My two favorite features in a backpack are a seperate sleeping bag compartment and panel access. Therefore I bought the Osprey Xenith. However, for summer I need only 2500-3500 cu. inches, the Xenith is nearly twice that, way too big for summer use. So i searched for a smaller pack and found the Ascent 48 which i bought immediately. I hiked with it on a 5 day 95 mile trip on the Appalachian Trail. It performed very well with the only complaints being 1)There are no load lifter straps so the load is not centered very well 2)the pack sticks so far out from my back I had to lean forward to keep it in a good center of gravity. On a good note these problems are only present when carrying over 30-35 lb loads.All and all this is a great summer pack but for long distance hiking a top loading, expandible pack is ideal.

Customer Service

I emailed Jansport with a question and had a reply within 36 hours.

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Gregory Reality(great suspension system)
Eureka Glissade(crap)
Quest Summit I(a great climbing pack)
Jansport Peregrine 52(Flawless and full featured for $125.00 as well)

I orginally bought this backpack as a 3-4 nighter when I was traveling through Europe. Since I didn't need to carry a tent/sleeping bag/mattress, I thought it would be perfect for these shorts trips I would make from my base camp (friend's apartment). As it turned out 3-4 days became 8-9 days. As it turned out, if you simply have a few changes of clothing, your travel books, camera, small assortment of items, this backpack is great.

A word of warning though. If you plan to buy souveneirs, this backpack better not be fully loaded when you buy them. Once it is loaded, I found strapping, bungy chording things to the pack would severly mess up the center of gravity of the pack, making me stoop over too make it more comfortable on my back. Also, the pack gets wider spreading out from your back much more than to your sides so turning around on trains becomes difficult. But This pack wasn't designed for weeklong European trips.

Let me tell you about what is works awesome for though. This pack is incredible if you like 1-2 nights of camping. I have used it for going to Whitney, Yosemite, Big Sur for 1-2 nights and you can pretty much get everything you need including food, sleeping bag, and tent (although I recommend splitting up your tent gear between two people if you can to save some weight).

Buy this pack if you want the best for overnight packs around. Quite a bargin in my opinion.

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Other Jansport backups? (I can't remember models)

Ive been looking for the perfect 3000-3200 ci day - 1/2 pack and I think I've found it. I carry a lot of heavy camera gear, and my kids backup gear, so my pack is heavy and needs to be well suspended and organized. Unfortunately the beefier suspension only seems to be in the larger packs. So I have been considering the larger pack styles to stabilize the load, however this solution leads to overkill on the pack size for day hikes.

This little baby fits the bill. Its design is similar to a large day pack on streoids with beefy suspension and super comfortable gel sholder straps. The pack is trim but has the potential to expand "out" for larger loads, making the carrying capacity impressive . The excellent side suspension straps keep it from sagging downard, keeping the load closer to the back. All zippers no draw strings which makes gear access easy. It has tons of organizer type pockets which I like, because the last thing I want to be doing is digging through some large tube and stuff sacks for gear (unfortunately many of the best designs seem to be going this direction). The hip belt has a kind of an odd scooped out design in the lumbar area, contrary to most designs but is very very comfortable, most comfortable pack I've used in this size. Material is first rate, tough with large zippers and a small sleeping bag compartment, which is great for stowing the kids rain gear etc.

A well though out design for folks who need to cary a lot of heavy gear on day hikes/overnights and like multiple pockets and storage areas. I would like to see it fitted with a hood type compartment to add a little more capacity and protect the zippers seams form rain. some vertical adjustability on the sholder straps would also be nice.

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Kelty Coyote, Tornado, moraine.