I received my Southwest pack the other day. Overall, I like the pack, but am still trying to decide if I'll keep it.
A couple questions/concerns:
(i) The space between the hipbelt in the lumbar area is a bit wide for the width of my back. As a consequence, there is a gap between the hipbelt and my hips near my spine, meaning that there isn't a complete wrap around my hips. Is there any way to remedy this? I read somewhere on here that the user had had Hyperlite Mountain Gear customize the lumbar pad by making it narrower or something of the sort.
(ii) The body of the pack extends well above the shoulder straps, which creates extra interior volume (which is nice), but it makes it real hard to pack the pack, especially since the cuben hybrid fabric is rather stiff. It's like trying to reach way down into a deep tube, if that makes any sense. The only solution I found is to roll down the top of the packbag, inverting the cuben fabric, but I have concerns that this repeated stressing of the fabric will eventually compromise it. Thoughts?
(iii) The hipbelt pockets are rather small and hard to operate one handed since they are away from the front. But this just might be the fact that I have a size small. I wish that the hipbelt extended a bit further towards the middle so the pockets were easier to reach.
(iv) Any idea on how I ought to bend the stays to have them conform to my back? Or should I just leave them alone? I feel like the pack is pretty comfortable overall, but the comfort could be improved a bit.
That's it for now. I do like the look of the white cuben fabric and the black checkered dyneema of the outside pockets on the Southwest model. Very minimalist looking and nice contrast.
