Q.}
Do I have to get my girlfriend a women's-specific backpack if her torso size fits a men's one? Do the shoulder strap position and waist belt flare really matter and do you wear a women’s-specific backpack?
Submitted by: Miguel - Detroit, MI
Submitted by: Miguel - Detroit, MI
A.}
No, Miguel, you don’t necessarily have to get your girlfriend a women’s specific pack. I often wear men’s or unisex packs with great success. And I know small men who have had luck with women’s packs. Forget about the gender labels and look at the pack itself, and the way it works with your girlfriend’s body shape.
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I just used this for a seven-day trip in Kings Canyon, and it was a delight. There are a few negatives and I'd prefer to give this 4.5 stars, but rounded up.
For its weight, the pack is quite voluminous. My sleeping bag was at the bottom with the Bearikade Weekender just above it and my tent along side the pair of them, which left enough room in the spaces between and above for the rest of my gear. Since I was up above 10,000 feet in autumn, I had my warmer gear, but was able to get everything in without difficulty.
Undoubtedly quite a bit of weight savings came by eliminating excess features. The single big front pocket has none of that useless "organizer" stuff in it: if you want a keychain, you'll have to add one yourself. Same if you want a separate mini-compartment for you eyeglasses or spare batteries. There is also a nicely sized compartment built into the floating cover.
The two mesh pockets on the sides worked fine for water bottles; I was able to reach back and grab a bottle and replace it without taking the pack off, which is the key feature for those pockets, in my opinion -- note that the "official" Backpacker magazine says they're hard to reach, so maybe it depends on the user's physique and limberness.
Finally, a really nice feature is while using this for day hikes, there are little widgets at the bottom that close up the fabric, so that the lower portion of the pack is dramatically reduced in volume. This keeps all the gear from slumping down there; in combination with the side compression straps, a day-pack's worth of gear remains fairly well distributed across the back.
Okay, some negatives.
First, the nicely padded waistbelt is only attached to the bottom of the pack with fabric, with no internal strengthening. I was probably carrying about 35 pounds, and the pack was sagging a bit below the waistbelt in back. So with the waistbelt properly positioned on my hips, the pack was hanging lower than I would have preferred. This could be remedied by a few grams of hard plastic tying the bottom of the pack around to the waistbelt; without it, I wouldn't want to push this to the 40 pounds it supposedly is rated for.
Second, the hydration bladder sleeve is buried way down in the pack, even though it could have been positioned quite a few inches higher up. So, more than many packs, it becomes impossible to refill the bladder without emptying the pack. It was able to fit my 2.5 liter bladder (MSR Dromedary) in without difficulty, but only filled it first thing in the morning, and relied on a bottle in one of the mesh pockets the rest of the day.
Posted by MrRedwood, Oct 17, 2010