Outdoor Products Desert Ridge

I was in southern Nevada for a climb in Red Rock Canyon. Because I had flown in, I was without much gear and decided to purchase a cheap backpack to hold my rope, my sleeping bag, and other items for a one (and possibly two) day climb to the summit of Mount Wilson.

For $29.88 I bought the Desert Ridge at a Las Vegas Wallmart. I previously relied on gear manufactured by Outdoor Products for most of my outdoor activities. In fact I still own an Outdoor Products daypack that I used as my bookbag all through college and which I have even taken on adventure races such as the California Eco Adventure Race.

However, the quality of backpacks made by Outdoor Products is apparently not what it once was. Upon stuffing my sleeping bag into the Desert Ridge Framepack, the seam that separates the drawstring skirt from the main body of the pack tore open. Within a few hours of scraping and scrambling up the rock face, the pack was showing real wear.

By the time I returned to the trailhead, the pack was ripped and torn open in a half-dozen places. The fabric is simply too thin for rugged use of any kind.

I don’t recommend this pack.

When I returned the tattered Desert Ridge Framepack to Wallmart on Decatur and Sahara in Las Vegas the following day, the clerk first doubted that it was the same pack I had purchased fewer than 24 hours earlier. Only when she scanned a barcode inside the pack did she believe me. Although I admitted that some of the damage may have been attributable to rough use during the climb, the first tear was clearly owed to bad design or materials.

-- Roger Roots