Mountain Hardwear Fluid 32

Excellent product: Appears well built, lightweight, and fairly abbrasion resistant. Straps and hip belt fit comfortably. The drawcords to tighten up the bag for scrambling/climbing don't appear to do much, though I never felt I needed them.

So far so good. Used on 3 big hikes (plus rail and airport travel to and from) with no signs of wear. Hoping it will last a long time.

Fit: Excellent fit, good adjustability for straps and hip belt, as well as on the fly compression system.

Comfort: Fits comfortably, padding is adequate, back panel is very comfortable, as well as the padding of the hip belt.

Capacity: good capacity, pockets on lid (both internal and external) as well as external pocket are excellent. Although the name would suggest that this is a 32L bag, if purchased in size M/L it is actually 35L.

Organization and Accessibility: excellent accesibility both from the top as well as from side pocket

Ride: Load is distributed evenly, the corrigated back panel appears to work well. I have never over-stuffed but have filled it to capacity with clothing, food and SLR camera gear which can be quite bulky. It all appeared to be fairly evenly distributed and I never felt it pulling to the side.

Compression: Excellent adjustability throughout, very easy to compress.

Ease of Use: Everything works as expected, but perhaps a little too much adjustability with the on-the-fly compression. I wonder how that will hold up. I typically like simpler designs, but I am pleased with this product.

Features: great ventilation and corrugated back panel, many pockets (inner and outer lid, side access zipper, large front pocket, good deep bottle holders, and pockets on the hip belt), loops for trekking poles and ice axe (excellent, I don't like it when bags give you the option of one or the other). Overall it is a fairly feature-loaded pack especially for a lighter-weight product.

Construction and Durability: So far so good, everything appears to be well made. It is a lighter weight bag at 2lb1oz for size L, so I am suspicious of the trade-off in durability for the cut in weight with comparable bags, but there is nothing that I can fault so far. The materials seem to be of good quality and the construction is solid.

Conditions: Winter hiking in Scottish mountains, and spring hikes on Peak District (UK)

Excellent product, I would highly recommend it.

I am an avid backpacker, hiker, and mountain biker. I needed a new full size day pack. I wanted a bag I could use for long day hikes, as well as around town. This pack is the newer model (Panel Loader Design).

Pros:

• New panel load design allows me to open the bag up enough to see all the contents.
• Very lightweight and versatile. Does a great job and distributing the all my gear, yet I can compress it and stow the waist belt, and use it sightseeing and for quick overnight traveling.
• H2O bladder compatible, yet still has side mesh stretch pockets that fit full size Nalgene. Which is becoming harder and harder to come by.

Cons:

• When the bag is not completely full, the bottom is so big it tends to sag past the small of my bag. It becomes quite noticeable after a long day, having my bag drooping and smacking on my rear. Not a deal breaker, but a critique.
• The front stash pocket is only open on the two top sides, makes getting items into the front difficult.
• Possible Durability. I haven't had this pack long enough to test this, but lighter materials usually means you have to be more cautious.

This bag is a great multi-tasker. Hope to get so many adventures out of this pack.

This pack has a great frame and fairly decent load transfer. It held up fine on various day trips in the White Mountains with lots of steep trails and rough terrain.

I am a big fan of the compression straps. I had absolutely nothing moving around on the trail. The main compression strap with the buckle is great except the material slips sometimes.

The other thing that is a little disappointing is that two of the buckles have already cracked. They are fairly small and a cheap plastic and I have had to replace them.

The other thing to note is that this pack feels a little flimsy with heavier loads, so stick to day trips.