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Brands

Backpacks

Ultralight Packs

Roll these up and stow them in your duffel or big pack for summits or dayhikes.

Boreas Topaz

$45; 10 oz.; 10 liters; boreasgear.com

Pros It’s highly water-resistant thanks to a roll-top closure and PU coating on the 100-denier nylon; a burlier 420-denier bottom panel guards against wear.

Cons It’s the least stuffable here.

REI Flash 18
$35; 12 oz.; 18 liters; rei.com

Pros It’s hydration compatible; a webbing hipbelt prevents swaying and flapping; price is right.

Cons The shoulder straps and torso length proved too small for our big-chested, long-torso (19+ inch) testers.

Outdoor Research Antimatter Pack

$75; 9.9 oz.; 18 liters; outdoor-research.com

Pros This seam-taped, PU-coated, 40-denier nylon pack stuffs into its own sandwich-size pocket, and also converts into a tote bag.

Cons One of the mesh pockets suffered a dime-size hole.

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