Contents of Review:
1. Tester Biographical Information
2. Backpacking Background
3. Product Information
4. Product Description
5. Initial Impressions
6. Plans for Further Testing
7. Current Conclusions

1. Tester Biographical Information:
Name: Michael Jay Lissner
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Height: 198 cm (6' 6")
Torso Length: 51 cm (20 in)
Weight: 86 kg (185 lb)
Email Address: yourmothership at hotmail dot com
City of Current Residence: Berkeley, California (near the San Francisco Bay area)
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2. Backpacking Background:
I was first introduced to backpacking through the Boy Scouts of America, and it was my love of backpacking that made me stick all the way through and get my Eagle. After becoming too old to continue with the Boy Scouts, I had trouble motivating myself to plan my own trips, and did not go backpacking for a number of years, until I realized that I should thru-hike the PCT. I am currently in a multiyear training program, practicing techniques, studying backpacking literature, getting in shape, planning the many wee details and perhaps most importantly, converting my ultra-heavy Boy Scout techniques into ones more well suited to ultralight thru-hiking. My current style is a very minimalist one relying more predominantly on intelligence and slight discomfort and less on safety gear and toys. At this point, I feel safe saying that my 5.5 kg (12 lb) summer base load weight makes me a budding ultra-light hiker. I tend to prefer mountains to deserts, and rivers to streams, and my backpacking destinations all around northern California reflect that.
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3. Product Information:
Manufacturer: Equinox Ltd.
Manufacturer's URL: http://www.equinoxltd.com
Product's Name: The Katahdin
Color Tested: Blue/Black
Year of Manufacture: Presumably, 2004
Suggested Retail Price: 120.00 USD
Advertised Weight: 624 g (22 oz)*
Measured Weight: 720 g (25.4 oz)**
Advertised Volume: 55 L (3350 cu in)
Measured Volume: 57 L (3461 cu in)***
*The advertised weight has come to be a bit of a recluse number. On the Equinox website, the weight is not given, but on the hangtag that came with the pack, the weight is given as 22 oz.
**The weight of the pack was measured by taking it to a supermarket and using their digital checkout scales, which are accurate in ounces to three decimal places (sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do).
***The volume of the pack was measured by filling all of the pack's pockets with packaging peanuts, and then dumping them into a box. By then measuring the inside dimensions of the box, and the height of the peanuts in it, the volume of the pack was determined.
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4. Product Description:
Generally: The pack is designed as a frameless ultralight pack. It has five pockets in all: One central pocket that opens at the top with a drawstring for dumping all of the big items into; two zippered side pockets that are useful for smaller items such as bug repellent; and two mesh pockets that are intentioned by Equinox for water bottles, but can be used for anything that will not slide through mesh.

Specifically: This pack integrates many interesting features. Below, I will go through them one by one, describing them, and giving my initial impression of them.
Materials: From what I can tell, this pack is made from four different fabrics. The back panel is made from a stiff nylon mesh material that kind of resembles the mesh that can be found on American "Trucker Hats." I called Equinox to get more information about this material, but without doing some research (which I didn't want to ask them to do) they weren't able to tell me much more about this material than the fact that it is nylon, and that so far they have not had a single return because of it. I find it to be a pretty unusual material choice, but I am interested to see how well it helps to ventilate my back. To me, it seems plenty strong for the job, so long as a rip in it doesn't get started. Hopefully, I won't actually get to see what happens when it gets ripped.

The main body of the pack is made from 38 g/m² (1.1 oz/yd²) silicone impregnated ripstop nylon (also known as silnylon). This material is a semi-transparent slippery material that is actually kind of crinkly like a thick trash bag. If you look at the left picture above, you can see some stripes showing in the material. This is  my bed pillow that I stuffed in it to fill it out a bit for the picture, but it helps to illustrate the way that you can see items inside the pack, through the material. Interestingly, the blue color of this pack exactly matches the blue color of the silnylon that I used to make some stuff sacks and my tarp. For once (out of sheer coincidence) I am traveling in style. In my experiences with the tarp and stuff sacks, this material is very hard to work with, but very strong and surprisingly durable. I know it looks thin and weak, but in all of my experiences with it, it has proved to be a pretty amazing material. One of my other packs is made from a heavier weight of this material, and it has held up beautifully, even when I was thrashing through some pretty tough areas.

The third material that the pack is made from is 70 denier 38 g/m² (1.1 oz/yd²) urethane coated ripstop nylon. This material is used on the bottom (see picture at right) and sides exclusively, and Equinox tells me it is pretty waterproof, but that the urethane coating that is put on it is rather thin (in order to save weight), and that under pressure, it is capable of  leaking a little bit.

At the bottom of the backside of the pack, in the lumbar region, there is a thin pad, that Equinox tells me is made from 6.4 mm (1/4 in) closed cell foam enveloped in polyester Coolmax fabric (see picture above). However, at the top of the lumbar pad, the edge of this material is left raw rather than hemmed (perhaps to avoid creating an uncomfortable ridge in the wearer's back), and from what I can tell, this material looks like much thinner foam, more approximately 1.6 mm (1/16 in) thick.  In addition to covering the lumbar region, the Coolmax material is also on the inside surface of the hipbelt. This is a very soft material, and until I actually talked with an Equinox representative, I was actually concerned that for some reason Equinox had decided that cotton was the best material for this area. This material also seems kind of unusual to me, but, having never had an ultralight pack before, it could just be something I have never seen. I am interested in seeing just how well it wicks the sweat off my back, as well as how well it holds up.

The other three materials that this pack is made from are nylon strap (here there and everywhere), flexible nylon mesh for the water bottle pockets, and nylon plastic for all of the buckles and cinches. One interesting thing that I noticed about the plastic buckles is that all excess material in them has been left out during the injection molding process. If you look at the picture at left of the hip buckle, you will see what I mean. I can't be sure whether it is intentional or not, but rather than choosing buckles that are filled in like in almost all other packs I have seen, Equinox has chosen buckles that shave some excess weight.

Main Compartment: As with many packs, the main compartment of this pack runs vertically down the center of it from top to bottom. At the top, it is closed as in a stuff stuff sack, forming a pucker of sorts (see picture at left). In the picture, if you look closely, you will see that my hydration tube is coming out of the pucker. This is because in order to use a hydration bladder with this pack, it must be placed directly inside the main compartment itself. One thing about the main compartment that I have noticed is that it is by no means waterproof. In addition to having the opening at the top, it also has the mesh back panel that allows both my sweat, and any water that hits it from the sky to pass right through.

Zippered Pockets: The two zippered pockets in the pack are on either side of the main compartment at the top of the urethane coated ripstop nylon that runs up and down the sides. Their openings start at the top of the pack and run down the pocket 19 cm (7.5 in), opening from top to bottom (see picture at left). Because the pockets go from the top of the pack to the middle compression strap, a distance of 29 cm (11.5 in), and the zippers are not this long, if the zipper becomes accidentally unzipped, most of the items in the pockets probably will not fall out (immediately anyway). The one problem I have already encountered with this pockets is that because the top compression straps are attached to them halfway down, they cannot hold items that are very thick without squishing them when the strap is tightened. For example, when I filled them up with a bottle of DEET, my plastic compass and some stakes and then tightened the strap, the stakes became pressed into the DEET and compass, potentially creating all kinds of navigational and messy problems.

Something that is pretty interesting about these pockets though is that the top strap runs under them, and is attached to them halfway down with a bar tack. In this configuration, a 12.7 cm (5 in) loop is created under the pocket. I have yet to devise a clever way to put this to use, but I have a feeling that I will come up with something once I get this pack on the trail.

Mesh Pockets: The two mesh pockets on this pack are located below the center compression strap, and are big enough to fit a 1 L (32 fl oz) Nalgene bottle pretty nicely. At their top, they have an elastic cinch strap that is used to keep whatever the wearer puts in them from falling out. In my initial loading of them, I have found them to be rather convenient holders for my little stuff sack of miscellanea on one side, and for my fuel bottle and a small water bottle on the other (see the left photo at top). One word of warning about them though: If one puts small or skinny things in them, these items will fall out through the mesh.

The Straps: This pack has quite an assortment of straps. As can be seen in the photo at top, there are three straps that run around the pack in order to compress it as much as possible. Each of these is attached at the back panel of the pack, and runs all the way around it, with a clip in the middle that can be cinched down. The bottom two go over the urethane coated nylon sides, but the top one actually goes under them so that it does not interfere with the zippered pockets.

The shoulder straps are made from a combination of the urethane coated nylon on the outside, and the Coolmax lined foam padding on the inside. They are about 2 cm (.5 in) thick, and seem pretty comfy from the get go. They have the standard "S Curve" design, and are attached to the mesh with 2.64 cm (1 in) strap, which I can only assume helps to divide the load on the stitching so that it does not pull out. Going down the front side of the shoulder straps is a length of strap, onto which is laced the sternum strap. Something that I feel they are missing is the D-ring that is usually there. I usually use this to keep the tube of my hydration system at hand, but without them, I have to strap the tube with a small hook and loop strap (see the right hand picture above).

The hip stabilizer straps are quite a pleasure. Rather than the usual straps that run directly from the waist belt to the pack, this pack has a system in which by tightening one strap, the wearer is able to bring the pack much closer to their back, and especially their lumbar region (see picture at right). With all of my past packs, I have always noticed that the hip stabilizer strap just didn't seem to do all that much, but at this point, I am amazed with this pack's system. When I tighten it up, I can feel the pack getting closer to my back, and I can actually feel the lumbar region becoming more comfortable. With it adjusted properly, I feel that I will actually be able to take more weight on my hips than I could with other internally framed packs.

The hip belt of the pack slides under the lumbar bad, and attaches with hook and loop fasteners. Thus, it is an optional hip belt, that can be adjusted vertically to create accommodate a range of torso lengths. With my giant torso, I have it adjusted down as far as it will go, creating a distance of 44.5 cm (17.5 in) between its vertical center and where the shoulder straps attach to the pack (the minimum this measurement could be is 38.1 cm [15 in]). The hip belt is constructed much like the shoulder straps with the Coolmax lining on the inside and the urethane coated nylon towards the outside. The big difference in construction is that the hip belt is made from thicker foam, which Equinox tells me are two different densities.

The Seams and Overall Construction: At this point, I feel confident in saying that the seams and construction of this pack are sturdy. Many of the seams are doubled up for strength, and in many places, strapping has been sewn down to spread the load of the stitching over a wider area. On the other hand, many of the materials out of which this pack is constructed have been chosen with weight in mind, meaning that many of them are not the strongest options, but rather ones that are intended merely to be strong enough. Testing will be the judge of how well these materials hold up.
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5. Initial Impressions:
When this pack arrived in my PO box, I was quite elated. Not only was this my first big BGT test, but it was also my first ultralight pack, and boy was it pretty. Once I got it home, I filled it up with a bunch of gear and tried it on. The fit was awesome, but admittedly, I didn't have much weight in it, and these things can be quite deceptive when you're comfortably at home playing with gear vs. when you are out on the trail all day. My field report will definitely report on this subject in more depth.

One thing I did notice while I had the pack on was that it seemed to interfere a little bit with my arm motion. It could well have been the way that I had the pack loaded, but it seemed to be a rather wide pack compared with the other ones that I have. I am very interested in seeing if it is something that annoys me in the future, or if it was just something that I noticed, but that I'll get used to without too much trouble.

Something that has already annoyed me is that I cannot reach the zippered pockets while the pack is on. Because I almost never take of my pack while hiking, if that is the case, this severely limits the usability of the pockets to holding only those things that I will need in camp, but not while on the trail. I can however, reach the mesh pockets, so I can put anything I need on the trail into them.
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6. Plans for Further Testing:
There are a number of things that interest me about this pack that I want to get more information about during testing. There are two things in particular that really raise red flags in my mind. The first is the near lack of padding on the back of the pack. I have heard a couple of different schools of thought on how to load ultralight frameless packs comfortably, and I want to see which one works best for me. Of the two that I had heard the first was to load it up with a Z-Rest sleeping pad along the back of it to form a pad as well as a frame, and then to load the rest of the pack and strap it down into a cylinder. The second way was to take a rollable sleeping pad, and form a tube inside the pack into which all the other gear is thrown. Once it is in there, again, you strap it down, creating a structured pack of sorts. I have already tried the first of these two methods with this pack, and it proved to be very comfortable in the living room. I want to try out each of these, and see how well they work in the field. Also, in addition to those two loading methods, I'd like to see how comfortable the pack is without the hip belt altogether. On one of my upcoming trips, I plan on removing the belt and hiking along to see how well it works. I have never tried this, and I feel like my shoulders will probably crumble if I do, but time will tell.

The second thing that is raising a red flag in my mind is ease with which water can enter this pack. Every other pack I have ever seen has some level of impermeability to water, but this one has mesh panels that are exposed to the rain as well as a hole in the top that opens up to them. I usually use waterproof stuff sacks inside my pack in case it leaks, but I'd rather not have to rely on them too much.

Something else that I have noticed about this pack is that it lacks an ice ax loop and D rings on the shoulder straps. It seems like there must be a way to attach an ice ax to a pack without it puncturing the pack or falling off, but I cannot immediately figure this out on this pack. I am going to see what I can do though. There must be some way to do it.
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7. Current Conclusions:
My current conclusions about this pack can be summed up by the word "interest." I am interested in seeing how comfortable it can be, and I am interested in seeing how waterproof it is. I am interested in if it will hold up to regular use, and I am interested in seeing how best to load it. Never have I had such an experimental pack. The field testing should prove to be very interesting.
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