Times are hard and money is tight. This is on account of me buying my first ever flat (I know, at my age!). What this means is that when I needed a new daysack, I had to forego the array of expensive options at Tiso in the £70-£100 range and instead check out the cheaper options at Mountain Warehouse, of all places!
I chose their £25 20l Wanderer rucsack and have to say, so far anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. The main body of the rucsack has two compartments as you'd normally find on bigger rucsacks. They can be zipped apart to make one bigger space but I've found the small easy access, bottom compartment really handy for waterproofs and dirty gaiters (bearing in my mind that my clothes are quite small). There's a handy front pocket with an internal organiser for keys, mobile phone or maps. The back system is an air mesh design and though I've not used the rucsack yet in warm conditions, I could certainly feel the wind blowing through the space between the rucsack and my back so I'm guessing it'll be effective in the hotter months in avoiding a sweaty back. The colour options were black or the more girly grey and purple I'm wearing in the photo.
Other welcome features that again you expect on much more expensive packs are good-sized hipbelt pockets, hydration sleeve and outlet, elasticated side pockets, side compression straps, trekking pole stash loops, chest strap and an integrated rain cover that packs away into a zipped compartment on the bottom. In use, I've found it to be really comfy to wear.
The only negative is the quality of the materials and stitching which is obviously much less than top brand packs but I'm not sure in practice how much of a difference this will make. The only feature that's really disappointing is the quality of the zips which don't run really well and do feel on the cheap side. But overall, for the price, I think this is a great summer hillwalking pack or low-level winter rambling rucsack.
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