I bought this to use as an extended gear pack for my ground SAR activities with the Civil Air Patrol. I chose it for the external frame, the narrow profile and the price. I've been happy with it so far: it rides well and I've had no problem with the compression system. Plus, the smooth exterior leaves less to get hung up on the various flora that we encounter here. It's perhaps a tad tall, but I'm on the short side so when I get hung up it's just a matter of taking half a step back and leaning forward a bit. The only other thing I can think of that I would do to improve it is to add a hydration pocket and tube pass-through. But there are internal pockets and creating a pass-through is easy enough...

This pack really isn't that great. I took it on a long 2 week expedition, and was constantly making field repairs to the straps/hipbelt/buckles/COMPRESSION Straps.

This pack is worse than the LaFuma Eiger 75 in that the compression straps often break, the buckles are cheap. And the pack does't compress well overall. I wouldn't reccommendthis pack to anyone.

Similar Products Used:

Eiger 75 (LaFuma)

I wasnt as pleased with this pack as i was hoping to be after finding the only place in the state of Washington that sells it, it was a comfortable pack, but not as comfortable as my dana design, and it had alot of adjustability due to its radically new frame design, but that frame broke twice on me while i was up trail working for the national park service as a backcountry park ranger. One of the compression straps broke which through its balance all off, and one of the shoulder pads broke off which ment i had to pack out a 70lb load with my shoulder blade resting on a hard plastice frame. Its a neat idea, but Eureka is too new at packs, if they beef them up for some real work than they'll have a real good pack on their hands, other than that this thing is not relieble enough to take to far up trail in my opinion.

Similar Products Used:

Dana Design Swiftcurrent, Mountainsmith frostfire, lowe alpine