Dan Durston pack in the works at Drop.com

The M/L is 17″ between the middle of the hipbelt to the shoulder straps, and 20.5″ to the load lifters, so it works pretty well in that range. Ideally >18″ so you have a bit of wrap over your shoulders and not more than 20″ so you’re not level or above the load lifters. So I’d say the ideal range is 18 – 20″ for the M/L but the marketing people at Drop decided to call it 18″ and then later changed it to a 17-19″ range.

So the M/L is probably more like a M with an 18-20″ range. Ideally we would have a L pack that is 2″ taller with a 20-22″ range. Due to minimum orders they only wanted to do 2 sizes, so right now we only have those, but  I hope down the road we can add that larger size. I totally agree it is needed to expand the sizing lineup.

Regarding timing, some of the wording might not be clear but the packs are expected in April 2020, not this August. The pre-sale ends on Aug 22.

Hey Dan, excited about the pack, and looking forward to a video breaking it down. From the images it looks like the compression straps (compression cord) only spans the top half or so of the pack? Are you able to compress the pack down when it’s not fully loaded? Can you cinch it so it becomes tall and narrow vs short and wide? Thanks for all the good info.

The pack can compress 10L from about 43L to 33L via the roll top, which is the main way I anticipate people compressing it. The side compression also reduces the volume, but also functions to secure taller items like tents and trekking poles in the side pockets. When I’ve had roll top packs that also have side compression, I end up using the side compression pretty rarely.

So to answer your question, no you can’t cinch the bottom. The side cords are only on the top and would compress it further from 30L to perhaps 20 if fully cinched. If we extended the cords further down the pack they would likely interfere with the side pockets either directly, or by pulling the side pocket openings smaller so they are harder to use. That does mean that if your load is really small (e.g. 20L) then you might not be able to compress it as much as you want, but I also don’t think compression is that important with loads that light unless you’re hoping to run with it. In some circumstances it might be nice but I don’t see a way to do that without some impairment of the side pockets.

Dan. Just wondering about the size. Is the 40l include the extension collar and outside pockets?  Thanks

The volume inside the pack (inc. extension collar) with the roll top just folding the minimum (2 folds) is 42L in the M/L size and 39L in the S/M size. So that’s everything in the main compartment, but not external pockets.

Dan. Thank you for the quick reply. I’m looking forward to the pack being available again. It’s interesting how different makers report pack volumes. The gossamer gear mariposa is a 60l pack, but the main compartment is 36l, the rest being outside pockets. My granite gear pack blaze is 60l in the main compartment, not including the extension collar. By the way, I have one of your 1p tents arriving on Monday. Can’t wait to try it. I think the inner may work under my gossamer gear twin tarp giving me even more flexibility

It’s interesting how different makers report pack volumes.
Without naming companies, I will say that when I measured a lot of packs to the appropriate Standard, I found a few mfrs who were straight out fraudulent. See our review of internal frame packs for details.
https://backpackinglight.com/lw_internal_frame_packs_part_1a/
https://backpackinglight.com/lw_internal_frame_packs_part_1b/
https://backpackinglight.com/lw_internal_frame_packs_part_1c/
https://backpackinglight.com/lw_internal_frame_packs_part_2/
If they cheated back then, they are probably still cheating today.

Cheers

I gotta pay?  sheesh

Got any idea just how much it costs to run the BPL servers?
It’s a lot of bikkies.

Cheers