Osprey Flap Jill Courier
September 13, 2009
Sometimes I don’t have to put something through exhaustive testing, weighing its pros and cons, getting its weight and measure with a jaundiced eye. Sometimes I see a piece of gear and just think “oooh, WANT.” Just like with new relationships, you just KNOW, you know? Of course, months later when it all falls to pieces you’re left with a cynical outlook on the whole thing, and when people coo “when we met, we just KNEW” you think “Yeah, and you thought that about every single relationship you ever had, so you were bound to be right one time, and even a stopped watch is right twice a day, blah blah.”
Good thing Osprey is more reliable than most relationships, because I’ve no fears that the Flap Jill will disintegrate like so many infatuations that came before. Osprey’s quality is consistently top notch and I expect years and years of happiness with my new partner in…carrying stuff. But seriously, I loved the look of the Flap Jill and fell immediately in love with it at OR, and after trying it out in real life my admiration is undiminished. It carries any size laptop easily and securely, and has just the right number of additional pockets and stash places. The main access is nice and big and flops out of the way easily so you can get to all your stuff, but it also straps back down via Velcro AND clips for extra security. I find the Velcro superfluous, but then again I usually do. Speaking of superfluous, there were two extra straps in one of the compartments and I don’t know what they are for. So I dutifully carry them around in case I randomly figure out what they are for. Actually I’m really hoping a reader will just write in and tell me so that I don’t have to strain myself doing my job here.
The Flap Jill makes me almost look forward to going to work. Almost. At least I look forward to packing for work, and that’s a start. The look is cute, it carries lots of stuff, it’s made by Osprey, and it’s named after me. How can you not love it? By the way, you can’t buy it yet, so I can’t link you to a dealer. Aren’t I sweet? Creating a demand for something and then not letting you have it. When I’ve got you whipped into a demand frenzy good and proper, I’ll come back and give you a link. Now slaver away.
Osprey Xenon 70 Pack
May 23, 2009
OK, so we already posted one gal’s thoughts on the Xenon 85 pack, but I think it’s worthwhile to get another reviewer’s perspective on the Xenon line. I issued the 85 liter pack to a Geargal who used it for a trip to the Alaska Range, and I’ve been using the 70 liter version for various backpacking endeavors. I tend to not carry enough stuff to need a 70 liter pack, so I took my time in deciding what I thought of this one since I’m not used to those sorts of loads.
I first used this pack during a multi-day trip for a university backpacking class I teach. I bet you wish you could have gotten college credit for doing what you do all the time anyway, right? Well, now I get paid for doing it, so life is great! Anyway, since I was traveling with students, I knew they’d be slower than my usual pace and that I’d have to carry all that university-mandated safety gear, so it was a good chance to break in the Xenon 70. My first impression was that of the dozens and dozens of features on the pack. I love pockets and stash-places, but there were so many on the Xenon I really didn’t know what to do with half of them. There are so many buckles and straps and special organizational features, you won’t believe it. Since then I’ve schlepped the Xenon along on a few other trips, and my first impressions remain the same. I was hoping it would grow on me as it did the other reviewer, but sadly not.
Not to say that it’s not a well designed pack and might work really great for some folks. The sleeping bag compartment has a cover that folds up so you don’t have to waste space, which I like, but then why put the compartment in there in the first place? It just generates more straps and buckles. Aside from that, the 70 liter capacity makes for a quite impressively sized main pack, with two really handy crescent-shaped pockets on either side. Those pockets are winners. There’s also a top cap-style lid that converts into a fanny pack for day hikes. Again, kind of neat, but for a person like me, just makes more straps and more buckles and therefore more weight to carry. All those features add up when it comes to how much weight you’re really hoisting on your back. On the other hand, this pack is pretty light for a multi-day pack, so I guess they had some leeway to put more buckles on. Still, if it were me designing the pack, I would have stayed minimalist and kept it even lighter. Still more features: there are two lines of kind of slot-shaped holes on the outside of the pack, designed to allow more room by adding Osprey’s modular additions. I didn’t try these, because really, if I need more than 70 liters of stuff, I’m going to find a way to back out of the trip.
One of my favorite features are the zipper pulls. These are great. They are actual loops of tough, stiff-ish plastic over cord, and can easily be grabbed while wearing heavy gloves. Good thinking, Osprey. With all the straps on the pack, the designers also wisely made the compression strap red, so that you can find it amongst all the others. Good thinking!
My biggest struggle with the Xenon has been the fit. I’ve discussed it at length with Osprey, who swear up and down that this is the best-fitting pack out there. I have to disagree, but then again there are a number of modifications and customizations that one can make to this pack that I haven’t tried. You can heat mold the hip belt, though I found that after using it for almost a year, the belt molded to my hips anyway. You can also bend and shape the metal stays, which seems to me to be advanced-level pack fitting that I wasn’t up for. I really don’t think that either of those mods would help the fit trouble I had with the pack, which was that it always seemed to be pulling me backwards. The lumbar pad ended up just sitting on my sacrum and seemed to act as a lever to keep the load tipping backwards. I was able to adjust everything so that it was tolerable, but aside from the lumbar pad and the very top of the pack, the pack didn’t touch my back at all. It wasn’t screamingly uncomfortable, but it could be better, let’s put it that way. I’ve put this pack on a few other people and they’ve had similar complaints (though it is funny to watch them fumble with all the straps and features). One of my students has the 110 (!) liter version, and he had similar fit gripes as well. All I can think of is that perhaps this pack is geared towards one particular body type, and that type is not mine.
Osprey Xenon 85 Expedition Pack
July 15, 2008
I have to admit I have been partial to my old expedition pack for the last 15 years, the loyal pack that has hauled my stuff on month-long mountaineering trips with vengeance. Not that I’m against trying new things, but why change if the tried and true solution still works? Well, I was enticed out of my comfort zone when the Head Geargal dangled a shiny new Osprey Xenon 85 in front of me as I was preparing for a three week trip to climb and ski in the Alaska Range. I was excited not only because it came in pretty Pacific – not Atlantic or Arctic but Pacific – but also because my husband observed “That pack is so big it makes your butt look small!” [She does not have a big butt - I think her hubby might have to pay for that remark, and hopefully pay for it in the form of beer and pizza for the Geargals. -Head Geargal] Aesthetics aside, I was excited for the ReCurve suspension system with heat moldable hip belt and the possibility of the AirScape ventilation keeping my back dry even when huffing 70-pound loads in the Alaska Range.
Before leaving on the trip, I had no time to get the pack correctly fitted for me, which was somewhat of a mistake on my part. I was motivated to figure out the suspension system in the field by the first unbearable few days carrying the ill-fitting pack. [I warned her. -HG.] The Velcro closures on the suspension make adjustments easy enough even on the glacier, but it would have made the first impression on the pack better if I would have taken the time to at least read through the instruction manual before taking this load carrying beast out in the elements. I guess the best outcome is that I learned very quickly how to adjust this pack to make it comfortable. And that is what this pack is all about, lot of options for adjusting for specific torso lengths and hip widths and so forth. Yes, both ReCurve and AirScape worked. Welcome to the new age of in-the-field custom fitted packs!
My gear mantra has always been “simple, easy to repair in the field and light weight”. [Note "repair." She's hard on gear. -HG] When there are a lot of zippers, compartments and special features, those three characteristics usually get buried under less desirable bulk and complexity. And this pack has an abundance of features, some of which I was quite skeptical about. Like the sleeping bag compartment, never been a fan…nor have I ever used a lumbar pack option in any of my packs. But after few weeks of use, I had grown to like some of the special features. I was able to utilize the outside front pocket to have my avalanche safety gear easily accessible and the ski and ice ax loops worked really well. The zippered side pocket was awesome and I used it daily to keep sunscreen, snacks and camera in an easy to find spot. The three front straps and the side straps allowed me to adjust the volume of the pack from big hauling machine to slim day tour pack. And I did like the LNT principles inside the pack, nice little detail from an environmentally conscious brand.
Despite being a big load carrying beast, it was able to switch gears for different uses from ski mountaineering to alpine climbing and glacier travel. The stretchy material on the outside got a few rips from sharp tools, though, and is definitely not too resistant to abrasions either. I was little bummed that the hip belt requires two hands for tightening, which is not ideal when you already have two ski poles or at least an ice ax in your hand. I suspect that this is to account for the heat moldable hip belt, as a one-strap system might pull the hipbelt out of place, but it is one of those small preferences that might matter to some. Still, this pack got tested for the first time under gruesome conditions on a three week expedition in the Alaska Range and all in all I give it a pretty high mark. My old pack might have a rival….
