Lowe Alpine Frontier 75+20

I have owned this pack for three years now. I bought it off Sierra Trading Post at an incredible discount, only cost me a little over $90 since it was a discontinued model.

Over all, the bag is great for carrying heavy loads (35-55 lbs). It has the basic features... sleeping bag compartment, extending top loading section, upper side pockets, lower side gear pockets, and a top pocket that folds over the top of the bag. The torso fit adjustment takes the worry out of if the pack will fit you or not, as with all Lowe Alpine's. In addition to all that, it has numerous ways to use the straps and tie points on the bag to come up with a specific configuration for whatever load you are carrying.

My only con for this bag is the lower mesh gear pockets. They are too small. When the pack is empty you can fit a small water bottle in there, but when full, nothing but small items will fit. This is not a big problem as the pack is hydration compatible.

All of these reviews are highy subjective and I don't usually pay much attention to them. Anybody reading this probably shouldn't either but I thought I'd put in my $.02 anyway.

I've been at this backpacking thing for a long time and I don't do it "professionally" so this is just another puff of hot air. I'm also a diehard frame pack user, that was what was available when I started so that is what I got to know best. I bought an internal when they first started getting popular and I used it for awhile but went back to a frame. I bought my Frontier because I've been feeling a little pressure from my grandkids to get with the times and it's getting harder and harder to find a good frame pack any more. I have another small Lowe pack that I've used for years and it's been like an old friend so when I went looking I checked Lowe packs first.

I'm pretty much happy with this pack because it is very well built with just enough of the right bells and whistles to make even an old diehard framer happy but not enough to require a certificate in packology to figure the thing out. Hat's off to Lowe for still making quality functional packs without a bunch of marginally useful features more designed to attract buyers than serve any really useful function. Even adjusting the thing is so simple it's absolutely brilliant.

I still think a person actually needs two packs, a good frame pack for general use and an internal for everthing else. For what it's worth I'd even recommend this pack.

Excellent multi-day backpack. I bought '07 model and it's wonderfully re-designed. Depicted one has bungee on front. 07 doesn't. Instead, it's got compression belts and front access. Wonderful torsofit harness, and several load control and ergo-gadgets. When loading more than 80 lt or so, it doesn't look very tidy, but performs well. Very light for the cargo it can take (6 lb. 10 oz.). Big size packs like this let you put inside stuff otherwise you would have to tie up. Great pack for the money.