Dana Design Bomb Pack Review

"I took a Dana Designs Bridger, which I believe to be a variant of the Bomb Pack, on a two week trip this summer with my family to the National Parks in Utah and the Sierra's of California. While my kids are now old enough to hike, they cannot carry their own gear and my wife is a professional photographer and is loaded down with her photographic equipment. Thus, I carried everyone's gear, food, water and overflow photographic equipment. This, with summer water requirements, resulted in loads in the 30 to 35 lbs range. We like to go into the backcountry in the parks and the pack was used in day hikes generally of about ten miles in length over rugged but non-technical terrain. In this context, I very much liked the pack. It is extremely rugged and is the most comfortable pack that I have ever carried. Its myriad of adjustments allowed me to fit it very closely to my body and there was no sway at all. I am a 6' male with a long torso and purchased the pack in a large size to accommodate my torso but with a medium hip belt. My one complaint about the pack is that it is top entry only which gave it very limited access in the context in which I used it. Someone always wanted something and burrowing in from the top to find it was tedious. The pack is, of course, not really intended to be a day pack and I think would be great used by one person on backpacking trips where the total load stays at 35 lbs or less."

"To be honest, I was not impressed with this pack at all. I returned it after use merely in the mountains of virginia. nothing about it impressed me. it was definately too narrow, even for its small size. it had a floating top which seemed to slip when it was packed to full capacity, and in my opinion, if the top is going to completely come off, convert to a lumbar. sure, some features were great, like the durability, but it was very stiff for it's small design and just plain disappointing. if you have a very very small torso, this pack might work for you. dana... you do have flaws..."