User Review: Gregory Deva 60

Gregory Deva 60
Above: The current Deva 60, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed June 28, 2007 by kmsquared

Rating:
Design: Top-loading internal
Size: (Don't know -- Women's small)
Number of Pockets: 1
Max. Load Carried: 40 lbs.?
Height of Owner: 5'1.5"
Price Paid: Can't recall -- $200+?

I bought the 2005 Deva 60 at REI Reno a couple of years ago. BOY, HAVE I COME TO REGRET IT! The pack really stinks.

I am short, so got a women's small, and the main pack-sack is just barely big enough for my sleeping bag and a bear canister. (I hike in California's Sierra Nevada, so a bear-resistant food container of some kind is a must.)

For so little space, you'd expect light weight, but this dog of a backpack is very heavy for its size. The water-bottle holster is a terrible idea! It fits only a quart/liter bottle, it's black, and so the water not only puts an extra 2-lb. drag on one shoulder (ow!) but gets fiery hot (so I wrap my bottle in aluminum foil).

I jam small items of clothing in around the sleeping bag and the bear can to fill up the rest of the packbag. When the packbag is thus filled, the one dinky external mesh pocket is almost useless because the packbag has expanded into its measly space.

I have to carry so much stuff strapped ont0 the outside that the pack seriously pulls backward on my shoulders, causing more pain. The shoulder straps' padding is too hard and too thin for such a rotten design.

There are no lashing points on the top compartment, so I can distribute some of the external weight in a manner more consistent with my center of gravity with the pack on. OW! OW! OW!

The pack has one of those dumb compartments for a sleeping bag, as if a decent sleeping bag were small enough to be stuffed into it! Not to mention the extra weight from the internal separator from the main compartment (which I took out) and the extra zipper (which I'm stuck with).

There seem to be a number of weight-adding bells and whistles for a hydration system, which I don't use. I don't understand why a pack would have all that cr*p for a hydration system AND that brainless bottle holster!

But here's what's really brainless: me. I actually paid good money for this piece of junk. (The salesman was so nice, took so much time helping me fit it....Dumb, dumb, dumb.)

If I can sell it for $25 instead of the $200+ I think I paid for it, I'll be a happier camper. And I'll use the money for a GoLite pack, something with a very clean, simple, symmetrical, and spacious design.

It's a lesson I've learned the hard way in tents, too: Avoid bells and whistles. Avoid weird shapes and asymmetrical designs. They just mean pain and problems down the road.