered by what you have in the main compartment. The back pocket will take my waterproof jacket and trousers easily, and the top pocket is huge, it's probably 5 or 6 L by itself, and there's a handy under lid valuables pocket too, and it'll float upwards by about 10cm easily, and that'll give what I suspect will turn out to be a main pack capacity of about 50L. The main bag is about the same size as an old Lowe Alpine snow peak 50 I used to have, which held enough, but didn't have any stiffening in the back system, so it was a nightmare to pack, I sweated like a pig, and if you gave it more than about 10KGs, it was all over the place. This bag looks to be a substantial improvement.
The hipbelt wings have a pocket each on them, and they'll take a phone, or a small camera, your car keys, a torch, a couple of mars bars etc between them so your trouser and jacket pockets can be left empty, which is how I like to be when out and about.
I haven't put a water bladder in the pocket inside the back yet, I'll save that for when I test it properly, outside, away from the internet, but I'll report back though.
The bag isn't waterproof , so a couple of drybags will be invaluable for keeping spare clothes and your sleeping bag dry, and the fabrics and hardware are necessarily light, so I'm going to have to be a bit careful with it in forests and around rocks.
I look forward to getting it dirty, maybe, just maybe I won't need to worry about the 'mooby wonderbra' effect for much longer.
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