Osprey Vertigo

Having wanting to try this pack on for a while, I finally got the chance to do so and a half hour later I bought it. This is a great pack. The vertigo belongs to Osprey's straightjacket series of packs. These packs have stiff foam inserts in the pack body which carry and transfer the load to the hipbelt and harness much better than the regular soft bodies. It also has one aluminum stay down the middle of the back panel. The hipbelt is very comfortable and has a clever mechanism that helps you cinch it down tight and evenly. The harness has thick foam and is very comfortable as well. The foam inserts in the pack body lock the load down tight against your back and if the load is small, they fold over each other like a straightjacket to keep the load from shifting around. The pack has a panel zipper opening and the foam inserts hold the pack open for easy loading. I tried the pack on with about 20-25 lbs in the store and it felt like 10 lbs. The combination of the single stay, stiff body panels and the anatomic cut handles any load well. I think I can go up to 30 lbs with no problem. If you follow the ultralight discipline like me, you can be out for a week with this pack - I carry a Marmot Arroyo bag and no tent, just a couple of tarps. All in all, a fantastic pack.......

I took the Vertigo on a 9 day trip to Isle Royale with my girlfriend. The pack worked like a charm. The straight jacket design carried the load really well and the hipbelt/harness was very comfortable. The foam panels lock the load down tight and the pack felt like it was an extension of my body. The panel loading design made packing/unpacking very easy. I bought 2 water bottle holsters which I attached to the harness by my chest and this set-up worked really well. Even thought the pack is only 2400 cu in, there was plenty of space for my share of the supplies for the 9 day trip. We took a tarp instead of a tent but even if we had taken the tent it would have fit with room to spare. This is a great pack.

If you are looking to buy the vertigo, you wont find it in the stores. Osprey stopped making it in 2001. The closest thing to the Vertigo now is the Osprey Eclipse series. The Eclipse series looks pretty good but I have not tried one on so I can't make a decent comparison.

See my previous review for more details on the Vertigo.

This panel loading straight jacket pack has served me for a year now and I use it for my photography equipment, although the pack is meant for day climbing. The features are excellent: ice tool loops, ski straps, gear loops on belt, daisy chains on both sides, optional Alpine crampon pocket. I thought I could do anything with this pack and it's such a fun to use these features to customise for my needs.

The pack is overall very comfortable, similar to Kestrel, but I feel Kestrel is a little bit better in that regard. The hipbelt has a better snug than one in Kestrel, but does not seem to tolerate more weight than the one in Kestrel. If you love Kestrel, Vertigo should perform up to the standard of Kestrel. And both packs are one of the few packs that Osprey offers with maximum head clearance (very important for my comfort).

Any pack needs time to adjust for your body, much like your favorite pair of shoes. So before you decide to sell any pack, make sure how long and how often you've used the pack and then make the decision!