After one full season am very impressed with performance and durability. Held up under full range of coditions and abrasive situations. A few seams are stretched a bit on main bag compartment - remains to be seen if they hold out. Trim and stable it carries full loads (50-65lb) with easy comfort on long treks (7-10 days). Well-varied "shift-on-the-fly" strap positions for weight+terrain adjustments. The problem with short side pockets not handling standard water bottles is easily overcome by purchasing fat little square ones which snuggle in perfect. Kangaroo pouch is a very useful feature for raingear. Only criticism is on the comparative uselessness of the top/lid for allowing only very small or flat items to get zipped in - need to increase the volume and/or redesign to accomodate bulkier items.

Customer Service

Quick shipping when dealer didn't have particular color in stock.

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Osprey, JanSport, Chounard Equipment

Please forgive me I am using this site as a message board but it is for the good. I posted the message below but have more info. First I think the website I recommended may keep selling after the 25th contrary to what I said below. Received my pack a few days ago and the details are amazing. I have a Lowe Contour IV also so I appreciate the difference. Second purpose of this email is to tell you I emailed ArcTeryx asking for fitting and adjustment instruction and received ten pages of excellent instructions. So send your request to: bird@arcteryx.com ......it arrives as an attachment (adobe) so you have to save to some file and then open and print but it is worth the trouble believe me. They also offered to snail mail if I could not open. If you don't have Adobe just download of internet for free. So.......take a hike!

Customer Service

Quick, thorough and complete, see above.

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None