Alright,
Today it finally arrived -and on time!
First impressions, It looks a lot lighter and smaller somehow in person (a good thing) I guess when you see pics and think "ARCTIC EXPIDTION" you just think boomber/heavy duty.
The dry sacks are 50 denier dimond ripstop and feel very durable -so no problems there as far as Im concerned.
Really- Im impressed! Its natural to second guess an online purchase ( Im I really gonna use this?) especially at these prices! But my fears have been alayed! I swaped out the 60L bag and put in the 50L and loaded it with a weekends worth of gear for my planned overnighter in the NH's Pilot range. First off, this is more volume than I need – I spent all those years shrinking my pack!- but because its waterproof ( for real!) all I had to do was stuff my sleeping bag and clothing in it and put every thing on top (basiclly).In fact my down 30 deg.- sleeping bag takes up about half the volume uncompressed. I also put a 1L Platy in the out side pocket and it easily fit, (in fact you could easily put 2 in there) along with some toiletries and my ditty bag ect. I felt no pulling on my back from the weight of the full platy. I actually forgot it was there while walking aroud the house/yard. Being from New England it really feels nice to finally have a real waterproof pack- no more liners, no more worries!Whats great is that you can so easily put things like a canister or sleeping pad in it with out much fuss and as easily remove it. I dont think Ill miss all the outside pockets Im used to – its a good trade off and besides how hard is it to stick a pocket on the strap? Ofcoarse the real test comes in the field, but I have high hopes!
