Osprey Exos 34 Backpack

The Exos pack is awesome. It has just enough padding on the hip belt to create comfort provided you are an ultralight weight hiker. The straps are minimal as are the buckles exactly what you would expect from an ultralight weight product. But they are sturdy. I'm no easy on equipment and I haven't been "easy" on this pack but it has held up well. Plus you won't find one lighter. Easy access to everything. Perfect pockets for that stuff you just have to stash. It's a very nice pack. I use the 34 as a daypack particularly for extremely cold winer outings. I have all three sizes of this pack.

The Exos 34 is the smallest member of Osprey's Exos lightweight pack series. I purchased this pack to use on an 11-day hike around Mont Blanc, where we would be spending some nights in mountain refuges. So I would not be needing to carry full overnight gear, but a few more items than I would need for just day hiking.

I found this pack perfect for that trip. I was attracted to the light weight, yet it was sturdy enough that it suffered no noticeable wear. The suspension was very comfortable with the 15 or 20 lb load I was carrying--including DSLR camera and enough extra clothing for September in the Alps.

I had seen the Exos 58 in a store but was not able to find the "34". So I bought the 34 from Amazon `sight unseen'. Although the three Exos packs are basically different sized versions of the same pack design, I discovered a few differences that are not easy to pick up when reading the Osprey website or the Amazon product description. While the 58 and 46 have a padded hipbelt, the 34's hipbelt is just mesh. When I first realized this, I was concerned that it would be uncomfortable, but I didn't find this to be so.

The pocket configuration is also different among the three Exos variants. The Exos 34 also does not have the vertical zippered front pocket(s) featured on the 46 and 58. However I found the pockets that the Exos 34 does have to be quite adequate. I especially liked the stretchy front pocket, which was ideal for maps and an extra clothing layer.

You definitely need a good rain cover if you expect some weather! The pack contents got wet in an intermittent rain on a hike before our trip. The brand-new (not Osprey) rain cover I purchased for the trip also failed to keep things dry on our one stormy day. So get a rain cover and test it.

I'm a bit puzzled by Osprey's sizing method. Using the Osprey template, I was a perfect Small, but when I tried on several Osprey packs, I was told that the Small was a little too small from waist to shoulders, yet the medium's waistbelt was obviously too large. (I'm a 5'4" 110 lb female.) But whatever, the small size seems to work fine.

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This bag has been with me across two continents, in freezing mountain conditions and in the fiery desert. It is ultralight, holds a good amount of gear, and is very functional. The straps and pockets are well-designed. The trampoline back is a highly, highly appreciated feature, as it keeps air flowing between the bag and your back. The weight is just phenomenally light.

Keep the weight under 30 pounds inside, definitely, and this pack will make you sing with joy. Also, the dimensions are within airline guidelines for carry-on, so you never have to check this bag!!

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Lots of folks who buy these packs do so for a lot sexier reasons than I did. As boring as they may seem, my reasons were twofold:

1) I frequently take flights to destinations that cannot be reached in less than two or three "legs". Seems I am destined to never fly nonstop anywhere. The end result is invariably that one leg or more are on smaller 140-ish passenger planes with very limited overhead storage. I was weary of checking my carry-on at the plane door several times during a trip. I wanted a true, stay-with-me carry-on solution that was lightweight, "flexible" in how it is filled (in order to stuff it in the overhead) and yet large enough for the typical 3-5 day trips I take. And of course easy enough to haul through airports.

2) On occasion this will be used for very limited backpacking/camping, 1-2 overnights and not in the harshest of conditions.

While I am older and travel mostly by plane nowadays, I did a fair amount of backpacking when younger, including lots of time in the Adirondacks and all of the Northern Peaks of the White Mountains, as well as Mt. Washington.

Anyways, with my current goals in mind I started doing a LOT of research on packs. The Osprey Exos line kept coming up during my search, and after poring over all the material I could find, I decided on the large size Exos 34. If you were wondering about capacities and weights for this pack:

Small: 2624 cu in, weight 1010g

Medium: 2807 cu in, 1050g

Large: 2990 cu in, 1100g

The large size pack is very light by my standards, and to my engineering mind it is VERY well designed. Love the flexibility they built in and it is obvious these packs were tested extensively in the field and the feedback was put into the design.

Love the straps and the possibilities they present, I have no complaints there. Even though in "airport" mode I tuck the waist belt between the mesh and the pack itself (thus I have no complaints or kudos for the waist belt as I rarely use it). Would seem fine for a 15-20lb load however. Other loose straps I simply tie up or tuck in somewhere when not in use.

I have a (Sea to Summit) rain cover for other packs and would use that if the need arose. In my "home testing", it fits fine.

I always use either packing cubes or compression sil packs, so the fact that it is one large top-entry chamber does not bother me. The bottom of the main chamber does flare out to the waist belt, which means I "lose" a bit of space there by using cubes. Other than that unbelievably minor nit, the main bag holds exactly what I need (although I had to pare down my typical 5-day packing list, which is never a bad exercise).

Love the compression straps being able to go inside or outside the mesh bottle pockets. Nice to have in "hustling flight to flight mode" to store water bottles on the go. Compression straps are handy to make sure this fits in the smaller overheads (sideways, for which you may suffer the wrath of fellow passengers). I have not used a water bladder with this pack but again it seems a well-thought-out design.

This pack not only has met my current needs but also gives me the itch to get back out on the trails. And should that involve the need for a larger pack, I would not hesitate to get a larger Osprey. I enjoy using items that I feel the designers put their heart and soul into, and this pack definitely fits that category IMO.

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Bought this bag before coming to Afghanistan and walk to work with it almost everyday and love it! I will be taking it hiking in Europe as well as to Everest Base Camp and also on the AT. Very comfortable, ample room for light backpacking and I also get a lot of complements on it. It has a lot of what seem like superfluous straps that I have no use for but they don't really bother me. Very light weight and sturdy frame and I love the air gap between me and the bag. I love this bag.