Mountainsmith Rain Cover

Does what is suppose to do—keep your gear dry, but there are better products out there.

This rain cover was included with my first backpack—a discontinued MS external frame pack. Being a novice at the time, I went with what they gave me.

My first week-long backpacking trip included 6 days of continual drizzle and light snow. I was using a really pathetic excuse for a tent, and the pack was forced to sit out at night in the never-ending wet. My pack and its contents stayed dry the entire week.

With the drawcord, I was able to easily fit this over the sleeping pad strapped to the top of the pack and the sleeping bag attached to the bottom. At night, when those items were in the tent with me, I had no problem cinching it down over the pack as it sat out in the rain. Again, everything stayed dry.

I now have too many backpacks for one man—all internal frame. I have found the cover just doesn't fit all that well. If you note the picture above, the external frame pack produced a boxy shape that the cover worked well with (It looks like I was carrying an entire house on my back—at least 50lbs. What a newbie!). The shape of an internal frame back just doesn't fit as nicely. I've made it work, but it was always too loose in some area.

When I finally decided to try something different, I found a lighter and cheaper rain cover ($9 at my local Walmart) that worked just as well and fits all of my internal frame packs much better.

This isn't a bad rain cover. I keep it in my "loaner gear" for new hikers, and as I pass on my external frame back to my [almost] Boy Scout, he'll have a rain cover that fits it like a glove.

The seems are not taped which could get your pack wet. There is an integrated bag with the cover but it is hard to get the pack cover back into the small bag.