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Reviews > Packs > Internal and External Framed Backpacks > Lowe Alpine TFX Wilderness ND 65 15 > Owner Review by Andrea MurlandLowe Alpine TFX Wilderness
ND 65+15 Pack Tester Information
I began hiking frequently in 2006 and have since hiked in Western Canada, Australia, and spent 2 months backpacking in the Alps. I spend most weekends either day-hiking or on 2-3 day backpacking trips, with some longer trips when I can manage them. I also snowshoe and ski in the winter, but don’t have a lot of experience with winter in the backcountry yet. Elevation is typically 500-3,000 m (1,600-10,000 ft), in the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirk, Purcell, and Monashee ranges. I try for a light pack, but I don’t consider myself a lightweight backpacker. Product Information
Description The Lowe Alpine TFX Wilderness ND 65+15 Pack is a women’s-specific internal frame pack which features Lowe Alpine’s TFX 7 suspension system. Lowe Alpine specifies that it fits torso lengths 38-56 cm (15-22 in) and has a load zone (the maximum load at which the pack can be comfortably carried) of 25-30 kg (55-60 lb).As part of the TFX 7 system, the torso length on the Wilderness is adjustable. The lumbar pad can be pulled down and out (it’s fastened in place with hook-and-loop closures) to reveal a colour-coded strap running through a buckle as well as a diagram of how to adjust it and what colour corresponds to what torso length. Adjusting the strap changes the position of the shoulder harness up and down on the pack. I have a roughly 40 cm (16 in) torso, so I have the adjustment cranked down to almost the smallest setting. The frame of the Wilderness is two stays which run down the outside edges of the back panel, coming together in a V-shape to insert into pockets on the backside of the hipbelt. The hipbelt is free to pivot from the stays, so that it adjusts to my position as I walk. Load lifter straps connect the top of the frame to the shoulder straps, and the pack has a sternum strap with a whistle on the buckle. The sternum strap can be moved up and down on the shoulder straps. There is thick padding in the lumbar pad, shoulder straps, and hip belt. At the top of the back panel is a haul loop and a plastic moulded Noggin Notch to create space for my head. Although the Wilderness is a top-loading pack, it has a lot of access points and other pockets. Let’s start at the top. The lid of the pack has a two-way zipper into its main pocket, which contains a key clip. The underside of the lid has an SOS panel with mountain distress signals as well as a small pocket. The lid is removable by unthreading the two buckles on the side of the lid and sliding the middle buckle apart (it’s a round piece of plastic fed through a square hole). The centre lid attachment is also a rope compressor on top of the main pocket. The main pocket of the pack has a 20 cm (8 in) collar with a drawstring closure with a cord-lock at the top and bottom of the collar. Inside the main pocket is a hydration pouch with an elastic top; the tube of a hydration bladder can be fed through a port on the wearer’s right side which is labelled with an H2O symbol. The front of the pack has an upside-down-U shaped two-way zipper which opens into the main pocket for front access. On the inside of the front panel that zips down is a small interior pocket. A zip-out divider inside the pack separates a bottom compartment if desired. The fabric divider is sewn along the back panel, so it can’t be completely removed. A two-way zipper at the bottom of the pack allows access to the bottom compartment. Each side of the pack has a zippered bellows pocket as well as a mesh water bottle holder with an elastic cord-lock to cinch it down. In addition, the wearer’s left side of the pack has a small pocket with a hook-and-loop closure which houses the included rain cover. The hip belt has a small removable zippered pocket on both sides. They are each attached using a metal snap, a hook-and-loop closure, and another round-buckle-through-a-square-hole setup. All exterior zippers, except on the hip belt pockets, have storm flaps. The Wilderness also has a lot of straps, buckles, and attachment points. Once again, from the top. The top of the lid has plastic lash points. As I mentioned above, straps on either side of the pack attach the lid to the pack, and a center strap acts as an attachment as well as a rope compressor. The lid fastens to the rest of the pack at the front by two straps and buckles, again on either side. All of the straps connecting the lid to the pack are adjustable so that the pack can be made taller or shorter to accommodate the contents. The front of the pack has a daisy chain running down the centre, and a strap with a buckle at the top of the zippered front panel. Inside the front panel is a strap running across the pack to keep items in the main pocket in place and compressed. On both sides of the front of the pack there is an elastic loop, with a cord-lock on one end and a hook on the other end; this cord can be used to easily fasten trekking poles, an ice axe, or anything else to the pack. Directly below this cord is an ice axe and trekking pole loop. A feature of the loop is slits in the webbing which accommodate the tip of a trekking pole. The ice axe loops are above the bottom compartment entrance to allow access to the compartment while items are attached. The bottom compartment has straps on either side which run from the bottom of the pack to the top of the zipper for compression. Each side of the pack has two compression straps, which run across and below the bellows pocket. The included rain cover is bright orange nylon, with the Lowe Alpine logo. It has a cinch cord sewn along the edge, with a cord-lock at the top of the cover. Field
Conditions
My pack has encountered weather conditions of every description – sun & heat, pouring rain, snow, hail, and sleet. At night, my pack lives in the vestibule of my tent. I put the rain cover on and put the pack cover-down to keep it dry from rain and dew. The pack has been used extensively as a seat or backrest in camp, and the rain cover has been used for sliding down snow fields when I’ve been too lazy to walk. The general configuration of my pack when I’m backpacking is as follows:
Review The Noggin Notch doesn’t really line up with my noggin. The top of the Notch is at the base of my skull, so when I tip my head back I still hit the back of my head on the lid of the pack. This is my first pack of this size, so I can’t compare whether I have more range of motion with the Notch than without, but it seems strange to not be able to get my head into the space designed for it. The pouch for a hydration bladder fits mine perfectly, and it’s easy to thread the hose through the opening. There is no hose clip on the shoulder strap, so I tuck the bite valve under the sternum strap, and that keeps it from flopping around. Durability: Great! The fabric has a few scuffs and shows a bit of fuzziness in a few spots, but there are no rips, tears, scores, or anything else of concern on the pack, which I think is pretty impressive for the number of rocks it’s been dropped on and the number of train rides it’s suffered through. The fabric is a bit faded. I had a Canadian flag sewed to my pack for a couple of months, and there’s a darker patch where the flag was. My pack is a pretty light colour, so it shows dirt quite well. This is particularly noticeable on the front panel and lid of the pack. The shoulder straps also picked up enough dirt in 2008 (and sweat) to be pretty gross looking. I thoroughly washed the pack once by hand, taking it completely apart, and most of the marks came off. The zippers still run freely and have caused me no problems. Organization & Access: I really like the organizational features of the Wilderness pack. First of all, it is perfectly functional as a traditional top-loading pack, with or without the divider to separate the bottom compartment. I like the bottom access, since it means I don’t necessarily have to dig right to the bottom of the pack, which is longer than my arms. I also like the side bellows pockets, since they give me a place to put items that are bulky but not too heavy and that I might want quick access to, like my rain gear. Because they have a fabric pleat in them (the bellows), having the pockets full doesn’t take away from the volume of the main compartment. Most importantly, I have fallen in love with the front panel access. Within seconds of setting my pack down, I can have the items low in the main compartment out. In Europe, that meant that I always carried lunch and snacks for both of us, since my hiking partner had a top-loading pack with no separators or other pockets and it was a nightmare to find stuff in her pack. I could also have the stove and fuel out and have water on for dinner before we even had to unpack anything else. With the pack laying down, I can take items in and out of the front panel without disturbing the overall organization of the other items in the pack or having everything fall out of place when I pull out a lower item. No more rummaging around blindly at the bottom of a pack! The hip belt pockets are really convenient. Having my lip balm readily available without melting in a pants pocket is great, and having my camera in the other pocket gave me quick access to capture the perfect shot when I saw it. The hip belt pockets are large enough for a medium-sized point-and-shoot camera, though there isn’t any padding, so I have to be careful not to scrape myself along too many rocks. The trekking pole attachment is awesome. It’s quick, easy, and secure. A few times I had the tip of a pole come out of the slit in an ice axe loop, but it was a 2 second job to get my hiking buddy to put it back, and I never lost the pole completely; it would just swing on the elastic loop. Rain Cover: The rain cover does a good job of keeping water out of my pack. Any water ingress during heavy rain has been through soaking into the padding on the back of the pack, which is not covered by the rain cover. It’s nice to have dry stuff to put on to sleep in! The cover fits comfortably over the pack. I can have my hiking poles attached and still put the rain cover on easily, but I haven’t have the collar on the pack fully extended when I’ve done that. The cover also fits nicely into the dedicated pocket on the pack for it. In 2008 I did get a couple of holes in the pack cover. This was likely from dropping my fully loaded and covered pack onto rocks and having it slide...more than once. Apparently sharp rocks and nylon don’t mix. The duct tape fix that I’ve had on since then seems to be working. I have used the pack cover several times as a quick transport down a snow field, since I don’t like going downhill and sliding seems like way less work than walking. The nylon is adequately slippery, and the cover is big enough for my bottom and the bottom of my pack. It can, however, be hard to keep in place while sliding. Summary
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