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The Gorilla 40 rucksack has been in the Gossamer Gear line up for many years and had remained largely unchanged since 2015 but was updated for 2021. This has been the first opportunity to test the updated version, the Gorilla 50. There are several changes including: An increase in its capacity to 50 litres (without increasing weight, in fact we found Gorilla 50 to be slightly li …

The  Perimeter 50 rucksack is a mid-weight pack with a ton of features including fine adjustments to back length, shoulder width, and hip sizing.  Granite Gear says, “Body Diversity, every person has a unique build, shape, and size. Your pack should fit accordingly.” Weighing in at 1500 grams may sound heavy compared to a lot of modern packs of a similar capacity. This …

I’ve used both the  20Litre and the 28Litre versions of Montane’s Trailblazer LT ultralight rucksacks and I am very impressed, considering their overall weight they pack an amazing amount of features and functionality and are remarkably comfortable thanks to the vest-pack type harness and generous hip fins. One of the key features is the bladder pocket which sits betwe …

I used this pack on a three-day winter backpacking trip to the Lake District and was mightily impressed, Gregory don’t seem to have compromised at all which makes me wonder why all backpacking rucksacks don’t weigh in at 1.2kg or thereabouts. How much does it weigh? The sample pack I used had a medium back length and with all the optional components removed it weighed 1100 grams, but you …

Gossamer Gear’s Mariposa 60 is an amazing rucksack, there are three elements to it that make it so good; 1.It has a feature set designed by backpackers that actually work 2.It has a very comfortable harness system 3.It is extremely lightweight despite 1 and 2 above. Feature Set On a recent trip to Switzerland backpacking the Tour of the Matterhorn we took the Mariposa for a tes …

The Blaze A.C. 60 pack has been a stalwart of Granite Gear’s range for a number of years. Ideal for those people who wanted a lightweight but well featured pack which is capable of carrying a bit more weight. For 2019, the new Blaze 60 has been updated with several new ideas plus a few taken from Granite Gear’s successful Crown 2. The new Blaze is no minimalist pack, it’s brimming with f …

Out of all the items we have reviewed from this season, the Trailblazer has been the most difficult to make a decision on. There is so much we liked, a few areas we disliked, and in between a variety of design elements we had not seen featured before that left us confused as to what we thought of them! It’s easy to say that the Trailblazer isn’t your usual pack and combines elements from …

Gregory have a great reputation for making comfortable and very well-built packs. We have never had the chance to use one of their backpacks before so when we received the Gregory Paragon 58 we were eager to get it out into the hills and see for ourselves what all the hype was about. Firstly, and also importantly, if counting grams is of importance, we recommend you probably look …

Very comfortable pack with a strong frame and venting back panelFor me a decent 50-60 litre backpacking rucksack should weigh about a kilogram, in my experience packs that weigh a lot less than this have an inferior frame/harness combination and won’t give you a comfortable carry at my typical backpacking weight of 30-35lbs (that's around 15kg). The Gregory Optic 58 Litre pack just meets this crit …

Gossamer Gear have built up quite a following for their ultralight packs in recent years so we were very happy to receive the news that the Gorilla 40 would be making its way to our base in the Cairngorms. Dubbed as “the guru of lightness”, Gossamer Gear’s founder Glen Van Peski has built his reputation on creating ultra-lightweight products that have a focus on aiding trekkers throughou …

Thanks to Mountain Hardwear, I was given the opportunity to test the Rain Shadow 26 Pack in one of the most picturesque places on earth, Chamonix. And let me tell you, the views and the pack did not disappoint.At first, I was a little wary of how the pack would fit my small frame as not a lot of unisex packs do, and I tend to find myself using more female-specific packs or those with shorter back …

This vest has been put through its paces. It carried a full load of winter gear on the Hardmoors 55 mile ultra marathon in March, has been up Skiddaw in blistering heat, around Wast Water, across Moors, up and down Dales, through the Cairngorms and numerous other outings. I have warn it in hot, humid conditions through to freezing temperatures where we experienced -12C with wind chill so I’m prett …