CamelBak Tycoon Hydration Pack

Excellent pack for winter expeditions and quite serviceable as a daypack in any season.

This pack is one of my two primary daypacks, the other a North Face Recon, another excellent pack. This pack's strengths are its design, materials, and construction, in short everything about it.

Design: Thick materials, a separate compartment for the reservoir, another for the hose and mouthpiece, full strap set up, and compression straps that also serve to secure skis, snowshoes, a snowboard etc to the pack.

The really cool thing about all these features is that they work equally well for other seasons. That thick material that protects your gear from snow also serves well to protect it from rain and rocks. The insulated compartments that keep the reservoir, tubing, and mouth piece from freezing in the winter work equally well to keep them cool in summer. Those compression straps are equally good for securing hiking poles, rope, hatchet, etc to the pack.

The only downside of using this pack in warmer temperatures is there is no mesh on the back or straps for ventilation. However I haven't found this to be enough of a deterrant to not use it in all seasons. I remember a time when no packs had mesh and I'm only 23.

Basically this Camelbak pack is excellent as a winter pack and would serve well as a day pack in any situation.

Camelbak has hit a home run with this hydration pack. This is a very well insulated, thought forward, comfortable pack for winter activities.

I purchased this one and only hydration specific pack I own for snowshoeing. Having received it as a Fathers Day gift, it has yet to see sub freezing temps, but has been on many a trail. The pack itself is very well made with strong stitch, durable zippers and strong buckles I should never be concerned with.

The material itself is comfortable against the body and is well insulated against the back and throughout the harness. Besides comfort, this serves to keep the tube from freezing as well as the bladder itself. Speaking of the bladder, 96oz sealed tight with ice is the way to go, and this doesn't disappoint. The wide mouth is easy to fill and makes cleaning simple. I really see no downside to this hydration pack at all.

As I mentioned, it has yet to see temps lower than 40 degrees, but based on the design I'm confident it will function flawlessly.